SES reach rises to 366m homes
April 5, 2022
By Chris Forrester
Satellite operator SES, in its latest Satellite Monitor global reach survey, says it is now delivers almost 8,400 TV channels – including 3,130 in HD or UHD – to a total of 366 million TV homes worldwide, an increase of five million homes over the previous year.
SES says it continues to outperform the industry with the highest number of TV homes reached and record-breaking number of channels delivered.
The increase of TV households served by SES can be attributed to the growing reach in Africa (+9.1 million), APAC (+1 million) and Latin America (+1.7 million), where direct-to-home satellite platforms and IPTV continue to gain traction as leading TV reception methods. In SES’s key European market via 19.2 degrees East, SES continues to reach 117 million homes, delivering content to half of all TV homes in the market via satellite, cable or IPTV. SES’s reach to TV homes in North America is down by 6 million as American audiences turn toward online streaming alternatives, says SES.
In Africa, SES continues to expand its satellite reach due to the growth of Ethiopian free-to-air offering, including the country’s first dedicated TV platform Ethiosat. SES has also led an intensive programme to get TV viewers in Ethiopia to repoint their dishes at the satellite positioned at 57 degrees East for the past two years, and is currently serving a predominant number of satellite TV homes in Ethiopia.
The following table shows the 2021 Satellite Monitor regional breakdown of SES’s TV home reach:
Market TV Homes
· Europe 170 million
· North America 59 million
· Africa 46 million
· Latin America 44 million
· Asia Pacific 34 million
· Middle East 13 million
Additionally, key trends have been identified in African and European markets:
• TV home evolution in Africa – TV penetration across markets in Africa, such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana, has soared by 27 per cent since 2017 as satellite gains popularity as the leading means of TV reception.
• Free-to-air in Europe – As more turn to OTT packages, free-to-air satellite TV remains stable in Europe over the last five years, underscoring the value proposition of satellite TV and the complementary nature of OTT.
• IPTV growth – Internet protocol television (IPTV) continues to grow across Europe as an emerging distribution method, whereas terrestrial television (DTT) declined.
“For almost three decades we have been publishing the Satellite Monitor market research on a yearly basis, enabling our video customers from all over the world to leverage the impartial data to make informed decisions about their business. These additional insights, combined with our premium fleet of satellites’ ability to deliver content in the most cost-effective way to the widest possible audiences, demonstrate why leading broadcasters continue to extend and expand their partnerships with us. This underscores the solidity of our video business for the years to come,” said Deepak Mathur, EVP/Global Video Sales at SES.
SES has been studying and reporting annually on its reach for 28 years.