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Sat-ND, 25.05.98





Sat-ND, 25.05.98

Sat-ND, 25.05.98
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Over the next few weeks Sat-ND will be published sporadically rather than daily


Contents

SATELLITES
PanAmSat gives up Galaxy IV
Eutelsat W1 damaged?
BUSINESS
Arabsat looking for money
Pull the plug on analogue TV, says UK committee
Foxtel announces substitute film agreement
Seagram buys Polygram, may sell film unit
LAW & ORDER
Microsoft conducts nuclear test, warns government
EU Commission split over Kirch/Bertelsmann deal--reports



BURP!

Here's what happened since last Friday, plus an announcement:


Dr.Dish on Tour in Singapore!

If you plan to visit the CableSatAsia 98 in Singapore (June 2nd--5th 1998), you'll have the chance of meeting Senior Editor of TELE-Satellite International, Christian Mass (Dr.Dish) in person at the TSI stand N2-3 in Hall 2. To arrange a meeting in advance, please send your request by email to: drdish@drdish.com.

http://www.didish.com/




SATELLITES

PanAmSat gives up Galaxy IV

Robert Bednarek, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, PanAmSat Corp., said in a statement the company was not expected to be able to use the defunct Galaxy IV satellite for communications services again. Galaxy IV was moved from its orbital location at 99 degrees West to a safe, higher orbit, where it will remain for the near future, he added. Meanwhile, the C-Band satellite Galaxy VI is on its way towards 99 degrees and is expected there by Wednesday.

"PanAmSat and Hughes Space and Communications Co., which built the satellite, are continuing an extensive analysis of the cause of the SCP [spacecraft control processor] failures. We have ruled out any external causes and believe the satellite failure was due to a spacecraft component problem. Completion of the investigation may take several weeks."

Bednarek said PanAmSat had restored services to its Galaxy IV video and telecommunications customers, including the paging services, through the use of alternative capacity mainly on the neighbouring Galaxy III-R satellite.

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Eutelsat W1 damaged?

A fire at the Aerospatiale satellite Cannes facility on the French Côte d'Azur has damaged the Eutelsat-W1 satellite, claims the go-Ariane web site. The satellite was scheduled for launch on July 10 together with Sirius 3 on Ariane flight 109. go-Ariane quoted an unnamed industry source as saying the incident was a "disaster for all concerned."

However, I was so far unable to find any confirmation of the report dated May 19, not even a mention of a fire at Aerospatiale's Cannes facility, so it's up to you to believe the following.

The report claims the incident took place in an aneroid chamber when "the foam covered surface of the chamber walls caught fire." (Which is a bit strange as fire usually doesn't break out in a vacuum.) The damage was reportedly done by the water sprinkler system that was triggered subsequently.

go-Ariane says that "a spokesman at the facility, who did not want to identify the satellite precisely, told the AFP news agency that 'the satellite will have to be dried out before we can make a first estimate of the damage.'" The satellite could not be launched as planned, and there was no chance of replacing it with Eutelsat W2 which was expected to be ready as early as September.

http://www.go-ariane.com/

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BUSINESS

Arabsat looking for money

Arabsat, the satellite operator owned by 21 Arab governments, is considering opening its doors to private investors, its chairman Mohamad Saad al-Shahri was quoted as saying.

"Involvement of the private sector is our strategic target which will serve this establishment and the Arab world in the field of satellite telecommunications," al-Shahri said in an interview. "We are discussing that in the general assembly and will ask for preparation of a study after we have the green light from the assembly.

"We expect to complete the study and members of Arabsat to make a decision on the study and the plan it proposes by the end of this year." He pointed out that "Telecommunications require strong partners. This sector needs a lot of capital and Arabsat cannot handle giant projects alone."

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri addressed the Arabsat general assembly, currently meeting in Beirut. He said that "Arabsat will not be able to continue its operations unless it acquires stronger competitive abilities and that will be either through increasing governments' investments or through the participation of the private sector."

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Pull the plug on analogue TV, says UK committee

A parliamentary committee recommended Britain should pull the plug on analogue TV by the year 2010. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in a report called for Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to announce a switch-off date for analogue TV by the end of this year.

"We envisage this date being no later than 2010. This date should be announced before the end of 1998, as delay in the announcement causes uncertainty," the report says.

"This is a welcome boost for Britain's broadcasters--including BDB--as we prepare to launch digital terrestrial TV later this year," commented BDB chief executive Stephen Grabiner. "An early announcement of a date for analogue switch-off will allow consumers and the industry to plan ahead with confidence," he added.

BDB plans to launch at least 15 terrestrially distributed digital TV channels this autumn to compete with BSkyB's 200-channel satellite service due to launch next month.

Culture Minister Chris Smith has in the past repeatedly refused to set an exact date for the analogue switch-off.

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Foxtel announces substitute film agreement

Australian pay-TV group Foxtel has as expected terminated its film supply deal with Australis Media Ltd. which is in liquidation. Foxtel also confirmed a substitute agreement was already in place.

"The effect of this decision is that a substitute agreement between Foxtel and the Premium Movie Partnership for direct supply of the Showtime and Encore movie channels to Foxtel will take effect immediately," Foxtel said.

