Vision Direct

Vision Direct (formerly Vision Sat) is a direct-to-home satellite-based pay television service provider in Saleria. It is owned by Vision Communications. It was launched under the name Vision Sat in 1994. Since its launch, it became the leading satellite TV service and pay TV provider in the country.

Currently as of February 2021, Vision Direct has over 7 million subscribers.

Origins (1988-1994)
Although cable television has been already existed in Saleria for a long time since 1986, direct-to-home satellite television became available in the country with the launch of the Astra 1A and Astra 1B satellites in 1988 and 1991, respectively. Up until the launch of the Sky Multichannels package in 1993, viewers could receive the Sky Television Network channels (Sky One, Eurosport, Sky Movies, and Sky News), as well as other channels (such as Bravo and TCC) free of charge (as long as they have the appropriate equipment to receive those channels), though Sky Movies would later became encrypted on 5 February 1990.

When Sky One became a UK and Ireland-only channel on 31 July 1989, a Salerian company by the name of Vision Communications announced in a press conference that they would launch three channels, a general entertainment channel (under the name Canale Vision), a movie channel (under the name Vision Movies) and a sports channel (under the name Vision Sports). which they would be expected to launch by early 1990. However, only Canale Vision (now Vision Entertainment) and Vision Movies (now Cinevision) were launched on 21 January 1990 on the Astra 1A satellite, while Vision Sports was launched four year later as part of the subscription-based Vision Sat (now Vision Direct) satellite TV package. Both Canale Vision and Vision Movies were launched in the clear on the Astra 1A satellite until 1994 and 1991, respectively.

Canale Vision would become the replacement of Sky One and it would feature locally produced programming, as well as imported programming from the Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries (much in the same way as Sky One), while Vision Movies would become the replacement of Sky Movies and it would feature Hollywood blockbusters, as well as locally produced movies and films from other countries (much in the same vein as Sky Movies). On the other hand, Vision Sports would become the replacement of Sky Sports and it would feature live coverage of sporting events from Saleria and around the world.

When Canale Vision was launched on 21 January 1990, its programming and schedule were largely the same as Sky One's programming and schedule in its early years until 1993, when the channel's schedule was revamped to include to locally produced shows.

The launch of the Sky Multichannels package in 1993 caused a majority of satellite television viewers in Saleria to lose access to channels such as Sky One, Bravo UK and TCC. In response to this, a small number of resellers in Saleria began selling Sky Multichannels decoders and viewing cards in the country until its shutdown of Sky's analog service in June 2001. Additionally, many cable television providers in the country at the time also broadcast those channels from the Sky Multichannels package.

As Vision Sat (1994-2004)
Vision Direct was first launched as Vision Sat on 09 March 1994. It became the first direct-to-home satellite-based pay television provider in Saleria. It was an analog satellite service that used the PAL analog broadcasting standard. Vision Sat originally wanted to use D2-MAC, but they opted to use the PAL transmission standard in order to cut down on costs. In order to prevent signal piracy, the analog service used the VideoCrypt I analog encryption system, which it was used in the on the former analog version of the Sky satellite television service in the United Kingdom and Ireland, until its discontinuation of the analog service in 2003. There were some plans to use the VideoCrypt 2 conditional access system, but this was changed to Videocrypt 1 at the last minute.

In 1998, Vision Sat began broadcasting in digital using the DVB-S digital satellite standard. It was the first digital television service to be broadcast in Saleria, two years before the launch of digital terrestrial television in the country.

By January 1999, Vision Direct reached 100,000 subscribers.

On 01 January 2001, following the switch from 4:3 to the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio on digital terrestrial television, Vision Sat announced that a select number of channels (including digital terrestrial television channels) would have a 16:9 widescreen version on the service.

On 30 December 2003, analog satellite transmissions were closed down and viewers who weren't able to switch to the digital service at the time received a free upgrade to the digital service.

On the 2nd of January 2004, Vision Sat became the first television platform in Saleria to broadcast in high-definition with Euro1080's HD1. A few months later, Vision Sat launched the first set of HDTV-capable DVB-S satellite decoders.

By March 2004, the number of subscribers were increased to 500,000.

As Vision Direct (2004-present)
Vision Sat was rebranded into Vision Direct on 03 November 2004.

On 15 June 2006, Vision Direct launched the Vision+ family of DVR-enabled set-top boxes.

By May 2009, the number of subscribers reached the 1 million mark.

In mid-2016, Vision Direct launched the Vision Play family of Internet-enabled set-top boxes with 4K decoding and DVR functionality. On that same year, Vision Communications launched Vision 4K, the first 4K television channel to be broadcast in Saleria.

By July 2018, the number of subscribers were increased to 5,000,000.

