SATELLITE PROVIDERS INFORMATION AND TV GUIDE'S

SATELLITE PROVIDERS INFORMATION AND TV GUIDE'S

ART - Hotbird13E / Nilesat7W

Arab Radio and Television Network (Acronym: ART) is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels. It is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The company was founded in October 1993 by Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a Saudi businessman. ART is a private company specializing in family entertainment, including movies, music and sport. It is broadcasted via the Arabsat , Nilesat and Hotbird satellites. Most ART Channels are encrypted using IRDETO 2 Encryption.

ART is common in Saudi Arabia for its exclusive sports event broadcasts, particularly the Saudi Leagues. ART lost a significant amount of its audience share after the launch of many similar free to air channells like Rotana Channels which is owned by Al-Waleed bin Talal.

ART produces over 6,000 live and recorded shows every year including family oriented dramas, series, plays, sports programs, music videos and documentaries. The network has the largest Arabic movie library in the Middle East and (as part of the AMC conglomerate) has been associated with leading film production studios in the Arab world for well over 30 years.

ART broadcasts internationally, expanding its coverage to North America, Europe and Australia.


Canal Digital - (C+ Nordic) -Thor1W

Canal Digital was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay-TV company CANAL+ and the Norwegian state-telecommunications operator Telenor. Since 2003, Canal Digital is 100% owned by Telenor.

Canal Digital is the market leader for DTH & CATV services in the Nordic residential market. More than 2.9 million Nordic households and activities are subscribed to their services.

Unlike its DTH rival, Viasat, Canal Digital does not own a TV-network – they have however secured several multi-year exclusive broadcasting deals with SBS Broadcasting Group, Eurosport, BBC Worldwide and Discovery Communications.

Their satellite broadcasts can be received from the Thor 2/3 satellites at 1°W with any DVB receiver equipped with a Conax descrambling module.


Canal Digitaal - (C+ NL) - Astra19E

Canal Digitaal, a division of Canal+, is The Netherlands sole commercial direct broadcast satellite provider.


CanalSat (C+ FR) - Astra19E

CanalSat is a French digital satellite and DSL pay television service owned by Canal+ Group (66%) and Lagardere Active (34%), a subsidiary of Lagardère. CanalSat was founded in 1992 as CanalSatellite.

It was recently announced that CanalSat has been approved to merge with competitor t#s. The new entity will be controlled by Vivendi (owner of CanalSat) with a 65% share. Minority shareholders will be Lagardère (20%), TF1 (9.9%) and M6 (5.1%).


Cyfra+ (C+ PL) - Hotbird13E

Cyfra+ is a Polish digital satellite platform, owned and operated by French media company Canal+ ("Cyfra" is Polish for "Digit"). It offers 600 radio and TV channels. 40 of these are dedicated for Polish audience. The remaining ones are free-to-air from Hot Bird and Astra satellites, viewable on Cyfra+ equipment. Due to the availability of original sound tracks, Cyfra+ is an excellent TV platform for foreigners who stay in Poland, as well as for students of languages.


Digital+ (D+) - Astra19E / Hispasat30W

Digital+ is a Spanish satellite platform who offers a variety of channels, national and international and pay per view films and football, known as "Taquilla". It is a subdivision of Sogecable, and was founded in July 23, 2003 as a result of the merger of Via Digital (owned by Telefónica) and Canal Satellite Digital (owned by Sociedad de Television Canal Plus S.A.).

Digital Plus offers the services through Astra 1 (19.2° East) and Hispasat (30° West).


Digitürk (DT) - EutelsatW3A 7E

Digiturk (or DIGITURK) is a Turkish Satellite television provider, founded in 1999, with services starting in mid-2000. They offer, both national cable TV channels and their own channels, national radio, and music streams of different genres. Digiturk is also the current owner of the broadcasting rights of Turkish Premier Super League. In addition to Turkey, they offer service throughout Europe, mainly for gastarbeiter. Reportedly it has over a million subscribers worldwide. Their service is provided from Eutelsat W3A, positioned some 35 degrees west of the more traditionally used Türksat; and is encrypted in Cryptoworks.

Digiturk made its major breakthrough when it acquired the rights to broadcast Turkish soccer league, which are subject to quite high prices since the country has a great interest towards soccer. Service eventually grew larger, and they added special channels for movies and series and such. It became an HBO-like, since it has the resources to buy movies earlier than cable channels, also many running/ended TV series as well.


