SES to increase UK satellite capacity

net1

Satellite operator SES Global is to meet the UK's growing demand for digital capacity by shifting the orbital position of one of its 41 satellites. In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, SES Global CEO Romain Bausch said SES's UK digital satellite was "practically fully booked", necessitating the planned orbital switch in 2006.

Bausch predicted a combination of BSkyB's free satellite service, high definition television and the increasing popularity of interactive services would help the UK Government achieve analogue switch-off by its newly declared target date of 2012.

"It will depend on successes like this satellite free-TV initiative by BSkyB. It will depend on the additional services broadcasters like the BBC and ITV will have on satellite and it will depend on the timing of the roll-out of high definition TV. All of these are initiatives that will further incentivise viewers to go for satellite reception because these services will not be available terrestrially and probably won't be available on cable," said Bausch.

Bausch disclosed that SES persuaded BSkyB in the mid-1990s not to insist on a veto on other broadcasters using its Astra satellite. The platform remained open.

"We convinced BSkyB that direct access to satellite capacity for whoever wanted to target the UK market would be in the best interests not only of SES but also of BSkyB. In all of these difficult moments with Ofcom and with other regulators, at no time has there been any discussion about the fact that BSkyB would have been perceived as the gatekeeper to satellite capacity," explained Bausch.

garrick

Are any of the new channels going to be subscription or FTA ??. If any are going to be subs then they are going to have to be top grade channels that viewers want and not second grade channels with the odd top grade included. This may mean a rival company setting a seperate subs service to B$KYB like they have abroad.

If FTA channels do come onto the new satellite then we can only hope that there is a varied choice of channels from sport, film, entertainment, news and foreign channels dubbed in english!

Analoguesat

"channels from sport, film, entertainment"

Dont hold your breath.

The satellite will almost certainly be Astra 2C, since SES announced 18 months ago it was moving to 28E once spare capacity was released at 19E. 2C has pan-european beams, and therefore covers the whole of Europe. The film companies **really** dont like fta movie channels broadcasting in English across the whole of Europe. They much prefer to sell their product to each seperate country.

Once Sky launch their 7 HDTV channels in 2006 - (coincidence that this date was mentioned??) additional transponder space will be needed as you cant squash so many HDTV channels into a single transponder. Plus all the additional interactive stuff that will be around in two years time, throw in new channels for niche markets / new pay channels, and you can see where the capacity will be needed.