SES announced the results of its satellite monitor market research in a comprehensive survey that tracks satellite TV’s reach across a wide range of global regions and industry metrics.  The research revealed that SES now delivers more than 8,000 channels to 369 million TV homes worldwide, an increase of three million over the previous year, affirming SES’s position as a leading content connectivity provider in the media industry. SES is now in its 29th year of existence and has established itself as a benchmark for leading market research institutions for the analysis of market dynamics((TV reception, resolution, devices, etc.), reach (by country, orbital position and reception mode) and social demographics.

Most of its growth was attributed to Africa, with an increase of over 3 million and an over 6.3 million increase in Europe; simultaneously, stabilisation was recorded in Latin America and Asia Pacific. Overall, the reach of satellite monitors in Africa was 49.5 million. Africa follows North America and Europe, which reach 53.2 million and 175.8 million, respectively.

The market research arrived at several insights, which include;

• While Video on Demand continues to attract viewers, Free to Air TV proves to be growing globally. 
• As fibre connectivity expands globally, IPTV continues to grow as a TV reception method, taking a share of traditional cable TV.  
• In Africa, satellite continues to drive an increase in direct-to-home (DTH) TV homes as an easily scalable and cost-effective method of TV reception. In Ethiopia, SES has gained 90% penetration of TV homes through its partner Ethiosat. 

Commenting on the market research results, Norbert Hölzle, Global Head of Media at SES, spoke about how the company has collected data for years and analysed market dynamics in video delivery and consumption trends. Hölzle said that the rationale behind this market research was to add value through making informed decisions from data.