Hong Kong, June 20, 2008 – Satellite spectrum management, market consolidation, government and military technology developments, capacity provision and Asia’s seemingly unflagging demand for satellite services were just a few of the issues covered during the CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum 2008 in Singapore on Monday June 16th.
Almost 300 top-level executives from the world of satellite and government participated in the CASBAA Forum to discuss the future for satellite systems as well as the latest challenges in Asia.
The Forum was keynoted by global operators David McGlade, CEO of Intelsat, and Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat, providing both political and technical context for the market accelerators and the ways in which people consume content.
With an emphasis on the need for Asian markets to further open up, McGlade highlighted growth in China and India and the huge potential for Asian satellite services which will only be partially served by the six new satellites to be launched in the region in the second half of this year.
Even so, while the good news flow is dominant ‘over-capacity could easily happen again’ — as it did in the late 1990’s — was emphasized by Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat, who urged delegates to consider the threat of terrestrial competition and the need to be more aggressive with national operators.
Goldberg also added a global spin, saying there is ‘not enough competitive choice in terms of launch vehicles’ and stressed the need for new launch service providers to be encouraged.
The CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum program covered other aspects of including an examination of customer needs from the satellite operators with cost as a recurring theme.
Laureen Ong, COO of News Corp’s STAR Group said satellite services are our single largest infrastructural cost and stressed that prohibitive prices could prevent the launch of new channels via satellite.
Further sessions included lively dialogue on items such as the exponential growth in demand for satellite services from the government and military sectors with panelists reporting that services that cater for the military need do not take a great length of time to acquire. This recent migration to commercial applications has opened important doors for the industry.
The CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum was concluded by a “CEO Wrap”, during which C-level executives were put on the spot on the way forward.
The CEOs of Intelsat, SAT-GE, SES NEW SKIES, AsiaSat, Asia Broadcast Satellite, Telesat and ACES International agreed that demand is up for satellite services in Asia, bringing enormous opportunities to pay-TV and DTH platforms. In the meantime, the demand for mobile voice remains phenomenal and there is no expected slow-down in growth.
Nevertheless, coordination problems — ITU endorsed agreements to ensure that newly launched Asia Pacific satellites do not interfere with existing vehicles — will be critical for ensuring that investment capital is not driven out of the market .
It was stressed that the satellite operators must be flexible in their approach so as to adapt to the changing markets and applications. New ways and means must be found to grow businesses in spite of spectrum constraints and the industry must be more pro-active protecting spectrum from terrestrial operators.
Today’s debate on the future of satellite only highlighted that there are countless unknowns Ahead of the Curve, said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA. The Asia Pacific satellite industry needs to be vigilant when protecting its assets and imaginative when cooperating with customers. Business is looking good as far as we can see, but the real world will always impinge on shiny business plans.
The CASBAA Satellite Industry Forums pictures are available for download here.
Keynote – The Globalization of Content
David McGlade, CEO, Intelsat
Lunch – The Tempo of Success (800kb)
Jean-Yves Le Gall, CEO, Arianespace
Session 4: Regulating Ahead of The Curve
Introductory Remarks – A World Beyond Wimax
Philip Spector, Executive Vice President, Business Development & General Counsel
WiMAX Wars – Presentation / Handout
Jorn Christensen, President, J Christensen Consultants
Main Event Sponsor
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About CASBAA – www.casbaa.com
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) is an industry-based advocacy group dedicated to the promotion of multi-channel TV via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks across the Asia-Pacific. CASBAA represents some 130 member organisations in the pay-TV business, which in turn serve more than three billion people. Members include Asia Broadcast Satellite, AsiaSat, Astro, Australia Network, Bloomberg Television, Chunghwa Telecom, Discovery Networks Asia, Genesis Networks, Granada International/ITV Worldwide, HBO Asia, Intelsat, Lionsgate, Macquarie Group, MediaFLO Technologies, Motorola, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, NDS, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SES NEW SKIES, SingTel, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, TrueVisions, Turner International Asia Pacific, VOOM HD Networks Asia, Walt Disney Television International, Al Jazeera, Amarchand Mangaldas, Arqiva, Asian Food Channel, AVIT, BEE MediaSoft, BBC Global Channels Asia-Pacific, BigBand Networks, Celestial Movies, CONAX, Deutsche Welle, ESPN STAR Sports, EuroNews, Eurosport, GroupM, Hong Kong Cable TV, IMCL (Incablenet and Indigital), INX Network, Irdeto, KDB Skylife, Kbro, Lovells, Measat, MGM Networks, Microsoft Corporation, Minter Ellison, National Geographic, NBC Universal Global Networks Asia Pacific, Network18, Paul Weiss, Playboy TV, ProtoStar, Providence Equity, PT Direct Vision, Reliance Big Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, SAT-GE, Sky Cable, Spectrum Value Partners, Tandberg Television, Tata Sky, TBN, Telkomvision, Ten Sports, TFN Media, TimeWarner, TRACE, TV5MONDE, Universal Electronics, Viaccess and Zee TV.
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