Room for more than two at the top, says competitive satellite provider

While the CRTC is pushing broadcasters and BDUs towards high-definition programming as fast as they can go, the ability of satellite providers to deliver the bandwidth necessary for the HD transition will be pushed to its limits very soon. Not surprising, then, that the CRTC and Industry Canada are hoping to foster competition in the provisioning of satellite-based bandwidth. But with one entrenched firm currently holding the vast majority of orbital real estate – and the considerable barriers to entry in the satellite space – that might be a Herculean task. Nevertheless, Ciel Satellite LP CEO and president Dave Lewis says his firm is up to the challenge."Certainly, we’re new, don’t have all the bona fides that you’d want to have, but given our corporate affiliations, our capability, I think it’s established that certainly we’ll be there," Lewis told Decima Reports during an editorial roundtable in February. With backers including Princeton NJ-based satellite giant SES Americom Inc. and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s Borealis Infrastructure unit, Ciel appears well-girded for battle in this competitive arena.However, both of Canada’s direct-to-home satellite TV BDUs – Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice – have thrown their lot in with Ciel rival Telesat Canada, backing the latter’s application for 10 of 29 new satellite spectrum licenses currently on offer from Industry Canada (for more, see the December 14, 2006 issue of CCR sister publication Report on Wireless).But Lewis says that support for the incumbent didn’t come as a surprise to Ciel. "Telesat has been around a long time," he notes. "They’ve got a 30-year history and with that comes certain relationships and advantages in the marketplace."And regardless of whether or not the two DTH providers would prefer to deal with Telesat solely, the pace of the transition to HD likely won’t let them: it would be extremely difficult for a single satellite operator to meet the HD demands of both ExpressVu and Star Choice. Referring to the 10 licences Telesat has applied for and the nine for Ciel, Lewis says: "I don’t think either one of us could swallow that many licenses and build them out, unless we were talking about a five- or six-year timeline." With firm "use it or lose it" deadlines for each licence set by the International Telecommunication Union, there’s even room for a third satellite operator, he concludes.With Ciel being the only one to step forward yet with a proposal to deliver more capacity – a bid by Canadian Satellite Radio Investments Inc. was discounted earlier on by Industry Canada – a third competitor may be sorely needed. A Nordicity Group Ltd. report commissioned by Ciel and delivered last November predicts that by 2012, both Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu will each need an additional satellite; just four years later, in 2016, both DTH operators will need yet another, a tripling of their current capacity.Finally, Nordicity’s report forecasts that "existing SD services cannot be switched off and thus save capacity before 2020." Lewis explains that Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice have millions of SD set-top boxes in customer premises that will need to be swapped out for HD-capable ones, a process that could take as long as 10 years. That, as well as the addition of new yet-to-be-licensed HD services, means bandwidth-saving gains in compression technology will be cancelled out, he says.And while other services such as telephony, broadband and digital radio can be carried on satellites, it’s clear where Ciel’s priorities lie. "There’s absolutely nothing in the satellite world that is more important for driving capacity requirements than HD," Lewis says. "It is the be-all and end-all for us."

Room for more than two at the top, says competitive satellite provider

News | 03/01/2007 5:00 am EST

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