Apparently-to: scdx@get.pp.se
From: "George Wood" 
battle between Time Warner, which recently bought Turner Broadcasting
Systems Inc., and News Corp., based in Sydney, Australia. Time Warner
refused to carry Mr. Murdoch's Fox News channel on its New York City
cable system in an imbroglio that ultimately drew in the mayor of New
York City, who unsuccessfully tried to carry the Fox channel on a
city- run cable channel.
"First, Time Warner tried to censor the Fox News Channel from 
competing with CNN and now, they are trying to censor ASkyB's  
satellite competition to their cable systems," said ASkyB Chairman 
Preston Padden.
Time Warner, which copied the letter to Vice President Al Gore and
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, cited what it deemed "shifting and  
troubling facts surrounding this application." Originally, MCI bid  
USD 683 million in an FCC auction to win the last available rights to 
offer direct-broadcast service to the continental U.S. using U.S.  
satellites. The resulting MCI-News Corp. partnership, ASkyB, plans to 
launch its 200-channel TV service in late 1997.
Meanwhile, the ownership of ASkyB is still in flux. MCI has said it
wants to reduce its stake in the satellite service to around 20% from
50%. People familiar with News Corp.'s plans say the company has held
talks with, among others, Bell Atlantic Corp. and Nynex Corp. -- which
have announced plans to merge themselves -- about a possible
investment in ASkyB. MCI's reduced stake in ASkyB could give
foreign-based News Corp. "an even greater role in program selection
and marketing of the proposed DBS service," Mr. Parsons contended.
The AskyB venture is critical to Mr. Murdoch's vision of building a
global programming and distribution chain, and he is likely to fight
hard to save it should it become endangered. News Corp. has
successfully navigated these foreign ownership restrictions before.
Last year, Mr. Murdoch, an Australian-born media mogul who became a
U.S. citizen in 1985 in order to buy the Fox Television Stations,
received a waiver of foreign ownership rules in the U.S. after
regulators ruled Fox exceeded the 25% cap. ("Wall Street Journal" via
Curt Swinehart)
Murdoch is still blocking Warner Brothers TV from broadcasts to Europe
on Astra, apparently to protest Time Warner's refusal to carry Fox
News in Manhattan. WBTV was scheduled to start transmissions on Astra
transponder 57 on November 1.
TCI--Now that Tele-Communications Inc. has won Securities and Exchange
Commission permission to spin off its satellite unit, TCI Satellite
Entertainment President Gary Howard can focus on his next endeavor:
Launching a high power satellite into 119 degrees.
The new satellite, which TCI will launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in
February, will deliver high power programming for PrimeStar Partners.
The lineup, according to Howard, will consist of sports, movies and
pay-per-view. Howard said the high power service will be available in
the marketplace in mid-1997 if the launch goes well.
The high power service, which will complement PrimeStar's medium power
service, will deliver 70 to 80 channels to dishes 13.5 inches in size.
New compression technology may eventually allow PrimeStar to deliver
more than 150 channels, Howard said.
Receivers, according to Howard, will have an analog port for cable TV
reception as well as a digital port for satellite TV.
TCI scored a deal with Telesat Canada earlier in the year to launch
the two satellites into Canadian orbital slots. The deal failed to win
approval from the Federal Communications Commission, but Howard said
his company and the Canadian satellite operator "might engage in
further conversations" in the future. (Curt Swinehart)
CANADA--The Canadian government has made it clear, via a brochure
issued this week, that criminal charges could be brought against the
200,000 Canadians that are illegaly watching US satellite TV services.
Those selling the receivers and decoders for the services are also
being warned that they are breaking the law. The brochure specifies,
"Retailers cannot legally sell such equipment, and everyone involved -
pirate, retailer and purchaser - could be charged with a criminal
offense."
The moves were spurned by worries that the population is increasingly
turning away from Canadian programming and choosing the US channels
for entertainment. Canada has yet to launch a digital satellite
broadcasting service but the government is keen to get one started.
("Tele-satellit News")
EGYPT--AlphaStar Television Network has announced that it will launch
its multicultural programming line-up on November 8th with the
introduction of a three channel package produced by the Egyptian Radio
& Television Union in Cairo, Egypt.
The Arab culture package includes the Egyptian Satellite Channel
(ESC), a 24-hour news, information and entertainment service; Nile
Drama, which showcases premier movies and television serials; and Nile
TV, which offers English language programming, news, entertainment and
Egyptian movies with English subtitles. North American news of
particular interest to the Arabic community will also be covered.
