“we have made some notable achievements over the past year. In the area of satellite transponder leasing, we renewed the contracts with several major customers and added new clients from the broadcast sector that successfully expanded the broadcast neighbourhood of our satellite fleet and diversified the programming content. These included several thematic channels such as the luxury lifestyle HD channel LUXE TV, urban music channel Trace TV, children’s channel Wikkid Plus, and E! Entertainment channel from the US. We have also diversified our services to provide a one-stop transmission solution by establishing our own MCPC platforms from our Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong, and by working with teleport partners around the world. We also completed the share acquisition of SpeedCast which has now become a 100% subsidiary of AsiaSat. We are now able to fully support SpeedCast’s aggressive expansion plans, and in turn SpeedCast contributes significantly to our revenue growth.”

According to Jackson, the most significant developments on the horizon for AsiaSat in the next 6-12 months, include the construction and launch of AsiaSat 5, a replacement satellite for AsiaSat 2 currently operating at 100.5 degrees East.

“AsiaSat 2 has been serving Asia since 1996 operating in both the C and Ku-band frequencies and has an excellent neighbourhood and audience penetration across Asia and Australasia. The launch of AsiaSat 5, scheduled for the first half of 2009, is expected to further expand the C-band and Ku-band capacity available at that popular orbital slot, offering high power C-band pan Asian coverage and additional Ku-band beams including a very powerful South Asia beam to support market demands for DTH and broadband services in that part of our region. We are also planning to continue to expand our facilities at our Tai Po Earth Station that will enable us to offer even more comprehensive transmission solutions to our clients.”

Does Jacskon see any factors currently hindering growth of the satellite industry in Asia Pacific?

“As a result of improved economies in the Asian region, we see some developments in Asia’s transponder market. We see encouraging growth particularly for the broadcast sector and this trend is expected to continue with the increasing number of distribution platforms, whether they be DTH, cable, IPTV or mobile, in Asia. However, we also see the slow progress of deregulation in some countries and some satellite coordination issues may hinder industry growth as a whole. We are aware of the situation in that some new satellites are planning to launch into orbital slots without completing the required international coordination with their neighbouring satellites. Without coordination these new satellites will experience interference and will

have to switch off any transponders that cause interference to their neighbours.”

On the upside, Jackson considers the growth driver for satellite services coming principally from a broadcast sector being stimulated by Asian governments encouraging competition and deregulating the media sector, “This is promoting entry of new players and the creation of additional distribution platforms. As stated earlier this increase in the number of distribution platforms is creating an increase in demand for content both in terms of genre and broadcast quality. To differentiate platforms from their competition they are looking for exclusive content deals and high definition content.” TVAplus

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