Intelsat sees drop in revenue and profit

Satellite operator Intelsat saw a significant drop in revenue and net income in the first quarter of the year.

Revenue fell from US$605 million (€534 million) last year to US$553 million for the quarter to March, while net income dropped from US$56 million to US$15 million.

Network services revenue fell by 18%, while media revenue dropped by 6%. Government revenue was up 9%.

Intelsat’s contracted backlog, representing expected future revenue under existing contracts with customers, was US$9.3 billion, as compared to US$9.4 billion at December 31, 2015.

On the positive side, Intelsat 29e, the first satellite of the operator next generation Intelsat EpicNG fleet, successfully entered service at

the end of March.

“With $553 million in revenue and $418 million in Adjusted EBITDA, our first quarter financial results, as well as our operational progress in the period, support our objectives for 2016,” said CEO Stephen Spengler. “Performance by customer set reflects a continuation of trends that began in the second half of 2015; these trends should begin to be offset as our new capacity enters service over the balance of this year. To that end, our launch and in-service timelines remain largely on track, with a short in-service delay of three weeks for our Intelsat 31 satellite programme.”