SES has announced its financial results for the first half of 2018. At the end of June 2018, SES was distributing 7,941 total TV channels globally, up 3% compared with the first half of 2017, reflecting positive development across all major regions.
65% of total TV channels are now broadcast in MPEG-4, versus 63.5% in the first half of 2017.
Acceleration of HD in Europe, North America and international markets led to a year-on-year increase of 7% in the global number of HDTV channels, now totalling 2,765, while the total number of commercial Ultra HD channels also increased from 20 to 38 compared with the first half of 2017, mainly driven by new UHD TV channels launched in Europe.
SES Video currently accounts for 67% of the group’s total revenue, the same percentage as in the first half of 2017. During the announcement, group president and CEO Steve Collar touched upon the recent FCC approval for the use of the C-Band spectrum for 5G services in the US.
“On the topic of US C-band, I am pleased with the FCC’s emphasis on the protection of incumbent users from harmful interference and the positioning of our market-based solution as a lead proposal in its recent meeting. Our solution will be able to deliver a landmark win-win, freeing up important spectrum quickly to support mid-band 5G roll-out across the US while protecting and enhancing our video distribution neighbourhoods for the tens of millions of households”.
