DirecTV Latin America forced to walk away from its Venezuela uplink facility

[Inclined Orbit]

Last night ATT/DirecTV pulled the plug on all uplinks from its Venezuela uplink center in Caracas and other sites within the DirecTV Latin America system took over responsibility for uplinking the content. For most, the programs will continue on your TV sets from the DTVLA system. For me its a number of good friends who worked in Venezuela are now out of a job in a very hostile environment. Be safe my friends.....

AT&T shuts Venezuela subscription TV unit, citing U.S. sanctions

AT&T Inc <T.N> said on Tuesday it was shutting its DirecTV subscription access to Venezuela due to U.S. sanctions, cutting off a key source of entertainment for millions of people stuck in their homes under a strict coronavirus quarantine.

www.reuters.com

 

[krynn]

wonders if streaming had an effect aswell

 

[mario315]

wonders if streaming had an effect aswell

Streaming ? Are you kidding ? In Venezuela most homes are lucky if they have electricity for more than a couple of hours a day .... and running water. Millions have fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

Satellite TV was government price-capped at about 50 cents per month. DTV was just hanging in to see if the government would eventually fall.

 

[dare2be]

Satellite TV was government price-capped at about 50 cents per month. DTV was just hanging in to see if the government would eventually fall.

Source?

All I can find is this, which has nothing to do with price or playing a waiting game:

Today, AT&T Inc. announced that it has closed its DIRECTV Latin America operations in Venezuela, effective immediately. The U.S. government’s sanctions on Venezuela have prohibited the broadcast of Globovision and PDVSA’s channels, both of which are required under DIRECTV’s license to provide pay TV service in Venezuela.

 

[mario315]

Source: El Nuevo Herald (Miami, Florida) has been writing extensively on this issue this week--- www.elnuevoherald.com. They explain how the government forced DTV to subsidize their service (for pennies) in order to keep the population indoors occupied.

The reason given by DTV in the press release is a legal/ technical strategy to exit the country without putting at risk all their workers still there. These long-time employees at the big Caracas Uplink Center now need to flee the country without government retaliation or repercussions to their families.

As for the tragedy of the Venezuelan reality you can check out any international news outlet, most have been writing about it continuously over the last 5 years. The dire situation there is no secret.

 

[dare2be]

Thanks. Yeah, I was just trying to find verification on the pennies for service part of it.

 

[krynn]

Venezuela Supreme Court orders DirecTV to restore service

Venezuela's Supreme Court on Friday ordered pay television service DirecTV to restore services in the South American country, after owner AT&T Inc said earlier this week it was shutting access due to U.S. sanctions. DirecTV was the country's most popular television service, providing a range of...

www.yahoo.com

 

[krynn]

Streaming ? Are you kidding ? In Venezuela most homes are lucky if they have electricity for more than a couple of hours a day .... and running water. Millions have fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

Satellite TV was government price-capped at about 50 cents per month. DTV was just hanging in to see if the government would eventually fall.

i'm still trying to figure out how they can afford to pay 200.00 a month for t.v.

 

[comp9]

i'm still trying to figure out how they can afford to pay 200.00 a month for t.v.

They don’t. It was subsidized

 

[slice1900]

Venezuela Supreme Court orders DirecTV to restore service

Venezuela's Supreme Court on Friday ordered pay television service DirecTV to restore services in the South American country, after owner AT&T Inc said earlier this week it was shutting access due to U.S. sanctions. DirecTV was the country's most popular television service, providing a range of...

www.yahoo.com

That's kind of hilarious, what exactly are they going to seize? The satellites in orbit? I guess they can take ownership of the uplink center in Caracas, but their armed forces have no way of enforcing an order to restore Directv service in the country.

 

[krynn]

That's kind of hilarious, what exactly are they going to seize? The satellites in orbit? I guess they can take ownership of the uplink center in Caracas, but their armed forces have no way of enforcing an order to restore Directv service in the country.

