Piracy kills OSN’s Pehla bouquet
June 19, 2019
By Chris Forrester
Dubai-based OSN (the former Orbit-Showtime Network) has reportedly decided to end transmissions of its South Asian ‘Pehla’ bouquet of channels.
Transmissions – and subscription renewals – will cease on July 15th after the close of the massively popular ICC Cricket World Cup.
OSN firmly blames piracy as being a huge challenge in the Middle East, and especially in the Gulf countries.
OSN acquired Pehla in 2013 and brought Pehla’s near-40 channel bouquet under the OSN umbrella.
Dubai’s BroadcastPro quotes a statement from OSN saying that “Illegal streaming sites, pirate IPTV decoders within OSN’s licensed territories has made it difficult for OSN to continue offering Pehla”.