NOVA Greece

NOVA Greece

Type	Private
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	December 1999
Headquarters	Athens, Greece
Area served	Greece
Products	Direct Broadcast Satellite
Net income	US $54.06 million (2007)
Owner(s)	Forthnet
Employees	240
Parent	Forthnet
Website	www.nova.gr

NOVA Greece is a Greek digital satellite pay TV platform owned by Multichoice Hellas. It was launched in December 1999.

NOVA offers Greek subscribers an array of international and domestic programmes (including news, sports, movies, music, children's programmes and general entertainment channels) plus the majority of popular Greek terrestrial TV channels along with a number of Greek terrestrial radio stations. International programmes are offered in their original soundtrack, with Greek subtitles. Some interactive services like games, cinema & theatre listings, lottery numbers, news headlines and weather reports are also provided.

On April 14, 2008, Greek telecommunications company Forthnet acquired Netmed, parent firm of NOVA Greece.^[1]

In 2010 Nova Greece had 363,679 subscribers.^[2]

Technical Information

Nova broadcasts in standard definition using the DVB-S MPEG-2 format and (since September 2010) in High Definition using the DVB-S MPEG-4 format through Hotbird 8 satellite at 13°E.^[3] The service is encrypted with Irdeto conditional access system. Until recently the subscribers had the option of buying a specific set-top box, or using any DVB-S Irdeto enabled set-top box, but since September 2009 new subscribers are only allowed to use the company's own set-top box. This change of policy has raised some significant controversy.

Nova has also introduced a PVR service, accessible only through a (different) specific set-top box. This service requires an extra subscription fee but also provides the subscriber with the option to watch two different channels on two different TV sets in the same household.

Nova channels are also available through the IPTV service of On Telecoms. On Telecoms subscribers can sign up to watch all the channels offered by Nova but have to pay a separate fee for that service.

Digital Satellite Receivers

Nova Satellite Package includes digital satellite receivers manufactured by Pace. The current models are NovaBox HD 831 and NovaBox HD PVR 865. Older models were Panasat 1110, Panasat 910, as well as the older Panasat 720i, Panasat 700 and Panasat 642, manufactured by Panasat.

Channel List

NOVA Greece currently has over 50 subscription channels in its line-up, from Greece, Europe and abroad as well as access to over 200 FTA channels. The line-up also includes over 100 radio stations, most are available FTA. The Current line-up of channels:

Main Terrestrial Channels

100 - ΒΟΥΛΗ ΤΗΛΕΟΡΑΣΗ
101 - ERT HD
102 - ET1
103 - NET
104 - ET3
105 - MEGA
106 - ANT1
107 - STAR
108 - ALTER
109 - ALPHA
110 - ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ TV
111 - ΣΚΑΙ

Movies

200 - Nova Cinema HD
201 - Nova Cinema 1
202 - Nova Cinema 2
203 - Nova Cinema 3
204 - Nova Cinema 4
205 - Fox Life
206 - FX

Sports

300 - Nova Sports HD
301 - Nova Sports 1
302 - Nova Sports 2
303 - Nova Sports 3
304 - Nova Sports 4
305 - Nova Sports Highlights
306 - Nova Sports 6
307 - Nova Sports 7
310 - Eurosport
311 - Eurosport 2
312 - Eurosport HD
313 - Motors TV

Documentaries

401 - Discovery Channel Europe
402 - Animal Planet
403 - National Geographic Channel
404 - History Channel
405 - Travel Channel
406 - Nat Geo Wild
450 - National Geographic Channel HD
451 - National Geographic Wild HD
452 - Discovery HD

Children and Teens

501 - Disney XD
502 - Cartoon Network
503 - Boomerang
504 - Disney Channel
505 - Nickelodeon
510 - Playin' TV (interactive services)

Music

601 - MAD TV
602 - MAD Greekz
603 - MTV
604 - VH1 Europe
605 - Mezzo TV
620 - Mad Music Seasonal
621 - Mad Music My Rock
622 - Mad Music Hits GR
623 - Mad Music Greek Classics
624 - Mad Music Rebetica - Laika

Entertainment

210 - E! Entertainment
701 - Fashion TV
703 - World Fashion Channel
704 - TV5MONDE

News

801 - Euronews
802 - CNN International
803 - BBC World News
804 - France 24 (English)
805 - Al Jazeera English
806 - RT
810 - Bloomberg Television
811 - France 24 (French)
812 - DW-TV
820 - Al Jazeera

Other

851 - ERT World
852 - RIK sat
853 - Arirang TV
854 - Rai 1
855 - Rai 2
856 - Rai 3
857 - Al Jazeera Children's Channel
858 - CCTV-9

Adult Channels

(Require an extra subscription fee)
901 - Playboy TV
902 - Private Spice
903 - Dorcel TV

Interactive Channels

900 - Nova Scope / Nova Programme

Radio Channels

1 - Deytero 103.7
2 - NET 105.8
3 - ERA3
4 - ERA Sport
5 - Love Radio 97.5 FM
6 - NovaSpor FM
7 - Melodia FM 99.2
8 - SKAÏ 100.3 FM
9 - Sentra FM
11 - Ecclesia Radio
12 - Peiraiki Ecclesia
13 - MAD Radio 106.2
14 - Real FM
15 - BHMA FM 99.5
16 - BBC World Service
17 - RFI

Criticism

It is said by most television enthusiasts in Greece that the sum of Nova's characteristics show that total customer satisfaction is not by any means comparable to that of subscribers of other European satellite providers, like SKY Italia, Sky UK or Sky Deutschland.^{[citation needed]}

Degradation to the picture quality due to extensive use of heavy MPEG compression (a technique that offers more available programs at the price of lower total image quality per channel added) also effects terrestrial repeaters and that practice seriously degrades picture of all commercial national television stations nationwide, since they are fed by Nova.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Business finance news - currency market news - online UK currency markets - financial news - Interactive Investor
2. ^ "Greek satellite subs at all time high". Broadband TV News. 2011-04-18. http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2011/03/17/greek-satellite-subs-at-all-time-high/. Retrieved 2011-03-17. 
3. ^ "Eutelsat Hotbird 8". http://www.eutelsat.com/satellites/13ehb8_popd.html. Retrieved 2008-07-07. 

External links

• Official Site (Greek) (English)