Tricolor TV the biggest Russian satellite television operator. It broadcasts a pack of TV channels in the European part of Russia and most of Siberian, Ural and Far East regions. Broadcasting in the European part has been held since December 2005 from esv Eutelsat W4 (36o в.д.). Broadcasting in the Eastern regions began in December 2007.

The principal difference between Tricolor TV and other operators is the pack of free channels broadcasts by Tricolor TV. There are 12 federal channels including "Pervy", "Rossiya", "NTV", "STS", "Karusel" and others in the free "Basic" pack. Except these, there are 19 more TV channels for the whole family.
The budget pack of satellite channels turned to be very popular among Russian viewers. The number of Tricolor TV's subscribers is the largest in Russia. In December 2009 the audience of Tricolor TV has reached a number of 6 000 000 households.

Company history

• October, 2005 — Tricolor TV company was established;
• On the night of October, 1st, 2005— Tricolor TV test broadcast via Eutelsat W4 began.
• November, 12th, 2005 — Tricolor TV started broadcasting channels Russia, Ren TV, Сulture, DTV, TV3.
• May, 30th, 2006 — For half a year 150.000 persons connected to Tricolor TV, the number of televiewers exceeded 450.000 pers.
• May, 11th, 2007 - Introduction of the paid package channels (5 blocks: "Children", "Cinema", "Sports", "Cognitive", "Comedy"; 2 cannels for each block).
• March, 1st, 2008 — Telecasting has begun «Tricolor TV» to Siberia with companion "Bonum-1".
• July, 7th, 2009 — 5.000.000 households.
• September, 15th, 2009 — The contract between holding "Gazprom Media" and "Tricolor TV" about purchase "Tricolor TV"..
• December, 2009- — 6.000.000 households
• February, 1st, 2010 — Telecasting from companion W7
• February, 1st, 2010 - Launch of Tricolor Internet service .

Company acquisition by Gazprom Media

As it became known on September 15, 2009, Gazprom Media reached an agreement on buying NSC. Both the companies reportedly signed a strategic partnership agreement, according to which subscription bases will be merged, and part of NTV Plus services and channels will be available to Tricolor TV subscribers. This transaction attracted the attention of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, due to the fact that after closing the transaction Gazprom Media would capture the control over 97% of satellite TV viewers.

However, in August 2010, Tricolor TV press secretary Alexander Nikiforov stated in his interview to the ComNews daily that Holding hadn’t acquired the controlling stake of the company. Director-General of NSC Vyacheslav Mordachev assured that term of validity of the memorandum of intentions hadn't yet expired. Satellite TV market players link the interruption in the transaction with problems in reliable calculation of Tricolor TV subscription base — top manager of one of the dealer networks considers that the real number of subscribers is 20-25% smaller, and changes, depending on season. There haven't been released any official comments in regard to the transaction.

On August 11, 2010, the Vedomosti newspaper informed that the transaction was close to its end. However, it is not clear yet, how the reorganization will be made: it is reported that as acquirer will act a Tricolor TV’s competitor NTV Plus, not the Gazprom Media, as well as Tricolor TV will be completely integrated into NTV Plus.

Broadcasting parameters

Valid up to September 10, 2010:

Satellite Satellite In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....	Frequency Frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...	Polarization	Speed Speed In kinematics, the speed of an object is the magnitude of its velocity ; it is thus a scalar quantity. The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance traveled by the object divided by the duration of the interval; the instantaneous speed is the limit of the average speed as...	FEC Forward error correction In telecommunication, information theory, and coding theory, forward error correction or channel coding is a technique used for controlling errors in data transmission over unreliable or noisy communication channels....	Compression Data compression In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
Eutelsat W4 Eutelsat W4 Eutelsat W4 is a French communications satellite which is operated by Eutelsat. It was constructed by Alcatel Space is based on the Spacebus-3000B2 satellite bus. It was launched on the maiden flight of the Atlas III carrier rocket, which used the Atlas IIIA configuration...  @ 36,0°E	12190	left-handed	20000	3/4	MPEG-2 MPEG-2 MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
Eutelsat W4 @ 36,0°E	12226	left-handed	27500	3/4	MPEG-2
Eutelsat W4 @ 36,0°E	12303	left-handed	27500	3/4	MPEG-2
Eutelsat W7 Eutelsat W7 Eutelsat W7 is a communications satellite in the W Series, operated by Eutelsat. It will be located at 36°E. It was launched by November 23, 2009 14:19 GMT, by a Proton rocket....  @ 36,0°E	11804	left-handed	27500	3/4	MPEG-4 MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
Eutelsat W7 @ 36,0°E	11881	left-handed	27500	3/4	MPEG-2
Bonum-1 @ 56,0°E	12226	left-handed	27500	3/4	MPEG-4
Bonum-1 @ 56,0°E	12380	left-handed	27500	3/4	MPEG-4
Bonum-1 @ 56,0°E	12456	left-handed	27500	3/4	MPEG-4

Official variant

• You need equipment package supplied by the company in order to view channels. The package includes a 60 cm satellite dish with converter
  Low-noise block converter
  A low-noise block downconverter is the receiving device of a parabolic satellite dish antenna of the type commonly used for satellite TV reception...
  
