This will be the year the consumer electronics (CE) industry finally realizes the promise of multi-screen content consumption. According to a new report by IMS Research, an independent supplier of market research and consultancy to the global electronics industry, shipments of residential data modems and gateways will reach 135 million in 2012, and shipments of IP-enabled consumer electronics devices will approach 2.5 billion, rising to 3.5 billion in 2015.

India boasts a US$7 billion multichannel TV market yet only 60% of the country's vast population owns a television. To addresses pertinent issues in the Indian satellite and broadcast market, the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) is holding its annual India Forum at the Shangrila Hotel in New Delhi on March 20, 2012.

In January 2012, an agreement to buy shares in the U.S. Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) was signed by Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and New Zealand. The agreement enables immediate access to WGS capacity in exchange for financing the WGS-9 spacecraft. Moreover, a WGS-10 satellite is expected to be contracted soon.

Despite  the ongoing impact of the Arab Spring protests and a dramatic re-ordering of political affairs still reverberating, the Middle East region remains a key growth area for commercial satellite industry.

This was the assessment of Gordon McMillan, Director of Government Services for global satellite network provider Inmarsat, who projected that the global government and military communications will rise to US$9 billion by 2018 with the Middle East becoming a key growth region for the commercial satellite industry because of the exponential demand for greater bandwidth.

by Martin Jarrold

London, February 1, 2012--Taking place on the second (29thFebruary) and third (1stMarch) days of CABSAT 2012, at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center (DICEC), is GVF MENASAT @ CABSAT, which this year will comprise the Satellite Interference Mitigation Forum, and the Satellite Markets & Services Summit.

The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has released a powerful first-of-its-kind reach and frequency analysis of the definable returns on media investment in multichannel TV advertising. Commissioned by CASBAA and executed by global media agency Universal McCann, the study measures the benefits of allocating variable percentages of a US$1.75m TV budget on multichannel TV and Free-to-Air (FTA) in seven key Asia-Pacific markets: Australia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

In contrast to recent military shows like MILCOM in Baltimore last November and last  year’s WEST show, there is more of a cautious optimism over the impending defense budget cuts now that it’s inevitability has  more or less sunked in.

The Fall 2011 IPTV Market Leader Report from MRG, Inc., is now tracking over 934 IPTV Operators globally, an increase from 913 just six months ago, and revealing over 50 million IPTV subscribers worldwide. “Although the MLR only tracks pure-play IPTV deployments worldwide, it clearly reflects that IPTV Operators are using other hybrid delivery methods including satellite, digital terrestrial and over-the-top (OTT) Internet services to complement their IPTV offerings or expand into new regions and markets,” says Jose Alvear, MRG Senior Analyst.

VSAT operator service revenues grew by 14 per cent to $5.2 billion globally in 2011 according to the 12th Edition of he COMSYS VSAT Report. The VSAT Report is the result of over twelve months of research, involving site visits and interviews with companies from Australia to Argentina and from Pakistan to Peru.

Key findings of the report include:

When The UK Government announced support to finance half of SSTL’s newest radar satellite, it confirmed a trend NSR has seen cropping up in recent times: smaller satellites are gaining ground in both optical and now in SAR markets.As more manufacturers are looking to address this market with finer ground resolution and smaller satellites at a lower cost (£200 million for four 300 kg. SSTL radar satellites), the effect is likely to be a reduction in the cost of data at the end user side.