Orby TV, the prepaid satellite TV service, appears to be back in the swing after it halted new service activations and its website was rendered a nearly-barren wasteland.

As of Monday, the Orby TV site was back, touting a limited time discount on a one-room set-up when customers buy the company's baseline receiver or one outfitted with a DVR. The promo, good through February 28, sells that install for $25 – $150 off its regular price. Additional installs run $50 per room.

Figure 1: (Image source: Orby TV)

Orby TV is also offering a 30-day risk-free trial, offering a full refund on the equipment and the basic installation.

As of Monday afternoon, Orby TV had yet to provide an explanation as to why it stopped new service activations temporarily, leaving industry watchers and its customers to wonder if the company was in jeopardy of remaining a going concern.

While Orby TV's website is back in action, many of its other digital destinations are not. The company's Facebook page, Instagram account and Twitter handle (@myorbytv) – as promoted on Orby TV's website – are all out of action, as is its YouTube channel, which has about 1,260 subscribers.

Figure 2:

Update: Phillip Swann, publisher of TVAnswerman.com, points out on Twitter that Orby TV's customer line notes that new activations are still not available and that his readers have told him they can't get self-installation kits from Orby TV.

Orby TV's baseline "Essentials" package still starts at $40 per month for a lineup that includes TNT, Discovery, Nickelodeon, Food Network, History, TBS, TCM, The Hallmark Channel, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Network, among others. An Extras package, which costs an additional $10 per month, adds in channels such as Cooking Channel, Military History, Discovery Family, MTV Classic and Boomerang.

Orby TV's dish also includes an outdoor antenna to access local channels and a guide/interface that combines its satellite TV lineup with local channels.

Orby TV also sells a multiplex of four HBO channels runs an additional $18 per month. Four channels of Cinemax fetches an additional $12 per month, with Starz and Epix tiers running an additional $9 and $6 per month, respectively.

Those add-ons are pretty pricey, considering HBO Max regularly sells for $14.99 as a standalone OTT service, while Starz is currently running a promo for its standalone streaming service for $4.99 per month for six months. Orby TV, though, is a service focused on rural areas that might lack access to broadband connections strong enough to support a streaming service.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading