We are the world’s second largest provider of satellite capacity for media customers, according to Euroconsult, with a 20% global share. We have delivered television programming to the world since the launch of our first satellite, Early Bird, in 1965. We provide satellite capacity for the transmission of entertainment, news, sports and educational programming for over 400 broadcasters, content providers and DTH platform operators worldwide. We have well-established relationships with our media customers, and in some cases have distributed their content on our satellites for over 25 years.

Medi Control Room

Intelsat Video Operations, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Media customers are our second largest customer set and at $884 million accounted for 34 percent of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013, an increase of 3 percent over 2012.   Media contracted backlog totaled $6.2 billion at December 31, 2013and December 31, 2012, respectively.

Our business generated from the media sector is generally characterized by non-cancellable, long-term contracts with terms of up to 15 years with premier customers, including national broadcasters, content providers and distributors, television programmers and DTH platform operators.

FamilyBroadcasters, content providers and television programmers seek efficient distribution of their content to make it easily obtainable by affiliates, cable operators and DTH platforms; satellites’ point-to-multipoint capability is difficult to replicate using terrestrial alternatives. Our strong cable distribution neighborhood satellites offer media customers high penetration of regional and national audiences, and our global reach enables the distribution and retrieval of content to or from virtually any point on Earth.  DTH platform operators use our services because of our attractive orbital locations and because the scale and flexibility of our fleet can provide speed to market and lowers their operating risk, as we have multiple satellites serving every region.

In 2013, our video neighborhood investments continued to reap benefit, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, where capacity launched in 2012 allowed us to grow with existing and new customers in terms of volume and price.

Media: Napa Teleport

The Intelsat Teleport in Napa, California, USA
In 2014, our media business is focused on growing our share of business with existing customers, while also working to support new requirements.  For instance, in the latter half of 2014 we will launch the first of two satellites, for which the Ku-band payload is fully dedicated to providing services for DIRECTV DTH television services in Latin America.  In the latter half of 2015, we expect to launch the second satellite supporting DIRECTV, as well as launch the Intelsat 34 satellite, which refreshes capacity at our growing Brazilian DTH neighborhood and our Latin America media distribution neighborhood at 304.5ºE.