The channels will be available to anyone with an AlphaStar-compatible
small dish satellite television system. Subscribers can add ESC to
their AlphaStar programming. ("Tele-satellit News")
LATIN AMERICA:
PAS--TV5 Latin America is on PAS-3R on 3.957 GHz in MPEG-2. ("SATCO DX
Chart Update")
DIRECTV--RTP Internacional has ceased on channel 140, Playboy has
started on channel 590, and CAPT has ceased on channel 598. ("SATCO DX
Chart Update")
LAUNCHES:
Arabsat 2B and Measat 2 were successfully launched with Ariane V92 on
November 13. 
Arabsat 2B will replace Arabsat 1C at 30.5 degrees East. It is
identical to Arabsat 2A, with 22 C-band and 12 Ku-band transponders.
Arabsat 1C will be relocated to 20 degrees East, former location of
Arabsat 1DR. 
Measat will be located at 148 degrees East, and will carry 128 digital
TV channels, as part of the system with Measat 1 (at 91.5 degrees
East). It has 6 C-band and 8-9 Ku-band transponders. 
The launch of Hot Bird 2 with an Atlas IIA launch vehicle from Cape
Canaveral has been delayed three times in the past week. The
postponement was because of predicted high winds and the already
scheduled launch attempts for NASA's shuttle Columbia.
The satellite-delivery mission now is scheduled for launch next
Friday, November 22, during a window between 20:48 and 22:14 hrs UTC.
Lockheed Martin, however, would opt to move the launch up to Thursday
if the shuttle Columbia takes off on schedule Tuesday. Look for
coverage of the Atlas launch on Galaxy 9 transponder 22.
PAS-6 was supposed to launch with Ariane on December 17, but it has
been delayed until March/April 1997. (Reuters, "SATCO DX Chart Update"
Curt Swinehart, and "Tele-satellit News")
CYBERSPACE:
RADIO NETHERLANDS--Radio Netherlands is now available in RealAudio:  
http.//www.rnw.nl
(Pete Costello)
MURDOCH DOWN UNDER--Australia's leading Internet service company,
OzEmail Limited has announced the establishment of a joint venture
with British Sky Broadcasting to establish a global Internet
advertisement- related venture. Based on technology developed by
OzEmail, the joint venture will deliver Internet advertising
opportunities targeted a local audiences accessing Web sites,
regardless of where those sites are hosted. (PR Newswire via
Pointcast)
PCTV--One of the many new TV programs about the Internet, PCTV's
"Internet Cafe", features "Cyberblast", tranmissions of software in
the unseen lines in the TV screen. This requires special hardware (and
is not available outside the United States, although it can be
entertaining to watch the signal in the corner of the screen during
the download). More information from:
http://www.pctv.com/pctv/shows/tic/tic.html#CB
(Joel Rubin)
HOBBY NEWS:
DSWCI--Best wishes to the Danish Short Wave Club International, which
celebrated the 40th anniversary of its original incarnation as the
first club for shortwave listeners in Denmark on Saturday. After
several name changes and a merger, the club now has 478 members in 46
countries. You can find a link to its weekly Internet newsletter from
our World Wide Web pages.
CONTEST--Le Grand Contest SWL International d'Hiver 1996-1997 is open
to everybody. More details from: 
mbl@wanadoo.fr
PUBLICATIONS--Klingenfuss Publications announces the publication of
three new products for early December:
- 1997 Shortwave Frequency Guide;
- 1997 Super Frequency List on CD-ROM
- 1997 Guide to Utility Radio Stations
The brand new 1997 "Shortwave Frequency Guide" is the printed version
of the popular Super Frequency List on CD-ROM. It includes all final
1997 clandestine, domestic and international broadcast schedules
worldwide (available not before mid-November). Unlike conventional
handbooks that waste ten weeks or even more, the Shortwave Frequency
Guide is produced and distributed here in Europe within only ten days.
What's more, this is the very first international publication that
combines both worldwide shortwave broadcast and utility radio stations
in one handy volume. 
The 1997 "Super Frequency List on CD-ROM" - in its third edition - now
includes about 40,000 entries with all clandestine, domestic and
international broadcast stations worldwide plus all utility and
formerly active radio stations as well. The broadcast schedules are
available as a standard .dbf file for open access. 
(Note: we've praised the previous editions, while pointing out a few
bugs, places where the interface was difficult to understand, or
failure to use multimedia to its fullest extent. Unfortunately we
haven't received a review copy this year, so we're unable to see how
the interface has been changed.)
