The fourth-quarter and full-year 2002 financial performances for satellite operator New Skies Satellites were off compared to 2001, due to a difficult economy, adoption of a new accounting rule for goodwill and re-configuration of its global satellite fleet, company officials said. New Skies CEO Dan Goldberg expressed optimism that this year’s outlook is “bright” due to new satellite capacity that should aid sales, as well as to tight cost controls.

New Skies’ revenues for 2002 fell to $200.5 million from $290 million in 2001. For the fourth quarter, revenues slipped to $50.8 million from $52.4 million for the October- December period a year earlier. New Skies posted a $4.6 million net loss in 2002, driven by the accounting change, compared to a $33.1 million in net income for 2001. For the fourth quarter, New Skies posted a net income of $4.4 million, down from $7.8 million a year earlier.