Nice daytime launch of a Proton-M (Протон-М) with SES-6 as the the payload. It’s a big boy: weighing in at 6,100 kg, with lots of transponders: 43 C-band and 48 Ku-band. It’s replacing the 806 spacecraft, one of the few remaining “brick” birds (LM/AS-7000). That’s a good thing to do because you never know when these might go on ya.
Besides filling it partially with what’s on 806, what are you going to do with all that capacity? You could probably wait until the 2014 World Cup to help fill it with 6 weeks of occasional business. Then what? Hey, how about a DTH business? And the players are:
Net/Embratel with 8,638,984 subscribers
Sky (DirecTV) = 5,144,946
Oi = 792,107
Telefónica/Vivo = 586,152
GVT = 451,605
Oi waits for launch, then signs the contract. Anchor customer, probably. Large? Good enough.
Nice pitch from SES Astra’s Christoph Limmer in Balancing Act on the digital transition in Africa. Timed to coincide with a recent deal in Kenya, and the SatCom Africa 2011 show in J-burg, the points made are typical and correct, including…
According to Christoph Limmer, requests for information on satellite TV are flooding in. “Quite often we get asked if satellite can really reach more homes than other infrastructures like cable or terrestrial. The answer simply, is yes. Unlike DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) or cable which are ground based infrastructures and normally roll-out in certain areas only; satellite has no limitations in achieving 100% population reach.” Digging cable is costly and time consuming and rolling out DTT network infrastructure is facing similar challenges.
However, one must first assume there is electrical power availability and somebody to pay for the service. Advertiser-supported content needs an audience that’s able to pay for their products/services. What I think needs to happen is the satellite operators take the hit and get the service going and wait for the market to catch up.
The developing world needs our help. Get on with it!
