Apparently-to: scdx@get.pp.se
From: "George Wood" 
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  ::           MediaScan             
  ::      SWEDEN CALLING DXERS       
  ::       from Radio Sweden          
  ::    Number 2283--October 18, 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 SCDX2283
Updated Web edition at: http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS
RADIO SWEDEN--Last week our Russian service celebrated its 30th
anniversary, with a combined party and live broadcast from one of
Swedish Radio's big audience studios. In today's program I ask the
head of the Russian Service (and Radio Sweden's Program Director),
Ulla Lindskog, about some of the major events during the service's 30
years.
TELE-X--Denmark's new DK4 has started on 12.722 GHz in clear MPEG-2.
("SATCO DX")
On November 17 Kanal 5's transponder on Tele-X (12.475 GHz) finally
died. Fortunately, the channel has been broadcasting in parallel from
1 degree West, just in case this happened, and transmissions have also
switched to 12.207 GHz, apparently one of the last working analog
transponders on Tele-X.  Kanal 5 will be moving to Sirius 2 in a few
weeks. ("Dagens Nyheter", "SATCO DX", and Curt Swinehart)
SIRIUS--Months delayed, Sweden's Sirius 2 TV satellite was finally
launched on an Ariane rocket on November 12th at 21:48 hrs. Sirius 2
is owned by the Nordic Satellite Corporation, and after the launch
from French Guyana, the company's president, Klas Aenggaard, expressed
his satisfaction, which you can hear in today's program.
The 2900 kg Sirius 2, the largest telecommunications satellite ever
built in Europe, replaces Tele-X, Sweden's first TV satellite, which
is already several years past its expected lifespan. Besides Kanal 5,
several channels will be moving over, including the new business and
documentary channel TV8, which is currently MPEG-2 only (on 12.676
GHz) on Sirius 1. D2-MAC or PAL transmissions from TV8 are reportedly
to be starting as soon as Sirius 2 begins regular operation.
But the important thing about Sirius 2 is that the new transponders
are digital, which means something like 8 times as many channels per
transponder as on earlier satellites. And Sirius 2 carries more
transponders. One of these will be used by Sweden's public television
SVT to reach Swedes in Europe, and Radio Sweden will also be included.
13 transponders (11.7-12.5 GHz H) will be distributed to Scandinavia,
while 13 more will be aimed at all of Europe (11.7-12.5 GHz V). Most
of those have been bought by General Electric American Communications,
which will use Sirius 2 to offer digital television across the
continent. (Suddenly, in its press releases since the launch, General
Electric is calling the satellite GE-1E/Sirius 2.) There are also 6
transponders in a Northern/Central European beam at 12.5-12.750 GHz,
which will also be split between NSAB and GE. (NSAB, "SATCO DX") When
it goes into operation in about a month, Sirius 2 will join Sirius 1
at 5 degrees East. They will be competing with the Norwegians, who are
using Thor 1 and 2, TV-Sat 2, and Intelsat 707 at 1 degree West, where
Canal Plus and Telenor are offering their Canal Digital.
CANAL DIGITAL--While we have yet to see a single ad for Canal Digital,
"SatNytt" reports that 22 radio-TV dealers in Stockholm and Gothenburg
are stopping selling subscriptions for the Canal Plus/Telenor
Scandinavian package. (How do you stop selling something that you
haven't been selling?) 
The following are the reported Canal Digital packages:
Canal Digital Mini: Animal Planet, Sky Entertainment, Sky News and
National Geographic. (More coming soon.)
Canal Digital Kombi: Canal Digital Mini plus the CTV channels (Cartoon
Network, TNT, CNN, MTV, BBC Prime, Eurosport Nordic, History Channel,
EBN, Sci-Fi, and TCC/Discovery).
Canal Digital Premium: Canal Plus and Canal Plus Gul (the pay movie
channels)
("SatNytt")
So far, all of this is already available in D2-MAC. Not much incentive
to upgrade to digital....
The Canal Digital transponders at 1 degree West also include Norway's
NRK 1 and TV Norge, Finland's TV Finland (and Radio Finland) and
Nelonen, and Hallmark. ("Aftonbladet")
DIGITAL CABLE--While the Swedes are waiting for digital satellite
television, digital cable has caught up. Starting yesterday, Telia,
Sweden's largest cable operator, is offering digital channels on its
network in Stockholm. In today's program I talk to Telia Cable's head
of Information, Hans G. Larsson.
