German stations improving image quality

[BGonaSTICK]

Germany’s two public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have already boosted bandwidth to better serve viewers with flat panel sets, said to be suffering poor image quality. More German broadcasters are said to be following this trend.

The news emerged from SES last Friday when an investors’ group had a meeting with CEO Romain Bausch and other senior executives from the satellite broadcaster. The meeting was reported by investment bankers Morgan Stanley, and the extra capacity sales – and other positive news – prompted the bank to raise the expectations on SES in terms of share price from €20.50 to €21 a share.

SES can also expect massive operational savings, says the bank. SES should be saving $40m a year from 2009 in its capital expenditure, mainly saved through better insurance and operating expenses. Morgan Stanley, in an eight-page report on the Luxembourg-based business, says SES’ investment case is now better than ever. An investor meeting last Friday heard about the improved position, which has resulted in the bank upgrading its share price estimate to €21 (from €20.50).

Following on from SES’ interim results, which saw guidance raised on the back of stronger demand in the infrastructure business, CEO Romain Bausch mentioned things that should ensure that SES’ revenue growth remains at an industry leading level, according to the bank’s report:

• the Quetzsat contract with Echostar should be signed within weeks;

• SES is also pursuing further outsourcing opportunities with Echostar and others, particularly in respect of the newly awarded Canadian frequencies (which permit service over the whole of North America);

• IP Prime is already operating with considerable success with a couple of rural telcos in the US, but should be implemented with some second tier telcos next year;

• It seems likely that some at least of the German commercial broadcasters may follow the lead of ARD and ZDF, the public broadcasters, in taking on more capacity in order to improve the picture quality of standard definition broadcasts which are appearing increasingly poor to the millions of German households with flat screens. The trend is also taking off in other markets and could trigger further incremental demand even prior to the launch of HD.

Source: RapidTV

[RocketMBA]

Those German stations look great already. Their constant striving to provide the best picture is so German of them.