Luxembourg, 27 July 2012 - SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that the number of paying households using the HD+ service offered by its German affiliate HD PLUS has increased significantly. The HDTV platform attracted over 120,000 new paying households between April and June 2012, the most paying households HD+ has ever acquired in one quarter. At 30 June 2012, HD+ counted 634,290 paying households. Year-on-year, the number of households paying for HD+ has more than tripled (30 June 2011: 198,020).

In total, two million households were using HD+ during the individual 12-month free trial period at 30 June 2012. This is an increase of 700,000 on the previous year. The number of active HD+ households  – paying households and households using it during the free trial period – was 2.6 million as at 30 June 2012, almost 1.2 million more that in the previous year. HD+ is a platform for the reception of unencrypted free-to-air and encrypted HD channels in Germany.

Wilfried Urner, CEO of HD PLUS: “Growth has uninterruptedly continued, and viewers remain very positive with regard to HD+. HDTV with HD+ via ASTRA offers by far the best price and performance ratio. Given the excellent performance in the first half, we assume that HD+ will reach one million paying households before 31 December 2012.”

 HD+ key figures: 2^nd quarter 2012 compared with the previous year

HD+ key figures: 2^nd quarter 2012 compared with 1^st quarter 2012

 ¹ Households that currently receive HD+ programmes.
² Households in the 12 month free trial period.
³ Households which have paid the annual service fee of EUR 50.

Source: data are based on analyses by GfK, reporting by HD PLUS GmbH and by partners.

Editor’s notes: The lineup of HD+ currently includes 14 encrypted commercial services (RTL HD, Sat.1 HD, ProSieben HD, VOX HD, kabel eins HD, RTL II HD, SUPER RTL HD, N24 HD, TELE 5 HD, SPORT1 HD, DMAX HD, Nickelodeon HD, sixx HD, and COMEDY CENTRAL HD) as well as 19 unencrypted free-to-air HD channels, mainly from the public broadcasters.

For more information, please contact:

Markus Payer                                                    Kirstin Steffen
SES                                                                     SES
Tel. +352 710 725 500                                    Tel. +352 710 725 329
Markus.Payer@ses.com                                kirstin.steffen@ses.com

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About SES       

SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 51 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.

SES stands for long-lasting business relationships, high-quality service and excellence in the broadcasting industry. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements.

SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) holds participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico, as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. Further information under: www.ses.com.