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TELE-satellit News - 21 April 1996

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______________________________________________________________________


TELE-satellit
EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE
International Satellite Broadcasting News
Number 97, Week ending 21 April 1996
By Martyn Williams
News Desk : Internet martyn@twics.com  or CompuServe CIS:martynw
(c) TELE-satellit Magazine


SKY MAGAZINE CHARGE EXPLAINED
  LONDON, England (TS) -- Britain's new sunday business newspaper, 
Sunday Business, thinks it has found the reason for a price being 
fixed to the front of the TV guide sent out to all subscribers. For 
those that don't know, Sky TV began sending out a TV guide to its 
subscribers as part of the subscription fee over a year ago. Most 
subscribers don't seem to like the magazine and many don't want it. It 
carries a GBP 2.50 price on the front even though it is free to 
subscribers and you can't buy it anywhere.
  The new newspaper said that Sky are using this an a way to avoid tax 
payments because, in the UK, magazines and newspapers are untaxed but 
subscription TV payments are. By claiming GBP 2.50 of the subscription 
fee is for the magazine, Sky don't have to pay a 17.5% tax on that 
part, claimed the newspaper.


INTELSAT AGAINST TDRS CONTINUED USE
  WASHINGTON, DC, USA (TS) -- At a board meeting last week, the board 
of governors of Intelsat decided to express its findings that the 
proposed extended use of the C-band frequencies on board the TDRS 
satellite used by Columbia Communications at 41 degrees west, beyond 
the previously mutually agreed-upon date of 31 December 1997, is not 
technically compatible with the use of the radio frequency spectrum 
and orbital space by the existing or planned Intelsat space segment 
plans.
  Commenting upon the Board's decision, Intelsat director general & 
chief executive officer Irving Goldstein said, "Intelsat fully 
supports competition in satellite services and the efficient use of 
orbital resources.  A deal is a deal, however,  and in this case, 
Intelsat requires the orbital location to serve customers in the 
developing countries of Latin America. Intelsat, and its customers in 
the region, relied on the original agreement in the development and 
marketing of satellite services."
  In August 1991 Intelsat signed an agreement that gave Columbia 
Communications the right to use the 41 degrees west slot in C-band 
until the end of 1997 with no interference from Intelsat. Intelsat has 
the right to interference-free use of the orbital location 
for C-band operations after 1997.
  The US registered the 41 degrees west orbital location with the 
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) after Intelsat registered 
the same position with the ITU. so Intelsat has priority for operation 
of a satellite at the location.
  In 1991 however, Intelsat gave Columbia the rights to use the 
position for six years, the estimated lifetime of the TDRS satellite.
  Intelsat said its management's 1991 recommendation was expressly 
conditioned upon the written assurances given by Comsat and the US 
Department of State that Intelsat would be permitted to operate after 
31 December 1997 at its 41 degrees west location for the remaining 
four-year period of the consultation agreement free from interference 
by Columbia.


CLT JOINS FRENCH DIGITAL CONSORTIUM
  LUXEMBOURG (TS) -- Broadcaster Cie Luxembourgeoise de Telediffusion 
(CLT), operator of the RTL television and radio channels, has taken a 
20% in a new French digital broadcasting package that will put its 
programs alongside those of TF1, France 2, France 3 and other 
broadcasters.
  The new service will compete against the Canal Satellite package 
being launched by Canal Plus this month.


SUMMER TV COMING FROM HILVERSUM
  HILVERSUM, The Netherlands (TS) -- Surprising news: Radio Nederland 
is going to start a TV station, but it's not called BVN-TV. RNW will 
launch Wereldomroep Zomer TV (Worldservice Summer TV). It will be 
available via satellite, but also in hotels. WZTV will broadcast from 
June until August from 20.00 till 24.00. Although no satellite was 
named, I suspect it will be on ASTRA, because most tourists will point 
their dish at one of the ASTRA birds for RTL, Veronica and SBS. RNW 
made it perfectly clear that this is not the same as BVN. RNW will 
still work on BVN, but since Ned 1,2,3 will probably be on 
Multichoice, programming will have to be different from the 
terrestrial broadcast. (Jitse Groen via Sat-ND)


HISTORY COMING TO CABLE NEXT
  SAN FRANCISCO, California, USA (SHOPTALK) -- According to the 10th 
annual survey of cable operators, if your cable system is adding 
channels soon, the History Channel will most likely be one of them.  
Other channels topping the list according to the industry newsletter 
Myers Reports were ESPN2, Home and Garden TV, The Learning Channel and 
the Cartoon Network.  (USA Today via Shoptalk)


NEW ARTS CHANNEL LAUNCHES
  NEW YORK, New York, USA (TS) -- America's newest cable TV network, 
the Ovation cable network, began broadcasting over the weekend. The 
service will offer 20 hours of arts related broadcasting a day, seven 
days a week, and is the only arts channel available in the USA.
  It has been founded by former National Gallery of Art director J 
Carter Brown and funded with $20 million in donations from 
corporations and individuals.


