SES ASTRA increases reach to 9.75 million

chris

SES ASTRA has increased the number of digital satellite TV homes reached by the ASTRA satellite system in Germany by 1.72 million to 9.75 million households, a rise of 21.5 percent.

The latest Satellite Monitor survey, conducted annually by the market research institute TNS Infratest on behalf of SES ASTRA, found that there are 36.98 million analogue and digital TV homes in Germany, with 16.7 million homes receiving satellite TV services. Cable serves 17.9 million German homes (48.4 percent), while 2.3 million homes (6.3 percent) receive terrestrial television services. The number of cable households in Germany decreased by 600,000 in 2007, while digital terrestrial TV increased its reach by 400,000 households.

"As the switch to digital reception modes continues to advance in many regions in Germany, more and more viewers decide in favour of satellite TV," said Wolfgang Elsäßer, Managing Director of SES ASTRA in Germany. "With an increase by more than 20 percent compared to last year, the satellite clearly proves to be the driving force of digitalization. We have consequently extended our offer in the past year and now provide 374 digital TV channels to German speaking regions. With this variety of high-quality programmes, we are absolutely confident that we will be able to convince more and more viewers of our digital offer in the future."