The Asia-Pacific region will lead set-top box growth for the next five years, with shipments approaching 50% of the set-top boxes sold worldwide in 2013-2015 before falling off slightly according to ABI Research. Established players delivering cable boxes to China, including Jiuzhou and Coship, stand to gain in market share as unit shipments and ASP increase in Asia. Huawei (through Huawei Devices) is also engaging service providers in the region, and ABI Research expects they will see success in this market.

O3b signed a "multi-year, multi-million dollar reseller agreement" with Sky Fiber Corporation in June 2011 following on a similar announcement with Mavoni Technologies, South Africa in May 2011. Yet, beyond these two recent contracts and one additional framework agreement with Etisalat, O3b has been fairly quiet in terms of client deals since it completed its funding in November 2010.

Report provides insight into the buying preferences, issues and priorities of teleport customers in the enterprise sector
 

The World Teleport Association announced the release of its newest report, What Customers Want: Enterprise 2011. The report is a product of interviews conducted with senior decision-makers for teleport and satellite customers in the enterprise sector. Customers interviewed ranged from retail, maritime, and finance to communications carriers and nonprofit organizations.

George Bernard Shaw once said that “if history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience”. NSR is not as critical about the future of the launch industry for North America and Western Europe but does extend a word of caution towards the development of next-gen launchers.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA)  released its 2011 State of the Satellite Industry Report, showing a five percent growth in overall world satellite industry revenues in 2010. Global 2010 revenues for the satellite industry totaled $168.1 billion, for an 11.2 percent average annual industry growth rate over the past 5 years.

As budget pressures continue to reign supreme on Capitol Hill, the satellite sector might experience an unexpected turn of events. Focus is now squarely on the U.S. House of Representatives as they attempt to kill off a DISA plan for a long-term lease of a commercial satellite to provide services over the Middle East in favor of an additional WGS satellite. With this new development still ongoing, questions emerge as to the long-term viability of defense-related leasing of commercial satellite capacity.

The invention of the DVR system presented a hurdle for television advertisers, as they worried their valued audience would fast-forward through their messages. While those concerns may have merit, a recent Adweek/Harris Poll shows that regardless of the ability to use a DVR system, Americans may not be giving their undivided attention to their TV screens.

A recent agreement to build a submarine cable by 2012 between two Islands, (Vanuatu and Fiji) emphasizes a clear trend: remoteness of a territory is not a barrier for cable connections as long as the market is valuable. Another announcement from the ITU on the sharp decrease of fixed broadband prices (50% between 2008 and 2010) with the 10 countries in the world with the biggest relative change in price all located in Africa illustrates the effect of the many cable projects that were completed recently in Africa, formerly the last satellite IP trunking stronghold.

Recent discoveries in remote areas such as the Arctic are pushing the Oil & Gas (O&G) sector further away from terrestrial service, which drives satellite connectivity in the digital oilfield.  NSR heard three distinct messages at the Global VSAT Forum’s (GVF) 4th Annual Oil and Gas Communications Europe 2011 conference in Aberdeen on 17 – 18th May.

The rapid growth in the delivery of content for viewing on mobile and Internet-connected devices is outstripping the pace at which broadcasters have deployed the workflow and quality control systems needed to effectively support these opportunities. This conclusion is part of the study, "U.S. TV Stations Infrastructure: The HD Transition Has Just Begun,"  released by Positive Flux, a firm that specializes in transforming media companies to address new opportunities.