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Sat-ND, 29.06.1998





Sat-ND, 29.06.1998

Sat-ND, 29.06.98
Invent your own headline!

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Contents

LAUNCHES
New date for Zenit-2 flight set
Arianespace's satellite roundabout
SATELLITES and other spacecraft
Mir: final decision on July 2
NSAB passes Sirius 3 to SES
CHANNELS
Iraq may launch satellite channel
BUSINESS
Sports Vision in liquidation
ONLINE
Telstra to offer asymmetric Internet satellite delivery
LOONY BITS
Scientific UFO research?
RUPERTWATCH
Rupert to offer U.S. minority groups US$100 million--report
Rupert to beat DirecTV in Japan
British pay-TV channels unbundled by ITC
Bertelsmann welcomes Rupert
JOKE DU JOUR
Drink and drive





LAUNCHES

New date for Zenit-2 flight set

The six-satellite launch with a Russian Zenit-2 rocket will take place on July 9 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, reported news agency Itar-Tass.

Experts reportedly said the launch would have been possible on July 2 or 3, but they decided on July 9 to have more time for repair work. They said that there had been a problem with "the booster's direction system."

The Zenit-2 is to launch the Russian Resurs-O satellite as well as five satellites for Australia, Chile, Germany, Israel and Thailand.

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Arianespace's satellite roundabout

European satellite launch provider Arianespace has repackaged its dual satellite launches: Sirius 3 will now be joined by Worldspace's Afristar while Eutelsat W2 slips back to a later launch date, sharing an Ariane 44L with Loral's Skynet-4E.

The October looks something like that for Arianespace now:

Flight 111 on October 3 with Sirius 3 and Afristar (Ariane 44L);

Flight 503 (=112) on October 13 with the Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator and a mock-up communications satellite [or possibly what's left of Eutelsat W1] (Ariane 5);

Flight 113 on October 23 with Eutelsat W2 and Skynet 4E.

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SATELLITES and other spacecraft

Mir: final decision on July 2

A final decision on the Russian space station Mir will be made on July 2 at a meeting of space sector leaders, reports Itar-Tass.

Directors and chief designers of major companies in the space sector on Friday sent a letter outlining the critical financial situation around Mir to Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko. Itar-Tass quoted an unnamed "high space official" as saying they were not going to threaten the government with an uncontrollable descent of the 130-tonne spacecraft back to Earth, adding that loyalty was better than "blackmail."

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NSAB passes Sirius 3 to SES

The Nordic Satellite Company, NSAB, has leased its Sirius 3 satellite to Luxembourg-based Société Européenne des Satellites (SES), the operator of the Astra satellite system, for a period of twelve months. Sirius is slated for launch on Ariane flight 111 on October 3.

SES said in a statement that after thorough market analysis NSAB has concluded that the slower than expected roll-out of digital satellite television in Scandinavia will lead to a delay in the demand for transponder capacity in the Nordic market. In other words, they don't need it and pass it to SES for a year which will position it at 28.2 degrees East. The statement added that "In addition the agreement opens the possibility for back-up capacity to be provided by SES to NSAB."

SES said Sirius 3 would provide back-up capacity to the Astra 2A satellite, which is expected to be launched into the orbital location of 28.2 degrees East on August 20. It would also "make available additional transponder capacity in order to meet the increasing demand of broadcasting customers targeting the UK and Irish markets." Sirius 3, a Hughes HS-376 HP (High Power) model, has 15 Ku-band transponders.

"Upon completion of the lease to SES and in no event later than October 1st, 1999, Sirius 3 will be transferred to NSAB's orbital position in 5° East where it will replace Sirius 1 and offer additional capacity for digital TV and multimedia services," SES said.

Currently, Astra 1D is at 28.2 degrees East to ensure the official launch of BSkyB's digital TV package next autumn. It is likely to return to 19.2 degrees East once Sirius 3 is up. The announcement of the Sirius 3 deal supports the view that SES' contract with BSkyB calls for backup capacity at 28.2 degrees East. BSkyB has leased 14 transponders on Astra 2A.

NSAB is owned and operated by two state-run Swedish companies, Swedish Space Corporation (37.5%) and Teracom AB (37.5%) with public company Tele Danmark A/S holding the balance.

