Multichoice C Band Reception Being Dropped In May 10?

[tourleadersi]

Just received a message from a friend looking into satelite options who has been informed that Multichoice or DSTV Africa will drop C band reception from Asia at the end of May 2010. This is the service that gets Supersport etc on 68.5E Intelsat 10.

Anyone know any more on this? Am I going to have a 6 foot mesh wok bolted onto the outside of my house in a matter of months?

[Prasert]

Those rumors have been going on for the last 3 years. Fact is that the IS7/10 will be replaced in 2012 by a new satellite (IS20?) and DSTV already signed a 15 year contract to continu their current services.

[tourleadersi]

Those rumors have been going on for the last 3 years. Fact is that the IS7/10 will be replaced in 2012 by a new satellite (IS20?) and DSTV already signed a 15 year contract to continu their current services.

Thanks for such a rapid reply. So sourcing Multichoice through one of those whopping dishes on the outside of the house is a safe bet for the next couple of years at least then? Any reason why a satelite shop would tell my friend this? They didnt try for an upsell, rather advised prudence.

I bow down to your greater knowledge in this area Prasert.

Edited February 2, 2010 by tourleadersi

[Prasert]

Hahaha, don't be fooled - there's quite some forum members here who know a hel_l of a lot more about satelliteTV than I do.

But I googled those rumours a few weeks ago - they appear every few months, but they're just rumours. The website of Intelsat shows their fleet of satellites, and among other news, the plans to replace the IS7/10. An additional remark was that DSTV signed a 15 year contract on their new bird, including several C-band transponders. So that message would contradict all the hear-say....

[thunder30101]

And some people who claim that others know everything in a sarcastic matter doesnt do much for their credibility either. Who knows in todays economic climate what providors will support in the long term ? Def not posters on here. If I really wanted to know if they will support service here I would be looking in their financial statements and try to find out how much revenue se asia brings in to the bottom line, Im guessing not all that much. so contract or not can they afford expensive sat time for a few customers is the question.

[tourleadersi]

And some people who claim that others know everything in a sarcastic matter doesnt do much for their credibility either. Who knows in todays economic climate what providors will support in the long term ? Def not posters on here. If I really wanted to know if they will support service here I would be looking in their financial statements and try to find out how much revenue se asia brings in to the bottom line, Im guessing not all that much. so contract or not can they afford expensive sat time for a few customers is the question.

Wow thunder, that’s a bit sanctimonious of you. If you were intending to flame me then you would have had better luck lighting one of your own farts. I was being a nice guy and showing my appreciation for someone who appears to know more about something than I do, and who took the time to answer my question with the facts that he has at hand. Its called social etiquette, and just because you are anonymous on some computer somewhere it doesn’t mean you need to stop practicing it. I want to thank you though for taking the time to point out something irrelevant before giving totally impractical advice. If I was curious as to whether the price of beer was likely to go up in my local 7/11 would you recommend I contact the Thai Meteorological Society to get a long term weather forecast to see if there is expected to be a bumper crop in hops and barley over the continuing fiscal year? Sometimes it is just easier to ask if anyone else knows the answer first.

[Valentine]

There seems to be something in the air as the cable companies which basically pirate DSTV occasionally ge scrambled & lately both movie channels have been replaced with ones which are quite inferior. It would be great to be able to receive a reliable & legitimate service where you have choices to what you want to watch, aside from True which basically does not care what it airs & having to choose one o ftheir packages which invariably contain channels which you will never watch.

[abishammy]

And some people who claim that others know everything in a sarcastic matter doesnt do much for their credibility either. Who knows in todays economic climate what providors will support in the long term ? Def not posters on here. If I really wanted to know if they will support service here I would be looking in their financial statements and try to find out how much revenue se asia brings in to the bottom line, Im guessing not all that much. so contract or not can they afford expensive sat time for a few customers is the question.

I know a guy in Pattaya who does the installations for Dstv Africa if your interested.

[Twin]

Those rumors have been going on for the last 3 years. Fact is that the IS7/10 will be replaced in 2012 by a new satellite (IS20?) and DSTV already signed a 15 year contract to continu their current services.

While it is true IS 20 will replace the current IS 10 in the same orbital position, and while it is also true DSTV will utilize this satellite for its Ku Band services, there has been nothing confimed about how - or if - the C Band transponders will be used.

And it is the C Band signal we receive here. The Ku band signal does not reach Thailand.

Although there is speculation the C Band signal from IS 10 will be terminated in May or June, there has been no written confirmation or announcement yet from DSTV. I'm certain there are still thousands of subscribers in Africa who receive their DSTV service from the C Band transponders. So far, DSTV has made no announcement on how they would switch out all these customers to Ku band equipment, which would be necessary before terminating the C Band signal.

From Intelsat's press release:

http://www.intelsat.com/press/news-release...09/20090911.asp

"MultiChoice ( DSTV ) and Intelsat collaborated on the design of the South African Ku-band payload for IS-20, which will optimize the signal reception power for MultiChoice’s more than 2.6 million DStv customers throughout South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique.

The IS-20’s C-band payload will provide regional and international programmers with penetration into one of the most successful cable distribution neighborhoods serving the South Asian cable communities."

[janabiyah]

This is a very interesting thread, the DSTV channel has been around a long time and has been of huge importance to many English speaking people living in the Middle and Far East.

I have been closely associated with this business for a number of years and I hope you will forgive me if I don't reveal too much detail here.

However, I am reliably informed that the C band service will cease end of June this year, so if you are a current subscriber my advice is not to extend it past the deadline of end June.

I have received information from other sources suggesting that a Ku band service may be available, but that would require a change of card.

Anyway, I am following up on this information and will post when something new comes to light.

But you can believe for sure that the current C band will not be available after june.

[astral]

Discussion already running http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Dstv-Africa-t341546.html

This one is closed.