SES is involved in a joint venture with Abu Dhabi’s Yahsat satellite operator on YahLive, which markets the pair’s DTH frequencies over the MENA and Asia regions from 52.5 degrees East.

YahLive has been in a period of “strategic review” for some time. That review has been finalised and SES says the enterprise has not met revenue and profit expectations. As a consequence, Yahlive’s sales and marketing efforts will be brought under SES control.

SES CEO Steve Collar admitted to analysts that achieving substantial revenue increases will be a challenge.  “This is more about bringing the kind of sales and go-to-market team within SES and aligning with the rest of our organisation and the rest of our go-to-market. Don’t expect substantial increases in revenue and in fact, it’s definitely a challenging [market]. We built a really good neighbourhood, a strong neighbourhood, but revenue generation is lower than we would expect and this is part of a drive to both generate more revenue, more consistently with the way that we sell to all of our neighbourhoods, but also drive cost out of business services.”

Sami Boustani, CEO at Yahlive, speaking some months ago, explained that it was time to take the operation to its next level. “For us, the shareholders, and what we have achieved in the market in terms of viewership is quite impressive.  When we talk about the Farsi market, and its population in excess of 140 million, and then the French Maghreb region where this past year we have been Number 1. Our shareholders have invested heavily to achieve the Number 1 position in terms of channels, exclusive channels and viewership, and the idea right now is to capitalise on these achievements and who might be out there to help take Yahlive to the next step.”

Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite