Rutten Satellite

Rutten Satellite was a Kuboian analogue satellite television service owned by Rutten Television Ltd. and operated from 1995 until 2013. The service offered a variety of television channels for a budget price, which were transmitted through an Astra satellite.

History
Before the service's launch, Rutten Television Ltd. had launched a five-channel package that was broadcast through an analogue satellite. They included the following: The five-channel package, launched in 1992, was promoted as a "premium" service that supposedly aired programming that was higher quality compared to KBG and Vision Network, as well as imports of international programming that had never aired in the country at the time.
 * Gold; a general entertainment channel
 * Now; a news and sports channel
 * Juicebox; a children's channel
 * Travel; a factual and documentary channel
 * Station; a music channel

The Rutten Satellite service had its 'soft launch' on 1st September 1995, with the launch of The Learning Channel, The Walt Disney Network and a new Rutten-owned channels; the film-based channel Screen. Nickelodeon Kuboia and Paramount Select were also added to the package, having originally been broadcast on their own Astra satellite. All of the channels originally part of the Rutten package (barring Now) were eventually scrambled for non-subscribed viewers on the 4th of that month. The service officially commenced on 12th August 1996 with the launch of several new channels.

Rutten Satellite updated its package structure in April 2000. A majority of the film and sports channels were now locked behind a "premium" subscription that cost an additional fee to subscribers who would like to see the channels, though the remaining channels remained available under the "standard" package. The service celebrated its tenth anniversary in September 2005 by giving customers three months free if they had been subscribed for at least two years.

Closure
In 2011, it was reported that Rutten Satellite had been experiencing a loss of customers and as result, a loss in revenue. The service was having difficulty finding deals to add new channels to the package and many former customers had instead been using the free Teleview service. It has been rumoured that the closure of Nickelodeon Kuboia and its sisters channels contributed to a loss of subscribers but it is unknown if this is true.

On 31st July 2012, Rutten revealed that it would close Rutten Satellite in February 2013 and would solely focus on its digital service Gold. A majority of the channels provided by the service were shut down on 27th January 2013, though all of the Rutten-owned channels continued to operate on the service until they were all slowly closed one-by-one two weeks later. The last channel to leave the service was Now, which closed just before midnight on 10th February.