Canada’s Telesat satellite operator has seen a rapid decline in revenues from its 14-craft geostationary fleet. In the half-year to June 30th, Telesat’s revenue dropped 27 per cent to C$223 million (€138.9m) as a result of DTH broadcast reductions. For Q2 the decline was even greater at 30 per cent.Two significant clients, EchoStar’s Dish Network and Rogers Communications, have cut back on contracts for capacity.Telesat’s geostationary backlog of contracts is worth C$900 million. However, the value of contracts for its Lightspeed low Earth orbiting satellite system, which is still being built, is worth more than C$1 billion.Telesat’s Lightspeed fleet represent the future for the business even though the satellites will not be launching for about two years (“the end of 2027” according to CEO Dan Goldberg).Fleet utilisation was 70 per cent, up 3.5 per cent from March 31st 2025. Anik F3 reached the end of its station-kept fuel life in April 2025 and, as a result, was placed in inclined operations.“Consistent with our utilisation calculation methodology, Anik F3 was removed from our capacity utilization calculation once it entered inclined operations. If Anik F3 were still included in that calculation, utilisation as of June 30th 2025 would have been 62 per cent, a 4.5 per cent decrease from March 3st, 2025,” stated Telesat.
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