Maritime VSAT Statistics

There are a number of segments within the maritime niche which have been very well targeted and are now effectively saturated. These include O&G rigs & platforms with the leading providers being Schlumberger, CapRock and RigNet; cruise lines, with MTN dominating; oil & gas supply (Vizada, O&G specialists and others); and, ferries (Vizada). These sub-segments are small in volume – less than 4,000 ships in total – but very high in value. The related market in the oil and gas business has not previously been broken out as maritime, but is in the latest COMSYS Maritime VSAT Report. This includes supply vessels, drill ships, seismic vessels and dive support services. CapRock, Schlumberger and others all have sizeable customer bases in this area.

Changes over the past couple of years in the demand for broadband at sea however, has increased the number of operators deploying stabilised antenna systems from a handful of very specialised companies to more than 110 service providers across the world all interested or providing some form of VSAT service to the maritime industry.  The past six years have seen a major interest in penetrating the next levels of the market which comprises of several sub-segments that are both regional and international in scope. There has been a fundamental change in the market in the form of the wider commercial segment now beginning to see broadband at sea as an essential requirement.

All stabilised antenna VSAT services have shown strong long term revenue growth at 5 year compound annual rates greater than 10 per cent during 2008 and 2009 despite the economic downturn. Underlying this the customer base has broadened quite considerably and neither average prices nor margins are as high as they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Of the top 12 revenue earners in the market, the largest O&G and High-End Commercial specialists remain the most substantial, but the list is now far more diversified with other operators focusing on Commercial, Fishing and Leisure segments.  With the increasing saturation of the higher margin segments, many of the major players have progressively moved towards the broader maritime industry in their search for growth in verticals they know and have some expertise in.

Despite the reduction in average pricing, the economic downturn and greater competition from the MSS providers, revenues from stabilised VSAT services (which include bundled hardware) grew to almost $800 million in 2009 and the number of vessels in service increased to more than 8,000.

The 2nd Edition of the COMSYS Maritime VSAT Report analyses the total available maritime market based on primary research, publicly available data, specific data points from industry contacts and research commissioned by COMSYS from maritime industry consultants.  The report shows that there are almost 1.2 million vessels of all types that could theoretically be connected by satellite services and that, after removing the small yacht market, almost 150,000 vessels represent the core opportunity of which over 20 per cent are actual or near term potential customers for VSAT.  The breakdown of these vessels by segment can be seen in the pie chart opposite. 

For many years, communications at sea has been expensive and generally considered a luxury.  Use of service has, as a consequence, been carefully monitored and controlled, but today flat-rate broadband connectivity is becoming a necessity in order to recruit and retain crew, increase operational efficiency, manage complex ship systems and conform with regulatory requirements.  This has quickly strengthened the case for VSAT as an alternative to the established maritime satellite services that have dominated to date.