Forthnet Group Signs New Contracts With Eutelsat to Launch Triple Play Services

Forthnet Group Signs New Contracts With Eutelsat to Launch Triple Play Services

Forthnet Group to Bundle NOVA pay-TV Services With Eutelsat's Tooway(TM) Satellite Broadband Solution

PARIS and ATHENS, Greece, August 24, 2011/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

Forthnet Group, Greece's leading private broadband and pay-TV service
provider (under the NOVA brand name), today announced the expansion of its
longstanding commercial relationship with Eutelsat Communications (Euronext
Paris: ETL).

A five-year distribution agreement enabling Forthnet Group to market the
new-generation Tooway(TM) broadband service to users across Greece and
Cyprus has been signed with Skylogic, Eutelsat's broadband affiliate.
Tooway(TM) is provided by Eutelsat's powerful KA-SAT High Throughput
Satellite, a new wireless broadband infrastructure for Europe.

Eutelsat and Forthnet Group have in parallel entered into a broader
commercial agreement to ensure future satellite capacity for NOVA at
Eutelsat's flagship HOT BIRD(TM) video neighbourhood in order to launch new
premium services and accelerate the acquisition of pay-TV subscribers.

With these new contracts, Forthnet Group will be the first operator in
Europe to bundle the Tooway(TM) broadband service with its pay-TV portfolio
in order to offer users triple-play services through a single satellite dish
and a single subscription. Satellite broadband, with download speeds of up
to 10 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 4 Mbps, together with VOIP will start
to be commercialised in Q4 2011 and offered in combination with NOVA pay-TV.
The full service will be delivered via Tooway(TM) antennas equipped with a
dual-feed in order to access broadband from the KA-SAT satellite and NOVA
from the HOT BIRD(TM) satellites.

Yiannis Kavaklis, Forthnet Group's Chief Commercial Officer, commented:
"We are particularly satisfied withthe extension of the cooperation of
Forthnet Group with Eutelsat Communications. It concerns an agreement that
enables us to extend the reach of our broadband and combined broadband and
Pay-TV offering to all Greek households, regardless of their geographical
location.The combination of premium content offered by NOVA Pay-TV with
broadband through Eutelsat's specialised High Throughput Satellite is in
line with our strategy to offer affordable, easy to use and quality services
to Greek households. Covering unserved areas also presents the Group with
the commercial opportunity to extend its broadband customer base beyond its
fixed line coverage.

This agreement also allows us to complement our Pay-TV offering in
Cyprus with high-speed broadband services, offering a complete solution to
the dynamic Cypriot market."

Andrew Wallace, Eutelsat's Chief Commercial Officer, added: "These new
agreements with Forthnet Group underline our commitment to providing clients
with a range of state-of-the-art and complementary services that equip them
to retain, broaden and diversify their subscriber base. By bundling pay-TV
services from our HOT BIRD(TM) neighbourhood with the Tooway(TM) broadband
service from KA-SAT, Forthnet is leveraging an exceptional opportunity to
offer users simple and immediate access to premium programming and Internet
access in one package. This is an exciting strategic development that we
look forward to sharing with Forthnet so that users beyond terrestrial
infrastructure have viewing choice and access to the benefits of broadband."

According to a public consultation for the report "White Areas of Greece
for 2011" published by the Ministry of Regional Development and
Competitiveness for the Digital Agenda, Greece represents a significant
market opportunity for satellite broadband. Despite deployment of
terrestrial broadband, there are still more than 800,000 unserved citizens
in Greece, which ranks 23rd of the EU27 member states in terms of broadband
penetration.

About Forthnet Group

Forthnet Group is the leading private broadband and digital pay-TV
service provider in Greece and Cyprus, offering services under Forthnet
brand name for Broadband, and Nova for Pay TV services. Forthnet group is
characterized by innovation as Internet, ULL, pay-TV and HD services were
introduced in the country by the group. Forthnet Group serves over 765.000
households (~18% of Greek households) with 120.000 of them receiving 3play
services and more than 20.000 SMEs over an extended retail chain of 135
Forthnet Stores. Forthnet is listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.

http://www.forthnet.gr, http://www.nova.gr

About Eutelsat Communications

Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234)
is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A.. With capacity commercialised on 27
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 2011, Eutelsat's satellites were
broadcasting more than 3,800 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 just over 700 commercial, technical and operational employees from 30
countries.

http://www.eutelsat.com, http://www.tooway.com

Source: EUTELSAT and FORTHNET

For further information: Press: Vanessa O'Connor, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-37-91, voconnor@eutelsat.fr; Frédérique Gautier, Tel. : + 33-1-53-98-37-91, fgautier@eutelsat.fr; Analysts and Investors: Lisa Finas, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-35-30, investors@eutelsat-communications.com; Léonard Wapler, Tel. : +33-1-53-98-31-07, investors@eutelsat-communications.com

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