Satellite TV Reception in Europe, North Africa and Middle East Shows Continued Strong Take-up: Double-Digit Growth in 24 Months

Satellite TV Reception in Europe, North Africa and Middle East Shows Continued Strong Take-up: Double-Digit Growth in 24 Months

Eutelsat Releases Key Highlights of its Two-Yearly Survey of Satellite and Cable Homes

PARIS, September 15, 2010/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Unless otherwise stated all comparisons are made against the previous
study conducted in spring 2008 covering a period of two-years

Key highlights of Eutelsat's 2010 survey

Overall satellite and cable universe

- Satellite and cable TV reception in Europe, North Africa and
the Middle East up by 8.8% to 210.7 million homes, compared to 193.7
million homes in 2008.

- Growth is driven by satellite reception (DTH/SMATV), which
expanded almost two times faster, by 16% to 129.3 million homes, from
111.5 million in 2008.

- Satellite pay-TV continues to gain traction, growing by 22.7% to
51.4 million homes and underlining the increasing strength of satellite
platforms operating in Eutelsat's footprint.

Eutelsat reaffirms pole position in Europe, Middle East and North Africa

- Satellite and cable homes receiving channels from a Eutelsat
satellite break the barrier of 200 million, to 204 million.

- More than 9 satellite and cable homes out of 10 receive
channels broadcast by Eutelsat.

- 107 million satellite homes receive channels via Eutelsat,
reaffirming the strength of the Group's video orbital positions serving
Europe, Middle East, North Africa.

Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) one of the
world's largest satellite operators and the leading supplier of capacity for
television and radio broadcasting in Europe, the Middle East and North
Africa, today announced the key highlights of its two-yearly survey of
television reception by satellite and cable homes.

Set up in 1994 and covering Europe, North Africa and the
Middle East, the key objective of the survey is to measure the trends of
three main indicators in the broadcasting market:

- Type of reception by TV homes (satellite, cable, IPTV,
terrestrial);
- Ratio of analogue to digital;
- Market share of free-to-air (FTA) and pay-TV.

The survey also monitors the number of antennas pointing
towards Eutelsat satellites, which overall broadcast over 3 600 television
channels and interactive services.

The fieldwork was carried out between January and April 2010
in 32 countries representing 89% of TV households in the 46 countries covered
by the study. More than 41,000 face-to-face interviews took place using a
single questionnaire shared by leading market research institutes: TNS, Ipsos
and GfK.

Main results

- Satellite and cable and homes have increased to 210.7 million, up
from 193.7 million in 2008. With 8.8% growth over two years, satellite
and cable homes account for 58.4% of the total 360.5 million TV homes
covered in the survey (up from 54.6% in 2008).

- Satellite and cable homes in Central and Eastern Europe,
North Africa and the Middle East continue to show double-digit growth,
progressing in Central and Eastern Europe by 16.7% and in North Africa
and the Middle East by 15.3%.

- 58.9% of TV homes in Western Europe are satellite or cable
homes (stable from 2008). The figures in Central and Eastern Europe are
50.9% (up from 43.6% in 2008), while North Africa and the Middle East
also increased, to 69.2% compared to 61.9% in 2008.

Satellite reception continues to drive growth

(See Table 1 and 2 in Annex)

- Of the 210.7 million satellite and cable homes, satellite
reception, with 129.3 million homes, is the growth driver, accounting
for 61.4% of the total base against 85.2 million cable homes. Satellite
reception has progressed over two years by 16% from 111.5 million homes
in 2008 while cable penetration decreased by 1.8% to 85.2 million homes
from 86.8 million in 2008,

- While Western Europe, as a more established market for
satellite reception posted a 5.8% growth rate, double digit growth was
recorded in other regions, notably North Africa and the Middle East
which saw 16% growth in satellite reception to 48.7 million homes from
42 million, and especially Eastern Europe where it climbed by 44% to
26.2 million homes from 18.2 million.

- The 1.8% decrease in cable homes is mainly the result of the
development of IPTV in Western Europe (principally France) and also in
Eastern Europe.

IPTV

- IPTV homes have grown by 25.6% to 11.3 million, up from 9
million. This increase was at the expense of cable homes (which
decreased by 1.8%) and also of terrestrial TV homes (which decreased
by 8.7% to 138.5 million from 151.7 million) despite DTT deployment in
Western European countries.

- After initial rapid take up between 2006 and 2008, the pace
of IPTV growth decreased between 2008 and 2010 (11.9% CAGR).

Of the 210.7 million satellite and cable homes in the
footprint surveyed, only 31.9% (67.2 million homes) are still equipped for
analogue reception compared with 79.6 million in 2008.

- Satellite analogue reception has been steadily decreasing to
6.2 million homes in 2010 from 10.8 million in 2008. Germany, France
and Austria account for the majority of the remaining analogue universe.

- This reduction reflects the natural transition to digital
platforms and the deployment of ad hoc DTT over satellite platforms
(eg. France with the FRANSAT platform).

