Kipco, backers of the Showtime Arabia pay-TV service in the Middle East, confirmed Monday that the ?merger? with rival Orbit has now been completed
ART is dumping Irdeto and switching to France Telecom-backed Viaccess. Viaccess has been used by Canal+ Overseas for its North African pay-TV service, but not wholly immune from card sharing piracy. ART plans to combat this piracy with their new ?super box?.
ART has to transition from Irdeto to Viaccess and introduce its new highly-specified set-top box. Showtime and Orbit have to settle their merger down and start earning synergies for their backers. Abu Dhabi Media needs to make its plans public, and speedily if it is to capitalise on the 2010 English Premiership signing.
There?s also a more troublesome form of piracy, widespread in the Lebanon and increasingly used in Egypt, where informal (although often highly professional) cable pirates steal the signals and redistribute them for a fraction of the official price ? and with zero revenue benefit to the programming owners. But there are other challenges in the Middle East, not the least of which is piracy. Orbit?s CEO Samir Abdulhardi has publicly admitted that piracy has badly affected Orbit (and by implication Showtime) and that handling piracy in an unspecified but ?radical new way? will be one of the new company?s primary objectives.....
Regards:
Alun
ART is dumping Irdeto and switching to France Telecom-backed Viaccess. Viaccess has been used by Canal+ Overseas for its North African pay-TV service, but not wholly immune from card sharing piracy. ART plans to combat this piracy with their new ?super box?.
ART has to transition from Irdeto to Viaccess and introduce its new highly-specified set-top box. Showtime and Orbit have to settle their merger down and start earning synergies for their backers. Abu Dhabi Media needs to make its plans public, and speedily if it is to capitalise on the 2010 English Premiership signing.
There?s also a more troublesome form of piracy, widespread in the Lebanon and increasingly used in Egypt, where informal (although often highly professional) cable pirates steal the signals and redistribute them for a fraction of the official price ? and with zero revenue benefit to the programming owners. But there are other challenges in the Middle East, not the least of which is piracy. Orbit?s CEO Samir Abdulhardi has publicly admitted that piracy has badly affected Orbit (and by implication Showtime) and that handling piracy in an unspecified but ?radical new way? will be one of the new company?s primary objectives.....
Regards:
Alun