PARIS & LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SES ASTRA, an SES company (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG), announced today that the French digital terrestrial offer on satellite, TNTSAT, broadcast via ASTRA, reached a total of 2.65 million receivers sold at the end of 2010. 800,000 additional receivers were sold during 2010. The TNTSAT offer was launched in March 2007.
“The continued strong growth of TNTSAT is driven by digitalisation and the analogue switch-off in more and more French regions,” says Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA. “With 14 French regions shifting to purely digital reception in 2011, we expect the growth of TNTSAT to continue with strong momentum.”
With TNTSAT, viewers are able to receive the full French digital terrestrial offer: the 19 French free-to-air channels, the 24 regional channels of France 3, as well as four channels in High Definition (HD). In order to receive these programmes, households need a satellite dish pointed to the ASTRA orbital position 19.2 degrees East and a TNTSAT receiver.
TNTSAT has a range of 54 receiver models, 23 of them for HD. Reception is optimal throughout France. TNTSAT does not require a subscription, nor a decoder rental fee. Most of the receivers are labeled “CANAL READY” which means that they are able to receive the offer from CANAL+ and CanalSat by simply replacing the receiver`s smart card.
About SES ASTRA
SES ASTRA is the leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite system in Europe. The satellite fleet currently comprises 16 satellites which deliver services to more than 125 million households and transmit more than 2,600 television and radio channels. SES ASTRA also provides satellite-based multimedia, internet and telecommunication services to enterprises, governments and their agencies. With 190 High Definition (HD) channels, ASTRA is the most important HDTV platform for Europe's leading broadcasters. The orbital positions for SES ASTRA are 19.2 degrees East, 28.2 degrees East, 23.5 degrees East, 5 degrees East and 31.5 degrees East. For further information: www.ses-astra.com.
About SES
SES (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG) wholly owns the market-leading satellite operators SES ASTRA and SES WORLD SKIES, and participations in Ciel in Canada, QuetzSat in Mexico as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. SES provides outstanding satellite communications solutions via a global fleet of 44 satellites. For further information: www.ses.com.
For more information about TNTSAT, please visit: www.tntsat.tv.