MULTI-CHOICE TV (BARBADOS)

The television service provider known as 'Multi-Choice TV' or 'MCTV' is a DVB-C wireless microwave based broadcast cable television service provider in the country of Barbados. Though not as diverse, they offer a variety of packages which can be considered as comparatively priced to similar providers through out the world. The service began operating on December 14 1987 under the name STV (Subscription Television), which had very few channels (CNN, ESPN, Lifetime Television, Cartoon Network and TNT LA.) with an occasional option of Pay Per View 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 (i.e BBC, Canada's CBC, TBN, etc.) eventually maxing the bandwidth capacity and having lately to upgrade the service to a digital broadcast system, Multi-Choice TV have not fully converted all of it's subscribers as yet. The system relies on line-of-sight propagation so total island wide coverage have proved to be a problem and the provider is looking into alternatives. A recent press release have indicated their interest in a partnership with the local telco Cable and Wireless .
Given that 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 to decode their signal which is based on Nagravision which is a conditional access control system developed by Kudelski . 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.
Multi-Choice TV also competes against the US-based direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service provider DirecTV Latin America in Barbados.

Contents

Current channel lineup

See also

External links

Current channel lineup

Below is a numerical representation of the 'Multi-Choice TV channel lineup'. These channels are arranged in five tiers:

Channel	Tier	Network	Site	Notes
108 - 112: 'Local'
108	Basic	'CBC TV 8'	Link	Local government-owned CBC TV-8.
109	Basic	'Discover Barbados TV'	★
110	Basic	'Carib Vision'	★
111	Basic	'"The One" 98.1 FM'	Link	(As audio stream only)
112	Basic	'"Quality" 100.7 FM '	★	(As audio stream only)
200 - 209: 'News'
200	Basic	'Cubavision International'	Link	CubaVision - Cuba International
201	Basic	'CNN (US)'	Link
202	Plus	'CNN International'	Link
203	High Flyer	'CNBC'	Link
204	Basic	'BBC World'	Link
205	Basic	'Fox News'	Link
206	Basic	'Court TV'	Link
207	High Flyer	'Bloomberg'	Link
208	High Flyer	'G4techTV'	Link	Canadian channel
209	Plus	'China Central Television (CCTV)'	Link	the Chinese national television network.
300 - 305: 'Sports'
300	Basic	'ESPN'	Link
301	Plus	'Fox Soccer Channel'	Link
302	High Flyer	'ESPN2'	Link
303	High Flyer	'FUEL TV'	Link
304	High Flyer	'The Golf Channel'	Link
305	High Flyer	'SpeedVision'	Link
400 - 406: 'Children'
400	Basic	'Boomerang'	Link
401	Basic	'Cartoon Network'	Link
402	Basic Extra	'Animal Planet'	Link
403	''(vacant)''
404	Basic	'Discovery Kids'	Link
405	Basic Extra	'Nickelodeon'	Link
406	Basic Extra	'Nickelodeon GAS'	Link	''(to become 'The N' in 2008)''
500 - 511: 'Educational/Entertainment'
500	Basic	'National Geographic Channel'	Link
501	Basic	'Discovery Channel'	Link
502	Basic	'Discovery Health'	Link
503	Basic	'PBS ''(affiliate unknown)'''	Link
504	Plus	'Sony Entertainment Television'	Link
505	Plus	'Warner Channel'	Link
506	Plus	'WWOR-TV (My Network TV)'	Link	New York City, New York
507	Plus	'CKVU-TV (Citytv)'	Link	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
508	Basic Extra	'Oxygen'	Link
509	Basic Extra	'Lifetime Real Women'	Link
510	Basic Extra	'The History Channel'	Link
511	High Flyer	'Travel Channel'	Link
600 - 608: 'Spirituality, music and culture'
600	Basic	'TBN'	Link
601	Basic	'3ABN'	Link
602	Basic	'EWTN'	Link
603	Basic	'VH1 Soul'	Link
604	Basic	'Gospel Music Channel'	Link
605	Basic	'E!'	Link
606	Basic	'Telemundo'	Link
607	Plus	'BET on Jazz'	Link
608	Basic	'MTV Tempo'	Link
700 - 712: 'Entertainment'
700	Basic	'ABC ''(affiliate unknown)'''	Link
701	Basic	'BET'	Link
702	Plus	'WSEE-TV (CBS)'	Link	Erie, Pennsylvania ''(Prime Time 24 feed)''
703	Basic	'CBLT (CBC Canada)'	Link	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
704	Plus	'Game Show Network'	Link
705	Basic	'Lifetime'	Link
706	Plus	'NBC ''(affiliate unknown)'''	Link
707	Plus	'Fox ''(affiliate unknown)'''	Link
708	Plus	'HBO Family'	Link
709	Basic Extra	'HGTV'	Link
710	Basic Extra	'Food Network'	Link
711	Basic Extra	'DIY'	Link
712	Basic Extra	'Fine Living'	Link
800 - 810: 'Movies'
800	Basic	'TNT'	Link
801	Premium	'HBO Plus'	Link	HBO-Latin America
802	Premium	'Cinemax East'	Link
803	Premium	'HBO East'	Link
804	Premium	'Cinemax West'	Link
805	Premium	'HBO West'	Link
806	Premium	'Hallmark Channel'	Link
807	Premium	'Lifetime Movies'	★
808	Premium	'Cinecanal West'	Link
809	Premium	'Movie City East'	Link
810	Premium	'Turner Classic Movies'	Link

See also

★ Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

External links

★ Official Site

★ Dreambox Support

★ Cable channels lineup - List of cable service channels