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CHANNELS

Iraq may launch satellite channel

An Iraqi business weekly reported that the country has rented a channel on Egypt's first national television satellite, Nilesat 101.

A channel in this context obviously means something like an eighth of a transponder as Nilesat distributes digitally compressed channels. The TV channel to be broadcast by Iraq will be called "Baghdad," weekl Al-Iqtissadi reported.

In related news, a Baghdad newspaper said that the government ban on satellite dishes [by no means an Iraqi speciality] might be lifted.

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BUSINESS

Sports Vision in liquidation

Here's the latest liquidation in the Australian pay-TV business. Optus Communications said that its Sports Vision sports programming joint venture had been put into liquidation. A provisional liquidator has been appointed.

An Optus Vision spokesman said the provisional liquidation would not affect customers programming as Sports Vision would continue broadcasting until a new venture was decided.

Sports Vision was set up as an exclusive sports channel for Optus using programming bought from Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd's (PBL) Nine Network, The Seven Network Ltd and Walt Disney Co's ESPN Inc.

Seven holds a 30 percent stake in Sports Vision, ESPN holds 25 percent, Optus holds 25 percent and PBL owns 20 percent.

Optus Vision and its major cable competitor Foxtel, a joint venture between Keith Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Ltd and Telstra Corp Ltd, are estimated to have jointly lost more than A$1 billion with pay-TV in Australia.

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ONLINE

Telstra to offer asymmetric Internet satellite delivery

Australian telecommunications company Telstra said it will launch a high speed asymmetric Internet satellite delivery service option for Big Pond Direct, Telstra's permanent Internet access service for ISPs, corporates and government organisations next month.

Telstra already has 45 Megabits per second of backbone satellite capacity between the United States and Sydney in operation. The new service is currently undergoing customer trials prior to full commercial launch. The use of international satellite capacity to deliver Internet access services has the potential to significantly reduce costs for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) connected to Telstra, the company said in a press release.

Telstra will not use satellite in both directions because of the additional propagation delay introduced by the extra satellite hop. Said Telstra's General Manager for Internet Services, John Rolland: "We expect this service to suit non-interactive applications such as Newsfeeds, electronic mail, streamed media and caching."

He continued that "It is not expected to have as much appeal to users of real time interactive applications such as World Wide Web and File Transfer Protocol due to the higher delays experienced over international satellite than fibre cables."

Telstra: http://www.telstra.com.au/

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LOONY BITS

Scientific UFO research?

Some people may have too much time or too much money. Otherwise there would be no explanation for the fact that an international nine-member panel of scientists has been paid by philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller to examine UFO reports.

The result is what anybody with some common sense has already known: there is no convincing evidence whatsoever that extraterrestrial beings had visited Earth. But, of course, there are a few things that so for cannot be explained.

So what? Thousands of years ago, humans invented gods because they had no better explanation for thunderstorms, because they did not know why the sun set every evening and rose every morning, etc. It would have been better for them had they learnt how to live with the inexplicable.

There's one completely undisputed fact in the whole discussion anyway: The whole UFO industry down here on Earth is a multi-billion dollar business, and that's why UFOs are here to stay for a long, long time. That's something that really deserves scientific scrutiny--not by astronomers and physicists but rather by psychologists and economists.

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RUPERTWATCH

by Dr Sarmaz

Rupert to offer U.S. minority groups US$100 million--report

Media mogul Keith Rupert Murdoch is negotiating a deal with minority and civil rights groups to fund investments in minority-owned broadcast outlets, according to an advance story from an upcoming Mother Jones package on KRM's global empire. The story reports that if the two sides are able to agree on a figure, the minority advocates will endorse an FCC waiver Murdoch plans to request. The waiver would allow him to exceed the 35 percent national coverage limit.

To date, reports Mother Jones contributing writer Ken Silverstein, Murdoch has offered to donate US$100 million to fund investments in minority-owned stations. But the group is reportedly holding out for more.

The deal could lead to some increase in broadcast ownership by minorities, but it could also accelerate the monopoly of media ownership. Mark Crispin Miller, who teaches media studies at New York University and is director of the Project on Media Ownership, says "It's a Faustian bargain. It offers Murdoch a 'PC' camouflage to extend his influence still further. It will ultimately make little difference if he makes a few loans to minority owners."

