This news is provided free of charge to on-line users by TELE Satellit magazine and TS News Service GB. IT IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. It may not be reproduced for commercial reasons by any means what so ever Der TS Nachrichtendienst ist ein Service fuer die Freunde von TELE Satellit und TS-TV und ist nur fuer persoenaliche infromation freigegeben. TELE SATELLIT European Satellite News - English Version Number 11, Week ending 7 August 1994 By Martyn Williams CompuServe 100025,1637 Internet martyn@euro.demon.co.uk (c) TELE Satellit Magazine GOTCHA ! MacKenzie quits Sky after clash Kelvin MacKenzie, managing director of BSkyB, has quit after just seven months at the head of the satellite TV network. MacKenzie's departure comes after "a personality clash". Many observers noted that relationships between MacKenzie and Sky's chief exectutive Sam Chisholm were awful. Insiders report that the two often argued in the corridors of Sky's West London headquarters. MacKenzie was offered the BSkyB job by Rupert Murdoch after successfully editing The Sun newspaper for several years. MacKenzie was best known in the newspaper business for never underestimating the public's appetite sensational news stories. He is well known for his insensitive headlines including "Gotcha!" after the Argentinian warship, The General Belgrano, was sunk during the Falklands was and the infamous "Freddy Star ate my hamster". MacKenzie had certainly started to take Sky News down market with the rest of the network. His most public attempts at mass appeal included a less than successful advertisment campaign featuring losing UK skaters Torvil and Dean, and an interview with mistress Lady Bienvenida Buck. It was that interview that caused the most friction with the news department head Ian Frykberg after Frykberg refused point blank to air the programme on Sky News. Frykberg later left Sky News and the programme aired on Sky One. Most Sky staffers were said to be relieved that he had left and the upcoming talk show with Sun columnist Richard Littlejohn now seems unlikely to run. New channels for Finland From Finland Pentti Degerstrim tells us that a new association with a Swedish company is set to bring more programming to Finland. There will be at least four subscription channels new to the Finnish market. The channels mentioned in a Finnish TV report were TV 3, TV 1000, Filmmax and a French music channel (MCM). The channels will possibly be on Sirius at 5 degrees East or the yet to start Intelsat 702 at 1 degree West. Ariane wins Japanese launch contract Hughes and Arianspace have signed a contract for the launch of two Japanese DBS satellites. BSAT-1a and BSAT-1b will be launched in 1997 and 1998 respectively. The two new satellites will be used by NHK amongst others and will probably be the launching site for Japans first digital HDTV broadcasts early next century. Charles Bigot, Chairman of Arianespace said "Arianespace is very pleased to have been selected by Hughes Communications International, Inc., to support the delivery in orbit of these two important next generation Japanese broadcast satellites. This choice confirms our customer's continued confidence in our ability to support their launch requirements. Arianespace is proud to contribute to the advancement of direct broadcast services in Japan,". The next Ariane launch is scheduled for August 10. The payload consists of Turksat 1B and Brasilsat. The launch window is from 0052 to 0135 MESZ. Euronews should have full coverage. Goodbye Radio 538 ? TS News reported last month on the plans of Radio 538 to join the SCPC Dutch radio packet on Eutelsat 2F1. We reported that Radio 538 would leave Astra sometime in August and the new Sky Radio Deutschland would take thier place when it launched. This week several news services were reporting that Radio 538 would leave Astra on 1 August. At the time of writing Radio 538 remains on Astra's transponder 8 but if all the news is true, it should be gone soon. RTL Rock Radio RTL Radio has undergone a format change to emerge as RTL Rock Radio. From 1200 CET on August 1st the new station began broadcasting a selection of the best rock music from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Astra - new home for radio stations Two Astra radio stations have moved home. Supergold radio and Asda FM are now both broadcasting on Sky's transponder 47. Supergold radio, from the Chiltern Radio Network, has also switched to Panda 1 noise reduction. Previously