Russia's Leading Satellite TV Neighbourhood at 36° East Reaches Record Audience and Prepares for New Growth

MOSCOW and PARIS, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

RSCC (the Russian Satellite Communications Company) and Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) today announced that Astrium has been selected to build the Express-AMU1/EUTELSAT 36C satellite that will be launched in 2015 to provide follow-on and expansion capacity for the EUTELSAT 36A broadcast satellite operating at 36° East.

Express-AMU1/EUTELSAT 36C will be a state-of-the-art high-capacity satellite with up to 70 transponders. It will provide coverage for broadcast services in the European part of the Russian Federation in Ku and Ka bands, and ensure service continuity and growth for broadcast markets developed by Eutelsat in sub-Saharan Africa. Its dual-band design is set to transform the broadcasting infrastructure at 36° East into a broader system to support more television services and IP-based interactive services to accompany the development of Russia's digital entertainment market.

24% of Russian homes equipped for satellite TV reception

The latest results of the survey^[1] produced by Eutelsat and Ipsos on TV reception modes and trends in Russia underscore the exceptional dynamic of its satellite broadcasting market and the stellar growth of homes watching channels broadcast from the longstanding 36° East neighbourhood. Of the 53 million TV homes in Russia, 24% are equipped for Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite reception, making satellite the country's leading platform for digital television. The number of satellite homes across Russia maintains a strong dynamic, increasing by 25% over two years from eight million to 12.6 million. Ten per cent of these homes receive signals from more than one satellite position, taking the total number of antennas to 13.8 million.

Strong channel and audience momentum at 36° East neighbourhood

Within this universe, the number of homes equipped for DTH reception from 36° East has increased over 24 months to 10.7 million from 6.7 million, reflecting the high level of demand for the TricolorTV platform and the success of NTV+. Over the same period, the volume of Russian channels broadcasting from 36° East has jumped to over 370 from 250. Meanwhile, the number of homes in Russia receiving international and Russian channels broadcast by Eutelsat's HOT BIRD satellites also continues to grow, reaching a new record of 1.7 million, up from 1.3 million two years before.

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1. Study conducted in collaboration with Ipsos from August to September 2012 via face-to-face interviews.

In the words of Yuri Prokhorov, RSCC Director general: "The 36 degrees East orbital slot serves as an excellent example of successful and mutually beneficial Russian-French cooperation. We are happy that our partnership with Eutelsat is taking another step forward. The upcoming Express AMU-1 satellite will afford fresh opportunities for digital multi-programme broadcasting projects in European Russia. DTH users will gain access to high-quality state-of-the-art TV including HD and 3D TV, as well as to modern communications and interactive services."

Eutelsat CEO, Michel de Rosen, said: "Driven by NTV+ and TricolorTV's new HD offer, this trajectory of stellar growth has continued since our findings, further consolidating 36° East as the place to be in Russia's vibrant digital broadcast market. Our objective now with RSCC is to take this leading video neighbourhood to the next level with the procurement of a new satellite from Astrium designed to support increasing demand and a new generation of interactive services."

Meet Eutelsat and RSCC at Sviaz/Expocomm in Moscow from May 14-17.

About RSCC

The Russian Satellite Communication Company (RSCC) is the Russian state satellite operator whose spacecraft provide a global coverage. RSCC was founded in 1967 and belongs to the ten largest world satellite operators in terms of satellites and orbital slots. The company possesses the largest satellite constellation in Russia located in the geostationary orbital arc from 14 West to 140 East and cover the whole territory of Russia, the CIS, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific region, North and South America, and Australia. The company includes five teleports - Satellite Communications Centers (SCC): Dubna, Bear Lakes, Skolkovo, Zheleznogorsk, Khabarovsk and the Shabolovka Technical Center in Moscow as well as its own high-speed optical-fiber digital network. As the national satellite operator RSCC meets the important state tasks on providing mobile presidential and governmental communications, federal TV & Radio signal transmission over the territory of Russia and the most countries of the world. The company pays serious attention to implementing national projects. RSCC closely interacts with the Russian state authorities in the field of informational and telecommunications and broadcast systems development. RSCC provides a full range of communications and broadcasting services using its own terrestrial engineering facilities and satellite constellation including up-to-date spacecraft of Express-AM and Express-A series, Express-MD1, Bonum-1, and a part of the EUTELSAT 36A (W4) satellite capacity. The company's satellites offer wide opportunities to establish TV & Radio broadcasting inclusive DTH, IPTV, MPEG-4 services, broadband Internet access, data transmission, videoconferencing, VSAT network deployment, departmental and corporative communications networks worldwide. The company has its own satellite TT&C system. At present, RSCC controls and monitors the Eutelsat, Intelsat, etc. satellites using its engineering facilities. http://www.rscc.ru

Media Relations:  [email protected]

About Eutelsat Communications  (http://www.eutelsat.com)

Eutelsat Communications is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A. With capacity commercialised on 31 satellites delivering reach of  Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, significant parts of the Americas and the Asia-Pacific, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is one of the world's leading satellite operators. As of 31 March 2013, Eutelsat's satellites were broadcasting more than 4,600 television channels to over 200 million cable and satellite homes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Group's satellites also provide a wide range of services for TV contribution, corporate networks and fixed and mobile broadband markets. Headquartered in Paris, Eutelsat and its subsidiaries employ over 780 commercial, technical and operational professionals from 30 countries.

SOURCE Eutelsat Communications & RSCC