Satellite giant Intelsat used IBC to announce an impressive set of new business wins and services. Top of the list is a contract for a hybrid TV distribution service for A&E Networks, now branded as Hearst Networks. Intelsat will transmit Hearst’s portfolio of channels to “hundreds” of points across Europe, thanks to its seamless, satellite-terrestrial connection. The signals are beamed from Intelsat’s 1 degree West satellite and available to some 16 million cable, broadcast and DTH homes.
Pascale Fromont, Intelsat’s VP/GM Media, talking exclusively to Advanced-Television, explained that global media customers such as A+E Networks increasingly want to work with a single operator that can provide seamless connections from satellite to ground-based Internet Protocol distribution networks. “Intelsat has visibility across the full distribution network, even when it spans multiple technologies and we can enable our customers to reach more end users across direct-to-home (DTH), cable, and IPTV, in order to reach viewers.”
She added that Hearst Networks needed to maximize the reach of its flagship channels, History HD and History 2 HD across payTV households in Central and Eastern Europe. “This included being able to deliver the content in over eight languages, audio and subtitles, to as large an audience as possible.”
Intelsat has also recently won a contract from EuroNews to broadcast FAST (Free Advertising Supported Television) versions and using Intelsat’s Galaxy-19 satellite in English and Spanish as part of Intelsat’s ‘WeDo Big Stories’ service.
Fromont said that FAST channels are one of the fastest growing segments in the media and entertainment industry. “New reports show that in the U.S. alone, there are nearly 2,000 unique FAST channels available, with one in three Americans now regularly watching content generated from a FAST provider. According to Streaming Media Global, the US has seen a 23 per cent increase from 2023 to 2024 in news channels available on FAST platforms, and we are in discussions with other European news broadcasters.”
This year’s Paris Olympics also proved valuable for ‘IntelsatOne IP’ service and was used by a major Brazilian broadcaster (believed to be TV Globo) to showcase live video feeds from the 2024 Summer Games. The broadcaster used IntelsatOne IP as a disaster recovery service for the contribution of the live feeds from Paris to Rio de Janeiro.
Intelsat is currently in the process of being acquired by SES, but pending the closing of the deal (likely in H2/2025), the operator continues to act wholly independently from SES. This includes on-going satellite building as well as the extremely valuable space tug service missions to rescue and extend the life of operational satellites.
However, one highly successful element of Intelsat’s growth story is the airline business. It is now supplying just over 3,000 aircraft (and a backlog of more than 800) with Intelsat being “Very excited about our ability to deliver multi-orbit services.”
Intelsat states it is the first IFC provider to offer multi-orbit connectivity to airlines and customer alike. Intelsat, which acquired the commercial (non-business aviation) InFlight assets from Gogo in 2020 and now uses OneWeb for LEO connections, and when the SES link happens, will no doubt be also tapping into SES’s “complementary” O3b mid-Earth fleet.
Intelsat adds that there’s a great deal of focus on meeting airlines needs that goes beyond inflight Internet, live TV services, including a full suite of offerings that other operators don’t provide, such as operational applications for airlines which make flight operations more efficient, including enabling flight crew with real-time bank and credit card processing to limit fraudulent charges.
Another growth area is Intelsat’s FlexMove satellite terminal for automating tractors and farm machinery and already being supplied to firms such as New Holland, Case IH and Steyr.
