The 2007 Satellite Executive subscribers to the satellite broadband
of the Year nominees set themselves service jumped 150 percent to 250,000.
apart from the competition with WildBlue CEO Dave Leonard also
their performances. Many other extended wholesale operating agree-
industry executives also had major ments with AT&T, Echostar, Direc TV
accomplishments during the year, but and NR TC, and WildBlue Enterprise
the full measure of success of those Solutions expanded its presence, sign-
deeds may not be realized until 2008 ing agreements with UDCast, Xiplink,
or beyond. These are the companies Trispen, Orbital Data Net and Broadcast
and executives that bear watching International. Pradman Kaul, CEO of
throughout the year, and the direct Hughes, finally will get to market the
competition that many will engage in company’s Spaceway 3 satellite and
will make it even more interesting. its 68 Ka-band transponders, which is
The giants of the fixed satellite ser- expected to become operational before
vices (FSS) sector — Intelsat CEO the end of the first quarter. Hughes also
David McGlade and SES Global CEO made noise in early January, agreeing
Romain Bausch — again will be in the to acquire business IPTV solutions pro-
public eye, both because they lead the vider Helius Inc.
dominant satellite operators in the The launch industry also has the
world and because their customers and potential to provide plenty of 2008
competitors will scrutinize their every candidates. Frank McKenna, presi-
moves. For example, SES launched its dent of International Launch Services
U.S. IPTV initiative, IP Prime, and sub- (ILS) led a strong performance in the
sidiary SES Astra launched its satel- launch provider’s first year as an inde-
lite broadband service, Astra2Connect, pendent company marketing the Pro-
in Europe. The performance of these ton Breeze M vehicle, as the company
two new initiatives will be key perfor- recorded $1.5 billion in orders in 2007.
mance barometers for the company in Sea Launch and President and General
2008. The next two largest FSS players Manager Robert Peckham also will be
also enter 2008 with high expectations. watched closely in 2008, as satellite
Eutelsat, lead by CEO Giuliano Berret- operators look to see how well the com-
ta, rolled out its consumer broadband pany recovers from the January 2007
service, Tooway, across Europe and launch failure that cost Sea Launch a
also announced plans to add a dedi- year of missions and some of its cus-
cated Ka-band satellite to its fleet in tomers valuable time in orbit.
order to offer a compelling proposi- The two commercial satellite imag-
tion to customers who are unable to ery competitors will step up their
access terrestrial broadband. Follow- efforts in 2008 to develop the com-
ing the completion of Loral Space and mercial imagery market using the lat-
Communications’ acquisition of Telesat est-generation spacecraft. DigitalGlobe
in October, CEO Daniel Goldberg will and President and CEO Jill Smith have
guide the new Telesat, now fourth-larg- opened up the company’s WorldView-1
est FSS operator, through its first year satellite for commercial business. The
of operations. spacecraft, together with the company’s
Also on the satellite broadband QuickBird satellite will be able to col-
front, the competition between Wild- lect up to 900,000 square kilometers per
Blue Communications Inc. and Hughes day of half-meter imagery. Rival Geo-
Network Systems will become even Eye and CEO Matthew O’Connell are
more intense in 2008, even though expected to place the company’s own
demand for their respective servic- second-generation imagery satellite,
es offers plenty of business for both GeoEye-1, in orbit early in 2008.
companies. WildBlue began operations Eric Beranger, CEO of Astrium Ser-
with its WildBlue-1 satellite in 2007, and vices, guided the company through an
impressive 2007, overseeing acquisitions that expanded the company’s
offerings and size, but the key to 2008
and beyond will be the new Skynet 5
military satellites placed into orbit in
2007. The spacecraft will provide communications services to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, NATO and other military customers through its Paradigm
Secure Communications subsidiary
under a new contract approach for
Europe. If this outsourcing approaching proves successful, it could have a
huge impact on the future of military
communications.
A new company with a chance to
make an impact in 2008 is ProtoStar,
led by President and CEO Philip Father.
The company’s ProtoStar-1 satellite is
scheduled to be placed into orbit early
this year. The business model calls for
capacity on the satellite to be leased to
third parties to provide digital direct-to-home services, high-definition TV
and broadband Internet to underserved
areas in Asia. ProtoStar already has
signed agreements with companies
such as Antrix, the commercial arm
of the Indian Space Research Organization, and PlanetSky Ltd. Also in
Asia, it may be worth keeping an eye
on Shin Satellite and Chairman Dum-rong Kasemset and whether the company can make its ambitious IPStar
satellite broadband service a success
all across Asia.
Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel
Karmazin also remains a potential candidate for the same reason everyone
watched him in 2007 — can he engineer
the merger of Sirius and rival XM Satellite Radio? Karmazin’s plans remain on
hold as various parts of the U. S. government continues to debate whether to
approve the deal. If Karmazin can win
that argument — based on the contention that Sirius and XM are not competing against each other as much as
competing against a broad variety of
music providers — attention then turns
to whether Karmazin can then lead the
combined entity to success in the face
of such competition.
