SES hits headwinds in first half year with video business
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Editor
| 28 July 2019

The challenging video environment that satellite operators have face over the last year has persisted and leading operator SES has revealed how tough the beginning of 2019 has been.

The company reported revenue of €961.4 million, down 5.1% at constant FX, while underlying revenue fell 4.2% compared with H1 2018 to €950.6 million. The video business underlying revenue tumbled down 8.8% while the networks division rose 5.0%. The company generated an EBITDA of €584.5 million.

The company attributed the continued video falls at constant FX to lower video distribution revenue, down 8.7% on an annual basis, including the North American wholesale business, and lower video services revenue which sank by 9.4% due mainly to the non-renewal of low-margin ‘legacy’ services in the MX1 broadcast service line.

Undeterred by the video losses, SES president and CEO, Steve Collar argued that during the half year the company had actually delivered value.

He said: “We’ve had a solid first six months with financial results in line with our expectations...While the market environment in video remains challenging, we’ve delivered value to customers across our core neighbourhoods and are starting to see benefits of bringing together our infrastructure and MX1 businesses into a single operational unit. In the period, we signed further renewals in our core neighbourhoods; grew our video platforms with new customers in Ethiopia, Brazil and Ivory Coast; expanded our managed services relationship with Discovery in Germany; and MX1’s Sports and Events team were instrumental in bringing the Women’s World Cup and Eurovision Song Contest to viewers across our neighbourhoods.”

SES added that relative to H1 2019, its second half revenue would benefit from growth in International and MX1 services, and that the sports and events business is expected to contribute to the run rate in video in the second half.