SES brought to light that the company’s Ethiosat platform at 57 degrees East now delivers content to 17 million TV households in Ethiopia, an increase of 7 million when compared to 2022, with the Ethiosat reach penetration growing to 95%.
The Ethiopian TV market has undergone a continuous rapid expansion as the number of TV households has increased by 400% since 2017 to 18.2 million homes now receiving TV content. The penetration of HD homes in the market has also increased from 48% to 62% since 2021, with Ethiosat’s number of HD TV channels growing from 15% to 62%.
Direct-to-home satellite remains as the main mode of TV reception in Ethiopia.
Ethiosat is Ethiopia’s first-ever dedicated Free-To-Air (FTA) TV platform, hosted on SES’s NSS-12 satellite. Launched in October of 2019, the platform is a result of an agreement between the Ethiopian Media Authority, Ethiopian Space Science, Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), Association of Ethiopian Broadcasters (AEB) and SES to consolidate all Ethiopian TV channels and broadcast them from a single, orbital position.
SES as a global operator of more than 70 satellites, and with additional satellites under construction, has excellent flexibility to ensure the long-term service continuity of the Ethiosat platform from its prime orbital position at 57 degrees East.
“We are immensely proud to be part of the growth of the Ethiopian TV market through the Ethiosat platform. The increase of TV households in the country and the penetration of the platform confirms the importance of Ethiosat as an established source audiences rely on to watch their favourite local programming in the best quality possible,” said Norbert Hölzle, Global Head of Media at SES.