The commercial satellite industry generated $97.2 billion in revenues in 2004, up 6.7 percent from the previous year, according to the Satellite Industry Association‘s (SIA) “State of the Satellite Industry Report.”

The report, compiled by SIA and Futron Corp., notes that the satellite services sector accounted for $60.9 billion, or 62.7 percent of industry revenues, with direct-to- home satellite television services accounting for 81.3 percent of satellite services revenues and about 51 percent of revenues for the entire satellite industry.

Global manufacturing revenues increased about 4 percent to $10.2 billion in 2004 from 2003. However, U.S. satellite manufacturing revenues in 2004 were $3.9 billion, a 15 percent decrease compared to 2003.

Launch industry revenues were $2.8 billion in 2004, a decrease of 13 percent compared to 2003, but commercial missions accounted for a larger percentage of revenues in 2004 than in previous years, the report said. In 2004, 53 percent of all global launches were government related and 47 percent were commercial. In 2000, 66 percent of total global launches were government and 37 were commercial.