Sky Perfect JSAT is Japan’s hybrid beast of a company: half satellite operator, half pay-TV platform. It was born out of consolidation in the early 2000s when Japan’s private satellite operators and broadcasters were forced together to keep the lights on. Today it is the largest satellite operator in Asia, running seventeen GEO satellites under the JSAT and Superbird brands, and still one of the few in the world that makes serious revenue from both space and television.

The fleet handles the usual GEO mix: C- and Ku-band for broadcasting and telecom, with Ka creeping in for mobility and broadband. JSAT-31 and JSAT-32, both software-defined high-throughput satellites, are due later this decade, designed to extend the company’s relevance in aviation and maritime. These orders are less about aggressive expansion and more about buying time against declining broadcast revenues.

On the media side, they own and operate SKY PerfecTV!, Japan’s pay-TV service, which still pays the bills but faces the same erosion as every other linear platform. That dual identity—satellite operator plus media distributor—has kept the company financially balanced but also pulled it in two directions. Investment in 4K channels made sense years ago, but now the focus has shifted to survival through diversification.

To avoid looking like a GEO dinosaur, JSAT has thrown money into future bets. They have a joint lab in Yokohama for 5G NTN experiments, are an investor in Planet’s Pelican LEO imagery constellation, and have even created a subsidiary to explore laser debris removal. None of these ventures are likely to transform the company, but they buy credibility with government stakeholders and hedge against the long fade of GEO television.

The truth is simple. Sky Perfect JSAT is an incumbent utility that maintains Japan’s orbital infrastructure and television backbone. It is not chasing disruption. It is keeping coverage steady while experimenting around the edges. The real challenge will be managing the decline of broadcast while staying relevant in mobility and government markets. They have the scale and the fleet to keep operating, but like every GEO incumbent, they are now on the defensive.