On 1 August 2021, Vision Communications announced that the Vision+ satellite decoders will be discontinued for new customers.

Technical information
Vision Direct uses the DVB-S2 digital satellite technology for distribution of all channels. All of the channels are encoded in MPEG-2 for standard definition channels, H.264 for high-definition channels and HEVC for ultra HD channels. The service uses Synamedia Ltd.'s VideoGuard encryption technology for all of the channels in order to prevent signal piracy.

Broadcasting
From its launch in 1994 until its discontinuation of the analog service in 2003, Vision Direct (Vision Sat at the time) used the Astra 1B and Astra 1C satellites at 19.2° East in order to broadcast its television channels in the analog PAL format, which they were encrypted with the Videocrypt I analog conditional access system.

With the launch of the digital television service in 1998, Vision Direct began to broadcast its digital television and radio channels using the DVB-S standard on the satellites of Astra 1F, Astra 1G and Astra 1H at 19.2° East.

On 12 March 2008, Vision Direct announced that all of their TV and radio channels would be migrated to the Astra 1KR and Astra 1L satellites at 19.2° East. The migration to those satellites were completed on 3 June 2008.

Currently, Vision Direct broadcasts its digital television and radio channels in DVB-S/DVB-S2 format on Astra 1KR, Astra 1L and Astra 1M at 19.2° East.

Vision Direct decoders
Currently, ARRIS and Technicolor are the two companies who manufactures set-top boxes for Vision Direct. In addition to these manufactures, there are third-party manufactures who manufacture Vision Direct-compatible set-top boxes. Those third-party STBs are part of the "Vision Direct Certified" program. The program requires third-party set-top box manufactures to follow the minimum technical specifications:


 * Twin or Triple DVB-S/DVB-S2/DVB-S2X tuners
 * Support for 1080p and 4K output
 * MPEG-2, H.264 and HEVC video codec support
 * HDMI 2.1 video output
 * TOSLINK optical or coaxial S/PDIF connection
 * Up to 5.1 surround sound
 * Ethernet port supporting 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX
 * 802.11n wireless network support, integrated, or via a USB adapter
 * 950 MHz central processing unit (CPU)
 * Two Universal Serial Bus USB 2.0 sockets
 * Support for USB mass storage devices
 * Onboard VideoGuard conditional access system

Current models (in production)

 * Vision Play - A 4K-ready set-top box with Internet connectivity and the ability to watch subscription-based streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Netflix. It can be installed and activated at a one-time installation fee of just €299. It was introduced in 2016.

Analog satellite decoders
From its launch in 1994 until its discontinuation of the analog service in 2003, there are a sheer number of analog Videocrypt-based satellite decoders that can receive channels from Vision Direct as long as the user was subscribed to a package.

Digital satellite decoders

 * Vision Digibox - Standard DVB-S/DVB-S2-based set-top boxes that can only receive SD/HD channels and interactive/text services. It was introduced during the launch of Vision Direct's digital satellite television service. It was introduced in 1998 until it was discontinued in 2015.
 * Vision+ - Standard DVB-S/DVB-S2-based set-top boxes that can receive SD/HD channels and interactive/text services and has the ability to record from TV channels. It can be installed and activated at a one-time installation fee of just €55. It was introduced in 2006 until it was discontinued in 2021 for new customers.
 * Vision Digibox with TiVo - From 2000 until 2011, Vision Communications partnered with Thomson Multimedia (now Technicolor SA) and TiVo to introduce the TiVo service to the Salerian market. This partnership resulted in the Thomson PVR10SR, a stand-alone receiver released in October 2000 that was based on the original reference design used in the United States by both Philips and Sony. It was discontinued in 2004, though it continued to sell subscriptions and supply guide data to existing subscribed units until June 2011.

Packages

 * Vision TV (€19.99/month) - Includes access to all free-to-air channels and some pay-TV channels
 * Vision TV Premium (€29.99/month or €49.99/month with access to all channels and streaming services) - Includes access to almost all channels (including HD and 4K channels) and subscription-based services (such as Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Netflix)

Additional packages

 * Vision TV Multiroom (€18/month) - Allows subscribers to watch Vision TV/Vision TV on up to four TVs at the same time
 * Vision Cinema Pack (€25/month) (Cinevision 1, Cinevision 2, Cinevision Action, Cinevision Family, Cinevision 4K)
 * Kids Pack (€5/month) (Cartoon Network Italia, Cartoon Network UK, Boomerang Italia, Boomerang UK, Nickelodeon UK, Nicktoons UK)
 * Vision Sports Pack (€35/month) (Vision Sports 1, Vision Sports 2, Vision Sports 3, Vision Sports 4, Vision Sports 5, Vision Sports 6, Vision Sports 7, Vision Sports 8)