Apparently-to: scdx@get.pp.se
From: "George Wood" 
  :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
  ::           MediaScan             
  ::      SWEDEN CALLING DXERS       
  ::       from Radio Sweden          
  ::    Number 2287--February 3, 1998    
  ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio
Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2287
Updated Web edition at: http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Don't miss the next edition of MediaScan in two weeks, when we
celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sweden Calling DXers!!!!!
DIGITAL CABLE TV--We've had digital radio broadcasts in Sweden for
something like 2 years. Digital satellite TV to the Nordic region
started more than a year ago. And digital cable TV had it's
inauguration here in December. But none of these services has been
marketed as yet, until now. 
Last week the country's largest cable operator, Telia Kabel,
actually put some full page ads into national newspapers
advertising their digital offerings. The necessary digital set top
boxes are supposed to be available in ordinary radio and TV stores.
And according to reports quoted in "SatNytt", they're selling at a
rate of 400 a day, and will soon reach 100,000.
I called Sweden's 3 large consumer electronics chains to find out
about the digital decoders. Two of them told me they didn't have any,
and didn't know when they would. The third said they'd have decoders
in stock at the end of this week.
I also called Telia to find out where these decoders are. I never did
get through to Customer Service, but I finally tracked down press
spokesman Hans G. Larsson. You can hear part of the interview in
today's program. He tells us that Telia wanted to start digital
decoder sales slowly, starting with its own chain of Telia (telephone
company) stores, plus two other chains (one of which I had called).
Because of market and customer interest, they are now planning to
expand the retail network.
Frank Oestergren, TV columnist for Sweden's largest newspaper,
"Aftonbladet", has complained about the speed of Telia's digital
network, which he says is like playing a 78 rpm record in the CD
age. Specifically, he means the seemingly unending length of time it
takes to switch channels, but he also criticizes the electronic
program guide as incomplete. On the other hand, there's praise for the
system's excellent picture and sound quality. Hans G. Larsson agrees
the system can be slow, although he says the slow part is not the
channel-switching, but changing between different services, like from
TV to games. He also says the advantage of a digital system is that
upgrades can be directly uploaded into decoders over the network.
Telia is also leasing capacity to relay around 50 digital channels on
Sweden's new Sirius 2 satellite. Initially this is supposed to be for
relays to cable headends, and Hans G. Larsson tells us this is
primarily to carry programming to Telia's networks in Denmark and
Estonia, but direct to home services might be coming.  
DIGITAL SATELLITE DECODERS--If it tries DTH services, Telia would have
to compete with the French-Norwegian Canal Digital, which has been in
operation for several months, with around 60 channels. In the long
run, the system has a capacity for several hundred channels. So far it
hasn't been marketed, and a spokeswoman tells us they're waiting to
work out various problems before big launch, which ought to be by the
Summer. 
TERRESTRIAL DIGITAL TV--Terrestrial digital TV is also getting
started here. There are currently test transmissions underway in
five parts of the country. Initially there will be 8 channels
available, two in each area regional. Ultimately, there will be
room for 24 digital TV channels over the air here. 
Monday was the last day to apply for digital channels, and there
were around 30 applicants. The existing terrestrial broadcasters,
public service Swedish Television and private channel TV4, are assured
of spots.  
Swedish Television's two existing SVT1 and SVT2 channels should be
available digitally by this Fall. The company also wants two channels
in each area for its regional transmissions and a national slot for
its new round the clock news channel, which should be on the air by
the end of the year. 
TV4 wants to start a national channel called TV4 Digital, which
would offer extra programming and interactive services over its
current analog channel. In addition 4 of the local TV stations
that broadcast via TV4 have also applied for regional licences.
Among the other applicants are the new business and documentary
channel TV8, entertainment channel Kanal 5 (owned by ABC/Disney),
several universities and newspapers, a small fundamentalist Christian
sect, and the Internet provider Cell, which wants to offer interactive
services. Swedish Teracom, the public company reponsible for
transmitting radio and television in Sweden, has also applied for its
own channel. It's been pointed out that the government might want to
licence Kanal 5 and Kinnevik's TV3, both of which broadcast by
satellite via London, in order to bring them under Sweden's stricter
broadcast laws.
The broadcast licensing authority will release a list of approved
applicants in June, and the government will make the final decision in
the Fall. (TT, "Elektronikvaerlden", and  "Dagens Nyheter") (Since
there's an election here in September, it may be important if the
final decision is made before or after that date.)
