[Satellite TODAY Insider10-28-10] The HD broadcasting market has been healthy for Luxembourg-based operator SES, helping push the satellite operator’s 2010 third quarter EBITDA 12.4 percent over its 2009 third quarter results to 328.8 million euros ($453 million) and revenues up 11.4 percent to 442.3 million euros ($609 million), the SES announced Oct. 27.
    SES CEO Romain Bausch said his company’s third quarter performance was in line with expectations and its 2010 forecast revenue projections will remain at a 4 percent to 5 percent increase.
    “SES continues to make steady progress, building on the newly launched incremental capacity on the NSS-12 and Astra 3B satellites covering the Indian Ocean Region and Middle East, respectively. SES-7 (formerly ProtoStar-2) has been fully integrated into our fleet, and we have begun selling the Ku-band capacity into the Asian market. In addition, HDTV remains a significant growth driver, with 291 HD channels broadcast on SES satellites at the end of the quarter, and interest in 3-D TV continues to build,” Bausch said in a statement.
    SES also confirmed that it has agreed to sell a 75.1 percent interest in ND SatCom to Astrium Services. The transaction, announced Oct. 25, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011. SES Astra purchased an 81 million euro ($112 million) stake in ND Satcom in 2009 and will maintain a 24.9 percent minority share in the equipment provider after the transaction is completed.
    Separately, SES Astra announced that the German entertainment channel RTL2 will launch in HD quality on the operator’s HD-Plus platform in early December.
    RTL2 HD is the seventh private free-TV-channel to broadcast on HD-Plus since the platform’s launch in November 2009. SES said the platform has been growing at an exceptional rate, with more than 1.2 million smart cards delivered to manufacturers and more than 300,000 HD-Plus set-top boxes sold.
    SES Astra expects to be carrying a total of at least 200 channels by the end of 2011.

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