SES ASTRA Further Increases its Reach and Remains a Major Driving Force for Digitalisation



    SES ASTRA, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock
    Exchange: SESG), has further increased its audience reach in Europe
    and remains a major driving force for digitalisation. In early 2007,
    109.2 million TV homes in 35 European and North African countries
    received their audiovisual broadcast and broadband services via the
    ASTRA Satellite System. Out of these, 47.2 million homes - 2.2 million
    more than last year - received their signal directly from the ASTRA
    satellites (Direct-to-Home, DTH). The other 62 million are cable homes
    served indirectly by ASTRA through headends. These are the results of
    the latest "Satellite Monitor" conducted every year by leading market
    research institutes on behalf of SES ASTRA .

    The new survey shows a dramatic increase of digital reception by
    19.6 million homes to now 80.7 million out of a total of 238.5 million
    TV homes across the 35 countries. One third of the European households
    therefore is today digital. With 48.6 million homes - representing a
    market share of 60% amongst all digital homes - satellite remains by
    far the most important digital reception mode. ASTRA is serving 35.2
    million of these digital satellite homes, up from 29.2 million last
    year. 75% of all ASTRA DTH homes are therefore now digital, up from
    65% last year. 12 million ASTRA homes still receive exclusively
    analogue signals, 70% of them in Germany.

    As a main driver for the digitalisation, SES ASTRA has also
    significantly increased its digital satellite reach in Germany to 8
    million homes, up from 6.3 million in the previous year. Almost half
    of the 16.4 million German ASTRA satellite households are therefore
    now digital. The increase is mainly due to the switch of terrestrial
    households to digital satellite in several regions and to a
    significant increase of Free-, Pay- and High Definition TV channels
    offered on the ASTRA satellites. The overall number of TV homes in
    Germany remained stable at 37.2 million.

    "These impressive results clearly show that the ASTRA Satellite
    System remains the leading infrastructure for content distribution in
    Europe", says Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA. "SES
    ASTRA has significantly consolidated its position as the top European
    satellite system for DTH reception within its footprint and as a major
    driving force for digitalisation. The findings clearly underline that
    ASTRA occupies a top spot as a most important digital infrastructure
    in Europe. We remain very confident that we will continue to further
    enhance and improve the neigbourhood of channels that will be offered
    on our satellites and we will continue our strategy to significantly
    enhance digital services and maintain our quality levels which are the
    highest in the industry."

    Please find more information on Germany here:

    http://www.ses-astra.com/consumer/sites/de/Press_Releases/Aktuelle
    _Mitteilungen/index.php

    (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into
    your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one
    exists)

    About SES ASTRA www.ses-astra.com

    SES ASTRA is the leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite system in
    Europe, delivering services to some 109 million Direct-to-Home and
    cable households. The ASTRA satellite fleet currently comprises 12
    satellites, transmitting more than 1.860 analogue and digital
    television and radio channels. SES ASTRA also provides satellite-based
    multimedia, internet and telecommunication services to enterprises,
    governments and their agencies. With 26 High Definition (HD) channels
    available via its satellites today, ASTRA is also the most important
    HDTV broadcasting platform in Europe. ASTRA's prime orbital positions
    are 19.2degrees East, 28.2degrees East and 23.5degrees East.

    SES ASTRA is an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock
    Exchange: SESG). SES wholly owns three market-leading satellite
    operators, SES ASTRA in Europe, SES AMERICOM in North America, and SES
    NEW SKIES, which provides global connectivity as well as coverage. The
    Company also holds strategic participations in AsiaSat in Asia, Star
    One in Latin America, SES Sirius in Europe, Ciel in Canada and
    Quetzsat in Mexico. Americom Government Services provides network
    solutions and bandwidth to the US government and its contractors. SES
    provides outstanding satellite communications solutions via a fleet of
    44 satellites on 33 orbital positions around the globe. Additional
    information on SES is available at: www.ses-global.com