Intelsat Reports Record Revenue In Second Quarter
But Fixed-Satellite Services Provider Still Posts $82 Million Loss
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 8/13/2008 5:57:00 AM
Intelsat Ltd., the world’s largest provider of fixed-satellite services, Wednesday reported record revenue of $584.9 million and a net loss of $82 million for the second quarter.
Total revenue of $584.9 million increased by $41.7 million, or 8%, for the second quarter as compared to $543.2 million for the year-ago period, Intelsat said.
Growth trends including strong renewals, expansions of existing contracts, new business and improved contract terms contributed to the improved sales, company officials said. Customers based in Europe, North America and Africa and the Middle East generated the greatest contributions to the overall revenue increase.
“We’re also booking sizable renewals with marquee accounts, such as National Public Radio and Showtime Networks Inc., both of which recently extended their respective agreements with us,” Intelsat CEO David McGlade said during a second-quarter earnings call.
In a separate announcement Wednesday, Intelsat said that NPR signed a multi-transponder, multi-year contract renewal for satellite capacity to support the distribution of public radio programming across the United States.
NPR operates the Public Radio Satellite System on behalf of all public radio stations and program distributors. Through this satellite infrastructure, more than 32 million listeners will continue to tune in for public radio’s programming every week, which is distributed through more than 900 public radio stations throughout the United States and its territories.
Under the terms of the contract, NPR will use C- and Ku-band capacity on Intelsat’s Galaxy 16 and Galaxy 17 satellites, located at 99 degrees West and 91 degrees West, respectively. By the end of this agreement, Intelsat’s relationship with NPR will have spanned three decades.
On the conference call, McGlade updated analysts on Intelsat’s satellite launches. Intelsat’s Galaxy 18 satellite was launched May 23, replacing the Galaxy 10R satellite at 123 degrees west, in the North American cable arc.
“We have six other satellite programs in progress,” McGlade said.
Intelsat’s Galaxy 19 satellite is scheduled to launch in late September on a rocket to be provided by Sea Launch, “and Intelsat 14, 15 and 16 are well under way,” according to McGlade.
In addition, Intelsat said that it had ordered replacements for the Intelsat 704 and Intelsat 701 satellites, to be known as Intelsat 17 and Intelsat 18, respectively, as part of the company’s fleet-investment program.
The company confirmed that it continues to expect 2008 capital expenditures to total between $460 million and $500 million.
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