Stockholm service started November 17, and will be followed by:
Gothenburg, Malmoe, Gaevle, Uppsala and Oerebro (November 24); Boraas,
and Helsingborg, Linkoeping, Luleaa, Norrkoeping, Skellefteaa,
Sundsvall, Umeaa, Vaesteraas, and Vaexjoe (January 1, 1998).
("SatNytt")
The service is to cover all of Telia's 1.3 million households across
the country by the middle of 1998. But even there, Swedes are being
forced to wait. Digital decoders are only being offered to existing
analog decoder subscribers, and not to subscribers to the basic
package. Hans G. Larsson says the first digital decoders won't be
offered in stores until January.
The service will begin with limited Internet access to around 250 Web
pages. This will be expanded to cover around 95 percent of Web sites.
There's also different opinions about decoders, as the Euroboxes used
by Telia will not be compatible with the coming terrestrial digital
channels (see below). However, we have a report that the Macab company
is introducing a digital decoder next week that will work with both
cable and satellite. ("SatNytt")
DIGITAL TV--Telia will have to compete as well with digital
terrestrial television. We reported last time on Minister of Culture
Marita Ulvskog's concerns over the Bonniers publishing empire buying
into Sweden's only commercial terrestrial station, TV4, because of
fears of media concentration. She'd threatened to cancel the channel's
licence, but the government has chosen an alternative, saying a legal
challenge could take years to resolve. 
Instead, the government has decided to strengthen public broadcasting,
allocating 66 million dollars over the next three years to develop new
digital services, with an permanent increase in public television's
budget of 10 million dollars a year. This means that the counter plan
to start a 4th terrestrial TV channel has been shelved. (TT)
In today's program, Kjell Kullberg, head of Swedish Television's
Corporation Development Department, explains what new digital channels
will be available. This includes a 24 hour news and sports channel,
regional channels, and possibly widescreen versions of the existing
SVT1 and SVT2.
Also proposed is a channel combining the best from the BBC and the
Franco-German cultural channel Arte. Transmissions would begin by
January 1, 1999, in five areas, with two frequencies providing 8
channels in each area. At least 2 of these must be used for regional
broadcasts. The five initial areas are Greater Stockholm and the
Maelar Valley and Uppsala, northern Oestergoetland, southern and
northeastern Skaane, Greater Gothenburg, and in Norrland between
Sundsvall and Oestersund. ("Svenska Dagbladet", TT)
Kjell Kullberg also tells us that the new channels may also use
satellite, presumably to reach the 10,000 Swedish households forced to
pay TV licence fees but outside the reach of transmitters. Kjell
Kullberg is also hopeful a combined digital decoder for terrestrial,
satellite, and cable TV will be developed.
UR--While public radio and TV here are getting a new infusion of funds
to make the transition to digital broadcasting, the third public
service broadcast company, Swedish Educational Broadcasting, or UR,
may be re-organized completely instead. The company has no
transmitters of its own, and instead produces programs that are
carried on the public radio and TV networks. UR wants to start a
satellite channel with broadcasts from parliament and local
government, patterned after C-SPAN in the US. 
But a new study has proposed splitting UR in two instead. One company
would take over the right to broadcast on public channels along with
its own new digital outlets, but wouldn't produce programs. Instead
its airwaves would be open to educational programming produced by
schools, universities, and private producers. 
The other company would be a pure production house, financed with
public funds, at least in the short run. Everntually, it would have to
support itself. All this is still just a proposal. (TT)
ROBINSON--We've reported before about the controversy over the
adventure game show "Robinson" on Swedish public television. Critics
say the format, in which participants on each week's losing team vote
on which of their colleagues has to leave their tropical island and
the show, is unworthy of public service television. Following the
uproar, the head of SVT's Entertainment Department, Pia Marquart, has
resigned. ("Dagens Nyheter", "Svenska Dagbladet")
PIRATE BROADCASTING--An Estonian company plans to start pirate TV
broadcasts next year from a ship in the Baltic, aimed at Estonia and
Finland. TV Zoom will begin programming via satellite in Estonian in
May, and in Finnish in the Fall, says Kaur Hanson, managing director
of the Zoom advertising agency in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
"The ship will be registered in a country where legislation is
liberal, and which has not signed the Bern Convention (on copyright
laws)."
Programming will be bought from companies in Finland and Estonia. TV
Zoom plans to begin with a few hours of programming daily, expanding
to round-the-clock later. Hanson says broadcasts will include
commercials, possibly also of cigarettes and tobacco which are banned
in Finland. (And presumeably for alcohol as well.)
The station plans to broadcast old Hollywood films mornings, with soap
operas later in the day, and action films and adult movies at night.
