Disruption to Egyptian television

Several state television channels in Egypt were jammed sunday evening, although the source of the disruption is unclear, but it is thought that it came from outside Egypt.

A handful of Egyptian state television channels [2] – including Channel 1, Egyptian Satellite TV and some Nile TV channels – abruptly vanished from the airwaves on Sunday evening. [3]

While the channels eventually resumed terrestrial transmissions, satellite transmissions had yet to be restored as of 7:45pm local time.

Salah Hamza, managing director of NileSat, the satellite television platform that carries the channels, said: "The connection was broken by sources outside Egypt; investigations are ongoing to determine the source [of the disconnection]."

Hamza said Channel 1 and Egyptian Satellite TV had been set to a new frequency in order to resume broadcasting, while Nile TV channels, too, were in the process of being set to new frequencies.

Ali Abdel-Rahman, head of Nile TV channels, told Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website that "no one knows the reason for the technical problem until now now." [4]

Abdel-Rahman went on to stress that Ismail El-Shishtawy, head of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, was working to resolve the problem with NileSat management.

Satellite television channels in Egypt were disrupted Sunday evening, but the source behind the disruption remains unclear.