Apparently-to: scdx@get.pp.se
From: "George Wood" 
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  ::           MediaScan             
  ::      SWEDEN CALLING DXERS       
  ::       from Radio Sweden          
  ::    Number 2270--May 6, 1997    
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Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio
Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2270
Updated Web edition at: http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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Note: I'm really running behind today...expect the Web version to
appear online sometime tomorrow.
Headlines:
Television Without Frontiers (quotas stopped again)
British Sky Broadcasting is coming to Scandinavia
"Alltid Nyheter" -- the Nordic region's first all-news radio station
Channel 5 launches on Astra Murdoch's American DBS plans suffer
setbacks
NORDIC MEDIA NEWS
SKY ENTERTAINMENT--It felt like an April Fool's joke when it appeared
in the April 1 edition of MediaScan, but Rupert Murdoch is indeed
returning to Scandinavia with two variations on his BSkyB channels.
The original Sky Channel was very popular here, but when Murdoch moved
to Astra, he restricted most of his channels to Britain and Ireland.
Sky News and Documentaries will carry material from Sky News and
eventually the Computer Channel. Sky Entertainment is to relay
programming from Granada Plus, the Granada Good Life channels, and
CMT. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
Note that this does not include the entertainment channels Sky 1 and
Sky 2. Presumably this is because these channels carry almost
exclusively American programming (largely from Murdoch's own Fox
Network), so royalties might be hard to arrange (but not impossible if
Murdoch already owns so much of it). Since access to "Star Trek" and
other American programming is said to be the reason there are so many
Sky pirate cards floating around Scandinavia and other parts of
Europe, failing to include Sky 1 and Sky 2 in the new package would
seem to be missing the point.
The two channels are supposed to be carried on Thor 2 at 1 degree
West, which is scheduled for launch with a Delta rocket on May 11th at
22:40 hrs UTC (note today's program mentions the earlier scheduled May
9th launch).
But Sky Entertainment was testing yesterday (May 5) on Astra
transponder 24, in encoded Videocrypt, with a message to call the Sky
subscriptions number in Britain. In between programs from Granada
Plus, there were promos in English and Danish. Further tests from Sky
Entertainment on transponder 24 are scheduled for May 10-11, while Sky
News and Documentaries will be testing on May 23-24. (James Robinson)
MEDIA IN SWEDEN--Despite the recent growth of new media, radio is
doing quite well here in Sweden. According to the annual Media
Barometer, Swedes devote 5 hours and 50 minutes a day to media. Of
that, 37 percent was spent listening to the radio, while TV accounted
for 28 percent.
Another survey indicates that public service Swedish Radio is
maintaining its popularity, despite the new private commercial radio
stations here. 58.2 percent of Swedes listen to Swedish Radio's 4
national networks and 24 local stations. Commercial radio attracts
only 29.5 percent of the audience.
On the other hand, the commercial radio marketing organization in
Sweden SRR predicts that radio advertising here will bring in more
than USD 50 million this year, an increase of 25 percent compared to
1996. SRR forecasts a further 20 percent increase next year. (TT)
If we go back to the Media Barometer, and the question of how many
Swedes tune into different media sources anytime during the day, 84
percent of the population watch some TV, while 83 percent listen to
the radio. Morning newspapers are in third place with 76 percent daily
readership. Other media are farther behind, 42 percent of Swedes every
day look at a book, while 32 percent listen to CDs or records.
("Radiotidningen")
Finally another study reveals that one-third of Swedes have access to
the Internet, up from a quarter of the population in September. (TT)
NORWEGIAN RADIO--Norway has Scandinavia's first all-news radio
channel. It's called "Alltid Nyheter", which means "Always News", is
run by the public service broadcaster NRK, and it went on the air on
April 14th. Besides NRK's own newscasts, Always News also uses
material from CNN, Swedish Radio, and Danish Radio. Between 9 PM and 6
AM (local time) the channel relays BBC World Service radio.
