IP: can you watch this .. it was bound to happen -- from RISKS

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:56:24 +0200
From: BROWN Nick <Nick.BROWN () coe fr>
Subject: Satellite transmission snafu leads to diplomatic incident


Early on Sunday morning (19 Jul 1997), a "technical error" caused the
contents of a channel on a satellite operated by France Telecom, to be
transmitted on another channel, for about twenty minutes.  Normally this
would have been merely annoying for the viewers of the affected channel.
However, the viewers were in (among other places) Saudi Arabia, the channel
they expected to be watching was the French government-run, general interest
and news station, Canal France International (CFI), and the programme which
replaced it was... a hard-core pornographic movie which should have been
shown on the subscription-only, encrypted French domestic station, Canal
Plus.


I presume that the incident involved two channels on different satellites,
since CFI is carried on Arabsat and Canal Plus on the European-oriented
Telecom satellite system.  My bet would be that the channel numbers are the
same and the operator was pointing at the wrong satellite while hitting
"Go".


Results: Arabsat has cancelled its contract with France Telecom, claiming
(it would appear with some justification) that France Telecom had not
"honoured its commitment to respect Arabic and Islamic values".  The French
Foreign Ministry and the French Ambassador in Riyadh are trying to calm what
has become a diplomatic incident.


Nick Brown, Strasbourg, France


  [Also noted by Paul Johnson <Paul () treetop demon co uk> and 
  and Pete Bentley <pete () sorted org>.  PGN]