SES has signed a multi-year agreement to carry JioStar's television channels across India and the Indian subcontinent on its IS-20 satellite, extending satellite distribution to cable, DTH and broadcast networks that reach millions of households in the region.

The deal names South Asia's largest media conglomerate as an anchor customer for SES's video neighbourhood in the region. Under the terms, JioStar will transition its channel distribution to IS-20, gaining what SES describes as a resilient and future-ready broadcast platform with extensive coverage across India and South Asia.

IS-20 occupies a specific role in SES's fleet. The satellite is part of the operator's established video neighbourhood, which serves broadcasters, media companies, telecom operators and government customers across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Its digital payload enhances service resilience and offers flexible C-band and Ku-band delivery capabilities for broadcast and connectivity applications.

For JioStar, the commercial logic centres on delivery reliability. Cable headends, DTH platforms and other broadcast distribution networks across the subcontinent depend on consistent signal quality, and a single high-powered satellite with broad regional footprint simplifies that distribution chain. The agreement covers the operator's full portfolio of television channels.

SES is framing the contract as part of a broader Indian expansion. The announcement comes only weeks after the company inaugurated a new office in Chennai in southern India, a facility it describes as marking an important milestone in its growth in the city.

The Chennai operation builds on a combined legacy. Intelsat, which merged with SES, established operations in the city more than five years ago, while SES itself inaugurated its Chennai office in April 2025. Since then, SES says its workforce in India has tripled to more than 600 employees, with Chennai serving as a strategic hub for technical and supporting functional roles.

The growth figures are notable for a satellite operator of SES's scale. Tripling headcount to more than 600 in roughly a year signals that India is no longer a peripheral market for the Luxembourg-based company but a centre for engineering and operations talent supporting its global business.

SES's Indian presence predates both the Chennai office and the JioStar contract. The company says it has served India for more than two decades through collaborations with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and other local partners, delivering satellite-enabled connectivity solutions across the country.

That ISRO relationship matters in the wider market context. India's space sector has opened to private participation in recent years, and SES's joint venture with the Tata group, though not part of this announcement, reflects how international satellite operators are positioning in the market. The JioStar deal keeps SES in the centre of India's broadcast distribution chain, where satellite remains the dominant delivery mechanism for television despite the growth of streaming.

JioStar itself is the product of the merger of Reliance's media assets with Disney's Star India, making it the region's largest media conglomerate. Its choice of satellite distribution partner for such a large channel portfolio is a meaningful commercial win for SES in a market where broadcast satellite capacity competes on coverage, reliability and price.

The multi-year structure of the agreement gives SES recurring video revenue in a segment where the company has faced pressure from declining linear TV viewing in mature markets. India, with its large base of cable and DTH households, remains one of the markets where satellite video distribution continues to scale.

Neither party disclosed the financial terms or the exact duration of the contract. The transition of JioStar's services to IS-20 will proceed under the agreement's timeline, with SES positioning its Chennai hub — and its now 600-plus Indian workforce — to support delivery and future expansion across the subcontinent.