Eutelsat Video revenues tumble 8.3%
July 28, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Eutelsat’s full year results – to June 30th – were mixed, with its Broadcast Video division (62 per cent of income) falling y-o-y by 8.3 per cent (like-for-like, or 6.3 per cent as reported). But on the more positive side its fast-growing Mobile Connectivity segment grew 26.8 per cent (like-for-like, or 37.9 percent as reported).
CEO Eva Berneke said that the expected merger with OneWeb would likely close at the end of September. She added that OneWeb had achieved a secured backlog of $900 million (€821m) as at the end of June, and up $300 million since October 2022.
The lost revenues in its Video division reflected the end of contracts with DigiTurk and the cancellation of contracts with Russia and Iran.
Berneke informed the market that this coming trading year would see a restructuring of its revenue divisions. “As of June 30, 2023, the breakdown of the Operating Verticals revenues will evolve to better reflect the respective end markets which they address. The new framework will be altered from five verticals (Broadcast, Data & Professional Video, Government Services, Fixed Broadband and Mobile Connectivity) to four: Video, henceforth encompassing Broadcast and professional Video, Fixed Connectivity, encompassing Data and Fixed Broadband, Mobile Connectivity, and Government services.”
Fourth Quarter revenues stood at €286 million down 2.3 per cent like-for-like. Revenues of the five Operating Verticals stood at €283 million, down 4.1 per cent year-on-year and up 4.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter on a like-for-like basis.
Eutelsat’s all-important contracted backlog also fell back. The backlog stood at €3.4 billion at 30 June 2023 versus 4.0 billion a year earlier. The natural erosion of the backlog, especially in the Video segment, more than offsets the contribution of the EGNOS contract in Government as well as other incremental contracts in Mobility. The backlog was equivalent to 3.0 times 2021-22 revenues, and Video represented 59 percent of the total.
Eutelsat said its future Video revenues are expected to be broadly in line with market trends of a mid-single digit decline, excluding the effect of sanctions which will be embarked for a full 12 months versus six months in FY 2022-23.
“OneWeb’s revenues reached the $50 million objective at end-June 2023. For FY 2023-24, the later-than-expected availability of terminals for key verticals will lead to a delay in revenue recognition compared to the objective communicated in October 2022. As a result, the revenue and adjusted EBITDA objectives of Combined Entity are adjusted for the current fiscal year to reflect this short-term
Impact,” said Eutelsat.