HD Plus passes one million paying customers

Satellite operator SES’s HD Plus platform for the German market now has over one million paying households, the company has said.

According to SES, the platforom more than doubled the number of paying customers, from 404,123 to 944,993. HD Plus expects a growth rate of 25% for paying customers in 2013.

At the end of last year, HD Plus reached 2.87 million households that either pay for the technical service or are in the free test phase. This represents an increase of 570,000 households compared to the previous year, up 25%. The number of households in the free trial period increased to 1.92 million at the end of 2012.

HD Plus makes 15 free channels available in HD quality via the Astra satellite system, with an annual service charge of €50, while customers with an HD Plus set-top can receive another 22 channels at no extra charge.

“In less than 40 months, HD Plus has developed from a start-up into an important factor in the German television market,” said Wilfried Urner, managing director of the HD Plus affiliate. “HD Plus will continue to be a strong driver of HDTV content in Germany. We will continue to develop the HD Plus offer with new products like HD Plus RePlay, which gives access to the media libraries of commercial broadcasters.”