Foxtel - OptusC1 156E

Foxtel is a cable television and satellite television company in Australia, formed through a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation. It commenced supplying cable TV services to customers in May, 1995.

In order to drive subscription take-up at Foxtel, News Corp unsuccessfully attempted to purchase the rights to televise Australian Rugby League (ARL), rights that were then held by businessman Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). News Corp subsequently established a rival rugby league franchise in Australia named Superleague. One season of Superleague was played during the 1997 Australian winter and televised by Foxtel. The business rivalry between Superleague and the ARL was intense and the backers of both franchises haemorrhaged money. Rational business practices eventually prevailed and as part of a commercial settlement half of News Corp.'s Foxtel stake was sold to PBL. The Superleague franchise was folded and PBL agreed to share its ARL rights with Foxtel.

In May 1998 Australis Media, the owner of a satellite TV service known as Galaxy TV, was declared insolvent. Foxtel immediately commenced supplying programming to Galaxy's subscribers on an interim basis. In 1999 Foxtel was able to significantly boost its customer base by acquiring Galaxy TV's subscribers from the Australis Media liquidator and commenced offering its services on a satellite television platform.

Foxtel's shareholders currently comprise Telstra (50% through Telstra Media Pty Ltd) and a joint venture company (Sky Cable Pty Ltd) that is owned by News Corp (25%) and PBL (25%).


Multichoice - PAS7 68.5E / EutelsatW4 36E

MultiChoice is a South African company which operates the DStv satellite television service, the main satellite TV service in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was formed out of the subscriber-management branch of the M-Net terrestrial pay TV company, and broadcasts the full range of M-Net channels on the DStv service. Multichoice is owned by the Naspers media conglomerate.


Nova Cyprus - Hotbird13E

NOVA Cyprus is a Cypriot digital satellite pay television service owned by Multichoice Cyprus. NOVA launched in July 2004 and was the first DTH satellite provider to launch in Cyprus. It is one of two satellite platforms, the other being Athina Sat.


Nova Greece - Hotbird 13E
NOVA offers Cypriot subscribers an array of programming choices from News, Sports, Movies, Children's & Entertainment.

NOVA Greece is a Greek digital satellite pay television service owned by Multichoice Hellas and Teletypos. NOVA launched in December 1999 and is the first DTH satellite provider in Greece.

NOVA offers Greek subscribers an array of programming choices from News, Sports, Movies, Children's, Entertainment and all the popular Greek TV networks. They also offer interactive services which include Cinema & theatre searches, games, lottery numbers, news headlines, weather reports and other useful information.


Orbit - Atlantic Bird2 8W

Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network is the first fully digital, multi-channel, multi-lingual, pay television service in the Middle East. Orbit provides a vast selection of entertainment and information in Arabic English and Filipino_language.

Orbit uses SECA MediaGuard 2 encryption conditional access technology and Humax DVB digital satellite Integrated Receiver Decoders. Orbit has launched the all new Xtra digital-XD 300 decoder, which will offer subscribers a host of new interactive services and increased functions: Mosaic, Zapping, EPG, Pilot, Parental Control and dubbing and subtitling options as well as over 400 free-to-air channels.

Orbit broadcasts to the Middle East and North Africa. Its direct competitor in the region is Showtime Arabia.


Premiere - (Prem) - Astra19E / Astra23.5E

Premiere is the first German Pay-TV company, offering several channels of digital content via satellite and cable.

The channel originally started off as a single Astra analogue satellite channel, showing films dubbed in German, live football matches from the German Bundesliga (league championship) and once the UEFA Cup. As well as documentaries, TV series and once in the mid 90's late-night erotic films. After the coming of the digital age, the service has since consisted of many channels with many new ones added over the years.


Showtime - Nilesat7W

Showtime or Showtime Arabia (Gulf DTH F.Z. L.L.C., the operating company behind digital pay TV broadcaster Showtime) as it's called to distinguish itself from its U.S. counterpart, is NOT the dominant subscription television service in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Levant territories. It is a joint venture between KIPCO (79% stake) and CBS Corporation (21% stake), CBS Corp being a minor partner.

