TS News - SES Says Astra Booming In UK

• from: owner-ts-news@tele-satellite.com
• Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 15:12:05 +0900

TELE-satellit News, 19 September 1997

SES Says Astra Booming In UK
  BETZDORF, Luxembourg, 97/09/19 (TS) -- Societe Europeanne des Satellites
(SES), owners of the Astra satellites that carry almost all of the UK's
direct to home satellite TV, have announced the latest statistics regarding
the system in the UK. They say almost half a million new Astra homes
(450,000) were added during the first six months of the year in the UK and
Eire, making a total of 6.53 million households now able to receive the
satellite via a dish or cable.

  The figures also show that Astra is Britain's favourite satellite system,
claim SES, with 97.5% of all multi-channel households receiving its
channels. Nearly 1 million families (980,000) who can't yet receive Astra
say that they intend to buy a dish - that is 100,000 more than a year ago,
according to the company. It also said, replacement sales are booming, too.
Up to 1.32 million families have replaced all or part of their reception
equipment since it was originally bought and that trend is expected to
continue.

  The latest figures show that 74% of Astra homes can now receive
broadcasts from the out-of-band Astra 1D and of these, 40% choose to watch
Channel 5 on satellite rather than terrestrial TV. The satellite service
was begun because terrestrial reception is bad in large areas of the UK. 

(c)TELE-satellit 1997. All rights reserved.

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