JEDDAH, 2 January — Orbit and Star Select are on a warpath.
Orbit has announced that legal proceedings are in process between the two parties "due to repeated breaches of contract by Star".
Asked why Star withdrew from Orbit, a spokesman of the Dubai-based PR company acting on behalf of Orbit refused to comment other than to say it was an "ongoing legal matter". Orbit and Star Select have had a joint contract since 1996.
Explaining the background to the withdrawal of Star Select, Orbit says: "Due to technical problems with the satellite, as confirmed in the local media, Orbit was obliged to remove one transponder with the Star Select channels earlier than anticipated on the MPEG 1.5 decoder. Orbit would like to apologize to those subscribers with the MPEG 1.5 decoder who lost Star Select. In order to compensate its subscribers for the premature loss of the Star channels, Orbit has offered its own channels at no additional cost."
Orbit further states that it remains committed to its subscribers by offering them the best quality Arabic and English programming in the region and has been working in the background to gain the rights of some of the more interesting Star Select programs, including Sky News. In addition, CNBC, Bloomberg and Fashion TV have already moved to the Orbit platform.
Asked about the exiting lineup of new channels, the spokesman said: "Orbit works constantly to reassess, review and improve its channel lineup to satisfy customer tastes and demand, and to remain at the forefront of the pay TV industry."
The company is currently revising its channel lineup with the addition of a variety of new channels, including two new English movie channels, a documentary channel, two exciting new Arab channels, as well as sports, variety, children’s and additional financial and news channels, including the exclusive CNBC (US Feed), he added.
Orbit with its five Arabic and 12 English language channels will continue to expand its services to its subscribers across the region. Soon to arrive will be Pay Per View services, e-mail, games and Internet via satellite through the new decoder that is currently being swapped free to Orbit subscribers, he said.
Star Select has since moved to Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), claimed to be the fastest growing pay-TV platform management company, which also manages FirstNet, Al-Awael and Pehla pay-TV bouquets and is part of the AMC media conglomerate that includes Rotana Music, ART channels and several other media operations.
Commenting on the ADD agreement with Planetarabia Holdings Inc., Imad Benharouga, CEO of Planetarabia, said: "This is the first deal of its kind in this region. An established media powerhouse has teamed up with an IT news media leader to create a singularly well-endowed company."
As part of the deal, ADD has acquired a major strategic equity stake in Planetarabia. While the exact value of the deal has not been disclosed, it is safely in the several million dollars bracket, considering that Planetarabia had already attracted over $5 million in venture capital.
ADD and Planetarabia have been cooperating for several months on various projects such as providing live sports coverage via the Internet and providing Internet coverage to a number of ADD telecast shows. After almost a year of working with each other the companies decided to formalize their bond.
"This deal has clearly transported Planetarabia to the leadership slot among the existing Arabian portals. In an industry full of companies hemorrhaging money, we’re the sole operator that’s able to meet its expenses by and large through its revenues. With ADD on board we’ve access to the best content that enhances the award winning services that we’ve been offering to our users. Clearly this is the recipe for greater success," said Saad Faruqui, Planetarabia’s director of business development.
