ASTRA Platform Services Opens New Playout Centre

One of the most important hubs in Europe / Milestone for international growth

Luxembourg - SES ASTRA, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), announced today that its 100 percent owned subsidiary ASTRA Platform Services (APS) has opened a new playout centre in Unterföhring near Munich. With the new centre, one of the most important and modern technical hubs of its kind in Europe, APS will significantly expand its capabilities to provide broadcasters and production houses around the world with state-of-the-art playout and platform services.

Within the past years, APS has significantly extended its portfolio with additional services such as Digital Asset Management and has expanded outside Europe. The company today serves the operation of 290 TV programmes with 37 in High Definition, 42 radio channels and 59 data services. The new playout centre will complement the existing premises which continue to operate as a physical back-up.

Wilfried Urner, CEO of ASTRA Platform Services, said: “In the past years our customer base has doubled. We have entered new markets such as South Africa and added new services such as Digital Asset Management. The new playout centre will open up further growth opportunities for our fast growing company, and allow us to further develop our product portfolio and expand geographically. It therefore represents a very important milestone for our international growth strategy.”

For picture material please visit the press centre at www.aps.de

About SES ASTRA

SES ASTRA is the leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite system in Europe. The satellite fleet currently comprises 17 satellites which deliver services to more than 135 million households and transmit more than 2,500 television and radio channels. SES ASTRA also provides satellite-based multimedia, internet and telecommunication services to enterprises, governments and their agencies. With more than 200 High Definition (HD) channels, ASTRA is the most important HDTV platform for Europe’s leading broadcasters. The orbital positions for SES ASTRA are 19.2 degrees East, 28.2 degrees East, 23.5 degrees East, 5 degrees East and 31.5 degrees East. For further information: www.ses-astra.com.

About SES

SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) wholly owns the market-leading satellite operators SES ASTRA and SES WORLD SKIES, and participations in Ciel in Canada, QuetzSat in Mexico as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. SES provides outstanding satellite communications solutions via a global fleet of 44 satellites. For further information: www.ses.com.