MBC has confirmed a deal with set top box manufacturer Technosat to BroadcastPro Middle East. Early last month, BroadcastPro ME broke the story that MBC would be launching an HD bouquet. The broadcaster is due to sign a deal with Technosat that would make its HD channels available on Technosat STBs. Indeed, well be launching […]
MBC has confirmed a deal with set top box manufacturer Technosat to BroadcastPro Middle East.
Early last month, BroadcastPro ME broke the story that MBC would be launching an HD bouquet.
The broadcaster is due to sign a deal with Technosat that would make its HD channels available on Technosat STBs.
Indeed, well be launching a bouquet of MBC HD channels sometime during 2011, although we cannot confirm a date yet due to technical considerations,” clarified Mazen Hayek, official spokesperson, Group Director of PR and Commercial, MBC Group.
” The channels will be HD versions of current MBC channels that will benefit most from HD broadcast,” he added.
Hayek clarified that the channels would be free-to-air but would be carried on encrypted boxes owing to mandates from US studios.
“Some of the US studios who supply our Western content insist that HD content is encrypted. Therefore, we shall be encrypting the signal and people will need to have a certain type of box or card to decrypt the signal. However, once they have this box or card (one-time purchase) our HD channels will be totally open and free. The content of MBC HD channels will be non-exclusive. We are currently in discussions with several platforms, who are interested to carry the bouquet of MBC HD channels. One of those parties is Technosat, and we envisage closing a non-exclusive deal in the near future, Hayek added.
