Apparently-to: scdx@get.pp.se
From: "George Wood" 
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  ::           MediaScan             ::
  ::      SWEDEN CALLING DXERS       ::
  ::       from Radio Sweden         :: 
  ::    Number 2261--Dec. 3, 1996    :: 
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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 SCDX2261
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO CONTRIBUTORS:
I'm going to be on vacation for 5 weeks beginning December 16. The
December 17 edition of the program (which will be repeated on January
7) will hopefully be a look forward of sorts, and will be produced
next week. Please hold off on sending contributions to the program
while I am away. Otherwise there is a distinct danger my mailbox will
be overflowing when I return. Thanks.
NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
DSTV--On November 22nd, Astra, Multichoice, and Nokia held a joint
press conference here in Stockholm to announce the launch of
Multichoice's digital satellite package, DSTV, to Sweden. Multichoice
is a corporate partner of Filmnet, which is providing much of the
programming, including pay-per-view films. Nokia has made the digital
receivers at its factory in Motala in southern Sweden. And the
transmissions are on the Astra satellites.
Initially DSTV includes 23 TV channels and 40 DMX radio channels. Pay-
per-view movies are also part of the offering. More channels, and
interactive services, like Internet access, are promised for the
future.
But most of the TV offerings already exist in analog form, so in
today's program, I asked Magnus Simons, Multichoice's Country Manager
for Sweden, why anyone with an analog satellite system should switch
to digital? 
Multichoice's parent company Nethold is involved in similar digital
systems in Italy, South Africa, and the Benelux countries. Magnus
Simons blames the late start in Scandinavia to a lack of receivers. In
today's program I also asked Nokia's Sales and Marketing Support
Manager Benny Norling about the shortage of what Nokia calls
"Multimedia terminals".
Despite the November 22nd launch, DSTV hasn't exactly caused a splash
yet. So far I've only found one short article in a newspaper after the
press conference. And if you look at all the full page ads from the
consumer electronics mega-stores, multimedia terminals are conspicuous
in their absence. I asked Nokia's Benny Norling what's happened to the
big marketing drive? 
The answer to all these questions and more can be found in today's
program. A RealAudio version will be available on the Web version of
today's program, which will be found (as soon as I finish writing it)
at:
http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/scdx.htm
SWEDEN--The government bill on digital terrestrial television has been
delayed, but we hope to have something about in the next edition of
the program. 
SPORTS CHANNELS--Following its disappearance from the cable networks
operated by Sweden's largest operator, Telia Kabel, Nethold's
Supersport has now taken itself off the biggest network in Stockholm,
Stjaen-TV. However, a different reason has been cited. Telia and
Nethold were unable to reach agreement on Nethold's desire make
Supersport into a pay channel. The new problem is somewhat the
reverse, Supersport reportedly has rights for pay-TV broadcasts, which
does not include transmission as free channels, or as in Stjaern-TV's
case, as part of a basic tier. Stjaern-TV says Nethold/Filmnet is just
trying to get more money by turning itself into a pay channel. (TT)
Rival Kinnevik's Sportkanalen will probably go off the air at the
beginning of the new year. All 25 employees have been officially gien
notice. The reason is primarily because of problems with Telia Kabel,
Sportkanalen is sharing the channel with Kinnevik's TV6 in the basic
tier, and Telia has agreed to this until January 1. Telia wants
Sportkanalen to join its pay-TV tier, which would cost more than it
would earn. Since Sportkanalen is losing money, Kinnevik will probably
just close it down. ("Dagens Nyheter")
(By the way, speaking of Nethold and Kinnevik, the chances of a merger
between Filmnet and TV1000 are currently remote.)
TV8--Sweden's first business TV channel, TV8, is to go on the air in
September, 1997, as a cable-based pay channel. ("Svenska Dagbladet")
RADIO--The Swedish parliament's Local Radio Committee is presenting
its proposals for the future of commercial radio in this country
Tuesday afternoon, after this bulletin is being written. According to
a member of the committee from the opposition Conservative Party, Ola
Karlsson, the proposals include a reduction in the number of private
radio licences in Sweden from 86 to 60, after the year 2001, when the
current licences expire. The committee is reportedly deeply divided,
and the representatives from the opposition Conservative, Liberal, and
Christian Democrat parties plan to register a reservation.
