Digital TV Europe September/October 2010


Satellite focus > Occasional use


into a slot covering EMEA in time for the start of the tournament. Four Eutelsat satellites were also involved in live coverage of the World Cup. Most of its cus- tomers for the tournament already had – and still have – permanent leases on Eutelsat capacity. “It was more a question of reinforcing existing capacity,” says Francesco Cataldo, director of resources management. The oper- ator provided 350MHz of additional capacity on an occasional use basis during the 30 days of the event, in addition to permanent leases. Intelsat also had a major presence at the tournament. As well as moving a satellite over South Africa for the duration of the tourna- ment, the operator deployed 16 personnel in the country to assist with the huge demand for capacity. Like SES, Intelsat’s, IS-709 satellite was en route to a new location during the sum- mer, meaning the operator could temporarily locate it over South Africa during the tourna- ment and offer additional capacity that it may not otherwise have been able to offer. The oper- ator used a further 10 satellites to broadcast footage, giving it a total of over 900MHz of capacity to deliver coverage to broadcasters in Latin America, Asia and Europe. Despite this, Intelsat’s vice-president of media product management Tim Jackson readily admits that there was a deficit of capacity: “We did a great job – having IS-709 really helped – but we could have done with more capacity.” One of Intelsat’s main customers for the


World Cup was broadcast services provider GlobeCast, which had 20 rights-holder clients, along with a number of non-rights holders broadcasting news and coverage from South Africa. “There was a lot of demand for satellite capacity and there was a shortage of supply. It wasn’t easy – we had certain clients that didn’t know how much capacity would be available until a couple of weeks before the tourna- ment,” says global head of contribution Simon Farnsworth. “There is always a consideration in the OU market that if a full-time video or data customer comes to a satellite operator and says they want a transponder for five years, it’s a no brainer to give it to them. It’s great busi- ness for the operators so why would they want to save that capacity to use for six weeks?” Some broadcast service providers have taken to leasing entire transponders on a long-term basis rather than being at the mercy of satellite


Intelsat (left) and Arqiva (right) had a major presence in South Africa.


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operators at the time of major events, when capacity can be scarce and providers are only willing to commit relatively close to the start of the event. One of them, UK-based Arqiva, car- ried ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup. “The demands of a world cup are huge but typically a satellite operator is not going to be able to commit to OU capacity more than six months ahead of a big event. Prior to that people can get a bit nervous,” says Malcolm Campbell, commercial director, Arqiva Satellite & Media. Arqiva holds a number of transponders, based on guaranteed business from commit- ted customers and as a speculative measure on the basis that extra business will become avail- able. It also takes out commitment deals with satellite providers where the company guaran- tees to provide a certain number of hours of their inventory over the course of a year. “We’ve got a number of contracts for distributing big sports events and there’s also a regular churn of ad hoc events that crop up,” says Campbell. “If you buy [capacity] for a long period of time it attracts discounts. Also, to get the right capac- ity for distribution, you have to commit to it on a long term basis – otherwise it will be sold to someone who’s buying it for full-time TV serv- ices. For example, we do a lot of distribution of the Premier League, particularly into eastern Europe and the Middle East. If you don’t have the right capacity to get to those countries, you’re never going to secure the business. Satellite operators don’t tend to have that kind of capacity readily available so we like to make a long-term commitment to ensure we get it.”


OU business cases


While the OU business is never likely to be a major revenue generator for satellite operators compared with long term deals, it is, nonethe- less, an efficient use of any spare satellite capacity. It can also act as a value-add and mar- keting tool, says McCloske: “Our OU business can be very useful to broadcasters that do not necessarily want full time capacity and if you can help them they will remember you. We act as the face of the company to customers that aren’t yet full time.” Eutelsat launched five new satellites in 2008 and 2009, because of the strong demand from its video and broadband markets. Despite the increase in capacity, it recognised a fill rate of 87.5% as of June 30 on its whole fleet. However, according to Cataldo, the operator does not want to be in a position where it has leased all of its available capacity: “We want enough flexibility to respond to the needs of our clients, including occasional requests for capacity, in particular for the coverage of major international sporting events. We believe that the optimum rate of utilisation of our fleet is around 85%, enabling us to manage efficiently both permanent and occasional use.” According to Ori Onn, senior vice-president sales and marketing for Israel-based satellite operator Spacecom, occasional use services are important to operators because these types of deals are often drivers for future, more long term deals. “We provide OU as a complemen-


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