Always News is supposed to be a model for how radio will be done in 5
years, and is being carried in digital DAB in Oslo and two other
cities. As there are few, if any, DAB receivers on the market, it's
also being carried in ordinary FM in Oslo and one other community. The
Oslo transmitter is on 93 MHz, which used to relay Radio Norway
International to the capital. ("Radiotidningen" and "Pressens
Tidning")
Always News is also on satellite, as the soundtrack to the NRK test
pattern on Intelsat 707, 11.176 GHz, and as its own D2-MAC channel on
MTV's transponder on 11.679 GHz. (Richard Karlsson, "Sat Nordic")
There are now 8 Norwegian radio stations broadcasting at 1 degree
West. Besides "Alltid Nyheter", P5 is now being relayed via the
Cartoon/TNT transponder on 11.001 GHz. (Richard Karlsson,
"Aftonbladet")
NORWEGIAN TV--The MPEG-2 version of TV Norge has changed transponders
on Astra 1E from 73 (11.875 GHz) to 77 (11.954 GHz). (Richard
Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
DANISH TV--TV Danmark has started in clear MPEG-2 on Intelsat 707,
11.187 GHz. ("SATCO DX Chart Update")
CABLE--Danes and Norwegians regularly watch Swedish television,
initially over the borders, and now relayed on cable systems. Between
32 and 51 percent of households in those countries have access to the
three Swedish terrestrial channels. But Swedes have paid little
attention to TV from their Nordic neighbors. Now a new study has
recommended that Swedish cable systems be required to carry at least
one Danish and one Norwegian public service TV channel. 
In his report, former Minister of Education and Ambassador to Oslo
Lennart Bodstroem says this would be of enormous significance for
developing a Nordic cultural identity. He dismisses the expected
objection from the cable companies that royalties would be
prohibitive. (TT and "Journalisten")
SPORTS--With Kinnevik's Sportkanalen closed, and Filmnet's Supersport
about to be broken up, Swedish Television and private broadcaster TV4
are planning to start a joint sports channel. According to the head of
Swedish Television, Sam Nilsson, this would be a pay-channel, without
commercials, and could be on the air within a couple of years. (TT)
The two terrestrial broadcasters recently had a run-in with German
media mogul Leo Kirch, who bought up all the rights to Swedish soccer
and ice hockey, and then wanted way more than any Swedish stations
were willing to pay. They've finally worked out a compromise, but it
raised a lot of questions. Over in Norway things are a bit different,
as soccer rights have been sold to domestic broadcasters NRK and TV2
for a record 20 million dollars. (TT) (See "Television Without
Borders" under Europe for a related story.)
The Danish sports channel TVS Sportkanalen on Tele-X 12.637 GHz has
been coded since April 15. Program cards are only available to viewers
in Denmark. They are free until August 1, when the channel will start
charging. Danes can also use existing Multichoice cards to view TVS.
(Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
SIRIUS--The SVT 4 service from Swedish Television that will be
broadcast to Europe over the upcoming Sirius 2 will be encoded in
Viacess. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
EUROPE
TELEVISION WITHOUT BORDERS--The European Commission has finally set up
a system to keep important sports events on free TV, at the same time
that the EU has apparently finally killed off plans for European TV
quotas. While a Swedish initiative to ban advertising aimed at
children failed to get any support, European TVs may carry V-chips to
let parents block violent programming. In today's program we have a
report from our correspondent in Brussels, Joe Kirwin.
CHANNEL 5--A British channel has taken over a formerly Scandinavian
(to the degree that Filmnet was started by a Swedish company before it
was sold) transponder on Astra. After many delays, the new Channel 5
is now broadcasting on transponder 63, which had been used by Filmnet
to relay its Central European service. It is soft-scrambled in
Videocrypt, which means anyone in the Astra footprint with a
Videocrypt decoder can watch.
According to media research specialist CIA MediaLab, more than one
third of 15-24 year olds say Channel 5 is not as good as expected and
is worse than rival channels. Channel 5 has aimed particularly at the
under-35 audience. (Reuters)
EUTELSAT--The ART-Arabesque MPEG-2 package on Hot Bird 2 12.015 GHz is
now coded in Viacess. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
AB Sat's digital service was halted by a fire in its uplink facility
on April 24. The complete AB Sat package in MPEG-2 has now returned to
Eutelsat II-F1 11.678 and 12.521 GHz. ("SATCO DX Chart Update")
Kinder Kanal and Arte have left Eutelsat II-F1 11.055 GHz. (James
Robinson)
The launch of the German music channel MIC-TV has been delayed from
April until November, after a dispute over transponder capacity on Hot
Bird 1. ("What Satellite TV")
DIGITAL SKY--"The Financial Times" reports that BSkyB, British
Telecom, Matsushita, and the Midland Bank will announce plans tomorrow
(May 7) to launch a digital multichannel satellite TV service to the
UK. The four companies will jointly subsidize the price of digital
