Nilesat is Egypt’s state-backed satellite operator, founded in 1996 and headquartered in Cairo. Its entire reason for being is television. The company runs a small GEO fleet that carries the majority of broadcast content into the Middle East and North Africa. For two decades, if you watched satellite TV in the region, odds are it came through a Nilesat transponder.

The fleet is straightforward. Nilesat-101 and 102 are long retired, replaced by Nilesat-201 launched in 2010. The most recent is Nilesat-301, launched by SpaceX in 2022 on a Falcon 9. Built by Thales Alenia Space, 301 carries Ku-band for broadcast and Ka-band for broadband. It is the replacement for 201, covering the MENA footprint and adding capacity for government and enterprise services.

The business model is almost entirely wholesale broadcasting. Regional and international channels lease capacity to deliver direct-to-home content. That makes Nilesat both a utility and a political lever. Egypt uses control of broadcast carriage as a way to regulate which channels reach Arab audiences. Broadband and data services have been marketed for years, but in practice TV remains the revenue core.

Nilesat is listed on the Egyptian Exchange, with the government retaining a controlling stake. Financial performance is steady rather than expansive, reflecting the flatlining satellite TV market. The company’s shareholder reports show declining revenues from peak years as cord-cutting and OTT alternatives creep into MENA markets. The Ka-band payload on Nilesat-301 is meant to slow that decline by selling connectivity services, but the region is already being targeted aggressively by Yahsat, Arabsat, and now LEO constellations.

In short, Nilesat is a single-purpose national operator. It guaranteed Egypt control of satellite broadcasting for the Arab world, and it still matters because millions of households point dishes at 7°W. But with TV growth stalled and competition rising in broadband, the company’s future is about defending relevance, not chasing disruption.