ViaSat Reports Record 2Q Earnings of $353.9 Million

ViaSat released its second fiscal year 2014 results on Nov. 11, with revenues reported to have increased by 25 percent as compared to the same period last year. The company said that it took in a record $353.9 million, with $100.4 million of that coming from satellite services.

ViaSat ended the quarter with more than 590,000 consumer broadband subscribers and performed more than 100,000 installations. The Commercial Networks segment generated $110.2 million in revenues. Government Systems provided the remaining revenue, $143.3 million.

“Our fiscal second quarter again showed sustained strong growth,” said Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat. “Continued steady net subscriber additions for our Exede service on ViaSat-1 are leading the way, but we also achieved double-digit revenue increases across all of our business segments, including Government Systems. This revenue growth is yielding strong EBITDA growth, even as we increase discretionary spending to extend and protect our technology advantages. New order flow this quarter was solid and helps sustain an exciting blend of current and emerging products and services. We are especially looking forward to the approaching initiation of commercial in flight Wi-Fi services over ViaSat-1 with our launch partner JetBlue.”

Other company business highlights included FAA certification of its Ka-band in-flight Internet system on JetBlue Airbus 320 and United Airlines 737 aircraft and receipt of a $3.25 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy for the development of new tools and technologies to strengthen protection of the nation's electric grid and oil and gas infrastructure from cyber attack.

I'm seeing more ViaSat Exede antennas on ENG trucks, where they can provide remote Internet access as well as sending and receiving live video without the need to book transponder space.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.