set-top boxes to get them into homes and take a slice of revenues from
the service. The joint company will be called British Interactive
Broadcasting, and will carry around 200 channels of digital
programming. Receivers will be made by Matsushita, better known by its
Panasonic brand name. ("Tele-satellit News")
Dozens of American channels are reported to be queuing up to be
included in Sky's digital package. These include "E! Entertainment",
"MGM Gold", a channel from Turner Broadcasting, "National Geographic
TV", "The Home and Garden Channel", "USA Network", "Comedy Central",
"Knowledge TV", "The Sundance Movie Channel", "Classic Sports", and
"The Golf Channel". Flextech and the BBC have also confirmed that they
will give Sky the first option of transmitting their eight planned
digital channels. Sky also plans to offer up to 100 pay-per-view
channels of sports, concerts, and theatrical events. ("What Satellite
TV")
Problems with the Xenon Ion Propulsion System on Astra 2A have forced
SES to shift the launch to a Proton rocket in October, for an
operational start in December. To bridge the gap, Astra 1G (launching
on a Proton in August) is likely to be used both to satisfy its
intended customers on 12.50-12.75 GHz as well as double for Astra 1F
on 12.10-12.50 GHz. Astra 1F could then be moved to 28 degrees East to
relay Sky's 14 and Flextech's 6 digital transponders. This would
ensure that British satellite digital TV has a start in the Fall as
scheduled, albeit with slightly reduced power. ("What Satellite TV")
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC--The National Geographic Channel has created a
joint venture with BSkyB. The service will start in July as a 6 hour
programming block, and will evolve into a 12 hour channel when BSkyB
starts its digital service this Fall. (Curt Swinehart)
CABLE AND WIRELESS--The chairman of Cable and Wireless Communications
says the company's 200 channel digital TV service will be available
this Fall, possibly beating out the launch of BSkyB's rival service.
CWC was formed by the merger of Mercury Communications with the cable
operations of Nynex, Bell Cablemedia, and Videotron. ("The Times")
INTELSAT--The Adult Channel has started on Intelsat 601, 11.012 GHz in
PAL/Videocrypt. ("SATCO DX Chart Update")
SPAIN--On April 16 the Spanish Parliament approved a new digital
television law requiring digital TV operators to use a new decoder
system called multicrypt if in 2 months no compatibility agreement is
reached on the use of the other system, already in use by Canal
Satellite Digital. Canal Satellite, which began broadcasting in
January, has objected, commenting that the multicrypt decoder system
isn't on the market yet. Nor is its rival, a government-sponsored
project involving Telefonica de Espana, Television Espanola, and Grupo
Televisa of Mexico, in business yet. Canal Satellite plans to appeal
the new legislation to Spain's Constitutional Court and the European
Court of Justice. (Reuters and the "Wall Street Journal")
ITALY--Canal Plus, the principal shareholder of Italy's pay-TV service
Telepiu, is planning to cut drastically Telepiu's 3 existing analog TV
channels which are currently transmitted via terrestrial transmitters
through-out Italy. Telepiu will instead carry only one terrestrial
channel, which will be a mix of movies, sports, and arts programming.
The channel will also serve as a promotional vehicle for the Telepiu
Satellite digital package at 13 degrees East. ("Tele-satellit News")
Telepiu has confirmed the launch of an Italian version of the Disney
Channel by the end of the year. Disney has similar channels in
Britain, France, and the Middle East, and is about to launch a
Japanese service. (Where's the Scandinavian service?) ("Tele-satellit
News")
MTV has announced that from September 1 is will be available via
terrestrial transmitters through-out Italy. MTV will broadcast via
Rete A, a national TV channel owned by Alberto Peruzzo which until now
has been showing information and shopping program. Peruzzo will keep a
30 minute a day slot for information programming. ("Tele-satellit
News")
AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST
INTELSAT--Intelsat 801 had reached 62 degrees East by May 5, on its
way to 64 degrees East. ("SATCO DX Chart Update")
AMOS--The Hungarian Babylon Blue has started on Amos 1, 11.344 GHz in
clear PAL. ("SATCO DX Chart Update")
ORION--Iran's BAZTAB has started on Orion 1 12.685 GHz (and Arabsat 2B
4.085 GHz). Apna TV is back on 11.625 GHz in MPEG-2. ("SATCO DX Chart
Update")
SIRIUS--The government of Cyprus has signed an agreement with GE
Capital Satellites-Europe for transmissions on the upcoming Sirius 2
satellite. ("Tele-Satellit News") Sirius 2, which will be half used
for broadcasts to Scandinavia, with GE using the rest for a
pan-European service, will replace Tele-X at 5 degrees East when it
launches later this year. 
BBC--The British Broadcasting Corporation says it will add 5 hours
daily to its World Service Arabic-language broadcasts, making it the
BBC's largest as well as oldest speech-based foreign-language service.
Beginning yesterday World Service Arabic will also be available at
--- NetMgr 1.00.g4+
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