the old orbit . for the company s current successor see osn . orbit communications company former type satellite television industry telecommunication fate merged with showtime arabia into orbit showtime founded 1994 defunct 2009 headquarters manama bahrain products direct broadcast satellite and satellite internet owner privately owned by mawarid holding via digital media systems website official site orbit communications company was a privately owned pay tv network operating in the middle east north africa and europe . owned by saudi arabia based mawarid holding via digital media systems 1 2 it was the first fully digital multi channel multi lingual pay television service in the middle east and north africa and was also the world s first fully digital tv network . 3 orbit broadcast in several languages around the world including english arabic and filipino . on 12 july 2009 the company announced its merger with showtime arabia into orbit showtime . some of orbit s arabic channels including al safwa fann al yawm cinema 1 cinema 2 mousalsalat and mousalsalat 4 are available throughout north and south america through mytv arabic . 4 contents 1 technology 2 channel lineup 3 orbit espn s disappearance 4 bbc arabic television 5 showtime arabia merger 6 references 7 external links technology edit orbit had launched 4 multi function interactive decoders xd 200 humax xd 200 technosat xd 300 philips xd 400 humax pvr personal video recorder this allowed the following features 2 level parental control channel & rating . 7 day bilingual electronic program guide . 22 radio channels of music & news & entertainment . arabic subtitles & multi lingual audio on selected channels . channel lineup edit promotional marhaba tv tvmax promo movies channels cinema 1 cinema 2 super movies super movies 1 cinema city cinema city 1 xtra movies film world cine tv mgm tcm sports al riyadiah fox sports international nba tv extreme sports channel kids and education the fun channel disney channel toon disney playhouse disney boomerang cartoon network the history channel animal planet discovery science discovery channel news orbit news 1 orbit news 2 c span cnn international fox news bbc world news music soundtrack channel trace tv series and lifestyle al safwa al yawm fann arabic series channel arabic series channel 4 arabic series comedy ginx tv zone club e syfy universal universal channel fashion tv america plus america plus 2 bbc prime bbc food super comedy super comedy 2 discovery travel & living l pay per view tvmax 1 tvmax 2 tvmax 3 pinoy nbn pinoy news pbo gma pinoy tv arabic al thalitha al oula al thania radio monawa t tarabiya t khalijya t absolute radio bbc world service english bbc world service arabic lite fm xlnt 12 channels monte carlo doualiya gma dzbb dwls fm orbit espn s disappearance edit on 1 april 2008 5 after being on the air since 1994 6 orbit espn disappeared from the orbit lineup . this left orbit without coverage of the ncaa major league baseball the national hockey league major league soccer the national football league nascar major golf and tennis tournaments and the premier action sports franchise in the world espn s x games . fox sports replaced orbit espn on 13 january 2009 . citation needed one of the reasons that break the contract with espn is the severe financial problems happened at that time since 1999 2000 the production graph line has been moved down . in 2009 a major delay in paying salaries for orbit employees in egypt lebanon and ksa for more than 4 months . bbc arabic television edit bbc arabic television was transmitted on orbit from 1994 until april 21 1996 when it was taken off air by orbit after the channel broadcast an episode of the bbc panorama program critical of the saudi arabian government . many of the bbc arabic television staff then went to work for al jazeera . http www.preddonlee.com al jazeera origins.html showtime arabia merger edit on 12 july 2009 showtime arabia and orbit communications company announced a merger that created the biggest pay tv platform in the middle east and north africa . 7 the newly formed company which is called osn 7 is an equal partnership that would offer 70 exclusive channels featuring new movies sports series arabic content and international shows . new customers can subscribe to packages featuring showtime arabia s and orbit communications company s programs while existing subscribers will be able to either retain or upgrade their content . the company will offer hd channels video on demand and other interactive services . references edit zawya mawarid holding zawya orbit satellite television and radio network http www.telecompaper.com news orbit plans tv service 13295 http www.my tv.us packageslisting.aspx pageid 29 newlywed in dubai orbit and espn international renew programming distribution agreement a b chiba yushi february 2012 . a comparative study on the pan arab media strategies the cases of egypt and saudi arabia pdf . 5 1 & 2 . retrieved 13 february 2014 . external links edit official site 1994 promotion retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title orbit communications company & oldid 710807093 categories 1994 establishments in bahrain2009 disestablishments in bahraindefunct companies of bahraintelevision networkscompanies established in 1994companies disestablished in 2009media companies of bahraindirect broadcast satellite serviceshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from july 2009 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial 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