Multi-Choice TV (MCTV) is a
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
service provider in
Barbados
Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...
. It is a
Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) or
DVB-C wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...
microwave-based broadcast subscription television provider. They offer a variety of packages which can be considered as comparatively priced to similar providers throughout the world.
History
The service began operating on December 14, 1987, under the name Subscription Television (STV), which had very few channels offered. The main channels were
CNN,
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
, and
Lifetime Television, with an occasional option of
pay per view (PPV) 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 (e.g. the
BBC, Canada's
CBC and
TBN), eventually reaching
bandwidth capacity and having to upgrade the service to a
digital broadcast system. Multi-Choice TV have not fully converted all of its subscribers yet. The system relies on
line-of-sight propagation so total island wide coverage has proved to be a problem and the provider is looking into alternatives. A recent press release has indicated their interest in a partnership with the local
telco LIME.
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
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
to decode their signal which is based on
Nagravision which is a conditional access control system developed by the
Kudelski Group. 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 planning for further circumvention of the Dream boxes in 2009.
In 2014, MCTV announced that it would begin carrying new channels such as MovieCity Action (now Star Action), MovieCity Hollywood (now Star Hits),
AMC,
KTLA,
WGN, Disney, and the
NBC Sports Network. They also introduced 20 HD channels, such as
ABC,
NBC,
CBS &
FOX and also released new PVR boxes. MCTV also introduced a new slogan, ''MCTV the Right Choice''.
Multi-Choice TV also competes against the
US-based
direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service provider
DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
in Barbados. The service uses the
NTSC television format.
See also
*
Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
*
Communications in Barbados
Further reading
CBC's Digital Plans Get A BoostCBC Makes Moves
References
External links
Cable channels lineup- List of cable service channels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Multi-Choice Tv (Barbados)
Television companies of Barbados
Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation
Mass media in Barbados
Microwave transmission
Pay television