• Created for school-going children in the 4 to 14 years age group, to fulfill specific need gaps
• Will foster curiosity to provide education through fun and entertainment
• Based on the principle: What is Right For the Child

Mumbai, India – 15 October 2012 – After completing 20 successful years in Media & Entertainment in India, during which period it revolutionized the space by growing from one channel to a rich portfolio of  31 channels, entertaining over 650+ million viewers across 168 countries, the pioneering  ZEE  today makes an important announcement that will help it make a positive impact in the lives of the school-going children of India.

Punit Goenka, MD & CEO – Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, today announced the launch of a new channel – ZeeQ – which will cater to the needs of children in India. Speaking on the launch of ZeeQ, Mr. Goenka said, “ZEE as a group stands by its principle of improvement of human capital, and so is the initiative, ZeeQ. It is a step ahead in fostering the curiosity amongst children through fun and entertainment.” ZeeQ will have mix of home produced and acquired content. Mr. Goenka also added, “For two decades, Zee Entertainment Enterprises has been making difference in the lives of millions, and now ZeeQ will sustain it further.”

The experiences of education division Zee Learn Ltd, which is the fastest growing education chain of preschools and K-12, will come handy to ZeeQ. On Zee Learn’s backing, Mr. Goenka informed, “During production and acquisition of content, we took into consideration the learnings from the 18 years that Zee Learn Limited has been interacting with as many as 300000 students, parents and teachers across India. And this has helped us make its edutainment content engaging and relevant to the needs of Indian children.”

ZeeQ will address the educational need gaps through engaging content. The 24-hour channel will be available on Leading DTH & Digital Cable Platforms as a paid-for channel.

ZeeQ is the 32nd channel from ZEE, which will manage ZeeQ’s broadcast operations, while Zee Learn will look after the content and channel management.

Navneet Anhal, COO – Zee Learn Limited, said, “ZeeQ is based on our core operating principle of ‘What is Right for the Child’. We are confident that the channel will benefit school-going children and help their parents and teachers in the collective effort to facilitate emotional, social, academic and behavioral development of the children. ZeeQ, will further strengthen the endeavor of Zee Learn to prepare children for 21st Century by inculcating much needed knowledge, life skills and values.

Subhadarshi Tripathi, Business Head of ZeeQ, said, “The programming and scheduling approach of ZeeQ’s content is geared to help children with subliminal education while keeping them engaged in never-before edu-tainment fashion.” To achieve this, ZeeQ has a mix of programs that its programming team has especially designed and produced.

Some of the shows on ZeeQ include specially produced programs like:

• Teenovation — a show in association with The National Innovation Foundation about Children innovators who display brilliance and create utility items for problems they see around them
• Wordmatch — a National level Hindi game show for children, which enhances their knowledge of English spelling, word usage, sentence construction and vocabulary
• Brain Café — a super cool café with anything and everything to do with Science, Brain Café is the perfect hang out to learn all about science theories, concepts and their applications in a fun way

Another important part of the ZeeQ programming is its acquired programs, carefully handpicked by its programming team from amongst numerous available concepts. Even the acquired programs have been adapted to the taste of Indian kids.

Speaking on the strengths of ZeeQ, Tripathi observed, “We believe that the need for and relevance of a channel such as ZeeQ with its quality content will help us in digitization post-Phase 1.  The fact that it is being distributed on India’s leading DTH & Digital Cable Platforms DTH platforms that will help us reach and educates millions of potential viewers, enthuses us.”

About Zee Learn Limited

Zee Learn Limited (ZLL), founded in the year 1994, is the educational division of Essel Group. Listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE) & Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 533287, it is one of the leading education companies in India. As a significant player in Core Education, ZLL is set to ride on an increasing demand for quality education and development with the fastest growing chain of preschools & K-12 schools.

About Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (“ZEE”)

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEE) is one of India’s leading television media and entertainment companies. It is amongst the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world, with an extensive library housing over 100,000+ hours of television content. With rights to more than 3,000 movie titles from foremost studios and of iconic film stars, ZEE houses the world’s largest Hindi film library. Through its strong presence worldwide, ZEE entertains over 650+ million viewers across 168 countries. ZEE has been selected Business Superbrands 2010-11, Industry Validated.

Pioneer of television entertainment industry in India, ZEE’s well known brands include Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Zee Smile, 9X, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action, Ten Golf, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Jagran, Zee Salaam, Zing, ETC Music and Zee Khana Khazana. The company also has a strong offering in the regional language domain with channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Tamizh and ETC Punjabi. The company’s recently launched HD offerings include Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, Zee Studio HD and Ten HD.

ZEE and its affiliate companies have leading presence across the media value chain including television broadcasting, cable distribution, direct-to-home satellite services, digital media, multiplexes, amusement parks and print media amongst others. More information about ZEE and its businesses is available on www.zeetelevision.com

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Media Contacts:

Jayshree Kumar – Mumbai / Abhishek Agrawal – Delhi

Corporate Brand – ZEE

Mobile: 97692 86661 / 98114 38591

Luxembourg, Oct 15, 2012 – SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that its 100 percent owned subsidiary SES Platform Services has signed a multi-year contract with global television network Fashion One to broadcast the free-to-air channel in SD at the orbital position of 19.2 degrees East starting on Oct 15.

