Multi-Choice TV

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Multi-Choice TV

The television service provider known as Multi-Choice TV or MCTV is a MMDS or DVB-C wireless microwave based broadcast subscription television provider in the country of Barbados. They offer a variety of packages which can be considered as comparatively priced to similar providers throughout the world. The service began operating on December 14, 1987 under the name Subscription Television (STV), which had very few channels offered main channels were (CNN, ESPN, and Lifetime Television) with an occasional option of Pay Per View being offered for local special events and the occasional international PPV sports broadcast. In 1996 it was upgraded to include a new platform called Multi-Choice TV which was an analog wireless microwave broadcast offering many more channels (i.e. BBC, Canada's CBC, TBN, etc.) eventually maxing the bandwidth capacity and having lately to upgrade the service to a digital broadcast system, Multi-Choice TV have not fully converted all of its subscribers as yet. The system relies on line-of-sight propagation so total island wide coverage have proved to be a problem and the provider is looking into alternatives. A recent press release have indicated their interest in a partnership with the local telco LIME . From 1 September 2008 MCTV replaced the Travel Channel on 511 (part of the High Flyer package) by Setanta Sports.

Given that the service uses a Yagi antenna to receive the encrypted broadcast, which in turn is then decrypted by the provider's set top box. The provider now has the problem of signal theft by pirates using modified DVB-C compatible receivers and PCI cards with the most popular being the "Dreambox" manufactured in Germany to decode their signal which is based on Nagravision which is a conditional access control system developed by Kudelski . In order to prevent such activity in August, 2006 the Government of Barbados stiffened the local Barbadian copyright laws, in addition to a strengthening of the laws on cable TV piracy. The CBC provider is presently planning for further circumvention of the Dream boxes in 2009.^[1]

Multi-Choice TV also competes against the US-based direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service provider DirecTV in Barbados.

The service uses the NTSC television format.

Current channel lineup

This section is outdated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (June 2011)

Below is a numerical representation of the Multi-Choice TV channel lineup. These channels are arranged in five tiers:

See also

• Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

References

External links

• Official Site
• Dreambox Support
• Cable channels lineup - List of cable service channels

v t e Cable, satellite, and other speciality television providers in the Americas v t e Telecommunications in Canada Terrestrial and Satellite Satellite Bell TV · Shaw Direct Cable1 BC CityWest · Novus · Omineca Prairies Access · Shaw · Westman Ontario Cogeco · Rogers · Source Quebec Axion · Cablevision · Dery · Vidéotron Atlantic EastLink See also Defunct cable and DBS companies of Canada IPTV Bell Aliant · Bell Fibe TV · MTS · SaskTel Max · Telus · TBaytel MMDS Craig Wireless Americas · Canada · Europe · Africa, Asia, and Oceania 1Providers sorted by primary service area; some providers may also serve significant portions of other regions. v t e Cable, satellite, and other speciality television providers in Latin America and the Caribbean Cable Claro · Columbus (Caribbean) · Megacable (Mexico) · Net (Brazil) · VTR Chile Satellite Claro · DirecTV Latin America (and Caribbean region) Channels  · Dish Network (Channels:USA | Mexico)  · SKY México  · SKY Brasil  · Via Embratel (Brazil) Terrestrial microwave Multi-Choice TV (Barbados) Americas · Canada · Europe · Africa, Asia, and Oceania · United States v t e Cable, satellite, and other speciality television providers in the United States Cable Adams Cable · Advanced Cable Communications · Astound Broadband · Atlantic Broadband · Armstrong Telephone Company · Allegiance Communications · Blue Ridge Communications · Bright House Networks · Broadstripe · Buckeye CableSystem · Cable One · Cablevision · Champion Broadband · Charter · Cobridge Communications · Comcast · Cox Communications · Emery Telcom · FairPoint Communications · GCI · Hargray · Insight · Knology · MCV Broadband · Mediacom · Midcontinent Communications · Northland Cable Television · OneLink · RCN  · Satview Broadband · Service Electric · SRT · Suddenlink · Time Warner Cable · Truvista Communications · US Cable · Wave Broadband · Western Broadband · Windjammer Communications · WOW!  · Xfinity (Comcast) Satellite Claro · DirecTV (Channels)  · Dish Network (Channels) · Glorystar  · GlobeCast  · HITS IPTV Claro  · Hawaiian Telcom  · NEP Datastream TV  · Sky Angel (Channels)  · SureWest  · U-verse (AT&T) Fiber FiOS (Verizon) (Channels)  · FiOptics (Cincinnati Bell) Defunct cable TV Adelphia  · Alameda Power and Telecom · AT&T Broadband ( MediaOne/Continental Cablevision · Tele-Communications Inc. ) · Bresnan Communications · Graceba Total Communications · Jones Intercable · King Videocable · Marcus Cable · NPG Cable · Paragon Cable · Precis Communications · Rapid Communications · UA-Columbia Cablevision Defunct satellite AlphaStar · PrimeStar · USSB · Voom Defunct IPTV VDC · Qwest Choice TV Defunct terrestrial USDTV Americas · Canada · Europe · Africa, Asia, and Oceania · United States Americas · Europe · Africa, Asia, and Oceania