HDTV rollout and a steady stream of contract wins and renewals pr...

running more than 10 percent ahead of the year-earlier figure, the resilience of SES’s business in the challenging economic landscape is clear, he said. Transponder capacity use rose to 80.5 percent from 79.6, and on June 30, there were 886 transponders in use, compared with 855 at the end of 2008, he said. Contract renewals contributed to the strong showing, he said. British Sky Broadcasting renewed long- term leases on 24 of its 31 transponders, MTV took additional capacity for HD programming, and Germany’s Premiere leased an additional 1.5 transponders to boost its HD lineup, he said. SES has 156 HD channels on the air, divided evenly between Europe and the U.S., and growth will be based on fast rollout of additional HD offerings, he said. Nine satellites are being built, one to launch this year, four to be launched in 2010 and three in 2011, with a ground spare, he said. They will add 204 transponders and increase capacity 19 percent, he said. Performance on the services side of the business was “lackluster,” and most of the growth came from infrastructure, said Chief Financial Officer Mark Rigolle. In April, SES and Eutelsat launched the S-band payload of the Solaris Mobile joint venture for mobile services by satellite in Europe, Bausch said. It went into orbit, but during testing significant shortcomings in relation to the original technical specifications were confirmed. Eutelsat filed an insurance claim for the full value of the payload, he said. Still, the companies can meet their commitment to the EU by using the current payload to offer some of the planned services and continuing to develop their business to ensure that all EU countries are covered by 2012, Bausch said. SES and Eutelsat are considering whether to deploy S-band on other satellites or to dedicate an S-band satellite to meet the requirements, he said. A decision, he said, is expected this year. Bausch was asked whether SES would take advantage of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week by ProtoStar Ltd., which leases capacity to DTH and broadband services in Asia. The group constantly looks at other operators’ satellites to see whether they can help increase SES’s business, he responded. The company is looking to expand in the Asian market where ProtoStar was supposed to work, and it’s considering whether to invest in a satellite of its own or take advantage of existing opportunities, he said.