European market for satellite communications

The European Market for Satellite Communications, a recent report by Frost & Sullivan, says that television programming will account for more than 50% of the use of satellite trans- ponder capacity (the signal amplifier) by 1990 and nearly 66% of space revenues; telephony will be slightly more than 25% of transponder use but a smaller share of revenues; and busi- ness services will ring up 14% of the market 's space-based revenues as well as representing more than 20% of transponder use.

Television programme distribution will grow rapidly but telephony will decrease in importance. TV and tele- phony stood near parity in 1985 at 44% and 43% respectively of trans- ponder usage. The mature nature of telephony demand and competing transmission mediums such as fibre optics will cramp telephony growth, while government plans for direct broadcast satellites (DBS) - the French TDF-1 in 1986 and the Ger- man TV-SAT in 1987 - will encourage growth in TV.

Diminish in importance The space segment itself (earnings by satellite operators) represents less than half the total market. However, of the European satellite communica- tions industry's 1985 revenues of $711 million, another 25% went to satellite sales, 21% to launch services, and 9% to earth station sales. The general trend, according to Frost & Sullivan, is for satellite sales and launch services to diminish in importance. Launch service spending will not even double nor satellite sales triple 1985-89, while earth station sales multiply 16 times over and the total market revenues quadruple. By 1990, income from earth station sales will comprise a third of market dollars, 71% of which will be derived from DBS receivers, selling at a pace of more than 1.7 million units a year.

France and FR Germany together will represent some 80% of the total European earth station market by value in 1990 - this would be about 4 370 million francs and 804 million deutsche marks respectively. The UK will be a distant third with 7% of 1990 earth station sales (48.5 million sterl- ing), while Italy and Scandinavia each form 4% of the picture.

Monitor

The indigenous consumer electro- nics manufacturers will dominate their existing market in DBS receivers. Thus, Siemens and Telefunken are planning to produce the terminals, and in France the report explains that the market is likely to be dominated by Thompson and Portenseigne.

The report is available for $2 450.

Source: Customer Service, Frost & Sullivan Ltd, 104-112 Marylebone Lane, London W1M 5FU, UK. In the USA, contact Customer Service, Frost & Sullivan Inc, 106 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038, USA.

Columbus key contracts

Logica pie has now begun work with European partners on the Columbus project. Columbus is to be a perma- nent station in space which, from about 1992 onwards, will provide faci- lities for scientists and engineers to carry out research and development in zero gravity. Because the cost of placing men and supplies in orbit is so high, the Columbus design will in- corporate state-of-the-art technology in order to offer the most efficient and cost effective environment possible. The Columbus design goals represent a major advance over current space systems such as the NASA/ESA Spacelab and the USSR Salyut sta- tion.

Critical overall efficiency Logica has been selected to define a number of aspects of Columbus which will be critical to the overall efficiency of the station. Issues being addressed by Logica include:

• the overall human factors en- vironment in the Columbus laboratory;

• the automation of as much as possible of the operation of the Station;

• automation of the ground support facilities (currently several

thousand people support a Spacelab flight);

• the integrity of the enormous amount of complex software in the station and on the ground; and

• the use of artificial intelligence techniques.

The company has been awarded four contracts, the initial phases of which are worth £350 000, by three leading European space companies for:

• definition of human factors and software requirements in the manned laboratory (with Aer- italia, Italy);

• definition and design work for the data management system of all four elements of Columbus (Matra, France);

• definition and design of opera- tions and ground support facilities for the man-tended platform (British Aerospace, UK); and

• definition of the development work for the data managment test bed for use in evaluating Columbus technology (Matra, France).

Source: Logica pie, 64 Newman Street, London W I A 4SE, UK.

SPACE POLICY August 1986 261