Those three parties (and the Center Party, which is now working with
the government) were responsible for the current system, passed when
they were the government. That system auctioned off frequency
allocations to the highest bidders, with no account taken for format,
or even if the bidder had the economic means to meet the bid. It
included an apparently unenforceable ban on networking, which has
resulted in many licences being sold as stations have gone out of
business, and the formation of several national networks. Virtually
all of them play rock music (some current, others oldies), with little
news and less public affairs programming.
The current ruling Social Democrats have promised to change that
system. According to Karlsson, the government wants to replace the
auctions with a panel of experts who will allocate channels. (TT)
Check the Web version of today's program for a possible update on this
story.
TELEVISION--Despite a meeting between the management of the commercial
national broadcaster TV4 and Minister of Culture Marita Ulvskog, it
appears TV4's local stations still face closure. The fate of the 16
local studios will be determined by a meeting of the TV4 board of
directors later this month. This follows the new TV4 licence
agreement, which was negotiated between Ulvskog and the station this
Fall. The new agreement gives the channel the possibly to close the
local stations, and it has threatened to do so, unless the government
renegotiates the agreement to reduce its annual licence fee. (TT)
EUROPE:
GERMANY/ARD&ZDF--German public broadcasters have outlined plans to
offer digital television next year using open decoder technology that
could put a dent in the pay TV ambitions of their commercial
television rivals. Germany's huge public TV networks, ARD and ZDF,
squeezed into a corner by media giants Bertelsmann and Bavarian mogul
Leo Kirch, will offer viewers all of the technical wizardrly of
digital television, but at no extra charge. Tired of waiting for
Germany's media titans to settle their bitter dispute over the basic
technology, public broadcasters have won the support of the
electronics industry to get digital TV out to the public soon, and
open the market. 
Officials from both networks told a conference on digital television
in Cologne on November 26 that a group of companies, including Sony,
Grundig, and Panasonic, plan to market open decoders that would make
free digital television possible. The main difference between the open
decoder and the one used by Kirch's DF1 will be that it will only
decode TV signals, but not include a so-called conditional access
system that restricts access to programming for paying customers only.
The open box will cost no more than USD 328 and could even be included
as part of TV sets to be unveiled by the industry at the Berlin
broadcasting exhibition in August.
The new decoder is a blow to Kirch's DF1 digital pay TV channel. DF1
says it has more than 10,000 subscribers, far short of its goal of
200,000 by the end of the year. But it could be a major breakthrough
for so-called free TV, advertising-financed networks like RTL, SAT1,
and Pro7, who could now consider adding digital features to their
programming.
The public broadcasters plan to migrate their entire programs onto
separate digital platforms on the Astra satellite network, and will
include on-screen electronic program guides. With ARD's system,
viewers will be able to place electronic "bookmarks" on news stories
during the evening news program, that will launch a menu with
background information about that subject to be viewed later. It will
also offer near-video-on-demand, making it possible for viewers to
choose to see a film nearly whenever they want. (Reuters)
GERMANY/DEUTSCHE TELEKOM--On November 28 Deutsche Telekom AG denied
charges that it has been stalling in talks with the Kirch Group over
putting its DF1 digital pay television channel on Telekom's cable TV
network. Kirch Group officials have said recently that Telekom was
blocking access to the cable network for DF1, which is now only
available over satellite. Telekom has a monopoly over the trunk cable
TV network in Germany, which connects some 16 million homes. There is
competition at the local level because local cable TV companies are
allowed to connect customers to the trunk network. 
Partly because of a lack of capacity in the cable telvision network,
media regulators have decided which programs would be carried. But
that is under discusssion. Telekom, other cable TV operators and
regulators are trying to draw up a so-called "must carry" list, which
would set out which broadcasters would be required, leaving the
operators themselves to decide about the rest. 
By the end of this year there will be 31 cable channels based on the
analog PAL standard and up to 150 digital channels, ending the squeeze
in the cable network. The change will mark a huge shift in the German
cable television market and allow for the launch of digital pay
television networks like Kirch's DF1.
