Apparently-to: scdx@get.pp.se
From: "George Wood" 
June. On February 3 Sky promised a major pre-Christmas sales drive for
its 200 channel package. The initial order for digital decoders has
been placed with Amstrad, Pace, Matsushita, and Grundig, reportedly
for more than 400,000 decoders. On February 3 Pace confirmed that it
had received an order for digital set-top boxes from BSkyB. Pace says
it will make initial shipments from June to meet BSkyB's service
launch, and Amstrad also says it will have decoders available in time
for the June launch. (Reuters and Curt Swinehart)
FLEXTECH--Britain's Flextech (owned by TCI) may be taking on BSkyB
with its own digital satellite service. According to the "Observer",
Flextech, which owns the rights to several BBC channels as well as the
Discovery channel and UK Living, is negotiating with BSkyB to put its
channels on Sky. But if the deal falls through, sources close to the
company say Flextech may move ahead with its own satellite offering,
reportedly with the backing of Microsoft and Turner Broadcasting.
("The Observer" via Curt Swinehart)
PPV--Meanwhile, there's a new pay-per-view rival to BSkyB. Four UK
cable operators--NTL, Diamond Cable, General Cable, and Telewest--have
gotten together to launch Front Row to their customers, as an
alternative to Sky Box Officer, which is only offered on cable to
Cable and Wireless customers. Front Row will start on March 1, and is
being delivered to cable headends from Sirius 2 on 12.303 GHz in
encrypted MPEG-2. Comtel, another British cable company, is to start
its own PPV service later this year. (James Robinson)
MCE--Music Choice Europe has gotten together with Sky to offer its
service to British analog viewers/listeners. There will be 7 channels
in standard Astra Panda 1 analog stereo, from April 1, on various
Astra transponders. There is no extra cost for the service, even
though it is in the clear (which means anyone in Europe with an Astra
dish should be able to tune in). Eventually there will be 60 channels
of MCE on Astra 2A at 28 degrees East, as part of Sky's basic digital
service. (James Robinson)
EUTELSAT--OBN (Sarajevo) is on Eutelsat II-F3 11.128 GHz in clear
MPEG- 2 (SR 3125, FEC 3/4). ("SATCO DX")
Thai TV 5 Global Network is now broadcasting via a second digital
transponder on Hot Bird 3 on 12.111 GHz (SR 27500, FEC 2/3). Also in
that same multiplex is TVE Internacional, TVE 24 Horas (news), Onyx
TV, RTBF feeds, an Internet service, and two test cards. The entire
package is in the clear. (Richard Karlsson and James Robinson)
BYE BYE MISS AMERICAN PIE--Following the new trend marked by the
disappearance of the Weather Channel, CMT is ceasing broadcasts to
Europe on March 31, after losing 10 million dollars in 2 years.
Instead CMT will concentrate on the South American market. (Richard
Karlsson, Michael Murry and James Robinson)
Meanwhile, Landmark Communications, which closed down the Weather
Channel last month, is now trying to sell its Travel Channel. (Michael
Murray)
GERMANY--There's been an improvement is subscription sales for DF-1.
The Kirch digital package's Wolfram Winter says thee are now nearly
120,000 subscribers. (Richard Karlsson)
GREECE--The Greek MAD TV, along with 5 radio channels, is to be
available by subscription across Europe. A digital receiver with an
Irdeto CA module is required, but not the German D-box, which is
programmed to only receive DF-1 and Premiere. (Richard Karlsson)
HUNGARY--A new national commercial radio station began broadcasts in
Hungary February 16. Slager Radio plays "hit music of the 1960's and
1970's", with news on the hour. (Henrik Hargitai)
ASIAN/PACIFIC
JAPAN--JCSAT 1B (JCSAT 5) has replaced JCSAT 1A (JCSAT 4) at 150
degrees East. JCSAT 4 will move to 124 degrees East. ("SATCO DX")
DirecTV Japan says it will announce its new programming line-up and
packages next week. The company, which began broadcasting an initial
63 channel service on December 1, will announce a list of new channels
and prices on February 23, hopefully fullfilling its promise to
provide 90 channels. The revised service will begin in April. The new
line-up is expected to include BBC World, Sports-I ESPN, Sky-A, The
Golf Network, Space Shower, and an adult channel. (TS-Asia and
Reuters)
Rivals Japan Sky Broadcasting and PerfecTV finally officially
announced on February 3 that they will merge in early April to create
Japan's largest DBS platform. PerfecTV, which has been on the air
since Autumn 1966, had signed up 500,000 subscribers by December,
short of its original target. JSkyB, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News
Corp, along with Sony, Fuji Television, and Softbank, was expected to
offer 100 channels from April. Sony, also a shareholder in PerfecTV,
becomes the largest investor in the new firm. (Reuters)
PerfecTV says the new non-stop news channel from Japan News Network,
the news affiliate network of TBS, will launch on April 1 as a basic
channel. JNN News Bird will be included in the service's "Perfec
Pack", increasing the number of channels in the package to 31. Two new
packages have been announced: "Super Family Set" and "Powerful Sports
Set", both with 3 channels. (TS-Asia)
SOUTH KOREA--Media baron Rupert Murdoch has agreed to enter into a
joint satellite broadcasting venture with South Korea's Dacom Corp.
