NSR Anticipates US$9.3 Billion in Revenues From Commercial Transponder Leases by 2012

CAMBRIDGE, MA--(Marketwire - November 14, 2007) - NSR today released its newest market survey and forecast report, "Global Assessment of Satellite Demand (GASD): A Demand-Driven, Region-Specific Analysis of the Commercial Geostationary Satellite Transponder Market for 2006-2012." This is the fourth in a series of what has become an industry standard for the independent analysis of drivers and restraints on the commercial satellite capacity leasing market. NSR maintains its rigorous methodology of rebuilding each year its entire demand forecast from the ground up for the commercial satellite market to ensure that its transponder demand projections capture the latest trends. More than 200 separate demand forecasts have been performed in order to provide one of the most granular and detailed evaluations of demand for C-, Ku- and Ka-band satellite transponder capacity for seven specific satellite applications in twelve distinct regional markets.

Between 2006 and 2012, NSR projects that worldwide C- and Ku-band transponder demand will increase at the average annual rate of 3.1%. Over the last year, NSR's research indicated that DTH services saw the largest increase in transponder demand with nearly 79 new transponders (TPEs) of capacity put into use for expansion of existing DTH packages and for the launch of new services. The GASD, 4th Edition study forecasts that DTH services will have the highest rate of demand growth, with a CAGR of 6.6%, and add the second greatest quantity of newly leased capacity demand, or over 300 TPEs, of all commercial satellite applications in the world. "Only video distribution for services such as free-to-air television, cable headends, terrestrial TV channel redistribution and specialty/ethnic bouquets will add more C- and Ku-band transponder demand globally," noted Patrick French, Senior Analyst for NSR and author of the report. "An average of 75 to 80 new C- and Ku-band TPEs of capacity for video distribution services will be leased each year through 2012."

"NSR forecasts that Sub-Saharan Africa will have the fastest rate of C- and Ku-band transponder demand growth," according to French, "while North America, the largest commercial C- and Ku-band market, will create more new real transponder demand between 2006 and 2012." Other regions exhibiting strong capacity demand growth in the coming years include Western Europe and Central & Eastern Europe along with South Asia and the Middle East & North Africa where, in all these regions, video distribution and DTH growth are vital.

Moving to commercial Ka-band services, French said, "NSR expects North America to contribute the most new commercial Ka-band capacity demand as worldwide leased Ka-band bandwidth climbs to 68.4 Gbps in 2012 up from 13.7 Gbps in 2006." NSR's best estimate is that the commercial Ka-band market generated some US$32.9 million in revenue for the industry in 2006, and these revenues will jump to US$369.4 million in 2012.

In the GASD, 4th Edition study, separate regional C- and Ku-band demand forecasts were undertaken for each of the major satellite applications investigated in the study. These applications included video distribution, DTH, video contribution & occasional use television, telephony & carrier, broadband, narrowband VSAT and a group of other niche satellite services. Whenever possible, NSR made use of a bottom-up market assessment methodology so that the root demand drivers and restraints would feed directly into the market assessment.

Further, NSR has long recognized that the commercial satellite industry is more a collection of regional markets than a unified global business. As such, all assessments were built up starting on specific regional trends in order to obtain the global overview. The regions addressed in the study included: North America, Central America & Caribbean, South America, the Atlantic Ocean Region, Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Ocean Region.

Beyond NSR's own analysis of the market, this study is seen as a tool to be used by its clients in their own assessments of the commercial satellite services. This is why NSR includes all of the study data in Excel files, along with a point-by-point forecast methodology, which will allow the study's users to manipulate the data to suit their own internal forecast needs and their view on how each separate satellite application will develop in the twelve distinct regional markets. For additional information on this report, including a full table of contents, list of exhibits, and executive summary, please visit www.nsr.com or call NSR at 617-576-5771.

NSR is an international market research and consulting firm specializing in satellite and wireless technology and applications. NSR primary areas of expertise include satellite technology, IP applications, wireless convergence and broadcast services. With extensive expertise in all regions and a number of broadband sectors, NSR is a leading provider of in-depth market insight and analyses.