Optus reality beats April Fool's Day jokes

Sky Television knocked off air as satellite goes 'missing'
Updated 12:17am 31 March

Sky Television's [NZSX:SKT] satellite may be missing without hope of recovery. Subscribers around the country lost their signals Thursday evening from about 7pm in an outage that was intitially described as being due to weather conditions.

On the Sky website, the following message is currently displayed:

SKY’s satellite signal was lost at 6.50p.m. last night (NZ time Thursday 30 March), after a routine positioning procedure to the satellite by Optus. This effectively meant that the SKY transmission signal was lost to its customers (except UHF subscribers). Optus immediately acknowledged the problem and undertook restoration procedures. SKY’s satellite signal was re-established at 8.05a.m. today (NZ time) and the services are in the process of being restored. SKY apologises for loss of SKY satellite services resulting from an outage on the Optus B1 Satellite that provides SKY’s signal.

A Google search shows that it did indeed happen

Today, we are told in a Bill Sykes media release that Many people in North East Victoria using satellite television to receive the free-to-air service may be finding that the service is no longer working.

The service being provided by Optus has been affected by the use of unofficial smart cards provided by the installation company that are inserted into the set-top boxes to decode the satellite transmission.

Inside information advises that Optus have not been able to overcome the problem and have now switched off the service forcing the subscribers to purchase a legitinate card for around $100.

Bill Sykes said “If consumers are finding that they are affected by a change in their service, they should firstly check with whoever installed the service to discover whether legitimate hardware has been used. Secondly, they should contact the Office of Fair Trading on 1300 558 181, to determine whether any remedy may be available to consumers who have been supplied with illegitimate cards”.

What a joke - and just a day before April Fools Day