How does the satellite business work?

[Divinejames]

I worked at a satellite operator for some years, so I should hopefully be able to answer this

Satellite operators (people like Eutelsat, SES, etc.) are the people who will take a big loan of hundreds of millions of £s/$s and order a satellite from a satellite manufacturer (such as Airbus Defence and Space, Thales, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc.). The operators will also pay for the launch vehicle (provided by Arianespace, Krunichev, SpaceX, etc.)… depending on how big the satellite is they either have to buy the whole rocket, or maybe they can split the cost with another operator… but the big telecom satellites usually take up a whole rocket.

Fast-forward 2-3 years: the satellite the operator ordered has been manufactured, tested and launched into space. After launch there is a period of time where the satellite operators will manoeuvre the satellite to its correct position: for telecom satellites this is usually somewhere in the geostationary arc, an orbit with an altitude of 35,786 km, which allows the satellite to orbit with just the right velocity, such that from the POV of someone looking up at it from the Earth, it seems to stay stationary. Once the satellite arrives at its “slot” there will be a period of commissioning where they test all the various systems and ensure nothing broke during launch! Commissioning usually takes a couple of weeks.

THEN! They’re up and running! The satellite and the launch cost hundreds of millions, and GEO satellites usually only last 15-20 years before starting to malfunction / running out of fuel and requiring them to be “retired”. So the operators have got to sell the services and make their money back plus profit before this expensive asset fully depreciates.