MOROCCO BUYS INTO 2M
  RABAT, Morocco (TS) -- The Moroccan government has taken a 70% stake 
in troubled pay TV operator 2M. Previous owners, the Societe d'Etudes 
et de Realisations Audiovisuelles (SOREAD), retain a 30% share.
  Growing competition from satellite channels and a market flooded 
with pirate decoders lost the channel $52 million last year. Under 
government ownership the channel will continue as before with no 
change in editorial policy said the government.


MORE TALK, LESS TALK
  HILVERSUM, The Netherlands (TS) -- The Manausgroep (founder of 
JazzRadio) is going to set up a Dutch talk radio station. It is due to 
start January 1, 1997. The name is not known yet. Veronica Nieuwsradio 
has just stated that they are going to stop the talk radio broadcasts 
(they have already closed down most of it) because 'nobody listens'.
  Earlier this week D66, a liberal government party, asked for aid for 
Veronica Nieuwsradio. The AM frequency it uses can't be received at 
night, and isn't too good at daytime either. They station has problems 
now because they have got an audience of less than 0.2%. D66 thinks it 
would be better to have Nieuwsradio compete against Radio 1, which is 
called the 'nieuws en sportzender'. D66 proposes that the Dutch media 
authorities CVDM supply VNR with a better frequency. Talk radio is a 
success in the US and the UK, but the results in the Netherlands are 
hopeless. (Jitse Groen via Sat-ND))


PANAMSAT EXPANDS DIGITAL SERVICE
  LAS VEGAS, Nevada, USA (PAS) -- PanAmSat is enhancing its capability 
to provide digital video compression services by installing 
Scientific-Atlanta's PowerVu system for use on satellites covering its 
Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean regions.
  PanAmSat has been using Scientific-Atlanta MPEG-based equipment 
since 1994 to serve its Pacific Ocean region (POR). The POR's existing 
MPEG-based equipment in Hong Kong and California will be upgraded to 
PowerVu digital video compression systems for use with PanAmSat 2 in 
the Pacific Ocean region. Subsequent installations of new PowerVu 
systems for the Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions will occur in the 
summer of 1996 to complete worldwide digital availability.
  

MAXAT JOINS DIGITAL GROUP
  LONDON, England (MAXAT) -- Maxat has taken its place on the Digital 
Television Group, an industry-wide forum to facilitate the 
introduction of digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the UK. The 
Group comprises major communications, television and electronics 
organisations including the BBC, Channel 4, Eutelsat, ITV, Pearson, 
Sony and Toshiba.
  Maxat is represented by its chief executive, Julian Costley, and 
David Cutts. a specialist consultant to France Telecom. Maxat has been 
asked by France Telecom to represent the company's interests and to 
act as a channel for its technical expertise and developments in 
digital television.
  The group aims to co-ordinate efforts by developing the technical 
systems necessary for the practical applications of DTT services. It 
was formed shortly after the government announced its Broadcasting 
Bill and its White Paper in 1995.


DISCOVERY LAUNCHES DIGITAL IN SOUTH AMERICA
  SAN DIEGO, California, USA (GI) -- The Discovery Channel Latin 
America Iberia, a Spanish language documentary service reaching more 
than 5 million homes, has begun transmitting to affiliates using 
General Instrument Corporation's DSR-4400, the company's first 
commercial Integrated Receiver/Decoder featuring GI's next generation 
MPEG-2 digital television system.
  Discovery Channel Latin America Iberia is the first commercial 
customer to begin using GI's MPEG-2 based video compression system, 
featuring its proven access control technology and video quality.


VYVX BUYS GLOBAL ACCESS
  TULSA, Oklahoma, USA (TS) -- Vyvx announced this week that it has 
agreed to purchase Global Access. The news comes just after Vyvx 
purchased satellite uplink facilities in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles 
and Carteret, NJ.
  Global Access is the second largest US reseller of worldwide 
satellite video transmission services.  It serves over 700 customers, 
including U.S. and international broadcast and cable TV networks. The 
acquisition will position Vyvx as a full service international 
broadcast transmission provider. 
  Global Access adds satellite transponder capacity to the growing 
array of network services offered by Vyvx. Global Access schedules 
more than 4,500 satellite uplink connections per month using both 
C-band and Ku-band capacity, analog or digital formats, occasional or 
full-time service, point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission 
and US or international links. 


