At the end of October 2015, Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES reported its financial results for the nine months and three months ended 30 September 2015, showing a 6.1% increase in revenue compared with the same period for the previous year.

YTD 2015 revenue for the company stood at €1,492.6 million, whilst EBITDA for the same period also grew over the prior year, to €1,106.5 million, showing a 5.4% increase. The company reoprted a YTD 2015 EBITDA margin of 74.1% as compared to 74.6% for YTD 2014, and YTD 2015 profit after tax was up 3.7% to €473.5 million.

HD TV channels grew 18.6% year over year (YOY) to 2,178, with HD penetration up from 28.6% to 30.6% of all channels. Six commercial Ultra HD agreements are now secured in YTD 2015, with five channels already broadcasting. O3b Networks now have 40 customers in service after their first full year of operation, and partnerships with Post Telecom and Softwire will see the development of SES's Next Generation Data business.

"SES has continued to be productive in the third quarter 2015," commented Karim Michel Sabbagh, President and CEO of SES. "SES have been first out of the starting gate in the commercial introduction of Ultra HD, building on the milestone of Europe's first commercial UHD channel, pearl.tv - and adding further agreements in Europe and North America with Sky Deutschland, NASA TV, Fashion One, High 4K and TERN".

European revenue was €760.1 million for 2015 YTD and was 0.3% higher than the prior year period (or 0.4% higher at constant FX, where the difference primarily reflects the impact of EUR/SEK movement), including the sale of four transponders to Eutelsat (2014 YTD: eight transponders sold). Adjusting for the transponder sales, Europe revenue performance was even higher, benefiting from new infrastructure and European services contracts.

During the third quarter 2015, SES continued to accelerate the commercial introduction of Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV, which constitutes a significant growth driver for SES’s video business. In July 2015, SES secured an additional commercial capacity agreement with Sky Deutschland, the leading pay TV provider in Germany and Austria, for UHD broadcasts using SES’s 19.2 degrees East orbital position.

In August 2015, SES Techcom Services entered into a new partnership with Post Telecom, a leading specialist in Information Communications Technology (ICT), to develop and introduce smart cloud-based ICT solutions worldwide. The partnership will combine both organisations’ core competencies to jointly develop and commercialise satellite and cloud-based communication solutions to serve future customer requirements in the telecom industry.