....and lead the European sales team. In the position of the Senior Vice President Commercial Europe of SES, Norbert will continue to be responsible for SES’ key markets in Western and Central Europe, the Nordic and Baltics, Eastern and Southern Europe as well as Russia, the countries South of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. Ferenc Szelényi has agreed with SES to leave the company and pursue other professional objectives. Ferdinand Kayser, Chief Commercial Officer of SES, said, “We are delighted that Norbert will continue to lead our important European markets. Since Norbert joined SES in 2009, he has been instrumental for the development and growth of the company in Europe. We thank Ferenc for his contribution to SES and wish him all the best for his future career.”
Also revealed by SES is that, for the first time in the history of television in Germany, more viewers are watching TV via satellite than via cable. At the end of 2011, 17.5 million households were watching TV via satellite, almost 900,000 more than in the previous year. Ninety percent of these households were digital, leaving 1.8 million households still in the analogue reception mode. Out of the total, 5.9 million of all satellite households were watching HDTV. At the same time, cable lost about 900,000 households in 2011 and reducing the reach of cable TV to 17.3 million. Digital terrestrial TV lost 180,000 households, bringing its coverage down to 1.8 million. IPTV has continued to grow; with an increase of 330,000 households, IPTV exceeded the million mark, reaching 1.3 million.
These are the results of the latest TV Monitor, which SES presents every year and which is carried out by the market research company TNS Infratest. For the study, TNS conducted 6,000 interviews across Germany in November and December 2011. The figures are showing the primary reception mode of TV households. The European reach study will be presented in March. SES owns and operates the ASTRA satellites. The number of German satellite households still watching analog TV dropped by 1.2 million between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 to reach a figure of 1.8 million. The switch-over gained considerable momentum during the course of the year. In the first half of 2011, the number of analog satellite households dropped by more than 400,000, while in the second half nearly 800,000 made the switch to digital. The remaining homes today have nearly three months left to make the move to digital satellite TV. The research found that 85 percent of households are aware that the shutdown will occur on April 2012.