SES SIGNS COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH TP S.A. ASTRA MARKETING POLSKA ESTABLISHED IN POLAND

Société Européenne des Satellites (SES) is pleased to announce the signing of a co-operation agreement with Polish telecom operator TP S.A. (Telekomunikacja Polska S.A.) as well as the establishment of ASTRA Marketing Polska Ltd.

Under the terms of the agreement, TP S.A. will be the operator of the ASTRA mobile uplink station, which has been dispatched to Poreby Lesne, about 50 kilometers from the center of Warsaw. The ASTRA mobile uplink truck is equipped to uplink up to eight digitally compressed TV channels to the co-positioned ASTRA constellation at 19.2° East. Uplink services will be provided to all licensed Polish broadcasters wanting to join ASTRA's free-to-air and pay-tv digital programme offer targeting the Polish market.

To date, Wizja TV which was officially launched on September 18 and offers 19 channels including 17 Polish language ones (as well as CNN International and MTV Europe in their original versions) is available from the ASTRA Satellite System. The digital programme line-up of Wizja TV on ASTRA is enhanced by more than 60 international free-to-air TV and radio channels also available on the Wizja TV satellite receiver. Today, digital DTH (direct-to-home) channels are available to 61.000 households through a small 60-cm satellite dish.

According to the ASTRA Satellite Monitors, ASTRA DTH penetration at mid-year 1998 stood at 1.5 million Polish households. Including cable redistribution of ASTRA signals, close to 5 million households in Poland were receiving ASTRA delivered TV and radio programming.

In order to further strengthen ASTRA's presence in Poland, as well as to intensify co-operation with its Polish partners, SES, on October 30, 1998, established ASTRA Marketing Polska (AMP) in Warsaw. ASTRA Marketing Polska is an affiliate of Luxembourg based Société Européenne des Satellites (SES) S.A., the operator of the ASTRA Satellite System. AMP is managed by Krzysztof Surgowt, who has a long-standing experience of the audiovisual as well as of the telecommunications market in Poland. The marketing activities of the new company are aimed at ensuring the highest service standard for SES customers in Poland, mirroring the biggest European satellite markets such as France, Germany, Spain and Great Britain, where the ASTRA Satellite System enjoys a leading position.

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