(TT and "Dagens Nyheter")
BREAKFAST--According to a new study, 86 percent of the Swedish people
consume some kind of media with their breakfast, with TV increasing at
the cost of newspapers and radio:
              1994           1997
TV             13%            20%
Radio          30             20
Newspapers     64             58
("ICA Kuriren" via "Metro")
Of course, since 1994 both SVT2 and TV4 have started breakfast TV
newscasts.
EUROPE
ASTRA--British Sky Broadcasting is launching a PPV movie service in
PAL called Sky Box Office on December 1. Test transmissions began on
November 17:
Sky Box Office 1 transponder 26 22:00-06:00 hrs
Sky Box Office 2 transponder 60 18:00-06:00 hrs (Sundays from 11:00)
Sky Box Office 3 transponder 59 20:00-18:00 hrs Sky Box Office 4
transponder 58 20:00-06:00 hrs
(James Robinson)
BSkyB and Cable and Wireless Communications have announced they've
reached a widely-expected pact on providing digital PPV TV in Britain
next year, as part of Sky Box Office. Under the deal, CWC says it will
offer PPV movies, sports, and other events on analog and digital
platforms next Spring, when the two companies plan to co-ordinate the
introduction of Britain's first digital TV services. (Reuters)
BSkyB and the Franco-Italian chipmakers SGS-Thomson Microelectronics
have agreed to collaborate to help manufacturers start mass production
of digital set-top boxes in the Spring of 1998. (Reuters)
RTL has moved its digital transmissions from Astra transponder 75 to
89 (12.188 GHz). The package includes: RTL, RTL Austria, RTL
Switzerland, RTL Plus (sent on cable in Hamburg), and RTL Radio.
(Richard Karlsson in "Aftonbladet")
The Spanish weather channel Meteo is on transponder 74 (11.895 GHz) in
clear MPEG-2. (James Robinson and "SATCO DX")
EUTELSAT--Eutelsat has signed a contract with Aerospatiale for the
fourth satellite in the W series that will be operational at 36
degrees East in early 1999. Called W4, and equipped with 32
transponders, the satellite will be used with fixed beam coverage over
Russia for analog and digital transmissions by a private Russian
broadcaster. It will be one of a number of Eutelsat satellites at that
position, which include TDF2 (which starts TV broadcasts this month),
and the new SESAT satellite which will go into service in early 1999.
(Eutelsat)
INTELSAT--Intelsat 603 replaced Intelsat 605 at 24.5 degrees West on
November 6. Intelsat 605 will move to either 29.5 degrees West or 31.4
degrees West. ("SATCO DX")
BBC--November 9 saw the start of BBC News 24, the new round-the-clock
news channel. Currently the channel is cable-only, as well as during
the night on BBC 1. There are plans for digital satellite relays.
(Curt Swinehart) For the rest of us, there's always the free satellite
channel BBC World.
GERMANY--German media giants Kirch and CLT-Ufa (that is, Bertelsmann)
announced November 8 they have signed the agreement to merge their pay
TV networks into a joint channel. The deal finalizes a decision in
June to share equally the biggest German pay TV station, Premiere. It
still needs the approval of the European Commission. (AFP)
AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST
SOUTH AFRICA--The BBC has announced that it plans to launch a South
African current affairs radio program in partnership with its South
African counterpart, the SABC, early in 1998. News-gatherers from the
SABC will team up with the BBC World Service to produce the FM show.
(AFP)
PALESTINE--A new pact allocating direct TV broadcasting channels in
Europe, Asia, and Africa reserves five channels for a future
Palestinian state, according to a spokeswoman for the International
Telecommunications Union. It is the first time that the future
independent state has been included in the share-out of radio
frequencies for broadcast satellite services, last set by ITU members
in 1977. Some 2000 government and ministry officials, representing 134
of the ITU's 188 member states, are in Geneva attending the World
Radiocommunication Conference, which ends on November 21. Israel and
the Palestinian Authority are decide jointly when the use of the
future channels is possible, subject to their Interim Agreement of
1995. Israel's share was also increased from 4 to 5 channels.
(Reuters)
ASIA
INDONESIA--The same Ariane rocket that put Sirius 2 into orbit also
carried Indonesia's Cakrawarta 1 (previously known as Indostar-1).
This satellite carries 5 transponders in the S-band, and will be
placed at 107.7 degrees East. It will transmit 40 digital TV channels
to Indonesia. ("SATCO DX" and Curt Swinehart)
LAUNCHES
DELAYS--Here are the current launch dates for selected satellites:
971124 Astra 1G with Proton
971207 Chinastar 1 with Long March
--- NetMgr 1.00.g4+
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