Advanced Television

SES ups profits 11.5%

April 28, 2017

By Chris Forrester

SES is beginning to reap the rewards of extra capacity being utilised, and in reporting its Q1 numbers, says it has seen “substantial” growth in its contracted backlog (from €7.6 billion y-o-y to €7.8 billion). Net profit attributable to SES shareholders of €128.4 million (Q1 2016: €115.1 million) represented an increase of 11.5 per cent over the prior period.

The operator’s HD channel count increased 6 per cent to 2496 channels, while total channel count grew 4 per cent to 7,610 channels. SES is now carrying 22 commercial UHD channels.

Karim Michel Sabbagh, President/CEO, commented: “The first quarter 2017 results were fully in line with our expectations. SES returned to growth in Q1 2017 with all of our data-centric markets developing positively, and we remain well placed to deliver sustained growth in all four of our market verticals. The restructuring of SES’s go-to-market organisation model, with the creation of two natural business units, represents a further acceleration of our market-centric strategy. With SES Video and SES Networks, we are coalescing our differentiated capabilities to best serve customers globally.”

SES is in the process of creating two new umbrella divisions, SES Video (under Ferdinand Kayser) and SES Networks (run by Steve Collar). Reported revenues for the Video division were up 4.5 per cent to €353.4 million (although down 4.2 per cent on like for like comparisons). “Lower periodic and services revenue in Q1 2017 largely accounted for the (like for like) revenue reduction over the prior period. The balance reflected a modest volume movement related to the timing of MPEG-4 expansion in line with the group’s long-term objective of sustaining the upgrade of the viewing experience to HD and UHD,” said SES.

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