MSNBC DETAILS FIRST SHOW
  NEW YORK, New York, USA (SHOPTALK) -- MSNBC, the 24-hour cable news 
network created by NBC and Microsoft, will present as one of its first 
shows an hourlong look at the news and personalities of new media and 
the digital revolution.  A source close to the still unnamed project 
said that it will air on the cable channel and on an Internet site 
Monday through Friday.  Its format is expected to be a cross between a 
network nightly newscast and a weekly news magazine with product 
reviews, braking news and interviews with industry leaders. The show 
will be produced in a San Francisco studio using the staffs of NBC 
News and Ziff-Davis.  Hosts and the show's title will be announced in 
upcoming weeks. (Wall Street Journal via Shoptalk) 


IN BRIEF
-- ZTV and TV6 Denmark have joined together to become 3+. The new 
channel is broadcasting on TVSat-2 at 11,977 GHz in D2-MAC.
-- Israeli Television has been seen on Intelsat 707 at 1 degree West. 
Using a 180cm dish, Norbert Schlammer logged channels on 11,016, 
11,133 and 11,176 GHz, vertically polarized.
-- On the RTP Internacional transponder on Ekspress 2 at 14 degrees 
west more radio canbe found. At 4,250 MHz with right hand you can hear 
RDP Radio Portugese Africa, is on 7.02 MHz and RDP Antena ! is on 7.20 
MHz.
-- Canal France International is now dual-illuminated on TDF 1/2 
satellite at 18.8 degrees west. The channel, in scrambled D2-MAC is on 
11.957 GHz and 12.034 GHz, both right hand polarised.
-- From 27 May Eurosport will begin to offer Italian language sound. 
It is only the second international channel, after Euronews, to offer 
Italian language audio. The Italian is being provided in association 
with part own RAI and will be offered on 11.390 GHz via the 7.92 MHz 
subcarrier on Hot Bird 1 at 13 degrees east.


NEWS FROM THE WEB
-- Shoptalk, a daily insider news letter of the US TV industry, from 
which we occasionally carry news, has a new Web site. Check out 
http://www.tvspy.com/ 
-- All the details of upcoming US commercial space launches can be 
found at http://www.dot.gov/dotinfo/faa/cst/bulletin/manifest.txt


WANNA BUY AN EARTH STATION?
  TELE-satellit's all seeing US correspondent, Curt Swinehart, 
forwarded the following post from Usenet:

  From: hhoffman@ix.netcom.com (AEROMED)
  Newsgroups: biz.misc misc.entrepreneurs
  biz.marketplace.international biz.general alt.business.misc 
  alt.business.import-export
  Subject: SALE: C-Band Satellite Earth Station (high capacity)
  Message-ID: &lt173d729.1778087@ixnews8.ix.netcom.com>/A>

  Complete high capacity industrial-grade satellite earth station
  capable of handling large scale data, phone or television.

  The equipment available is a USD $9.0 million (replacement cost)
  system formerly utilized by Hughes and Martin-Marietta. SELL price 
  is approximately USD $1.5 million for the complete system
  (subsystems  possibly available). It is presently stored in a
  controlled atmosphere in San Digeo, CA. Inspection available by
  appointment.

Seems like a bargain to us! Maybe Dr.Dish would like to buy it ...


NEWS FROM DR DISH
drdish@tv on April 26 will hopefully be live from Usingen again (1900 
UTC, 2000 UK, 2100 CEST.) We'll have some experiments in receiving FDM 
and SCPC signals, and tell you how to cope with voice scrambling and 
data via satellite. Don't forget to tune in to our new frequency on 
DFS II, 28.5o East: 11.675 GHz, horizontal, sound subcarrier 6.65 MHz 
(bandwidth 300 kHz.) Dr.Dish (Christian Mass)


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CREDITS,

Reports in TELE-satellit news are from our worldwide network of 
reporters and sources. In particular we would like to thank :

Curt Swinehart for keeping us up to date with all parts of the 
satellite industry.

Don Fitzpatrick of DFA in San Francisco for providing permission to 
reproduce articles from Shoptalk, the TV news industry's daily news 
and information magazine.

OMRI material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research 
Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, 
Czech Republic. For more information on OMRI publications, please 
write to: info@omri.cz

Reproduction in part of Jonathan's Space Report was maded possible by 
kind permission of Jonathan McDowell. To read the full edition see 
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html or 
ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*

News from Radio Sweden is made possible by Geroge Wood, presenter of 
Sweden Calling DXers/MediaScan,  the world's oldest radio program 
about international broadcasting. Radio Sweden has presented this 
round-up of radio news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since 
1948. It's currently broadcast on the first and third Tuesdays of the 
month. http://www.sr.se/rs






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