  , cable
  Coaxial cable
  Coaxial cable, or coax, has an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible, tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. The term coaxial comes from the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing the same geometric axis...
  
  , receiver
  Set-top box
  A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
  
   working with DRE-Crypt
  Conditional access
  Conditional Access is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to this content...
  
   encoding (generally made by Digi Raum Electronics company) and the subscriber's access card
  Smart card
  A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...
  
  .

Unofficial variant

• You can buy the package consisting from CAM
  Conditional access
  Conditional Access is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to this content...
  
  -module DIGI RAUM DRE NP4 and Tricolor card for any receiver.

Packages

Tricolor TV includes forty-one MPEG-2 channels and thirty MPEG-4 channels. The key advantage is a free package of federal channels (the largest as compared to offers of other satellite TV operators). In addition to the free channels you are offered to subscribe for paid channels at your choice.

Tricolor TV Center

Tricolor TV Siberia

Other channels

In addition to the Tricolor TV packages, anyone can receive signal of some TV channels and radio stations broadcasting without encoding (FTA) for free.
Attention! Tricolor TV is not responsible for the number, content or reception quality of non-packaged channels.

Electronic Program Guide

Electronic Program Guide (EPG) — The electronic program of telecasts which is displayed on the TV screen. The teleguide displays the schedule of programs for each television channel Tricolor TV, and also the expanded information: a telecast genre, year of creation, actor's structure, etc. The teleprogram is accessible for some days forward.

Telechat

TV chat is a service for displaying messages sent via cell phone or Internet into a special window on the TV screen. Chat allows online communication with other viewers, the exchange of opinions on what is happening on the screen and to share impressions. The service is available on "Veseloe TV" and "TV Voyages" channels.

Karaoke on Infokanal

Well known, popular Karaoke songs and titles are translated daily on Tricolor TV and Tricolor TV Siberia informational channels. The service is free for all Tricolor TV subscribers.

Two sound tracks on Infokanal

Infochannel viewers can choose between two soundtracks: the main one which accompanies the video on the main screen and an additional one. After switching to the additional track you will hear the sound being transmitted from one of the channels of the paid "Optimum" package, these are transmitted into the 5 windows on the screen.

TV mail

With this new service you can view text messages and pictures that were sent to you via e-mail right onto your TV screen. Currently you need Internet access for sending messages; you can also create and send e-mails from your cell phone (via SMS, MMS or the wap.tricolor.tv WAP site).

The new service is essential for those who live in remote corners of the country that do not have the opportunity to contact friends and relatives in a conventional way. You can send not only text messages, but pictures as well – it is a great opportunity to always stay in touch.

TV Guide (EPG)

The Electronic Program Guide is a digital TV guide displayed on the TV screen. This TV Guide displays program schedules for each Tricolor TV channel along with additional information, such as: TV program genre, year of creation, cast, age ratings etc. The TV guide is available several days ahead of transmission.

Tricolor-Internet

Since the 1st of February, 2010, Russia's largest satellite TV provider has launched the new Tricolor Internet service. In order to access the Internet you need to connect a special satellite modem to your computer. Activation of the new service does not require any adjustment to the current receiving equipment.

Social responsibility

At the end of 2007 NSC started charity program involving installation of satellite equipment in stationery social organizations of Russia. In the course of the program all orphanages and retirement homes on the territory of sixty-eight Russian Federation subjects will be equipped free of charge with equipment for viewing Tricolor TV channels. The purpose of the program is to provide pupils of these institutions the access to pedagogic and education resources of up-to-date digital TV, contributing to their personal development and social adaptation. The program is wholly financed by its organizers: JSC National Satellite Company, Eutelsat Communications, the largest European satellite communication operator, NoLimit Electronics specialized chain stores and regional Tricolor TV authorized dealers.

As for the beginning of 2010, there had been installed over 300 equipment packages on the territory of eight Russian Federation subjects within the framework of the program.