Broadcasting the latest in fashion, entertainment, lifestyle news, profiles of A-list celebrities, luxury brands, holiday destinations and red carpet events, Fashion One delivers a strong line-up of original programming of reality shows, documentaries, beauty tips and street styles in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The global fashion and entertainment television network has been utilising SES capacity at the ASTRA 19.2 degrees East orbital position and will now contract the required capacity directly from SES.

With its technical facilities in Munich, SES Platform Services is well-positioned to provide turnkey broadcast services into Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa and accommodate Fashion One’s ambitions to further expand their operations globally.

“We are pleased to work with SES’ broadcasting solution and provide additional access to our viewers in Europe,” said Ashley Jordan, CEO of Fashion One. “Following our recent milestone of launching our recent European headquarters in Antwerp, the 19.2 degrees East orbital will allow us to further expand with a potential reach of 110 million television households in Europe.”

Wilfried Urner, CEO of SES Platform Services, said, “Riding on the success we have achieved in important emerging markets such as Eastern Europe and Africa, we have expanded to focus on Asia as well, and therefore welcome the opportunity to facilitate Fashion One’s broadcasting activities across Europe. We look forward to this new partnership with Fashion One and in supporting their global aspirations.”

Fashion One is also being broadcast via the ASTRA 5 degrees East orbital position.

New transponder parameters:

Service: Fashion One, ServiceID: 4707 (0x1263)
Satellite: ASTRA 1KR, 19,2 degrees East
Transponder: 1.015
Frequency: 11420,75Mhz (horizontal polarisation)
Modulation: DVB-S, QPSK FEC 5/6

For further information please contact:

Markus Payer
Tel : +352 710 725 500
markus.payer@ses.com

Fashion One
Gorden Li
gorden@fashionone.com
+852 5808 3450

Follow us on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SES_Satellites
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SES.YourSatelliteCompany
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SESVideoChannel
Blog: http://en.ses.com/4243715/blog

About Fashion One TV

From the world’s premier international Fashion and Entertainment channel, audiences can expect an array of world-class programming, ranging from the latest trends and insights in the fashion industry, to exotic lifestyles and fashion destinations, plus a healthy dose of the latest news from Hollywood. For more information, visit www.fashionone.com.

About SES Platform Services

SES Platform Services is a 100% subsidiary of SES and operates one of Europe’s most modern broadcasting centres located in Munich. Today, SES Platform Services broadcasts more than 300 digital TV and radio programmes.

SES Platform Services provides technical support for broadcasters and production companies and offers a comprehensive range of services for the preparation and transmission of content for TV and radio channels. These include digital archiving and playout, as well as preparation and transmission of content via satellite, over the internet or to mobile reception units.

Clients of SES Platform Services include well-known German broadasters from both the public and private sphere, as well as national and international Pay-TV providers, rights owners, cable network operators and global companies. Further information under: www.ses-ps.com

About SES

SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 52 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.

SES stands for long-lasting business relationships, high-quality service and excellence in the broadcasting industry. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements.

SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) holds participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico, as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. Further information under: www.ses.com.

(October 12, 2012) – Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific today announced the launch of Discovery Kids on now TV Channel 445.

The channel, which is available from today, seeks to entertain and educate children with content that sparks their curiosity and helps develop their cognitive, social, emotional and personal skills, bringing families together by promoting co-viewing with parents. The target audience for Discovery Kids is kids six to twelve years old and their parents, with the core target audience being kids between seven and ten.

The core values of Discovery Kids include being transformative (by providing an immersive world that sparks wonder and curiosity), smart (by giving creative surprises for enquiring minds), playful (by stimulating learning and imagination in a fun and innovative way), and educational (by creating a trusted atmosphere for engaged learning).

“We are delighted with this partnership with now TV. Discovery Kids, brought to you by the people behind Discovery Channel will offer young now TV viewers an entertaining way to satisfy their natural curiosity, and ignite their imagination through stimulating and transformative programmes,” said Tommy Lin , Senior Vice President & General Manager, North Asia , Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific.

Subscribers can also enjoy Discovery Kids via now TV’s on-the-go multi-screen app, now Player. Available on iOS and Android, now Player enables smartphone and tablet users to watch now TV channels and premium entertainment, kids, and sports content as an extension to their current now TV subscription.

Programming highlights from Discovery Kids at launch on now TV include Discovery-produced HEADRUSH featuring Kari Byron from the popular hit series MYTHBUSTERS, THINK BIG, WILD KRATTS and QUIRKY SCIENCE.