On November 26 Deutsche Telekom said it expects to reach an agreement
with cable network operators throughout Europe next year to create a
common decoder standard for digital pay television. Torsten Kreindl,
head of the German telecommunications group's cable TV activities,
told a conference in Cologne the company had shortlisted seven
manufacturers of the decoder technology necessary for pay TV. 
"We are also talking with cable TV operators throughout Europe about
the decoder conditional access system and could reach an agreement
quickly that would affect all of Europe", Kreindl said.
The conditional access system is the part of the decoder that
unscrambles encrypted signals for pay TV viewers. (Reuters)
DF1/CANAL PLUS--Multi Thematiques (mTh), a digital TV venture set up
by France's Canal Plus, Generale des Eaux and TCI International, a
unit of U.S. cable giant TCI, will launch its long-awaited German
six-channel package in March 1997. The company has announced it will
use Leo Kirch's DF1 as distribution platform.
This comes as no surprise as there currently is no other platform they
could use in Germany. However, observers noted the alliance between
Canal Plus and Leo Kirch might also bring Germany's one and only
analog pay-TV channel back on track. Its shareholders Bertelsmann,
Kirch and Canal Plus are involved in several judicial battles over the
channel's digital future.
The agreement is also good news for Leo Kirch whose DF1 won't be able
to offer a full range of channels on cable networks owing to capacity
bottlenecks. mTh, on the other hand, was granted a separate
nation-wide channel for its bouquet.
mTh, which mainly offers localised versions of niche channels
developed Canal Plus's Canalsatellite bouquet, will also launch four
channels for the Italian market in January, probably just as soon as
Hot Bird 2 at 13 degrees East becomes operational.
They will probably be part of the Telepiu package where Leo Kirch
holds a 45 percent stake. In addition, mTh has clinched a deal with
some Polish cable networks to have its "Planet" channel distributed to
some 150,000 households. ("Tele-satellit News")
DMX--The European arm of DMX, which has just 100,000 subscribers, was
not included in the recent buy-out by TCI, and will now have to secure
separate funding if it is to avoid closing down. ("What Satellite TV")
With Multichoice's launch of DSTV to Scandinavia, DMX should be
getting many more subscribers. It is just about the only part of the
service not already existing on analog transponders. 
ITALY--The only Italian pay-TV network, Telepiu, plans to increase its
existing program offer (its digital package DSTV is carried on
Eutelsat Hot Bird 1) by using transponders it has leased on Hot Bird
2. There are plans to introduce pay-per-view services, with viewers
paying for single events (sports, movies, music events).
Around ten new foreign channels will be added to the package - among
them Bloomberg Italy, Hallmark Channel and The Weather Channel. Talks
are currently underway with the Disney company which may result in an
Italian version of the The Disney Channel. Telepiu's movie channel
Tele +1 will be able to offer a near-video-on-demand service with
movies starting at different hours. ("Tele-satellit News")
FRANCE--Rupert Murdoch's News Corp may invest in Television Par
Satellite, a French digital satellite television venture due to start
on December 16. It will challenge Canal Plus, which has had a digital
satellite package up and running since March. (Reuters)
SPAIN--Mexico's Grupo Televisa has signed a deal with a group of
Spanish broadcasters, including Telefonica Espana, to offer digital
television in Spain. The service will begin broadcasting in early 1997
and eventually number 70 channels, said Televisa.
Pilot broadcasting of the direct-to-home service via satellite is
scheduled to begin next month with Grupo Televisa, along with the
other broadcasters, providing programming content. The technical side
of the service will be handled by Telefonica Espana. ("Tele-satellit
News")
EUTELSAT--Eutelsat's Hot Bird 2 satellite was successfully launched on
November 21 on an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaversal. It is scheduled
to enter service this month at 13 degrees East, joining Hot Bird 1 and
Eutelsat II-F1 at that position. Hot Bird 2 is equipped with 20
transponders of which more than half are expected to be used for
digital television broadcasts to small receive antennas. Two coverage
zones are available on the satellite: the Widebeam, which reaches the
entire European continent, North Africa, and the Middle East as far as
the Gulf States, and the Superbeam, which reaches throughout wewstern
and central Europe. 
Hot Birds 3 and 4 are scheduled for launch in 1997, and Hot Bird 5 in
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