"Any substantial delay would have led satellite distribution channels to cancel their contracts, placing the entire company in jeopardy."
Can someone explain that a little more? Are satellite carriage contracts so twitchy that going dark on a channel for more than a few hours forfeits your service?
I don't know about France's laws but in Belgium radiosilence and television black are forbidden and you don't need to be down for an hour to lose your license, and the carriers will in general ditch you really quickly AFAIK
I assume a substantial delay would have been days or weeks in this case. According to the article it was months before they were reconnected to the internet. If the broadcast engineers weren't there, I assume the damage might have been too great to reverse in any reasonable amount of time.
Terrestrial TV stations can lose your license if they go dark for too long. Obviously satellite is a little different, but I'm sure the people drawing up the contracts would understand that a station going dark is a possibility and would include contingencies for dark stations.
"If the broadcast engineers weren't there, I assume the damage might have been too great to reverse in any reasonable amount of time."
I am pretty sure they would have been able to get something back on air somehow within a day or two even if every single piece of electronics had been physically obliterated.
Can someone explain that a little more? Are satellite carriage contracts so twitchy that going dark on a channel for more than a few hours forfeits your service?