- Although analogue cable reception maintains its majority
market share, serving 71.7% (or 61 million) of the 85.2 million homes
in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, it continues to decrease
in favour of digital cable (analogue market share was 86% in 2008).

Satellite pay-TV grows by 22.7%

(See Table 3 and 4 in Annex)

- Of the 129.3 million satellite homes, 51.4 million (39.7%)
subscribe to digital pay-TV, up from 41.9 million in 2008.

- In Eastern Europe in particular, pay-TV satellite reception
has increased by 63.5% (from 10.7 million homes in 2008 to 17.5 million
in 2010), as a result of new platform launches and the previously
limited installed base of pay-TV homes. Growth has in particular been
fuelled by strong performance of the Russian and Polish markets.

- Poland's satellite pay-TV market, which expanded to 6.1
million homes from 4.7 million, represents 34.8% of homes in Central
and Eastern Europe.

- The Russian satellite pay-TV market more than doubled, from
two million homes in 2008 to 4.7 million in 2010, representing 26.8%
of the satellite pay TV market in the region.

Digital free-to-air (FTA) reception increased by 22.1%,
reaching a total audience of 71.7 million homes, from 58.7 million in 2008.

- In Western Europe, digital FTA increased by 36.6% to 22.4
million homes.

- In Central and Eastern Europe, FTA increased by 29.8% to 8.7
million homes.

- In North Africa and the Middle East, FTA increased by 14% to
40.6 million homes, accounting for 83% of satellite TV reception.

Eutelsat in pole position

With 204 million satellite and cable homes now receiving
channels via Eutelsat, up from 190 million in 2008, the combined penetration
of its fleet stands at more than 9 out of 10 homes in the countries covered
by the survey.

Highlights of Eutelsat video positions include:

- W4 and W7, that serve Russia and the Ukraine from 36 degrees E.
Their satellite audience has experienced spectacular growth, more than
doubling to 8.1 million homes from 3.7 million in 2008.

- The 16 degrees E position, addressing Central and Eastern Europe
via SESAT 1, W2M and EUROBIRD(TM) 16, increased its satellite audience
by 17.9%, to 2.9 million from 2.5 million homes in 2008.

- EUROBIRD(TM) 9A, which went into service in early 2009 at
9 degrees E, whose audience has rapidly climbed to an installed base of
five million homes (of which 3.7 million cable and 1.3 million
satellite).

- ATLANTIC BIRD(TM) 4A at 7 degrees W whose audience in its main
market of North Africa and the Middle East progressed by 11.3% to 27.1
million homes, from 24.3 million in 2008.

- The satellite and cable audience of the HOT BIRD(TM)
satellites remained overall stable, with an audience of 122 million
homes, reaffirming its rank as the leading video position in Europe,
North Africa and the Middle East.

- 107 million homes receive satellite services via a Eutelsat
satellite (up from 97.9 million) further consolidating Eutelsat's pole
position for satellite reception in Europe, the Middle East and North
Africa.

Annexes

To view the annexes and graphs please click on this link to view the full
press release:-

http://www.eutelsat.com/news/compress/en/2010/pdf/PR%204010%20cabsat%20re
sults.pdf

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste
this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)

Notes:

"Satellite" refers to homes equipped for direct or community
(SMATV: see note below) reception.

"Cable" refers to homes receiving channels distributed by
satellite to a cable network.

"Cable/satellite homes" covers both user populations, i.e. all
homes receiving channels over satellite, either through satellite or cable.

SMATV (Satellite Master Antenna Television) refers to a
collective antenna shared by several homes.

About Eutelsat Communications

Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code:
FR0010221234) is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A.. With capacity
commercialised on 26 satellites that provide coverage over the entire
European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant
parts of Asia and the Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world's three leading
satellite operators in terms of revenues. At 30 June 2010, Eutelsat's
satellites were broadcasting more than 3,600 television channels. More than
1,100 channels broadcast via its HOT BIRD(TM) video neighbourhood at 13
degrees East which serves over 120 million cable and satellite homes in
Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Group's satellites also serve a
wide range of fixed and mobile telecommunications services, TV contribution
markets, corporate networks, and broadband markets for Internet Service
Providers and for transport, maritime and in-flight markets. Eutelsat's
broadband subsidiary, Skylogic, markets and operates access to high speed
internet services through teleports in France and Italy that serve
enterprises, local communities, government agencies and aid organisations in
Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Headquartered in Paris, Eutelsat and
its subsidiaries employ nearly 661 commercial, technical and operational
employees from 28 countries.

http://www.eutelsat.com

Source: Eutelsat Communications

For further information, Press, Vanessa O'Connor, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-37-91, voconnor@eutelsat.fr; Frederique Gautier, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-37-91, fgautier@eutelsat.fr; Investors & Analysts, Lisa Sanders Finas, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-35-30, investors@eutelsat-communications.com

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