SVT EUROPE--Only Swedes (abroad) and households with a Swedish
connection will be allowed to subscribe to the new SVT Europe
channel on Sirius 2 (12.380 GHz, SR 27500, FEC 3/4, Viaccess).
This has been decided by the royalties agency Copyswede. ("Cable
and Satellite" via "SatNytt") We've reported before that the
10,000 Swedish households outside the range of the SVT
transmitters, and still forced to pay for TV reception licences,
will NOT be allowed to subscribe to SVT Europe.
SIRIUS--The Danish radio station The Voice has left Sirius 2
12.207 GHz, but continues on 12.475, on audio subcarriers 7.74 and
7.92 MHz. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
SCI-FI/CNBC--According to Viasat, Sci-Fi Channel and CNBC Europe
will stop their shared transponder transmissions from TV-Sat (1
degree West) sometime during March. Transmissions continue on
Sirius 2 (5 degrees East). (Richard Karlsson)
INTELSAT--Denmark's DR1 is back on Intelsat 605 (27.5 degrees
West) on 11.494 GHz in clear MPEG-2 (SR 4340, FEC 7/8). ("SATCO
DX")
COMMUNITY RADIO--Swedish community radio was supposed to be open
to small organizations, sharing the same transmitters. Instead,
organizations have often surrendered their transmission times to
24 hour mega-channels, broadcasting primarily music and often
commercials. Now the Swedish government is easing the Community
Radio regulations. Organizations created solely for the purpose of
making radio programs will be allowed transmission times, licence fees
are being dropped for stations without commercials, transmission areas
larger than a single city will be allowed, and the ban on networked
programming will be eased for 10 hours a month for information or
cultural programming. 
The latter means that Community Radio stations would be allowed to
carry regular newscasts, for example from the news agency TT. A
station in the province of Vaermland has sought to broadcast
university lectures to the entire province, and this would now be
allowed. The new rules go into effect on July 1, 1998. (TT and
Ministry of Culture)
EUROPE
WORLD RADIO NETWORK--In the last edition of the program Simon
Spanswick of the World Radio Network described their plans for
Digital Audio Broadcasting and the Internet. But WRN offers a
number of special services as well, and in today's program Simon
describes how WRN put a Voice of America relay to Serbia on the
air in record time, and WRN's relays of two Tamil stations.
NBC--Following the CNBC Europe/EBN merger, the new CNBC is being
broadcast on both Astra and Eutelsat's Hot Bird 1. However, NBC
says eventually the channel will broadcast only on Hot Bird. This
leaves a prime Astra transponder free. The obvious choice--putting NBC
Europe on Astra to give Rupert Murdoch's Sky One some competition--is
unlikely, as NBC seems uninterested in direct-to- home distribution of
its channel. Instead, NBC has been promising to introduce new channels
to Europe. A prime candidate is the news channel msNBC. Another
possiblity is a new channel, based on the network's archives of drama,
comedy, and documentaries. ("What Satellite TV")
THE WEATHER CHANNEL--The Weather Channel is closing its four
European services in English, German, Dutch, and Italian. The
rival English-language only Weather Network (which had merged with
TWC) is considering taking over some of the European operations. (Curt
Swinehart)
FRANCE--The newspaper "Les Echos" says Luxembourg-based CLT (which we
thought had merged with Germany's Bertelsmann) is expected to leave
the TPS digital satellite venture and join rival Canal Plus. There
have been suggestions that TPS and Canal Plus could merge, but this
has been blocked by TF1, the main partner in TPS. (Reuters)
ASTRA--A new package in clear MPEG-2 has opened on Astra on 12.670 GHz
(SR 22000, FEC 5/6): Cartoon Network, CNN International, and TNT.
("SATCO DX") 
An Austrian package is testing on 12.692 GHz (SR 22000, FEC 5/6)
in clear MPEG-2: ORF1, ORF2, TW1 (Tourism and Weather Channel),
SF1 and several radio stations. ORF1 and ORF2 will be encoded.
(Richard Karlsson in "Aftonbladet" and "SATCO DX")
Updating the report last time, Hessen Fernsehen has switched from
tests to regular transmissions on transponder 40. (Christian
Lyngemark, "SATCO DX")
The Benelux verison of Hallmark has ceased digital transmissions
on Astra 12.344 GHz. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
Gay TV has begun sharing Astra transponder 34 with Television X
and UK Living. It's on the air at 05:00-06:00 hrs CET and is
encoded in Videocrypt. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
The failure of a Russian rocket over Christmas will trigger the
most complex games of musical chairs ever attempted with
satellites in space. British Sky Broadcasting was supposed to
start its new digital service from the Astra 2A satellite, which
was supposed to launch to 28 degrees East in August, 1997. But the
launch, via a Russian Proton rocket, is running six months late, and
the failure of a Proton during the Christmas period has prompted the
Russians to cancel all further launches until they can find the cause.
