At the weekend, cable company Golden Channels submitted a request to Minister of Communications director-general Danny Rosenne and the ministry’s Cable Television Service to start multi-channel digital television broadcasts, combined with data and information transmission services. The project amounts to NIS 70 million.
The request is a second, expanded version of an initial document submitted to the Ministry of Communications in August 1998, and includes all the various technical and operational aspects of the new system. Golden Channels is the first of the cable companies to apply to the Minister of Communications on this matter. On approval, the equipment will be installed at the broadcasting center, and the company will be able to start controlled, trial operation of the service.
Golden Channels general manager Eliav Ashkenazi said the request details the type of services and technologies the company is interested in providing its 440,000 subscribers. The services are most advanced and interactive, and include PPV (pay per view) viewing and NVOD fast Internet surfing and data transmission, in addition to a wide range of television services.
According to Ashkenazi, Golden Channels is interested in starting to implement the project immediately, even though the system can be operated in stages. Ashkenazi expressed the hope that the Ministry of Communications would not delay approval of the request, since it would take some time to develop and implement the project.
Last week, Minister of Communications Limor Livnat sent a letter to cable companies asking them for their response to the possibility that they would be permitted to provide broadcasting clusters parallel to the DBS companies, but only in digital technology, the operating cost of which is much higher. This offer is under consideration by the Ministry of Communication’s Broadcasting Administration as an alternative to the tiering window being planned.
Published by Israel's Business Arena April 11, 1999