Eutelsat Communications has reported revenue of €336.7 million (+0.7 percent) in the third quarter 2018-19.
Eutelsat generated revenue of €215.4 million (–2.9 percent) from Video Applications, €39.9 million (+5.0 percent) from Government Services, €30.4 million (–13.9 percent) from Fixed Data, €19.1 million (–8.2 percent) from Fixed Broadband and €19.8 million (+10.6 percent) from Mobile Connectivity businesses in Q3.
Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer said: “We are encouraged by the resilience of our core Broadcast business, and we continue to target a return to slight revenue growth in FY 2019-20 on the back of the materialization of delayed business, traction in broadband and the availability of incremental capacity with EUTELSAT 7C and EUTELSAT Quantum.”
Video Applications revenues dipped 2.5 percent to €215.4 million – reflecting mostly a double-digit decline in Professional Video due to competitive pressure. Professional Video now accounts for less than 8 percent of Video revenues.
Pure Broadcast revenues were stable. Eutelsat has secured a multi-transponder contract for a new DTH platform on EUTELSAT 65 West A. Other projects in the pipeline were delayed for non-structural reasons and should materialize in the near future.
At 31 March 2019 the total number of channels broadcast by Eutelsat satellites stood at 7,021, up 2 percent and by 3 percent stripping out the effect of the disposal of EUTELSAT 25B. HD penetration rose 11 percent to 1,509 channels, implying penetration of 21.5 percent of channels compared to 19.7 percent a year earlier.
Government services revenues were €39.9 million, down 1.0 percent – reflecting incremental business secured last year at the 174°East orbital position covering Asia-Pacific, and the low outturn of the Fall 2018 renewal campaign with the US Government.
Fixed data revenues stood at €30.4 million, down 17.8 percent – reflecting pricing pressure in a competitive environment as well as softer volumes in Latin America.
Fixed Broadband revenues stood at €19.1 million, down 9.7 percent – reflecting a decline in European Broadband with scarcity of capacity in certain countries and the transition to a new distribution model which is leading to a decline in activity with legacy distributors.
Mobile Connectivity revenues reached €19.8 million, up 4.7 percent – reflecting entry into service of the UnicomAirNet contract on EUTELSAT 172B, the carry-forward impact of the contract with Taqnia at 3°East and 70°East and the capacity contracts on KA-SAT.
Eutelsat signed a multi-transponder agreement with Speedcast for capacity dedicated to Maritime Connectivity on EUTELSAT 133 West A, representing another win in this vertical following the conclusion of a multi-satellite deal with Marlink.
Eutelsat said the order backlog stood at €4.4 billion at 31 March 2019 versus €4.6 billion in December 2018, reflecting natural backlog consumption in the absence of material Video renewals. It was equivalent to 3.1 times 2017-18 revenues. Video Applications represented 76 percent of the backlog.