the station used Panda 2 which better suited the stations that carried Supergold as a sustaining service. Supermarket radio station Asda FM has also made the move from their previous home on Sky Movies. The two moves free up two sets of subcarriers. Sky are planning to make use of all spare audio frequencies for the coming digital radio services, MC Europe and DMX Audio Express. CMR come back ? Paul Washington reports to TS News that CMR has found a new US based backer and will shortly re-appear on Astra. First reports suggested a service via London based World Radio Network on using a channel set aside for the up-coming German service. Latest news is that CMR will take a stereo audio pair on Nickelodeon. DirecTV launch success The second US DBS satellite for the new DirecTV service has been successfully launched by an Atlas IIA rocket from NASA's Cape Canaveral launch site. When the new satellite comes on stream the system will be able to offer around 150 channels. Eddy Hartenstein, president of DirecTV commented, "The era personalized television is finally upon us, thanks to the successful launch of DBS-2, DirecTV is proud to be on the cutting edge of the home entertainment revolution, and the first to deliver 150 channels of digital entertainment. To consumers all across America, DIRECTV is delivering on the promise of choice, value and convenience." The launch was carried live on DirecTV. From the US markets - QVC has approved a buyout by Comcast and Liberty Media. As we reported several weeks ago, QVC had been in merger talks with US network CBS until Comcast. one of QVC's biggest shareholders, stepped in and launched a full buyout. Also this week, shareholders of TCI approved a merger with Liberty Media. The two cable companies will form a massive media operation when then merger is complete. In brief ... - Malaysia is considering introducing a licence for satellite TV to run alongside the existing TV licence. - New home for TS-TV ! To allow viewers to see the programme in Eastern Europe the channel has moved to Eutelsat 2F3, 11.141 GHz Vertical. - Ted Turner has said he wants to buy one of the three major US broadcast networks. TELE Satellit Magazine This news is from the English language news service of TELE Satellit, a monthly satellite magazine edited in Munich, Germany. It consists of 164 pages, full colour with tables, charts and news with many off-screen photos of the satellite channels plus a informative technical section. Part of the magazine is written in English. Subscriptions are available for DM 120, Europe surface mail; DM 144, Europe airmail and DM 192, ROW airmail. Orders for subscriptions and more information should be sent to : TELE-satellit Customer Service, Silheimer Str. 6a, D-89278 Nersingen, Germany, Fax +49-7308-5296 Where to find satellite news : TELE Satellit News, English : Zipped Windows Write Version - CompuServe UKFORUM library 17, EURFORUM library 5 ASCII Text Version - CompuServe UKFORUM library 17 Fax polling - +31-45-273615 *2*44 ; +49-89-496287 *9 alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup on Internet World Wide Web : http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html TELE Satellit News, German : ASCII Text Version - CompuServe Deutsches Computer Forum (GERNET) Fax polling - +49-89-496287 / +31-45-273615 TELE Satellit TV ! Last Friday of every month, repeated following Sunday . Eutlesat 2F3, 11.141 GHz, Vertical. 20:00 UK, 21:00 CET Other reliable sources of satellite news : - Satellite Journal International provides worldwide satellite news and can be found in UKFORUM, EURFORUM, TELECOM, BPFORUM and CEFORUM plus other networks worldwide including Internet, Nifty Serve Japan and Fidonet. - 3615 SATPHONE on Minitel for the latest hot news ! - 3670-8192 in France for the latest French language satellite news updates - SAT 1 Text, page 550 with fresh news every 3-4 days plus frequency charts. - Radio Sweden Mediascan. 1st and 3rd Tuesday, 20 minutes into the English programme via Astra, Shortwave, Mediumwave 1197 kHz and the World Radio Network. - Sat News on the Internet - Skyguide on the Internet World Wide Web users can access TS News and the electronic journals above and more information via the European satellite home page, URL http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html We encourage all European satellite users and viewers to drop by UK Forum section 17, Entertainment, to chat and discuss all issues related to European satellite broadcasting.