Advanced Television

SES H1: Video revenue decline continues

August 4, 2021

By Chris Forrester

SES highlighted its “improving trajectory” of Video revenues for the six months to June 30th which were 3.9 per cent down y-o-y at €526 million. SES’s argument is that last year, its lost revenue position for H1 trading was at -8 per cent down.

Its Networks division’s underlying revenue of €349 million was flat compared with H1 2020 (-0.2 per cent at constant FX) with strong ongoing growth in Government (+11.3 per cent) offsetting Covid-related impacts on Mobility (-10.7 per cent) and near-term declines in Fixed Data (-3.9 per cent). Q2 2021 underlying revenue of €176 million was consistent with the prior period (-0.5 per cent y-o-y at constant FX) and 1.1 per cent higher than Q1 2021.

The contract backlog at June 30th 2021 was €5.3 billion (gross backlog of €5.9 billion including backlog with contractual break clauses).

SES seemed to celebrate its €0.40 per share dividend payment despite last week’s significant rise at Eutelsat to an overall €0.93 per share. It informed investors that it had bought in an overall €94 million of its own shares for cancellation since the beginning of this year.

SES is delivering more than 8,650 TV channels to 361 million homes. 3,120 are in HD (up 8 per cent).

CEO Steve Collar said: “The lasting value of our Video business is reflected in the improved trajectory, the important long-term renewals at our core neighbourhoods, increased penetration of HD TV channels, and new paying subscribers for HD+ in Germany. Excitingly, in H2 2021, we will be expanding and enhancing our HD+ portfolio with the extension onto mobile devices and IP-enabled non-satellite homes.”

“Networks continues to perform well notwithstanding the Covid-impacted environment, notably in Government, reflecting the strong demand for our unique multi-orbit resilient solutions. With O3b mPOWER still over a year away from commercial launch, we have secured over $300 million in backlog from major cruise brands which underscores the compelling combination of high throughput and high flexibility of the constellation,” he added.

Collar updated the market on the C-band process which he said remains fully on track. “The recent issuing of C-band licences by the FCC is a notable milestone towards initiation of the reimbursement process. Meanwhile, we have returned €275 million of cash to shareholders this year underscoring our commitment to delivering sustained and attractive returns for our shareholders.”

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