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
