LUXEMBOURG-- September 16, 2021 -- An increasing number of broadcasters and channel operators worldwide are adopting SES’s Cloud Playout service to better manage their linear TV channels and content assets flexibly and cost-effectively, announced SES today. This recent shift to cloud-based services means that SES now has more than 60 TV channels from Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific that started utilising SES Cloud playout services since Q1 2021.

Leveraging the elastic scale and economics of the cloud, SES’s Cloud Playout enables TV broadcasters and channel operators the ability to reliably prepare TV content for broadcast in a matter of minutes regardless of where they are since there is no need for on-premise hardware. Designed natively in the cloud, SES’s Cloud Playout provides unparalleled flexibility and scalability while leveraging virtualized hardware with modular design of playout functions such as archiving, playlist, playback, encoding or graphics - all to ensure resiliency and cost-savings for the media customers.

One market with recent Cloud Playout momentum is Ethiopia. An increasing number of broadcasters on Ethiosat, Ethiopia’s first-ever dedicated free-to-air (FTA) TV platform, have moved to SES’s Cloud Playout service to better manage their linear TV channels and content assets flexibly and cost-effectively.

One such Ethiopian customer, Engidawork Gebeyehu at Yegna TV, said, “With a focus on local, in-country content, the Ethiopian TV market has been expanding significantly in the last years with TV playing an integral part of people’s lives - ranging from entertainment to education - especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. With SES, we are able to respond to viewer demand and bring content to their homes faster and more flexibly than ever before via the cloud, meeting viewer demand for more local content. Using the cloud playout services also means that we are no longer restricted by hardware constraints and can get a channel ready for distribution much faster than before.”

“At SES, we believe the cloud can maximise opportunities for growth with an inherently flexible and highly scalable broadcasting solution, enabling our customers to focus on attracting new audiences and create engaging content,” said Yvonne Bertalot, Director of Broadcasters Segment Market Management at SES. “It is therefore rewarding when we see how our customers feel the same as they increasingly adopt our cloud capabilities to expand their offerings.”