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North Africa This month Wotsat looks at free TV from North Africa and how to get it
Canal Algerie is Algeria’s main free channel
Toolkit What you need to receive North African free TV n Free-to-air DVB digital satellite receiver n 60cm dish with universal LNB aimed at Hot Bird (13°E). See Channel Check for dish sizes required on other satellites
The difficult terrain of North Africa makes it an ideal place for satellite TV to thrive, especially when you combine it with the boring TV that often accompanies an autocratic government, and drives people to look elsewhere for entertainment. Residences from Morocco to Egypt are festooned with dishes. So the local state-owned broadcasters use satellite TV to reach their viewers without building expensive terrestrial networks into rural areas, and the viewers use satellite to watch something else – either foreign-based opposition groups, TV channels from other parts of the Arab world, or pay-TV networks. The latter used to suffer very heavily from piracy (although the viewing figures were great!) but recent encryption upgrades have forced away many non-paying viewers. The biggest TV season in the Arab world comes with Ramadan. Every night, millions of Muslims break their daylight fast in front of the TV, and advertisers target them – not just with ingredients for tomorrow’s feast, but consumer durables. Prime time commercial rates double, so it’s also when the most expensive home-grown game shows, variety shows and sitcoms air.
Nile TV International is aimed at expats 2 What Satellite & Digital TV
Engineering or Algerian Antiques Roadshow?
The state-run channels are financed either by advertising, or by a licence fee which is usually levied with the electricity bill because that’s the one thing the government can guarantee people will pay. They tend to be conservative, and news focuses on the state’s achievements and the ruler’s daily engagements, with little coverage of the opposition. Local culture is encouraged; Libyan TV showcases music, with traditional Tuareg music and dance popular in the south. While Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria all have a single privately owned TV channel, the main source of non-state broadcasting comes from Egypt, which encouraged new channels with a lavish Media City. But not everything that came out of this was complimentary to the state, and in February 2009 most of the Arab League states adopted the Principles for Organising Satellite Broadcast and Television Transmission and Reception in the Arab Region, which was adopted by the Arab League. This charter calls on member states to stop satellite TV channels broadcasting transmissions that ‘negatively affect social peace, national unity, public order, and public morals’ or ‘defame leaders, or national and religious symbols [of other Arab states]’. Only Qatar and Lebanon refused to sign it, and it has neutered the more interesting voices in Arabic TV n
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Sudan TV news has that 1970s BBC vibe, plus veil
Five of North African TV’s most popular shows
Al Qadiya (The Cause)
2M (Morocco) The Cause follows a female police officer heading a scientific department in the traditionalist police force.
Alhane wa chabab
Canal Algerie (Algeria) Home-grown talent competition Alhane Wa Chabab has overtaken ART’s Star Academy with audiences since coming to Algeria – not least because it’s on free TV.
al-Beit Beitak
Al Masriya (Egypt) Nightly game show The House Is Yours gives away a home to an Egyptian couple so they can get married.
The Day Has Passed
Nile TV (Egypt) Drama series about Jalal Arif, a fictional character representing the corrupt leaders held responsible for Egypt’s defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
Choufli Hal
Tunisie 7 (Tunisia) Top Ramadan sitcom Find Me A Solution is about a psychiatrist and a psychic, extracting laughs from unemployment. counterfeiting and poor housing.
n Free TV from the Near East
Traditional music is popular on Libyan TV
TV talent shows – is there anywhere they’re not a hit?
Euro spotlight Footprint Astra 1E is a Hughes ‘spinner’ like Astra 2D
Pop music from the more liberal TV of Morocco
Free North African TV CHANNEL
satellite
GENRE
Free Algerian TV Algerie 4 Algerie 5 BRTV Canal Algerie Thalitha TV
13°E, 22°W 13°E, 22°W 13°E 19.2°E, 13°E 13°E, 22°W
General entertainment General entertainment Berber entertainment General entertainment General entertainment
Free Egyptian TV Al Hayat Al Madina TV Al Masriyah Al Nile Al Hayat CTV ERTU4 Egypt ERTU5 ERTU8 Egypt Nile TV International
13°E, 12.5°W 26° 19.2°E, 13°E 13°E 26°E 13°E 53°E
Religion: Christian Social education Expat entertainment News News Religion: Christian Regional: Eastern
53°E 53°E
Regional: Alexandria Regional: Southern
13°E
International news
Free Libyan TV Al Libiya TV 53°E Jamahirya Sat Channel 13°E Libya Al Shababiyah 13°E Libya Educational 1 36°E Tawasul TV 9°E
Free Malian TV Africable
7°E
General entertainment General entertainment General entertainment Education Religion: Islamic
General entertainment
CHANNEL
GENRE
ORTM
7°E
General entertainment
Free Mauritanian TV TV de Mauritanie Sat 26°E
General entertainment
Free Moroccan TV 2M Monde Al Aoula Al Hakim TV Al Maghribiya AM TV Arrabia Arryadia Assadissa Medi 1 Sat
19.2°E, 13°E 13°E 26°E 13°E 26°E 13°E 13°E 13°E 36°E, 19.2°E, 13°E
General entertainment General entertainment General entertainment Moroccan culture General entertainment Social education Sports Religion: Islam News
Free Sudanese TV Ashoroog TV Southern Sudan TV Sudan TV Tayba TV
26°E 26°E 26°E, 13°E 26°E
General entertainment General entertainment General entertainment Religion: Islam
Free Tunisian TV Tunisie 7
19.2°E, 16°E, 13°E General entertainment
Free Western SaharanTV RASD TV
24.5°W
General entertainment
NOTE: There are no free TV channels from Chad or Niger available in the UK See Channel Check page 56 for frequencies
23.5°E Astra’s third major position has grown from being a feed for German cable head-ends with about 50 channels in 2004, to an expansion of 19.2°E for pay-TV broadcasters from Holland and the Czech Republic, with more than 400 channels today. Astra even produces a Duo LNB that allows viewers to receive both channels simultaneously on a 60cm dish across most of Europe, and it’s the home of ASTRA2Connect, the Ku-band two-way broadband service promoted to rural areas. Its motley fleet of old and new satellites, from Astra 1E to 3A – 3B is scheduled to join them by 2010. n Operator: SES-Astra
Satellites n Astra 3A
Launched: Ariane 44L, Kourou, March 29, 2002 Launch mass: 1,500kg Manufacturer: Boeing Satellite Systems BSS-376HP Transponders: 20 Ku-band EIRP: 52dBW Beams: Central Europe n Astra 1E
Launched: Ariane 42L, Kourou, October 19, 1995 Launch mass: 3,014kg Manufacturer: Hughes HS-601 Transponders: 17 Ku-band EIRP: 51dBW Beams: BSS vertical & horizontal, FSS vertical & horizontal n Astra 1G
Launched: Proton K Block DM3, Baikonour, Dec 2, 1997 Launch mass: 3,379kg Manufacturer: Hughes HS-601HP Transponders: 32 Ku-band EIRP: 51dBW Beams: 1G n Astra 3B
Whatever’s happening, this looks like bad news on Egypt’s Nile News channel
Launched: Arian 5ECA, Kourou, early 2010 Launch mass: 5,400kg Manufacturer: Astrium Eurostar 3000 Transponders: 52 Ku-band, 4 Ka-band EIRP: 52dBW Beams: To be confirmed
What Satellite & Digital TV 3