SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) has disclosed that HD+ had exceeded the two million subscriber mark as of December 31, 2016, with some 2,111,862 satTV subscribers.
That's 15 percent more than in 2015 (December 31, 2015: 1,840,800). In addition to paying customers, there are currently 850,000 households in the free HD+ test phase. In total, there are, therefore, currently almost three million households using HD+.
On March 29, the digital terrestrial network in Germany will be switched from the DVB-T transmission standard to the new DVB-T2 technology, which includes a switch to a new encoding standard (HEVC). DVB-T households will then require new hardware. For many TV households, the combination of satellite reception and HD+ offers an attractive alternative: 300 programs all over Germany, more than 50 in HD, and 23 via satellite exclusively with HD+. DVB-T2, which charges a fee for private programs, is limited to 40 channels, in many regions even fewer in number.
Wilfried Urner, Chairman of the Management Board of HD PLUS, commented that 2016 was a great year for HD+, cracking the two million subscriber mark and growing even stronger than in the previous year. This momentum confirms that HD+ is now a real force in the German TV landscape. More and more people in Germany are willing to pay for a better television experience, whether in terms of content choice or picture quality. HD+, as one of the pioneers of HDTV, is benefiting from this trend. HD+ will be banking on further stimulus through the rising trend in Ultra-HD and the switch over of the current digital terrestrial television DVB-T to DVB-T2.
