🛰️ Satellite Made Easy
Reporting back from Eutelsat Video Days 2025
Today the 31st edition of CABSAT opens in Dubai and for the occasion I’m rebranding my newsletter, forget Streaming Made Easy, meet Satellite Made Easy!
I’m not making the trip to Dubai but in April I was lucky to attend the Eutelsat Video Days 2025, a 2-day event aimed at resetting the narrative around satellite video in the streaming era. This got me curious because I heavily focus on IP distribution and yet I know we don’t live in an IP-only world. I also take pride in broadening my audience’s knowledge as well as mine.
No way I can recap it all so here’s what you can expect today: get to know Eutelsat, grab key data points and quotes and finally read a full-length recap of my panel “How to thrive as a media organisation today”.
Meet Eutelsat:
The company may have gotten on your radar early March 2025 when their stock enjoyed a sudden 200% boost.
Any clue why? It followed US threats to cut the Starlink signal over Ukraine. It was a vital reminder that Europe needs an independent satellite player to protect and foster its digital sovereignty. The company keeps making the headlines.
Their foundations:
Founded out of an ambition to build a European industry in the manufacture, launch and operation of satellites;
The organisation first took shape in 1977 to operate the first generation of communications satellites ordered by the European Space Agency (ESA);
Four key verticals: Mobile Connectivity, Fixed Connectivity, Government Services and Video.
Their key numbers:
Headquartered in Paris with more than 1514 employees in over 75 countries;
34 GEO satellites and 600+ LEO satellites (and counting);
Four key verticals: Mobile Connectivity, Fixed Connectivity, Government Services and Video;
1 billion+ viewers potentially reached;
Distributes 6,000+ TV channels;
425M homes globally (66 million homes served in MENA via 7°/8° West alone) in 137 countries across 57 languages.
Their mission statement:
Eutelsat Group is committed to delivering safe, resilient and environmentally sustainable connectivity to help bridge the digital divide.
Why trust Streaming Made Easy Premium to know Europe like the back of your hand?
❌ No copy and paste press releases to inform you or out of touch research.
✅ Only insights and analysis based on 20 years of operational and strategy experience in the region.
Still on the edge?
Quick hits:
Here’s what grabbed my attention:
Eva Berneke, CEO, Eutelsat Group
“Satellite has always meant scale. Now, it also means agility, interactivity, and integration with the digital ecosystem. We are actively embracing the shift to hybrid—because the future of video and connectivity isn’t either/or, it’s both.”
Eutelsat just announced the arrival of a new CEO, Jean-François Fallacher (formerly CEO of Orange France), coming in on June 1st 2025.
Aymeric Genty, President, Video Business Unit, Eutelsat Group
"Video still makes up 50% of our revenue. That’s not a legacy, that’s a foundation."
Annamaria Recchia, VP Commercial, Marketing & Product, Eutelsat Group
"We’re embracing hybrid distribution, linear satellite combined with IP delivery, to deliver the ultimate streaming experience."
Joe Igoe, COO, MBC
“We’re not a broadcaster. We’re a content company. Distribution is just how we follow our audience.”
"We went from under 100,000 streaming subs to millions by integrating OTT into hybrid set-top boxes."
Richard Smith, CEO, EKT
"Satellite uses 10 megabits to reach 10 million people. OTT uses 1.25 terabits per million. That’s your energy crisis in numbers."
Massimo Bertolotti (Sky Italia):
“In hotels, we used to serve 6 rooms with IP streaming. With hybrid satellite-IP delivery, we can serve 30. Same bandwidth.”
“The peak in bandwidth always comes during football. That’s when everything breaks. Unless you use satellite.”
Full-length Panel:
I did the opening keynote and moderated 3 panels so I had to choose what to report back on. It was hard because of course bringing FAST on Satellite was fascinating and so was the Satellite recipe to deliver global sports events.
Now if you’ve been reading Streaming Made Easy for some time, you know I despise one size fits all strategies and statements. Hence why my chat with this group of stellar execs about “How to thrive as a media group in a fast-evolving market” got my pick today.
🎙️3 Core Imperatives For Today’s Media Operators
How to thrive as a media group in a fast-evolving market? The million dollar question.
That’s it for today.
Next up, I will attend GEMA Europe where I will take the pulse of the Entertainment Marketing space. With so much white noise and so many viewer touch points, it must be a daily battle to craft and execute the right strategy to make your IP and your platform standout.
Enjoy your day and see you on Thursday for the Pod Thursdays edition of Streaming Made Easy!
