TV offer from French telecommunications operator Orange to be distributed from ASTRA’s prime position 19.2 degrees East

Betzdorf (Luxembourg) / Paris, 6 January 2009 – SES ASTRA, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), and GlobeCast, a subsidiary of France Télécom Group, announced the signature of a capacity contract with the French telecommunications operator Orange to distribute its new Orange TV offer via satellite, particularly targeting French homes with no TV coverage over ADSL.

Orange TV is part of a triple play offer (TV, telephone, internet) and will be broadcast by the ASTRA satellite system from the prime orbital position 19.2 degrees East, which already serves more than five million French direct-to-home households. “Our satellites help Orange to greatly enhance the technical reach of its new Orange TV offer,” said Nick Stubbs, Managing Director of ASTRA France. “Our 19.2 degrees East position is the leading orbital slot for direct-to-home satellite reception in France, and allows Orange to reach customers in regions with insufficient ADSL coverage. Our agreement with Orange demonstrates the role of satellite as a perfect complement to terrestrial distribution technologies in building triple play offers with truly universal reach. It also further strengthens the position of ASTRA in the French market.” GlobeCast will be handling transmission of Orange TV, including digitalisation, MPEG-4 encoding, multiplexing, encryption and uplink services. GlobeCast is a subsidiary of France Télécom and one of SES’s major worldwide partners.