SES holds onto ProSiebenSat.1
November 15, 2017
By Chris Forrester
SES has renewed a valuable distribution agreement with key client ProSiebenSat.1. Part of deal covers all of the broadcasting group’s FTA standard definition transmissions. SES-owned facility and playout division MX1 will continue to handle technical services.
What’s important to the deal is that SES holds onto ProSiebenSat.1’s standard definition channels, which means that dual emissions, in SD as well as HD, will continue to occupy capacity on SES at 19.2 degrees East.
Under the multi-year renewal agreement, SES will provide satellite capacity for the unencrypted transmission of the channels ProSiebenSat.1, kabel eins, sixx, Sat.1 GOLD, ProSieben MAXX and kabel eins Doku, as well as the regional programmes of Sat.1 in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. The contract also includes additional technical services from the SES’s subsidiary MX1, a global solution provider of media services.
“In Germany, 46 per cent of TV viewers receive our programmes via satellite – and increasingly also in the best HD quality via the SES platform HD+. With this new agreement, we are ensuring that our free TV stations retain their high reach via satellite. I am therefore pleased to welcome the continuation of our long-term partnership with SES,” said Nicole Agudo Berbel, Chief Distribution Officer and EVP/Digital Publishing ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE.
“We are very pleased to continue working with ProSiebenSat.1, one of our most important customers. However, this renewal agreement is also welcome news for all satellite TV households, which can continue to receive ProSiebenSat.1 Group’s unencrypted channels. Satellite is and remains the only transmission infrastructure that gives German viewers access to the full range of programmes at no additional cost,” added Christoph Mühleib, MD/Astra Deutschland.