The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and has its headquarters at Dubai Media City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Showtime Arabia offers Hollywood movies, sitcoms, children’s programming, fashion shows and sports coverage. Showtime currently offers various Irdeto Access encrypted programming packages offering
more than 50 premium Western entertainment channels. It also offers premium channels that includes movie channels, sports channels, news channels, music channels, kids channels and general family entertainment channels. It also includes pay-per-view Home Cinema Channels and Music Choice audio channels. The Disney Channel (Middle East), which is an a-la-carte channel, is also offered in this package.

Showtime Arabia uses Irdeto Access Conditional Access technology, to encrypt its DTH channels over satellite and the OpenTV interactive platform that runs on primarily UEC Set-top boxes.


Sky Digital (Sly UK) - Astra 28E

Sky Digital is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2°E (Astra 2A/2B/2D) and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E.

BSkyB's analogue broadcasts ceased in 2001, so the service is now more commonly marketed as just Sky.


Sky Italia (Sly IT) - Hotbird 13E

Sky Italia is an Italian digital satellite television platform owned by News Corporation. It is similar in many ways to BSkyB's Sky Digital in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and like that network it is a major sports broadcaster.

Pay TV services on Sky Italia are encrypted in NDS Videoguard. The provided Videoguard decoders are identical to the Digibox used in the UK. PACE, Amstrad and Thomson, all Digibox licencsors, produce Sky Italia boxes (SKYBOX) identical to their Digibox offerings, albeit with different branding and the potential removal of the second card slot and UHF modulator. In addition, other providers such as Italtel and Access Media produce Sky Italia boxes but not Digiboxes.

On the 22 November 2005 Sky Italia introduced MySky - based on a new digital receiver with HDD recording capabilities and surround sound output (not previously available on the normal decoder). This service is provided at an extra charge and the decoder must be connected to a phone line. The service is functionally identical to the BSkyB Sky+.

Sky offers four types of mixing packages: Mondo, Cinema, Sport and Calcio. The first, Mondo, contents all the entertainment, music, kids, teens and culture channels and some sport channels: it's the basic mix. The Cinema package contents 9 all-movies channels. The Sport package contents Sky Sport 1, 2, 3, Extra, 16:9, Eurosport, Eurosport 2 and Sailing Channel. The Calcio package, instead, contents 17 channels aimed at football, the most played sport in Italy.


Tata Sky - Insat4A 83E
Tata Sky is a DTH satellite television provider in India. It is a joint venture between the Tata Group, that owns 80% and STAR TV that owns a 20% stake.

Tata Sky was launched in August 2006. It currently offers close to 110 channels and some interactive ones.


Télévision Par Satellite (t#s) - Hotbird13E

Télévision Par Satellite (t#s) is a French company that offers subscription television packages via satellite.

t#s offers various channels including some of their own original services, including t#s Star(flagship channel), t#s Foot (exclusive football channel) and Multivision, a 7-channel premium PPV service. It was recently announced that t#s will merge with Canal+.


TV Cabo - Hispasat30W

TV Cabo, a subsidiary of PT Multimedia, is the leader in the Portuguese pay-tv market and one of the most important operators in Europe.

TV Cabo´s television subscription service is available nationwide, with distribution over cable and digital satellite platforms.

TV Cabo pioneered broadband Internet access in Portugal in 1999.


UBI World - OptusB3 152E / Telstar10 76.5E

UBI WORLD TV is an Australian digital satellite pay television service that broadcasts predominantly ethnic (and mainly non-english) channels. It launched in late 2004 and currently boasts over 60 channels in its lineup from over 20 countries in over 12 languages.

UBI World TV is owned by Mike and Regina Boulos, who also owned TARBS World TV which went bankrupt in July 2004.

UBI World TV Currently Broadcasts TV and Radio Channels to Australia via the Optus B3 satellite using 6 Transponders broadcasting 80 TV Channels and 40 Radio Channels from around the World. UBI World TV also broadcast via the Telstar 10 Satellite which currently broadcasts over the South Africa and Asia-Pacific Region broadcasting 26 TV Channels and 26 Radio Channels from around the World.


Viasat - Sirius5E

Viasat is a DBS distributor and TV broadcaster, owned by the Swedish media conglomerate Modern Times Group. Broadcasting from London, the target markets are in the Nordic and the Baltic Countries.

Their lineup can be received from the Sirius 2/3 satellites at 5°E with any DVB receiver equipped with a NDS VideoGuard descrambling module. Viasat’s main competitor on DTH distribution in the Nordic countries is Canal Digital, which has the larger market share.