Intelsat Q2: Media revenue down
August 4, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Intelsat’s Q2 numbers saw revenues for the quarter-year to June 30th at $507.86 million (€428m), up 5.4 per cent over last year’s $482.03 million same period. Intelsat is trading as a ‘debtor in possession’ (DIP) while it moves through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reconstruction.
Intelsat’s Media division revenue was $184.2 million (or 36 per cent of overall revenues) and declined by 9 per cent. Intelsat says the decline in media was primarily driven by a planned service migration by a specific customer from Intelsat’s network to the customer’s own network assets. Other factors impacting revenue were terminations and non-renewals reflecting industry trends.
Government revenues (19 per cent of overall revenues) were flat at $95.84 million ($96.1 million same period last year).
But there was a shining light in Intelsat’s Network Services division (44 per cent) and up 25 per cent on last year’s numbers at $221 million ($177m last year). Intelsat says: “Factors positively impacting revenue included in flight connectivity services and the expansion of services with mobility and network customers. The increase in revenue was partially offset by specific non-renewals and capacity and price reductions across our mobility and networks customer sets.”
Intelsat’s average fill rate as of June 30th on its approximately 1,625 36 MHz station-kept wide-beam transponders was 74 per cent, similar to its average fill rate at March 31st, 2021. In addition, as of June 30th, 2021 its fleet included approximately 1,220 36 MHz equivalent transponders of high-throughput Intelsat Epic capacity, consistent with the prior quarter.
At June 30th, 2021, Intelsat’s contracted backlog, representing expected future revenue under existing contracts with customers, was $6.0 billion, as compared to $5.9 billion at March 31st, 2021.
However, Intelsat’s loss was $152.3 million for the three months ended June 30th compared to a net loss of $405.4 million for the same period in 2020.
Intelsat’s costs of its bankruptcy process were explained: “Reorganisation items reflect direct costs incurred in connection with our Chapter 11 restructuring activities. Reorganisation items of $49.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021 primarily consisted of professional fees. Reorganisation items of $298.7 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020 primarily consisted of $197 million related to the write-off of debt discount, premium and issuance costs, $52.2 million of financing fees related to the DIP Facility and $49 million in professional fees.”
Intelsat’s CEO, Stephen Spengler, said: “We generated strong operating performance across all our business sectors during the quarter. Network Services benefited from new mobility business from FlexMaritime managed services and the recovery in North American airline travel resulting in higher inflight connectivity revenues. Solid results in Media were driven by new business in our Europe and Asia markets and we also announced a contract expansion with a major media company that is expected to generate additional revenues in the future. The start of hosted payload service on our Galaxy 30 satellite and continued demand for our FlexMove land mobility managed services positively impacted our Government business.”