28
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ISSUE 2 2014
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THE CHANNEL
didn’t have a media
background to begin with.
But my current boss and I
were looking into
establishing a pay-TV
platform. We began the
SkyNet service in 2010 and
started test transmissions at the end
of that year. Since then, we’ve
expanded the service more and
more. At the moment we have
about 109 channels on our pay-TV
platform. Our distribution is DTH
via satellite. For some stations there
has been the issue of the digital
switchover, but we started out late
enough and so SkyNet began as a
digital channel and there was no
need to do a switchover. We have
been transmitting in MPEG-4 right
from the start.
We are an entirely tapeless
operation. When we started our
service at the end of 2010, we began
with about 36 channels. There were
13 of our in-house channels – ten of
our entertainment channels, three
of our sports channels. And 23
international channels. Later on, we
expanded more and more, offering
more international channels,
rebroadcasting the direct feed of
those channels. And we also
expanded our own offerings of in-
house package channels. Right
now, we have 26 in-house channels
– two are HD, and the rest are SD.
We have a total of 70+ international
feeds as well.
What were the challenges of
setting up SkyNet?
When we first started in 2010, it
was a little difficult – our country
I
OPENINGUPTHESKY
Win Naing, Executive General Manager of Shwe Than Lwin Media in Myanmar,
established DTH pay-TV platform SkyNet at a time when Western sanctions were still
in force. Today SkyNet is Myanmar’s biggest digital pay channel – what were the
challenges faced in SkyNet’s first years?
was sanctioned by Western
countries, the EU as well as
America. So when we tried to
acquire content from some of those
Western channels, they refused to
sell to us, even though we were a
totally private media company. But
those regulations are getting better
and better these days, so we don’t
have that problem any more. At
first, we had a lot of problems
acquiring American channels. Now
we have pretty much all of them.
We have HBO, CNN, Cartoon
Network, Bloomberg, MTV, as well
as all the European channels.
Where did you source content from
at first?
It was mostly local content. And we
had about 13 in-house channels
that consisted of some acquired
InMyanmar
the biggest
challenge
is the
piracy
problem
“
”
