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29 March 2024

Several Orbit Showtime channels go off air

Published

Subscribers of the popular Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) woke up to blank screens this morning, with news soon filtering in that a fire had erupted at the broadcast centre in the wee hours, resulting in a power failure.

By 6.30am, OSN released a statement on social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook, confirming the same, saying: “OSN wishes to advise that an incident at our broadcast centre in Dubai resulted in a small fire.

“There were no injury to staff or facilities, but a power failure has resulted in many channels not being broadcast.”

Several attempts to contact an OSN official spokesperson were made by Emirates 24|7, but none proved fruitful.

However, according to inside sources, a small fire erupted in the Uninterrupted Power Supply room in the early hours, causing a power failure and all the channels going off air.

Reasons of the origins of the fire are unknown, but the Facebook update confirms that technicians are working on the situation, with the statement continuing: “We are addressing this with urgency, you are advised to check the following for regular updates; osnetwork.com, Facebook, call centre numbers. Normal services will resume as quickly as possible.”

Due to this, most channels featured the same shows, with “Scooby Doo” running across all stations for a while, followed by the film “The Three Musketeers”.

Subscribers took to OSN’s Facebook page, pledging support, with one Abdullah Y posting: “Sorry to hear about the incident and I am glad that the staff are unharmed; everything else is less important.”

Another, Hadel S Ma’ayeh posted: “Got my OSN Channels back except all have the Cartoon Channel on.”

However, not all subscribers were supportive or amused.

Lulu Al Muhaidib took to micro blogging site, Twitter, to post: “OSN get your **** together! Fix it now! [sic]”

Watch this space for more updates.

Civil Defence put out Media City fire

Meanwhile, Civil Defence firefighters are reported to have extinguished a fire at a power transformer in a Dubai Media City building that includes a global TV station. There were no reports of injuries.

Statement from du:

Disruption in OSN services is being treated with urgency following a small incident at the OSN Broadcast Centre, Dubai

OSN – Orbit Showtime Network in association with du wish to advise their OSN subscribers that an incident at the OSN broadcast centre in Dubai resulted in a small fire, with no injury to staff or facilities. However, a subsequent power failure has resulted in some channels not being broadcast as per the schedules. Work continues to restore the full service as soon as possible. In the meantime the following 44 channels together with all free-to-air channels are broadcasting as normal.

 

 The remaining channels are currently broadcasting unscheduled material while we work to return them to normal broadcast. OSN and du are addressing the situation with urgency; customers are advised to check the following sources for regular updates: www.osnetwork.com or on OSN call centre numbers, we apologise if high call volumes result in delays.