SES SIRIUS, an SES ASTRA company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), has significantly increased its reach in the Baltic countries.

Out of a total 2.81 million TV homes in the Baltic countries, SIRIUS serves 230 000 satellite households and 1.41 Million cable households (all cable households). This is an increase from last year of 62 percent. The satellite operator gained 80,000 digital satellite households in 2008 in the Baltic countries, reaching into a total of 230,000 digital satellite homes. Today, 50 percent of the 243 million TV homes in Europe receive programs digitally. Overall, satellite — including other operators — has once again proven to be a main driver of digitalization, providing more than a quarter of all TV households, or 52 percent, of all digital households with digital TV signals. The digitalization rate of satellite, as an infrastructure, is three times higher (89 percent) than that of cable networks (27 percent).

These are the results of the latest SES ASTRA Satellite Monitor, conducted annually in 35 European and North African countries and based on more than 65,000 face-to-face and telephone interviews. The methodology and the results are controlled by independent institutes and accepted by regulatory bodies in various countries as objective market measurements.