What is a Sun outage and how will it affect me?

Sun outages are natural phenomena that occur when a satellite and a receiving earth station come directly in line with the Sun. The Sun’s energy interferes with the satellite’s signal and affects the signals received by the earth station. The affected signals may lead to poor or no reception of channels relying on the affected satellites. Singtel TV receives most of our international channels via satellite before broadcasting them to homes. Satellite transmission is subject to these environmental factors, which are beyond the control of the broadcaster.

How often do Sun outages occur?

Sun outages will typically occur twice a year for each satellite. As our channels are received from different satellite sources, different channels may be affected at different times of the year.

What are the affected channels and when will these channels be affected for the sun outage?

Not all satellites will be affected. Only satellites that orbit between the sun and our receiving earth station will be affected. Hence, only channels transmitted by these affected satellites will experience transmission interference.