Ukrainian Business Group to Start a New Digital Television Offer on ASTRA

LUXEMBOURG & KIEV, Ukraine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SES ASTRA, an SES company (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG), announced today that it has signed an agreement with Ukrainian financial and industrial corporation Ukrainian Business Group (UBG) for capacity on its 5 degrees East orbital position.

UBG plans to use the capacity for the launch of a new digital television offer in the second half of 2011. The digital channel line-up currently includes music channel A-One, business channel UBC, Ukrainian Fashion, Dobro-TV and Z-TV and will be offered free-to-air from ASTRA’s 5 degrees East orbital position.

UBG is an industry conglomerate that operates in the sector of finance, medicine, manufacturing, agriculture, information technology and media. In March, the corporation bought 30 per cent of the business channel UBC and later this year 100 per cent of the music channel A-One. The company is currently applying for licences for Dobro-TV, Ukrainian Fashion and Z-TV.

Ferdinand Kayser, Chief Commercial Officer of SES, said: “We are very proud that UBG has chosen ASTRA to launch its new digital channel line-up and welcome the new player in the Ukrainian media market. The launch of five new channels will further increase the digital channel choice on our satellites and make our 5 degrees East orbital position even more attractive for broadcasters and TV viewers.”

Artem Tkachev, Corporate Vice President of UBG, said: “The agreement with SES ASTRA is of high strategic importance to us, as it will allow us to enter the Ukrainian media market and to further develop our activities in this sector. We are convinced of the high broadcast quality and the perfect coverage of the ASTRA satellites which represent an ideal choice for our offer. Thanks to the digital broadcasting infrastructure provided by SES ASTRA we will be able to offer our viewers a state-of-the-art, future-proof and fully digital TV experience.”

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 (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG), wholly owns the market-leading satellite operators SES ASTRA and SES WORLD SKIES and participations in Ciel in Canada and 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

For more information about UBG, please visit www.ubg.kiev.ua