Viewers in The Netherlands and Belgium who subscribe to the DTH service from Canal Digitaal Satelliet and TV Vlaanderen will lose a number of their channels because of UPC Direct’s move to One West.
On July 9, Telenor and UPC announced that the UPC Direct platform would move from the Astra 19.2 degrees East position to the Telenor 1 degree West slot (see Broadband TV News passim).
The two Benelux DTH platforms take channels from the UPC Direct bouquet, which are transmitted in simulcrypt. Seven channels in total are involved: BebeTV, JimJam, Eurosport2, Extreme Sports Channel, Zone Reality, XXX Xtreme and Hustler TV. They are sold as part of various packages on the two platforms.
Earlier, subscribers lost access to BBC Prime, when the channel was withdrawn from the UPC Direct platform.
Recently, three Turner channels – TCM, Cartoon Network and Boomerang – were removed from Canal Digitaal packages after the platform failed to agree on the terms of distribution with Turner Broadcasting.
