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The loss of various channel signals and intermittent broadcast disruption last week of TV channels on both the pay TV bouquets of On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV as well as MultiChoice's DStv in South Africa not only had to do with inclement weather between subscribers' satellite dishes and the satellite feed they're receiving. The signal loss actually also stemmed from the severly bad weather causing signal loss between the satellites and the big rooftop corporate satellite dishes of South Africa's satellite operators used for what the biz calls ''uplinking''.
While viewers might have thought (and have been blissfully left to think) that their signal disruption is due to just their own satellite dishes unable to receive a broken signal due to terrible weather right where they are, I'm told that ODM and MultiChoice actually both suffered similar problems getting their signals out in the first place. This affected ODM and MultiChoice (some of MultiChoice's rooftop dishes seen here in nicer weather) in varying degrees.
''Haven't been as bad as this in quite a while,'' one insider told me. ''It was really just extraordinarly heavy and unusual weather that caused some uplink distortions and problems. It was intermittent and for short periods.'' Another one said the transmission relay system is ''robust'' but that ''weather conditions experienced was more unusual that what's the case during bad weather''.
