I've just come across some interesting facts about Sat Coms in an article on the ESA website which I thought I'd share:

 

·         Satcoms is the largest sector in the space business; half of all launches are for communication satellites.

 

·         Out of a total of 1200 satellites in orbit more than 50% were communications satellites.

 

·         Owing to the larger size and complexity of communications satellites their value represents more than 67% of the value of all satellites launched in 2012. To this should be added that 87% of Ariane launches in the last three years were satcoms.

 

·         Adding all stages in the satcom value chain an aggregate of around €100 billion/year was the worldwide sitcom value in 2013 and continues to grow.

 

·         The top four global satellite operators, the two largest satellite manufacturers and the number one commercial launch service are European.

 

·         The satcoms sector supports directly two thirds of the space jobs in Europe.

 

·         Close to half a billion households worldwide receive more than 37.500 television programmes directly from geostationary satellites. Of these, about 40% are in emerging countries. In Europe alone, 80 million households receive information and entertainment directly via satellite TV, while cable TV is fed by satellite for another 66 million households.

 

 

 

For further details of this article on the ESA website please click here.