Rotana is one of the easier networks to find, because 11 of its services in our list are concentrated rather than scattered. They occupy 2 carriers: 11957 H, 12226 H.
The bulk of the network — the music, cinema and drama channels — shares a single carrier. A second carrier holds the separately fed Jordanian services. That split is the thing worth understanding here, because it is why "Rotana works" and "all Rotana works" are different statements.
One lock, most of the network
When a set of channels shares a carrier, they arrive and fail together. For the main Rotana block that is convenient: align once, lock once, and the whole music and cinema group is stored in one pass. It also means a single alignment problem takes all of them out simultaneously, which is a fast diagnosis rather than a confusing one.
The main carrier is not exclusively Rotana, either. Locking it stores the other services sharing the same multiplex, which is normal — a transponder is leased capacity, and the operator fills it with whatever it has contracted.
Where each service sits
11957 MHz · Horizontal · 27500 5/6
| # | Channel |
|---|---|
| 1 | Rotana Radio Jordan |
| 2 | Rotana Tarab Jordan |
12226 MHz · Horizontal · 27500 5/6
| # | Channel |
|---|---|
| 1 | Rotana Cinema EGY |
| 2 | Rotana Cinema EGY HD |
| 3 | Rotana Cinema KSA |
| 4 | Rotana Classic |
| 5 | Rotana Clip |
| 6 | Rotana Drama |
| 7 | Rotana FM KSA |
| 8 | Rotana Khalijia |
| 9 | Rotana Music |
Radio on a television carrier
Some of the entries here are radio rather than television. That is not an error in the list. A DVB multiplex carries audio-only services alongside video ones at a fraction of the bitrate, so broadcasters routinely add radio to a transponder they are already paying for.
The practical effect is that these stations need the dish, not an FM aerial, and they inherit the carrier's reception behaviour exactly. If the television channels on that carrier are breaking up, the radio services on it are degrading at the same moment for the same reason.
Common outcomes
- Main block found, Jordanian feeds missing: expected if you only scanned one carrier. Add the second frequency from the table.
- Channels found but named differently: receivers display the service name carried in the stream, and broadcasters rename services without announcement. Match on frequency first, name second.
- Some of the block missing after a rescan: the operator has changed the multiplex contents. A blind scan of that one frequency is the quickest way to see what is actually there now.
Frequency data ages. The values here reflect our list as it stands; if a channel is not where the table says, re-scanning that single carrier will tell you what replaced it faster than checking any list will.