Venezuelan high court orders DirecTV property seized

Venezuela's high court has ordered the immediate seizure of all DirecTV property, days after the U.S. firm abandoned its services in the South American nation, citing U.S. sanctions.

www.pbs.org

 

[Inclined Orbit]

The shutdown of Venezuela was from the US State Dept insisting ATT/DirecTV divest interests in Venezuela due to the hostile Govt there. For years and years and well before ATT acquired DirecTV, they had a contingency plan to pull the plug on Venezuela uplinks and transfer broadcasts to other DTVLA sites in case the hostile Govt took over the broadcast center. This recent shutdown was staged based on the completion of needed uplink equipment at a new DTVLA site to take over the broadcasts and the shutdown and transfer of broadcasts was done without the knowledge of personnel in Venezuela in the middle of the night. They basically had the rug pulled out from under them. If the new equipment had been operational at a new site I believe the shutdown would have happened sooner.

My opinion is the Venezuela Govt will seize the DirecTV uplink site there but it would be impossible for them to uplink anything that could be received by DTVLA customers in Venezuela or anywhere else. Uplink frequencies have been remapped in the satellite and there would be no conditional access streams, program guide or other things needed at the Venezuela site to complete the broadcast. They could possibly use the uplink site to jam other DTVLA transponders, but I don't know if they have the knowledge to do that without help from former employees.

 

[mario315]

It appears that DirecTV was the main, if not the only, source for TV news and entertainment for the Presidential Palace and for the government buildings, in addition to serving most of the population basically for free. El Nuevo Herald has been reporting that they are now basically disconnected from the world in a country where internet service is very poor and/or spotty.

This would explain why the dictator Maduro immediately sent marching orders to his kangaroo Supreme Court to "order" DTV service reinstated. El Herald mentions that he often quotes in his speeches the DTV channel numbers, like saying he saw it on Channel 706 (CNN), etc.

Apparently they think they can reinstate the DTV broadcasts similarly to when the government took over the PDVSA oil facilities from the long-time private operators some years ago. That was a disaster but they were able to get oil to flow again, but at much reduced volumes. Let's see how much fun they are going to have trying to duplicate their oil takeover gameplan at the DTV Uplink Center.

 

[dishrich]

Just curious, what satellite(s) does D* use for LA/Venezuela? Was trying to figure it out over@Lyngsat...

 

[Inclined Orbit]

Intelsat 30 and 31, also known as DLA 1 and DLA 2 at 95W. I'm not up on current satellite footprints but I would not be surprised if El Presedente does not get a DTVLA box from another region and bring to Venezuela so he can watch TV.

Just curious, what satellite(s) does D* use for LA/Venezuela? Was trying to figure it out over@Lyngsat...

 

[dishrich]

Intelsat 30 and 31, also known as DLA 1 and DLA 2 at 95W.

That's what I thought...Lyngsat is showing their last update on both was 5/20 & is now showing NOTHING exists on them.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

The RF package and transponders are proprietary for Directv, so the details would not be listed. But I have it somewhere around here.

That's what I thought...Lyngsat is showing their last update on both was 5/20 & is now showing NOTHING exists on them.

 

[dishrich]

But they do at least list channels/#'s on other D* satellites (but I don't think they've been updated in quite awhile)...they're now showing these 2 satellites completely empty, with NO working services

 

[slice1900]

Venezuelan high court orders DirecTV property seized

Venezuela's high court has ordered the immediate seizure of all DirecTV property, days after the U.S. firm abandoned its services in the South American nation, citing U.S. sanctions.

www.pbs.org

Which is property AT&T assumed they'd lose when they made this decision. If they aren't doing business in Venezuela anymore they have no use for it. Not only that, they'll get a tax writeoff from having the equipment seized, which probably nets them more money than if they had tried to sell everything off

 

[Inclined Orbit]

Trust me, both satellites are in full use, all transponders. Much if not all the stuff uplinked from Venezuela has been offloaded to other sites, except for the propaganda broadcasts from our good friend El Presidente. These two specific satellites were built exclusively for Directv Latin America and the uplink/downlink frequencies are nobody's business except for Directv, that's why its not published.

But they do at least list channels/#'s on other D* satellites (but I don't think they've been updated in quite awhile)...they're now showing these 2 satellites completely empty, with NO working services