According to Foxtel, the TV1 Partnership had also terminated its agreement to provide a general entertainment channel to Australis, and has formed an agreement with Foxtel to supply programming.

In addition Foxtel said it had formed a programming supply agreement with satellite television broadcaster Austar under which it will supply the Showtime, Encore and TV1 channels to Austar.

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Seagram buys Polygram, may sell film unit

Seagram Co. Ltd. agreed to acquire Amsterdam-based Polygram NV in a deal valued at US$10.6 billion that leaves Seagram holding two film studios--Universal Inc. and Polygram Filmed Entertainment--with overlapping operations. That means that, as expected, Polygram Filmed Entertainment is now up for grabs.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval by the EU commission, and there are indications that the commission would like to see the film unit to be sold. Even before the deal was announced, French pay TV broadcaster Canal Plus expressed a possible interest in acquiring the Polygram film unit. Other possible buyers include French media group Pathe SA as well as German media companies Bertelsmann and Kirch. In the USA, Walt Disney Co. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. are reported to be interested in the Polygram library and its European distribution unit.

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LAW & ORDER

Microsoft conducts nuclear test, warns government

World leaders reacted with stunned silence as Microsoft Corp. conducted an underground nuclear test at a secret facility in eastern Washington state. The test, conducted at 9:22 am PDT (1622 UTC/12:22 pm EDT) today, followed the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust action against the integration of Microsoft's Internet Explorer with Windows 98.

"Microsoft is going to defend its right to market its products by any and all necessary means," said Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. "Not that I'm anti-government," he continued, "but there would be few tears shed in the computer industry if Washington were engulfed in a bath of nuclear fire."

Scientists pegged the explosion at around 100 kilotons. "I nearly dropped my latte when I saw the seismometer," explained University of Washington geophysicist Dr. Whoops Blammover. "At first I thought it was Mt. Rainier, and I was thinking, damn, there goes the mountain bike vacation."

In Washington, President Clinton announced the U.S. Government would boycott all Microsoft products indefinitely. Minutes later, the President reversed his decision. "We've tried sanctions since lunchtime, and they don't work," the President said. Instead, the administration will initiate a policy of "constructive engagement" with Microsoft.

Microsoft's Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myrhvold said the test justified Microsoft's recent acquisition of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation from the U.S. Government. Not only did Microsoft acquire "kilograms of weapons grade plutonium" in the deal, said Myrhvold, "but we've finally found a place to dump those millions of unsold copies of Microsoft Bob." Myrhvold warned users not to replace Microsoft products with rival operating systems. "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) inside of every Pentium II microprocessor," said Myrhvold, "but anyone who installs an OS written by a bunch of long-hairs on the Internet is going to get what they deserve."

The existence of an RTG in each Pentium II microprocessor would explain why the microprocessors, made by Intel Corporation, run so hot. The Intel chips "put out more heat than they draw in electrical power" said Prof. E. Thymes of MIT. "This should finally dispel those stories about cold fusion."

Rumours suggest a second weapons development project is underway in California, headed by Microsoft rival Sun Microsystems. "They're doing all of the development work in Java," said one source close to the project. The development of a delivery system is said to be holding up progress. "Write once, bomb anywhere is still a dream at the moment."

Meanwhile, Apple interim-CEO Steve Jobs was rumoured to be in discussion with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison about deploying Apple's Newton technology against Microsoft. "Newton was the biggest bomb the Valley has developed in years," said one hardware engineer. "I'd hate to be around when they drop that product a second time."

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EU Commission split over Kirch/Bertelsmann deal--reports

The European Commission is poised to reject a bid by the German Bertelsmann media group to form a digital television alliance with its partner Kirch, an EU source said Sunday. But according to recent reports there's still a chance for the deal. An unanimous vote seems rather unlikely.

At a high level meeting last Tuesday between Bertelsmann and Kirch officials and the commission, chaired by the European anti-monopolies commissioner Karel van Miert, a.k.a. Super-Karel, the companies said they had no more concessions to make.

On Sunday, a spokesman for Kirch, pointing out that the commission makes a final decision on Wednesday, said: "We still believe that the proposal that we presented to the commission was acceptable."

Bertelsmann and Kirch on Monday ruled out any further concessions saying they would undermine the project's economic viability. They have promised there will be no digital TV in Germany unless they are allowed to pool forces [which should be reason enough to ban the deal anyway--nobody here wants that digital pay-TV crap.]

Unfortunately, Super-Karel is just one of 20 commissioners. Chief Commission spokeswoman Martine Reicherts said that "It is difficult to say at this stage what the decision will be. The [draft decision] requires a majority of 11 votes and it risks being contested."

She said the deal should be looked at from the point of view of European "industrial policy" and not just from a narrow competition policy angle, adding there was "intense lobbying."

Not just that; there's still some silly hope that Europe could play in role in setting up a global digital TV standard. European standards would however be rather impossible without participation of Germany, the world's second-largest TV market.

At least three commissioners are thought to vote in favour of the Kirch/Bertelsmann deal:

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Copyright 1998, Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved. Peter C Klanowski shall not be liable for errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
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