Details for the domestic consortium have yet to be worked out. Dacom
plans to launch a satellite in October next year. (Reuters, AFP and
TS- Asia)
INSAT--The final location for Insat 2R is 55 degrees East. DD 1 is
testing on 3.811 GHz in PAL. ("SATCO DX")
APSTAR--BBC World is on 4.195 GHz in clear MPEG-2 (SR 5800, FEC 3/4)
on Apstar 1 (138 degrees East). ("SATCO DX")
ASIASAT--Star News has started regular transmissions on Asiasat 2
(100.5 degrees East) on 3.740 GHz in clear PAL. ("SATCO DX")
INTELSAT--Intelsat 804 replaced Intelsat 801 at 64 degrees East on
February 1. ("SATCO DX")
AUSTRALIA--The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has signed a
contract with PanAmSat to use PAS-2 for distribution of news and
programming to its studios, and some transmitters around Australia.
ABC will use 27 MHz bandwidth on the PAS-2 Ku-band Australia/New
Zealand beam. The service is expected to move to the PAS-8 Pacific
Ocean Region satellite later this year. PAS-8 will carry 24 C-band and
24 Ku-band transponders, and is scheduled for launch on a Proton
rocket in the third quarter of 1998. It will be located at 166 degrees
East. PAS-2 is located at 169 degrees East. (TS-Asia)
In recent months Radio Australia has been unable to issue formal QSL
cards due to resource limitations. As a result of extended discussions
in Melbourne between the Australian Radio DX Club and the English
Language Service of Radio Australia, an agreement was reached on
February 10 for the re-introduction of Radio Australia QSL cards.
Radio Australia will be forwarding reception reports and blank cards
to the ARDXC, which will check the reports and fill-in the cards.
Radio Australia will then mail the completed QSL cards to listeners.
All reports should be sent to:
Radio Australia
GPO 428G
Melbourne 3001
Victoria, Australia
(Bob Padula, "Electronic DX Press")
NORTH AMERICA
PRIMESTAR--The Federal Communications Commission says it won't rule on
Rupert Murdoch's proposal to merge his American Sky Broadcasting into
Primestar before April. Primestar was formed by the American cable
industry, to meet the threat from DBS rivals like DirecTV. The deal is
subject to approval by the FCC and the Justice Department. The FCC
will access the potential impact on cable rates and rivals' ability to
get cable TV programming. Justice is looking to make sure the deal
doesn't stifle competition in the DTH satellite TV market. (AP)
QVC/MIR-The American shopping channel QVC has taken advantage of the
money-strapped Russian space program, to put on a show from the space
station MIR, in "First Friday Extreme Shopping" on February 6. Among
the offerings were pens that write in zero-G, meteorites, tiny
plastic- encased Mars rocks, and genuine spacesuits. (AP)
LATIN AMERICA
INTELSAT--Intelsat announced on February 3 that four new broadcasters
and service providers have signed contracts for the Intelsat 806
satellite, which is scheduled for launch on February 27 on an Atlas
rocket, and will be located at 60.5 degrees West. Bucking the usual
trend, the launch has been moved up from March 3. The newcomers are
Brazil's Globosat/TV Globo, Peru's America TV, IMPSAT Venezuela, and
Wold Communications. This brings the number of digital program
channels on the satellite to more than 70. (Curt Swinehart and "SATCO
DX")
LAUNCHES
ARIANE--Ariane flight V105 on February 4 successfully carried into
orbit Brasilsat B3. It will be located at 65 degrees West with 28 C-
band transponders. Also launched was Inmarsat-3F5. ("SATCO DX" and
Reuters)
EUTELSAT--Hot Bird 4, the 5th satellite at 13 degrees East) is to be
launched on February 27. It carries 20 Ku-band transponders in the
range 10.719-10.949 and 12.615-12.731 GHz. (Richard Karlsson)
DELAYS--The launch of Sinosat 1 with Long March is delayed from
February to May. ("SATCO DX")
CYBERSPACE
REALAUDIO --Radio Asia Canada International can be found at:
http://www.radioasiacanada.ca/live/racilive.ram
WRN 3 (the new German service to Europe) is at:
http://audio.wrn.org/audio/wrn3eu.ram
("SATCO DX")
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--- NetMgr 1.00.g4+
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