The number of TV homes reached by the Astra platform increased by 3.39 million to reach a total of 78 million in 1999, according to figures released by Astra operator SES. DTH reception was boosted by 1.74 million to 28.25 million, representing an annual increase of 6.6 per cent. The number of Astra-fed cabled homes increased by 3.4 per cent (or 1.65 million) to reach 49.68 million.

SES also reported that for the first time, the majority of TV households in Europe received TV via satellite, directly or indirectly: 50.9 per cent of the 167.64 million households in the 22 countries covered by SES Satellite Monitors.

Germany, a country targeted by SES in a concerted head to head battle with Eutelsat as the closure of analogue services aimed at the UK frees up capacity (see lead story), saw the biggest increase in DTH reception – 520,000 homes. This was followed by France (410,000), the UK (270,000) and Italy (270,000).

SES reported that the Astra digital pay-TV audience almost doubled to 4.78 million over the year, and now accounted for about 70.5 per cent of the overall digital satellite pay-TV market in Europe. The conversion of analogue subs in the UK led the way, with SES counting 1.6 million new digital subs over the year, followed by France with an additional 400,000.

The DTH/SMATV audience of all satellite systems increased by 8.9 per cent to 33.91 million, according to SES, while cable grew by 3.6 per cent to 51.45 million. The number of homes that received signals principally through terrestrial distribution fell by 4.2 per cent.

SES found that the digital space thus far has been dominated by satellite, which accounts for 81 per cent of the overall European digital market, with cable accounting for 11.6 per cent.

SES claimed that a high proportion of Astra digital homes (51.9 per cent) owned a PC, with 28.5 per cent having some form of online access.

In the UK, SES’ survey confirmed the success of Sky Digital, with a net increase in 1.68 million digital households over the year to take the total to 2.15 million. SES said that this number included about 110,000 digital households that received only free to air signals from the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C. Overall in the UK, SES claimed a 97.6 per cent market share of 4.83 million homes receiving DTH/SMATV signals (the latter representing 20 per cent of all UK TV households). The number of households receiving satellite signals via cable systems increased by 14.1 per cent over the year, according to SES, to end with 3.09 million homes. SES said that the number of homes intending certainly or probably to acquire satellite receivers increased over the year, from 630,000 to 850,000. SES also reported that over half of its UK digital satellite base owned a PC.

Meanwhile, investment analysts at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter have issue a “strong buy” note on SES, citing better than expected end-of-year results. “In effect” says the Morgan Stanley report, “the company currently has no spare capacity: all 12- transponders are full at the 19.2 degrees East position, as are those at the 28.2 degrees slot.” SES is due to launch Astra 2B from Kourou on May 23 giving it extra in-orbit capacity for new channels and more bandwidth for Open…. Morgan Stanley, as a consequence, has raised its financial expectations “slightly” for SES, because 1999 operating profits of Euro 407 million were “much better” than their forecast Euro 345 million.The figures also suggest that AstraNet revenues are beginning to grow, with a four-fold revenue increase expected this year.