SES Video revenue down but Networks up?
April 25, 2019
By Chris Forrester
April 24th saw satellite operator SES announce a new deal for its fast-growing ‘Networks’ division. The announcement covered delivery of broadband to Teleglobal’s clients in 150,000 sites amongst Indonesia’s 17,000 island archipelago. Teleglobal will take 1.3 GHz of capacity on SES-12.
The news came ahead of SES’ quarterly numbers due on April 26th. Analysts at investment bank Exane/BNPP suggest that observers should not expect too much. The bank forecasts a 7 per cent decline in the operator’s important ‘Video’ division, although growth of 5 per cent in ‘Networks’.
Overall, the bank says to expect SES to report €478 million of revenues for Q1 (to March 31st) which would represent a 3 per cent overall decline in organic revenues.
But despite this gloom and a depressed share price, the bank says it remains positive on the SES prospects as far as the C-Band Alliance is concerned and the possibility of considerable benefits flowing from a FCC approval to restructure 180 MHz of C-Band spectrum over the US to help 5G deployment.