The 1997 "Guide to Utility Radio Stations" (15th edition) is the
international standard reference book for professional radio
monitoring services and interested radio amateurs and shortwave
listeners alike.
For detailed descriptions and some sample pages and color screenshots:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Klingenfuss/ 
Address:
Klingenfuss Publications
Hagenloher Str. 14
D-72070 Tuebingen
Germany
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Sweden Calling DXers/MediaScan is 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.
Radio Sweden broadcasts in English:
To Europe:
Satellite:
13:30, 17:15, and 19:30 hrs on Astra transponder 33 (ZDF) and Tele-X
(Kanal 5 -- 12.475 GHz)
21:00 hrs via the World Radio Network on Astra transponder 22 (VH-1)
In all cases our audio subcarrier is 7.38 MHz
We're also broadcasting to Africa and the Middle East via WRN at 00:30
Central African Time (Saturdays only also 02:30 CAT) on Intelsat 707
3.9115 GHz in MPEG-2, Audio Stream WRN1. 
Shortwave:
19:30 hrs    1179, 6065, 7240, and 9655 
20:30        1179 and 6065 kHz  
21:30        1179, 6065, and 7230 kHz 
22:30        1179, 6065, and 7325 kHz 
Asia/Pacific:
Satellite:
Via WRN on AsiaSat-2 on 4.000 GHz, MPEG-2 DVB, Audio Stream WRN1, at
20:00 and 23:00 hrs UTC (06:00 and 09:00 AET).
Shortwave:
13:30 hrs    7155 and 13740/15240* kHz
14:30 hrs    9435/9485* kHz
01:30 hrs    7265/7290* kHz
North America:
Satellite:
02:30 hrs UTC via WRN on Galaxy 5 transponder 6 (WTBS), audio 6.8 MHz
(9:30 PM EST, 6:30 PM PST)
Shortwave:
12:30 hrs on 15240 and 11650/13740* kHz
14:30 hrs on 15240 and 9485/11650* kHz
02:30 hrs on 6200 kHz
03:30 hrs on 7115 kHz
Latin America:
00:30 hrs on 6065 kHz
01:30 hrs on 7265/7290* kHz
* = may shift from day to day
Each program Monday to Friday, recorded at 13:30 hrs UTC, is available
in the RealAudio format at:
http://www.sr.se/rs/english/sounds/english.ram
Each day's program, recorded at 01:30 hrs UTC, is also available from
WRN in  RealAudio format. See:
http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/Mirrors/WRN/audio/0130.ram
FTP versions of both files (for those behind firewalls) are available
at:
http://www.sr.se/rafiles/rs/eng15.ra 
and
ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Mirrors/WRN/audio/0130.ra
Our World Wide Web page is at:
     http://www.sr.se/rs
An html and a RealAudio version of this bulletin can be found at:
     http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/scdx.htm
Earlier versions of the bulletins in text and RealAudio or au-format
recordings:
     http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/media3.htm
Sound files of Mediascan are archived at:
     ftp.funet.fi:pub/sounds/RadioSweden/Mediascan.
You can also find the programs among the offerings of Internet Talk
Radio at various sites, including:
     ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Mirrors/RadioSweden/MediaScan
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to
+468-667-6283 or by e-mail to: wood@rs.sr.se
Reports can also be sent to: 
      Radio Sweden 
      S-105 10 Stockholm 
      Sweden 
Contributions should be NEWS about electronic media--from shortwave to
 satellites--and not loggings of information already available from
sources  such as the "World Radio TV Handbook". Clubs and DX
publications may reprint material as long as MediaScan/Sweden Calling
DXers and the original contributor are acknowledged. 
We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition,
Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general. 
The mailing list for the Electronic Edition is now open to general
subscription. If you can send e-mail over the Internet, send a message
to: 
subscribe@rs.sr.se
You ought to get a confirmation message in reply. To unsubscribe from
the list, send a message to 
unsubscribe@rs.sr.se
To get a copy of Radio Sweden's English program schedule, write to:
english@rs.sr.se
And for general questions, comments, and reception reports, our e-mail
address is:
info@rs.sr.se
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Thanks to this week's contributors            Good Listening!
************************
George Wood            wood@rs.sr.se
Radio Sweden           http://www.sr.se/rs
S-105 10 Stockholm   tel: +468-784-7239
Sweden		        fax: +468-667-6283	
************************
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