Mother Jones: http://www.motherjones.com/

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Rupert to beat DirecTV in Japan

A magazine story reporting that Japanese digital TV broadcaster DirecTV is losing customers to its rival SkyPerfecTV has stirred fresh concerns among industry analysts about DirecTV's competitive edge.

DirecTV has pledged free tuners and dishes to about 100,000 subscribers of its partner satellite broadcaster SkyPort, which will terminate its analogue service at the end of September. The Japanese monthly magazine "Foresight" reported in its June issue that about 30,000 to 40,000 viewers who were given free DirecTV tuners and dish sets chose instead to join SkyPerfecTV by purchasing hardware costing nearly 60,000 yen.

DirecTV, which currently offers 88 channels, has said its viewership topped 100,000 in the middle of May, five months after it launched its service. SkyPerfecTV, which offers 171 channels, says it has boosted its viewership by more than 100,000 in the past two months alone. It claims it has attracted 731,000 subscribers since its launch in late 1996.

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British pay-TV channels unbundled by ITC

The U.K.'s Independent Television Commission (ITC) will partly prohibit bundling of channels carried by multichannel platforms, a move that undoubtedly will impact British Sky Broadcasting. The move means that British television viewers will soon have more freedom to choose the pay-TV channels they want to receive.

The ITC said it will ban the pay-TV industry's practice of guaranteeing TV channels distribution as part of large subscription packages. On the other hand a lot of people are only taking BSkyB's 40-channel "Big Basic" package because it's the only way to subscribe to premium channel, ITC chief executive Peter Rogers told a press conference. He continued that this has to stop.

As of September 30, the ITC will require that viewers be allowed to buy through to premium channels from any basic package, though some restrictions will apply.

Cable companies as well as BSkyB have welcomed the ITC's decision, with BSkyB adding that the decision would give a boost to its digital satellite TV services. Niche channels that are part of the Big Basic package, such as Mirror Groups Live TV, threatened to sue the ITC if the regulator tried to force changes to its existing contracts.

The ITC said it would impose different deadlines for existing channels that were exclusive to one platform, such as Live TV which said it was delighted with its perceived exemption from the ITCs ban but still opposed the overall ruling in principle.

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Bertelsmann welcomes Rupert

A fortnight ago, German media giant Bertelsmann vehemently denied it would allow Keith Rupert Murdoch to take over control of the ailing free-to-air TV channel Vox. They still don't want that to happen, but it all sounds a bit different now.

Bertelsmann chairman Mark Wössner told a German radio station today that his company was aiming at setting up a "strategic partnership" with KRM where both companies would hold 50 percent of Vox each. KRM already holds 49.9 percent of Vox.

Bertelmann's subsidiary CLT-Ufa owns a 24.9 percent stake in Vox, and so does France's Canal Plus which probably will sell its stake to Bertelsmann--and not to KRM. Despite being the larger shareholder, Murdoch cannot outvote Bertelsmann on investment decisions because any decision requires an 80 percent majority.

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JOKE DU JOUR

Drink and drive

Quite a bit of news from Australia today, so here's a joke sent in by John MacDermott who apparently lives in Australia, too.

One night, a police officer was stalking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible violations of the driving-under-the-influence laws.

At closing time, he saw a fellow stumble out of the bar, trip on the curb, and try his keys on five different cars, dropping them several times before he found his. Then, he sat in the front seat fumbling around with his keys for several minutes. In the meantime, everyone left the bar drove off.

Finally, he started his engine and began to pull away.

The police officer was waiting for him. He stopped the driver, read him his rights and administered the Breathalyzer test. [Just curious: it didn't happen to be a Dräger breathalyzer?] The results showed a reading of 0.0. The puzzled officer demanded to know how that could be.

The driver replied, "Tonight, I'm the designated decoy."

The famous Dräger Alcotest: http://www.draeger.com/german/st/alcotest/index.htm [German]

Dräger in space: http://www.draeger.com/english/aerospace/sp.htm

[Sat-ND is in no way affiliated with Dräger. Even though the company's main operation is located at my home town, I just couldn't care less.]

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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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