The Channel | 2003 | September

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1
4
8
12
110
170
300
Analogue
Digital9MHz
Digital4.5MHz
WithStatMuxing
MPEG4 @400kbps QPSK
MPEG4 @400 Kbps 8PSK
and with16QAM@300kbps
TV channels persatellite transponder
It isn’t that long ago – certainly less than a decade – that
TV signals delivered by satellite required a full transponder
to deliver the signal directly to home. Those heady days of
entirely analogue delivery, wholly government-owned
satellites and 30 metre transmit antennas are rapidly
disappearing into the memories of fewer and fewer industry
engineers and executives. Thank goodness!
At first, the introduction of digitalisation threw the industry
into a bit of a panic. Firstly, satellite operators could now
make much better use of the satellite space segment
frequencies available to them; with the adoption of the
MPEG2 compression standard they could easily
accommodate four 9MHz channels within a 36MHz
transponder. With rapid improvements in the MPEG2
encoding equipment, this increased twofold to provide eight
TV channels in the same amount of space segment. Further,
the introduction of statistical multiplexing improved that
yield to between ten or even twelve television channels
per satellite transponder.
The satellite operators suddenly had much more stock in
their warehouse than had previously been anticipated and
satellite manufacturers were concerned about future sales
in terms of their order book. The search for more televisual
content had begun. So we saw – and still see – the
proliferation of the narrow-interest or niche-market TV
channels developing; shopping, holiday, additional sporting
information, historical and geographical channels, et al..
The price of a TV channel on a satellite transponder reduced
in price sufficiently to allow access to those TV broadcasters
for whom the price barriers of entry had previously been
far too high into the market.
Using the same techniques, the digitisationof the satellite space
segment meant that private data networks could be managed
cost effectively by corporates and enterprise business alike.
TheMPEG2 encoding and compression standard has served
the industry – and the consumer – extraordinarily well. It
has supported our digits, carried our conditional access
information, secured the set-top-box as a household item
and allowed us to interact with our TV sets as never before.
In order to get the industry this far, there has been an
inordinate effort by the satellite engineering community
to appropriately “groom” each transponder on every
satellite, to accommodate the digital channels. This has
been undertaken to minimize wastage of valuable space
segment frequencies available for commercialisation by
the operator. Some have performed this rather better than
others; and there is still some way to go before there is an
absolute analogue cut-off date for satellite delivered
services – even though some TV channels have called time
on their own analogue services.
There is no doubt that the increased space segment capacity
availability versus the increase in channel content has been
a hard-fought balancing act and has certainly taken its toll
in transponder revenue in recent years – especially since
the bubble burst. This year reported revenues for
fixed satellite service operators reduced 6% according to
Euroconsults’ 10 th edition of the World Satellite
Communications & Broadcasting market Survey. The
balancing act is certainly responsible for a number of
mergers and acquisitions throughout the industry, such as
SES-Global (GEAmericom and partnership withAsiaSat),
Intelsat (with its recent Loral satellite procurement),
Eutelsat (acquisition of the Stellat satellite, now AB3)
amongst others.
To date, the satellite operators have largely held their own.
They have maintained and increased their customer base
and manage satellite procurement to meet their ongoing
needs. I asked a number of representatives for their insight
into the current – and future – situation.
Sabrina Cubbon, General Manager, Marketing at AsiaSat,
“Over 97% of the television services on AsiaSat are now
digital, we therefore do not expect the ongoing process of
digitalisation would have a significant impact on our
future revenue. Customers who have transformed from
analogue to digital transmission use its existing capacity
to launch more channels. New players are able to launch
new services at a lower entry cost as digitalisation allows
them to lease less capacity for regional coverage on a hot
bird. Though the global transponder market is yet to
recover, we are optimistic in the long term, in particular
the C-bandAsian market where supply is still limited.With
its ubiquitous reach and wide coverage, satellite-
based solutions are the most ideal for the diverse Asia
Pacific region.”
Exponential Potential
Satellite Space Segment Set for
Super Digitalisation
42 | the channel
Lots more capacity in the digital environment
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