SES hybrid set-top box to bridge satellite and IP by 2027

The move toward hybrid hardware signals a shift from viewing satellite and streaming as competitors to treating them as a unified distribution stack. By integrating IP at the chip level, SES aims to solve the 'appointment viewing' versus 'on-demand' friction that currently fragments the user experience for major broadcasters. This strategy allows SES to defend its high-margin DTH business in regions like India and Africa while providing a transition path for mature markets where linear demand is softening. Watch for the specific chip partner announcement and initial customer trials in early 2027 to gauge the hardware's production readiness.

SES has been actively reinforcing its DTH position across emerging markets while simultaneously building toward IP convergence. In mid-2025, SES renewed its long-term satellite capacity agreement with Sky Mexico to extend DTH distribution across Latin America, a deal that underscored the company's strategy of locking in multi-year commitments from pay-TV operators in regions where broadband penetration remains insufficient to replace satellite delivery. That renewal came alongside SES's broader push to position its mPower medium-Earth orbit constellation as a complementary backhaul layer for broadcasters exploring hybrid delivery models, giving the company a multi-orbit architecture that few competitors can match.

On the business and regulatory front, SES faces a shifting competitive landscape as Eutelsat and Intelsat pursue their own hybrid satellite-IP initiatives. Eutelsat completed its merger with OneWeb in late 2023, creating a combined GEO-LEO operator that has since targeted government and enterprise connectivity contracts, though its broadcast-focused DTH revenue has continued to decline in mature European markets. Meanwhile, SES itself reported that its video division revenue declined modestly in 2025 as linear channel counts fell in Western Europe, a trend that CEO Adel Al-Saleh acknowledged during the company's Q1 2025 earnings call by emphasizing the need for IP-adjacent revenue streams by emphasizing the need for IP-adjacent revenue streams. The hybrid set-top box represents a direct response to that revenue pressure, aiming to keep satellite infrastructure relevant in homes that increasingly expect on-demand functionality.

From a technical standpoint, hybrid satellite-IP set-top boxes are not new, but SES's approach differs in its integration depth. The European Broadcasting Union published a technical report in 2024 outlining hybrid broadcast-broadband standards that combine DVB-S2X satellite delivery with DVB-I for IP-based service discovery, a framework that several European broadcasters including ARD and RAI have begun piloting for next-generation receiver specifications. SES's planned device appears aligned with those specifications, which would allow a single receiver to switch between satellite linear channels and IP-delivered content without user intervention. The company's signal monitoring arm, which provides real-time quality-of-service tracking for broadcasters, could also be integrated into the hybrid box to give operators visibility into both delivery paths simultaneously, a capability that would differentiate SES hardware from that lack satellite tuners.