New Skies Granted Authorization to Provide International and Domestic Satellite Services in Japan.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- New Skies' First Transmissions from Japan Will Deliver Live Coverage of Formula One Grand Prix Auto Racing to Audiences Throughout Europe

New Skies Satellites N.V. (NYSE:NSK) (AEX:NSK), the global satellite communications company, today announced that it has been awarded a Radio Station License by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications . This license, in combination with the Telecom Business Registration granted to New Skies in July of this year, enables New Skies to offer international and domestic satellite services directly to both Japanese and non-Japanese companies for links to, from and within Japan.

Concurrently, New Skies announced that it has been chosen by The Wire & Wireless Group to provide several European broadcasters with live digital coverage of Formula One racing from the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, Japan. The service, which will take place between October 8 - 10, 2004, will employ the NSS-6 and NSS-7 satellites to deliver the entire event, including the practice, qualifying and race sessions, to audiences throughout Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

Scott Sprague, New Skies' senior vice president of global sales, said: "The authorization to provide satellite services from Japan is a major milestone for New Skies because it enables our customers to access our global network directly from Japan for domestic and international transmissions.

"This opens up a highly developed market and a world leader in digital video and high-definition television to New Skies' high-powered Ku-band video contribution and distribution network, as well as to our advanced portfolio of Internet and data services."

Samantha McCloskey, New Skies' vice president, special event services, said: "Since we brought our ad hoc bookings in-house two years ago, business from special events transmissions has more than doubled, while we have broadcast countless digital and high-definition occasional-use feeds from prominent sporting and news events.

"With this authorization to access the Japanese market, we plan to use this experience to target one of the world's most advanced broadcasting markets with one of the world's only all Ku-band digital transmission networks, starting with this service for the Japanese Grand Prix."

For the Japanese Grand Prix, live feeds of the practice, qualifying and race sessions will uplink to the NSS-6 satellite directly from the Suzuka International Racing Course using a Ku-band satellite newsgathering vehicle provided by Moubic, Inc, who has been instrumental in making this first transmission possible. New Skies will then beam the signals via NSS-6 to one of the company's partner teleport facilities in the Middle East, where they will be retransmitted over NSS-7's European coverage beam.

New Skies provided a similar service using the NSS-6 and NSS-7 satellites for the Chinese Grand Prix from September 24 - 26, 2004, supporting the Formula One race from Shanghai.

About New Skies Satellites (AEX, NYSE: NSK)

New Skies Satellites is one of only four fixed satellite communications companies with truly global satellite coverage, offering video, data, voice and Internet communications services to a range of telecommunications carriers, broadcasters, large corporations, Internet service providers and government entities around the world. New Skies has five satellites in orbit, ground facilities around the world and one additional spacecraft under construction. The company also has secured certain rights to make use of additional orbital positions for future growth. New Skies is headquartered in The Hague, The Netherlands, and has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney and Washington, D.C.