SES ASTRA, an SES GLOBAL company (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG), has
announced today that it has signed a new transponder contract with the
British commercial TV broadcaster Five. The additional capacity will
primarily be used for the company's two new channels - Five Life and
Five US - which will be launched in October. The broadcaster will
initially take half of a transponder at the orbital position
28.2(degree) East and ramp up to a full transponder in the second half
of 2007.
Five attracts around 30 million viewers a week and generates over
GBP 300 million in advertising revenue - around 8.6% of the UK total.
The company is owned by Europe's largest broadcaster, the RTL Group,
which operates 34 TV and 34 radio stations across Europe.
"With this additional agreement, we continue to consolidate our
position as Europe's leading direct-to-home (DTH) satellite company in
an extremely competitive environment", said Alexander Oudendijk, Chief
Commercial Officer of SES ASTRA. "We are very pleased about our strong
business relationship with Five and will continue to offer the best
service possible to all our customers."
Chris Anning, CTO for Five, said: "Five has come a long way since
its launch in 1997; we have gone from a standing start to an audience
share of over 6%. Considering the huge changes in the broadcast
landscape over the last six or seven years that's quite a feat. To
meet the challenges of the next few years and further increase our
overall audience share we will be launching exciting new channels and
this transponder deal will give us the capacity we need to expand."
About SES ASTRA www.ses-astra.com
The ASTRA Satellite System is the leading Direct-to-Home (DTH)
satellite system in Europe, delivering services to some 107 million
Direct-to-Home and cable households. The ASTRA satellite fleet
currently comprises 13 satellites, transmitting in excess of 1600
analogue and digital television and radio channels as well as
multimedia and Internet services. ASTRA's two prime orbital positions
for DTH services are 19.2(degree) East and 28.2(degree) East.
Professional services such as Direct-to cable (DTC), Satellite
Newsgathering (SNG) and Occasional Use are offered from the orbital
position of 23.5(degree) East.
SES ASTRA is an SES GLOBAL company (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG). SES
GLOBAL wholly owns three market-leading satellite operators, SES ASTRA
in Europe, SES AMERICOM in the US and New Skies Satellites in the rest
of the world. 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 GLOBAL provides outstanding satellite communications
solutions via a fleet of 44 satellites across the globe. Additional
info on SES GLOBAL at: www.ses-global.com.
About Five www.five.tv
Five was launched as the fifth and final terrestrial channel on
March 30th, 1997 and has since built a strong reputation for its broad
range of quality programmes - the BAFTA award winning children's
strand Milkshake!, America's Finest dramas with titles such as the CSI
franchise and the Emmy winning House alongside factual series such as
The Singing Estate and Extraordinary People, as well as original
comedy such as Respectable and Swinging. Plus this October Five
launches its digital channels Five Life and Five US.
