Sky UK has extended its contract with SES for satellite capacity in a new agreement that will add over €90 million in secured backlog.
The renewal is in addition to capacity already under contract that extends through 2027. By the end of the renewed contract, Sky UK will have been an SES customer continuously for almost four decades.
As part of the contract, SES will deliver Sky UK’s channels in a mix of SD, HD and Ultra HD from the 28.2/28.5 degrees East orbital slots to the operator’s subscribers in the UK and Ireland.
Commenting on the development, Steve Collar, CEO at SES, said: “This is a significant, multi-transponder, multi-year renewal founded on SES’s decades of delivering a flawless and immersive TV viewing experience to Sky UK customers. It also underlines the continued and rising importance of satellites in delivering a premium content-viewing experience to end customers virtually everywhere”.
The news comes as SES reported its latest set of results. These show that the company’s total video revenues in 2020 amounted to €1,108 million, an 8.3% reduction on a year earlier. Video accounted for 59% of revenues, as opposed to 62% in 2019. As of December 31, 2020, SES carried a total of 8,265 TV channels to over 365 million TV homes around the world including 2,981 channels in HD and Ultra HD. Over two thirds (69%) of the total TV channels were broadcast in MPEG-4 with an additional 4% in HEVC.
SES had total revenues of €1,876 million in 2020, down from €1,984 million a year earlier. EBITDA was €1.079 million (€1,217 million) and its net loss of €86 million contrasted with a net profit of €296 million in 2019.
