| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Subscription Television |
| Predecessor | MultiChoice Nederland |
| Headquarters | Hilversum, Netherlands |
| Area served | The Netherlands |
| Products | Direct broadcast satellite |
| Owner(s) | M7 Group S.A. |
| Website | http://www.canaldigitaal.nl |
CanalDigitaal is a provider of digital television via satellite for the Dutch market, using the Astra satellites at 19.2° east and the Astra 3B satellite at 23.5° east .
Initially customers were mainly Dutch citizens who did not have cable access. But in the meantime the company also managed to expand into the cities. This is sometimes complicated in the Netherlands due to local building codes restricting the placement of satellite dishes. It is only possible to register as a customer of CanalDigitaal using a Dutch postal address, due to copyright restrictions.
CanalDigitaal is owned by the Luxembourgian M7 Group S.A., also owner of the Belgian TV Vlaanderen Digitaal and TéléSAT, the Austrian Austriasat, the Czechian Sky Link and the Slovakian CS Link.
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Unlike eg. many German and British broadcasters, the Dutch public and commercial broadcasts are not freely available via satellite. To receive the Dutch broadcasts a smartcard is required to decrypt the Mediaguard signal. CanalDigitaal has recently begun switching from Mediaguard 2 to Mediaguard 3. The public broadcasts are free-to-view, the commercial broadcasts are not.
A standard DVB-S or DVB-S2 receiver is used, which can also receive other free-to-air broadcasts.
The CanalDigitaal Fastscan lists all channels carried on the CanalDigitaal platform and almost all free-to-air channels on the 19.2° east, 23.5° east and 28.2° east/28.5° east satellites. Many channels are free, others are available only with a subscription.