Eutelsat, helped by initial revenues from its OneWeb constellation, is returning to top-line growth, says CEO Eva Berneke. However, its Video division is still under pressure and suffered a 9.5 per cent decline for the half-year to December 31st 2023. But revenues for its Mobile division showed further impressive growth (up 27.2 per cent).

Total revenues for the First Half of FY 2023-24 (to December 31st) stood at €572.6 million, down by 0.2 per cent on a reported basis and up by 1 per cent on a like-for-like basis.  Revenues of the four key Operating Verticals (i.e., excluding ‘Other Revenues’) stood at €571.1 million. They were up 1.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis, excluding a negative currency impact of €18 million.

Video revenues for the half-year were down by 8 per cent (like-for-like) to €331.1 million, reflecting the impact of the early non-renewal of a capacity contract with Digitürk from mid-November 2022 as well as lower revenues in Europe related to volume reductions with certain resellers. They were also impacted by the effect of sanctions against some Russian and Iranian channels, says the company.

Government Services revenues for the half-year stood at €74.2 million, up by 10.5 per cent year-on-year, reflecting the slightly better renewal rate of the Fall US DoD campaign (above 80 per cent) as well as the contribution of the EGNOS GEO-4 contract on HOTBIRD 13G. Revenues also included a contribution from OneWeb.

Mobile Connectivity revenues stood at €71.2 million for the half year, up 35.6 per cent year-on-year, underpinned by the entry into service of the high-throughput satellite, EUTELSAT 10B, with significant pre-commitments and the commercialisation of the final beam on EUTELSAT QUANTUM for a maritime mobility client, said the operator.

Eutelsat’s all-important backlog stood at €3.9 billion on December 31st 2023 versus €3.7 billion a year earlier. This increase reflects the contribution of OneWeb’s backlog, now standing at €700 million, up 23 per cent over the last quarter, partly offset by natural erosion of the backlog, especially in the Video segment, in the absence of major renewals.