MediaScape adds satellite capacity for Cignal TV in the Philippines

SES Extends Partnership with MediaScape via Multi-Year Capacity Deal to Ramp up Cignal TV’s DTH Offering; Furthers growth of Cignal, the fastest growing satellite TV provider in the Philippines

SINGAPORE — SES S.A. (Paris:SESG)(LuxX:SESG) announced at CommunicAsia2012 a new multi-year agreement with one of its largest customers in the Philippines, MediaScape Inc, to provide additional capacity on the SES-7 satellite at the prime orbital location of 108.2 degrees East. With this capacity expansion MediaScape will utilise transponders on both SES-7 and NSS-11, satellites that are co-located at the same orbital location.

The additional satellite capacity will initially enable MediaScape to ramp up Cignal TV’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) offering to 15 High Definition (HD) channels and 51 Standard Definition (SD) channels, up from 9 HD channels and 37 SD channels in 2011. Cignal, the largest and fastest growing satellite TV provider in the Philippines, currently serves over 250,000 subscribers across the country.

Deepak Mathur, Senior Vice President Commercial, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at SES, said: “SES’ decision to build up the DTH neighbourhood at 108.2 degrees East with SES-7 and NSS-11 underscores our commitment to the Asia-Pacific region, and further strengthens our partnership with MediaScape. We are delighted to be able to provide MediaScape with the capacity they need to help realise their goal of changing the Philippines’ media landscape by providing households with a full digital experience.”

Annie Naval, COO and Managing Director of Cignal, said: “The new deal will allow us to grow new TV audiences throughout the Philippines, enabling millions of TV households to access high quality satellite TV. We are also benefitting from SES’ global expertise in carrying High Definition TV programmes as we expand Cignal HD’s lineup, which now offers a wide variety of premium programmes covering sports, lifestyle, kids, history and movies.”