Despite its dubious legal status, could Dream Box be the next big satellite service provider, asks Mai Samih It happened last January after the satellite television network Al-Jazeera bought the ART channels for $2.75 billion. Subscribers then discovered that they were required to pay their sports channel subscription twice, the first time to ART before it was sold to Al-Jazeera, and the second time to Al-Jazeera itself after it bought the channels. More than 100 subscribers filed cases against the two channels in January this year, accusing them of fraud, since services were cut to those who effectively refused to pay twice. Salah Zulfiqar, 31, an engineer, spends a lot of spare time watching football channels, and so he was annoyed to find some weeks ago that half the channels he thought he had paid for had disappeared. "I was not given a refund for the subscription I had paid and was told that the service would be resumed after the appearance of a new decoder that had yet to be imported," Zulfiqar said. In addition, he would have to pay a subscription until the service resumed, even though it was not clear when that would be. The problem happened again when the Orbit channel was taken off the air for two weeks, and Zulfiqar was obliged to continue paying for channels he could not access. "After that, we were told that we would not be able to view any channels unless we paid for those we could no longer view. As a result, I had to pay $100 to see channels shut down after the African Cup earlier this year." In June, Minister of Information Anas El-Fiqi gave Egyptian satellite channels permission to broadcast Egyptian football matches free of charge, though this only solved part of the problem for subscribers like Zulfiqar. Mohamed Mokhtar, 18, an engineering student and keen football fan, was also unable to watch his favourite teams because of the service cut. The reason, he believes, is "a problem of coordination between the channels leading to the cut in satellite services." Another subscriber who did not want to give her name also lamented not getting the service she had paid for. "There isn't even any compensation," she complained. "We pay for a package of channels, and then we don't get them." When asked about the complaints of service failures, both Al-Jazeera sports channels and Orbit had no comment to make to Al-Ahram Weekly. According to professor Abul-Soud Ibrahim, secretary-general of the Commission for Excellence in Journalism, when satellite broadcasters come into conflict with the authorities, the warnings they receive do not interfere with freedom of expression. This in itself cannot explain the problems subscribers are having. Yet, whatever the source of the problems might be, many subscribers have been deserting the established networks in favour of a new system, Dream Box, that is now available in Cairo. The Dream Box decoder uses an Internet connection to provide free access to satellite channels at a price of between LE400 and LE1,000. "I would consider buying a Dream Box decoder, as even after paying for the satellite services I want I still can't get them," Zulfiqar commented. Others, however, are less forthright, preferring to find legal solutions to access problems before resorting to the dubious legality of other types of decoder. According to one couple, speaking to the Weekly on condition of anonymity, "we would like to avoid illegal solutions. Though we know people who have Dream Boxes, we are waiting for a legal solution." According to Ibrahim, it would be unethical of consumers to use illegal decoders. "Anyone using such decoders is not respecting intellectual property law," he said. In Mokhtar's view, the problems could be solved if satellite channels did not monopolise match broadcasting rights. "The satellite channels control sports broadcasting at the moment, and Egyptian television should buy the rights to broadcast these matches so that we are not at the mercy of the satellite channels." "The real solution lies in the hands of the television authorities, which should seek more financial support," he argues. This was the solution defended by Ahmed Anis, president of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union in 2009, who tried to find a way of broadcasting Egyptian football matches on national television. In 2009, Osama El-Sheikh, president of the private Nile Channels, stated that an agreement had been made between the Television Union and the Egyptian Football Federation to broadcast matches on state television. For Ibrahim, the answer lies more in developing Egyptian television to make it more competitive and up to date. "The television channels should be stronger," he argues, and they should develop capacities outside heritage programming. "The Francophone states have worked on developing a common broadcasting system, and we should do something similar in order to unite the Arab world," he said.
