Trading name yes Industry Satellite television Founded 28 July 2000 Parent organization Bezeq | Type Subsidiary Key people Ron Ayalon (CEO) Area served Israel | |
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Products Direct broadcast satellite, pay television, pay-per-view Website www.yes.co.il (official site)
yes.walla.co.il (VOD) TV shows The Greenhouse, Alifim, North Star, Srugim, Ha'Nephilim Profiles | ||
yes, formally incorporated as D.B.S. Satellite Services (1998) Ltd (Hebrew: די.בי.אס. שרותי לווין (1998) בע"מ), is the sole direct broadcast satellite television provider in Israel. It broadcasts multichannel TV and VOD services via satellite Amos-2 and Amos-3.
Contents
History
Yes began broadcasting in July 2000. The largest shareholder of the provider is the Bezeq corporation, which holds up to 49% of its shares. The early years of the company were unstable due to technical and financial difficulties. Even though the three cable companies in Israel - Matav, Tevel and Arutzei Zahav - sought to compete with the satellite company by slashing prices, the subscriber base grew due to the new services that Yes offered, as well as the lack of cable coverage in many rural areas. In response, the cable companies merged into one company under the name HOT.
Yes provides television services to more than half a million customers using two Israeli satellites – AMOS-2 and AMOS-3. The company broadcasts more than 200 television stations from around the world, along with exclusive Israeli channels. In 2004, yes started offering its customers the first DVR (Digital video recorder) in Israel, called yesMax (similar in function to the TiVo).
High definition
On December 23, 2007, yes began broadcasting in High Definition. The broadcasting format is Widescreen 16:9 with resolution of 1080i50. The broadcasting system is DVB-S2 and H.264. There is also support for content in 720p. On some of the content there is also 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. In April 2011, yes had 18 HD channels (one of them in 3D). Receiving the broadcastings in HD is available only with yes' HD set-top boxes - ADB 7820S - which has multiple digital and analog outputs - including HDMI (1.3a) and S/PDIF - coaxial and optical.
On April 22, 2009, yes released the HD-DVR set-top box - yesMaxHD (ADB 7820SX/7720SX) - which can record two shows simultaneously, also in High Definition. On beginning of May 2010, yes started to provide Russian language audio track for HD movie channels.
On November 2011 yes introduced a Streamer feature within yesMaxHD available to those who purchase the VOD feature, yes Named this yesMaxTOTAL.
Technical problems
In September and October 2007, satellite television channels in Israel were plagued with signal disruptions, with the north of the country particularly badly affected. Eventually the Ministry of Defense intervened, and with the help of the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Sea Corps, discovered that the problems had been caused by the radar systems of Dutch UNIFIL ships patrolling off the coast of Lebanon. In order to compensate its clientele, yes offered their pay-per-view "DVDbox" channels free to all clients for 2 weeks in October (although it eventually extended beyond that). Later, in an effort to win over many clients who were still displeased, yes offered all of its premium channels free for a period of 3 months.