So Astra, as we've reported before might be the case, is moving
one of its analog satellites to 28 degrees East, and switching it to
digital operation. The remaining satellites at 19 degrees East will
take over the transponder channels used by the moved satellite. Astra
will announce the details of the move in early February. (Barry Fox in
"New Scientist") So keep on eye on http://www.astra.lu
BSkyB has confirmed that its digital service will launch in June.
Orders for settop boxes are reportedly on track, and initial
quantities will be available in June. (Reuters)
MTV and VH-1 have finalized plans to launch 6 new 24 hour
channels, which will probably be part of BSkyB's new digital
service when it starts: MTV Rocks (hard rock and heavy metal), MTV
Indie, MTV Ritmo (Spanish pop), VH-1 Soul (blues and soul), VH-1
Country, and VH-1 Smooth (Jazz and New Age). ("What Satellite TV")
EUTELSAT--Bosnia's BHT has moved from Eutelsat II-F2 (11.080 GHz) to
Eutelsat II-F1 (11.658 GHz), at 21:30-23:30 hrs CET in clear PAL.
("SATCO DX")
Updating the report last time, the Italian adult channel
Satisfaction Club TV is now only on Eutelsat II-F2 and has
discontinued broadcasts on Hot Bird 2.  (Christian Lyngemark,
"SATCO DX")
TNT has replaced NTV on Eutelsat's new satellite to Russia, TDF 2 at
36 degrees East, on 12.034 GHz. ("SATCO DX") NTV has begun digital
transmissions via Astra on 12.207 GHz. (Richard Karlsson,
"Aftonbladet")
The Iranian IRIB's Jaam-e-Jam TV Network has began regular
transmissions on Hot Bird 3 on 12.437 Ghz on December 6. This
offers 21 hours a day in Farsi, plus 3 hours in English or Arabic.
(Christian Lyngemark, "SATCO DX", and "What Satellite TV")
Eutelsat and Hungarian domestic broadcaster Antenna Hungaria say
they are launching Central Europe's first satellite-based Internet
service this Spring, as part of a new Hungarian digital package. The
platform can be used to deliver digital TV, radio, multimedia content,
and corporate data, as well as Internet access. (Reuters and Eutelsat)
PAS--Fox Sports World has started in clear MPEG-2 on PAS-3R (43
degrees West) on 12.568 GHz (SR 7030, FEC 3/4). ("SATCO DX")
AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST
ARABSAT--Confirming the report last time, the French TV5 Moyen-
Orient has started regular transmissions on Arabsat 2A (26 degrees
East) on 3.946 GHz, in clear PAL. ("SATCO DX")
ASIA
CNBC/ABN--The CNBC/Dow Jones merger finally brought together CNBC Asia
and Asia Business News on February 2, several days after CNBC Europe
and EBN merged. They may have been waiting for the end of the Chinese
New Year celebrations. (Martyn Williams and Christian Lyngemark,
"SATCO DX")
JAPAN--Updating the report last time, two of Japan's digital
satellite broadcasters, PerfecTV and Rupert Murdoch's Japan Sky
Broadcasting, have reportedly agreed to merge on April 1. PerfecTV has
offered 100 channels to around 500,000 subscribers since the Fall of
1996. JSkyB was scheduled to launch its service this Spring. By
merging, the two have a better chance to compete with Hughes' DirecTV
Japan, which started a 90 channel service on December 1. (Kyodo)
Video game giant Nintendo and semiconductor-maker Kyocera have
unveiled a plan to start satellite broadcasting together,
beginning in 2000. As a first step they are taking a stake in
Satellite Digital Audio Broadcasting, which broadcasts digital
music and data programs. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamachi told a
news conference that the two firms had not yet decided on the specific
content of their satellite broadcasts, but said it would not be
dominated by video-game programs. (Reuters)
NORTH AMERICA
THE MOUSE VS YOGI BEAR--Disney is launching a cartoon-only channel
called Toon Disney, to take on Time Warner's Cartoon Network. It will
start in the US in mid-April before a planned European debut in the
Fall. Disney has also confirmed it is working on another channel
called ABZ, a children's news, information, and learning network.
("What Satellite TV")
(Of course, the only Europeans allowed to watch the Disney Channel are
those in the British Isles who subscribe to both of BSkyB's movie
--- NetMgr 1.00.g4+
---------------