Telesat reports Q2 2026 net loss, raises Lightspeed investment guidance

Telesat (TSX: TSAT ) released second-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday.

Read the complete transcript below.

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For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit View the webcast at Summary Telesat signed a key strategic contract with the Canadian Armed Forces under the ESCAPE program, supporting Arctic missions.

The company increased its Lightspeed constellation to 225 satellites, fully funded for accelerated rollout, with global commercial availability expected by Q1 2028.

Revenue guidance for Lightspeed was raised due to strong commercial traction, with an increased backlog of $5.6 billion.

GEO segment faced a 26% revenue decline due to non-renewals and satellite retirements, but new contracts in aviation and extended broadcast contracts increased backlog.

Telesat raised its 2026 investment guidance for Lightspeed to 1.3 to 1.5 billion CAD, up from previous guidance, to accommodate constellation expansion.

The company secured a US$120 million term loan for general corporate purposes and expects $189 million in FCC incentive payments for C-band spectrum repurposing.

Telesat reported a net loss of $559 million in Q2 2026, impacted by a $475 million increase in the value of Lightspeed warrants.

Management expressed optimism about future defense and sovereign opportunities, expecting to grow backlog significantly by the end of next year.

Full Transcript OPERATOR Thank you for standing by.

My name is Jordan and I'll be your conference operator today.

At this time I'd like to welcome everyone to the Telesat second quarter 2026 financial results call.

All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

If you'd like to ask questions during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.

If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one again.

I would now like to turn the call over to James Ratcliffe, Vice President, Investor Relations.

Please go ahead.

James Ratcliffe, Vice President, Investor Relations Thank you, Jordan.

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today.

Earlier this morning we filed our quarterly report for the period ending June 30, 2026 on Form 6—K with the SEC and on SEDAR.

Also, our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements.

There are risks that Telesat's actual results may differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of known and unknown risks and uncertainties.

For a discussion of known risks, please see Telesat's annual report and updates filed with the SEC.

Telesat assumes no responsibility to update or revise these forward-looking statements.

I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Goldberg, Telesat's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Dan Goldberg, President and Chief Executive Officer Okay, thanks, James, and good morning, everyone.

Thanks for joining us.

I'll start with a few words about the business and then I'll hand the call over to Donald to speak to the numbers in more detail and we'll then open the call up to questions.

Just last week we announced we signed the first contract in the ESCAPE program and we're very pleased to have secured that key strategic opportunity to provide such a critical capability to the Canadian Armed Forces to support the range of important missions and interests that they have and that Canada has in the Arctic.

With that contract announced and an expanded Lightspeed constellation fully funded for an accelerated rollout, we're very well positioned to execute on the wide range of additional opportunities for Lightspeed that we're now engaged on, including in the defense and government segments, allowing us to build on our already substantial $5.6 billion Telesat Lightspeed contractual backlog.

Our strong confidence in our future prospects caused us to raise our publicly available revenue and EBITDA forecast for Lightspeed, which I hope you all saw last week.

In addition to the strong commercial traction we're getting, we've also been making excellent progress on the technical and operations fronts for Lightspeed.

On the constellation development side of things, we've signed a firm contract with MDA for 69 additional satellites, bringing the fully funded and committed constellation size to 225 satellites.