SES revenues boosted by RR Media acquisition and HDTV migration

Satellite operator SES’s video revenues for 2016 were boosted by the acquisition of RR Media and its merger with SES Platform Services to create MX1 last year, along , with reported video segment sales growing 4.7% to reach €1.399 billion.

The number of HD channels delivered by SES grew by 7.2% to 2,495, with UHD TV now available via 21 commercial channels on SES satellites.

HDTV channels now represent 33.1% of SES’s total TV channel count.

In Europe, SES’s HDTV channel count grew by nearly 100 channels, or 14%, with the benefit of new contracts and capacity renewals with a range of pay TV operators and free-to-air broadcasters.

European HDTV penetration grew from 26% in December 2015 to 29% in December 2016.

Overall, SES was nudged into positive revenue growth territory last year by the acquisition of RR Media and O3b Networks, posting a 2.7% rise to €2.069 billion. Excluding these acquisitions, revenues fell by 2.7%. Net profit jumped from €545 million to €963 million for the year.

Enterprise revenues declined significantly, due to lower revenue derived from wholesale capacity contracted to small and medium-sized resellers for point-to-point

Applications. Government revenues were also down, but mobile revenues were up.

SES’s contract backlog increased to €8.1 billion, up from €7.4 billion in 2015.

“2016 was a year of acceleration for SES. We continued to execute our strategy of building differentiated capabilities in the four market verticals. This contributed to delivering 2.7% growth in reported revenue and SES’s highest ever contract backlog,” said Karim Michel Sabbagh, president and CEO.