HEADRUSH provides children with an hour of games and experiences, with content and ideas from MYTHBUSTERS, a flagship programme of Discovery Channel. THINK BIG features journeys of young inventors who might just have the next big hit. From the “sibling alarm” to the “toilet paper headband,” each episode is peppered with fun facts, trivia, inspirational success stories and imagination labs to get young viewers to start inventing too. WILD KRATTS, an animated series created by zoologists Chris and Martin Kratt, is a cartoon series with a twist – combining science education with fun and humour, young viewers can join the adventures of the two brothers as they travel around the globe encountering incredible wild animals. The series also teaches children small ways to make big impact (such as building bat houses), while entertaining them with the Kratt’s usual antics. QUIRKY SCIENCE is a series that explores just exactly where science went awry and led to new discoveries and inventions. For example, how did trying to find a cure for malaria lead to air conditioning? What did the development of radar have to do with the microwave oven? Or what does surviving a nuclear war have to do with the Internet?

How to subscribe

Discovery Kids is available on now TV at a monthly subscription fee of HK$23 (Promotion offer at HK$18 per month will be ended by 24 Oct). From now till Oct 31, subscribe to Discovery kids, for a chance to get a Discovery Kids space shuttle pencil case.

(October 14, 2012) – Al Jazeera English has unveiled a new format for Sir David Frost’s high-profile interviews on the channel.

The veteran interviewer has been with the channel since its launch in 2006, interviewing a host of politicians and celebrities in a weekly magazine format, Frost Over The World.

The new format, The Frost Interview, takes Sir David back to his roots as an in-depth interviewer of extraordinary depth and intimacy. Each one-hour episode will be devoted to a single world-leading personality in the arts, science, politics or business, opening up his or her life to Sir David.

The series will include interviews with:

• Sir Paul McCartney – one of the most successful musicians of all time
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu – anti-apartheid legend and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• Munib Al Masri – billionaire Palestinian businessman and politician
• Jose Ramos-Horta – hero of East Timor’s struggle for independence from Indonesia
• Aishwarya Rai – Bollywood, and increasingly worldwide, icon
• Marc Andreessen – Silicon Valley pioneer, co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used internet browser, and co-founder of Netscape
• Craig Venter – biologist and entrepreneur who was one of the first scientists to sequence the human genome
• Carlos Acosta – described as the most successful ballet dancer of our generation. He rose from the slums of Havana to perform with some of the world’s greatest companies including the Bolshoi, American Ballet Theatre, and the Royal Ballet.

Paul Eedle, director of programmes at Al Jazeera English said:

“The new format allows for a much deeper conversation with globally renowned figures than our past format of five to 10-minute chats. People open up to Sir David as to no other interviewer in the world, so we’re delighted to be working with him on the new programme.”

Sir David Frost said:

“I’m immensely enjoying making this series. We’ve got a fantastic mix of individuals lined up that will entertain and inform viewers. I’ve found the longer conversation not just allows us to go into more depth, but relaxes interviewees to talk more about their life and work.”

‘The Frost Interview’ will begin on November 9th with Paul McCartney.

Since starting with Al Jazeera in 2006, Frost has interviewed many high-profile figures on the channel including: Tony Blair, George HW Bush, Tayyip Erdogan, George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Amitabh Bachan, Shane Warne, Roger Federer and Martina Navratilova.

[END]

Biography of Sir David Frost

“He is the only person to have interviewed the last seven Presidents of the United States and the last seven Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom” (The Times)

Sir David Frost’s activities during his career have been so diverse that he has been described as a “one man conglomerate”. It is easy to see why: host and co-creator of That Was the Week That Was, producer of countless television programmes from A Gift of Song: The Music for UNICEF Concert to the Spectacular World of Guinness Records; author of 17 books; producer of eight films (including “Rogue Trader” with Ewan McGregor and AnnaFriel); publisher, lecturer, impresario and the joint founder of London Weekend Television and TV-am. Not to mention the fact that he is perhaps the best known television interviewer in the world.

Sir David’s Nixon Interviews achieved “the largest audience for a news interview in history” (New York Times). In addition to their unprecedented impact in the United States, the interviews were also seen – either in English or dubbed into local languages – in almost every television nation in the world. Peter Morgan’s play, “Frost/Nixon”, achieved great success in London in 2007 and on Broadway in 2007, where Frank Langella won the Tony Award for Best Actor as Richard Nixon. Ron Howard’s highly-acclaimed motion picture adaptation of Frost/Nixon in 2008 also garnered 5 Oscar nominations.

Sir David Frost has been awarded all the major television awards – the US Emmy Award (for The David Frost Show – twice); the Royal Television Society Silver Medal and the RichardDimbleby Award in the UK and, internationally, the Golden Rose of Montreux. He was knighted by HM The Queen in the New Year’s Honours List of January 1993. He washonoured by the Museum of the Moving Image in New York in 1998 and by the Museum of Broadcasting in New York in 1999.

In the year 2000 the BBC devoted an evening of programmes to celebrating “Forty Years with Frost”. The first volume of his autobiography “From Congregations to Audiences”, published by HarperCollins, became an immediate bestseller. In 2005, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship, their highest honour. And in 2009 in New York he received the International Emmy Founders Award, which is their highest honour.

Sir David’s company Paradine is also executive producing a remake of the film ‘TheDambusters’ which will be directed and produced by Peter Jackson, and has just completed ‘Retreat’ a David Paradine production starring Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell.