Steady as she goes for Eutelsat in first half year
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Editor
| 09 February 2017

The first half of the 2016/2017 fiscal year has been in line with expectations and more or less flat on a year-on-year basis for satellite operator Eutelsat.

For the first half-year ended 31 December 2016, the operator posted revenues of €755 million, down 2.5% on an annual basis but saw net income rise 2.2% compared with the same period a year ago to €192 million. The company said that the revenue loss reflected a 1.6-point negative perimeter effect following the disposal of Alterna’TV, Wins/DHI and DSAT Cinema.

Six-month revenues in the core video applications sector slipped 2% to €468.9 million. Eutelsat said the decline was fully attributable to lower revenues in professional video. Broadcast revenues were said to be stable due to the contribution from incremental capacity launched during 2016 from EUTELSAT 8 West B for MENA and EUTELSAT 36C for Sub-Saharan Africa. These were said to have more than offset the negative impact of rationalisation of capacity at the HOTBIRD position and lower revenues from FRANSAT following the completion of the transition to HD in France.

Second quarter video revenues stood at €228.9 million, down 3.5% on a year-on-year basis, and up by 0.9% quarter-on-quarter, while professional video also experienced a quarter-on-quarter improvement.

At the end of the quarter the total number of channels broadcast by Eutelsat satellites stood at 6,339 up 5.6% year-on-year. HD penetration increased 32%, to stand at 997 channels, representing a penetration rate of 15.7% compared with 12.6% a year earlier. HD penetration at the HOTBIRD neighbourhood stood at 24% up from 18% a year previously.

Commenting on the results, Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer said: “First Half revenues were in line with expectations, and we are on track to reach our current and three-year objectives thanks to a solid commercial performance. We are also on target to deliver on our commitment to reduce capital expenditure, notably thanks to the highly effective application of ‘design-to-cost’ for satellite procurement.”