Eutelsat video revenues remain flat

Eutelsat said that revenues from video applications were stable for the six months ending December 31, due to a high fill-rate at key video neighbourhoods and a shortage of incremental capacity.

Announcing its half-year results, Eutelsat said that the impact of the suspension of some operations at the 28.5° East orbital position since 4 October 2013 was offset by gains in fast growing markets.

It added that good channel growth demonstrated a positive trend, with a lack of available capacity due to be “addressed with future fleet deployments.”

“Good channel growth at Eutelsat’s main video neighbourhoods demonstrates the positive underlying trend in the group’s main application,” said Eutelsat.

“At 31 December 2013, the total number of channels broadcast by Eutelsat satellites stood at 4,807, up 7% (+322 channels) year-on-year despite the impact of the suspension of operations on the previously disputed frequencies at 28.5° East (-170 channels).”

It said that growth was particularly pronounced at the 7°/8° West with 107 channel additions, 16° East with 153 new channels, 7° East with 91 channels and 36° East with 103 channels.

“HDTV take-up across the fleet continued to accelerate. At end-December 2013, 508 of the channels broadcast by Eutelsat satellites were in HD, up from 398, implying an HD penetration rate of 10.6% compared to 8.9% at 31 December 2012,” the firm said.

Video application revenues, which accounted for 68.2% of Eutelsat’s total revenues, were stable at €430.5 million for the six month period. Overall revenues were up 2.2% year-on-year to €647.4 million, while EBITDA was down 0.1% at €501.3 million.