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. If you wish to reproduce this news or redistribute it for non commercial use please contact the email address below. Der TS Nachrichtendienst ist ein Service fuer die Freunde von TELE Satellit und TS-TV und ist nur fuer persoenliche infromation freigegeben. TELE SATELLIT EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE European Satellite News - English Version Number 23, Week ending 30 October 1994 By Martyn Williams News Desk : Internet martyn@euro.demon.co.uk or CompuServe 100025,1637 (c) TELE Satellit Magazine Eutelsat Hot Bird frequency plan ! TS News Bureau Munich Our colleagues at Tele Satellit News in Munich have the Eutelsat Hot Bird frequency plan direct from Eutelsat marketing Germany : 1 11,221 h TVE International 2 11,242 v MTV Europe 3 11,262 h EBN: European Business News 4 11,283 v USA Networks owned channel 5 11,304 h MCM Euromusique 6 11,325 v TV5 Europe 7 11,345 h Premiera (Czech) 8 11,366 v CLT (Super RTL or RTL 7) 9 11,387 h Eurosport 10 11,408 v NBC Super Channel 11 11,428 h TV Polonia 12 11,449 v RAI Uno 13 11,471 h NPT (Polish) 14 11,492 v RAI Due 15 11,513 h EDTV Dubai 16 11,534 v CLT (RTL 7 or Super RTL) From our Munich news desk : - It is expected that MCM will broadcast in D2-Mac with Eurocrypt for the large European audience they already have via TDF. The TDF transmissions will cease in 1995. - After the Hot Bird launch a further Eutelsat 2 F2 transponder will be freed up for digital use, including telephony. - Canal Plus Poland will not broadcast via 13 degrees East. They will use Eutelsat 2 F3 at 16 degrees east which is a puzzling decision since most of the Polish channels are moving to 13 E. - Euronews are considering Dutch and Russian versions. The long promised Arabic version is still coming soon apparently. - BBC News will begin on December 1st. After channels move, Eutelsat 2 F1 would look like this : 20A 10.972 h 25 10.987 v NBC Super Channel 20B 11.005 h VIVA 21A 11.055 h Kabelkanal 26 11.080 v 21B 11.095 h RTL 2 22A 11.123 h SCPC Digital Radio 27 11.163 v Deutsche Welle TV / Worldnet 22C 11.181 h TRT International 32 11.554 h MBC 37 11.575 v Euronews 33 11.596 h RTL Television 38 11.617 v BBC World Service News 34A 11.638 h 39 11.659 v 34B 11.678 h Polonia 1 Showtime Europe to replace Sci Fi ? USA Networks, parent company of the Sci Fi Channel may replace it's planned Eutelsat Hot Bird service with a European version of the Showtime Movies channel. The Sci Fi channel was due to be launched around this time on Eutelsat 2 F1 but plans have been put on hold after discussions with BSkyB over the British broadcaster taking a stake in the channel. BSkyB want to create their own science fiction channel and if they bought a stake in Sci Fi this would almost certainly be given a place on the upcoming Astra 1D satellite leaving USA Networks with a spare transponder on Eutelsat Hot Bird. Whilst Eutelsat could sell or sub lease this space it is thought that they may launch their own movies service. The Showtime Europe channel could be a premium service although this would involve re-negotiating several of the deals that Paramount Pictures has already agreed with stations such as FilmNet and Premiere. Showtime bought Paramount earlier this year. What is more likely, especially given the success that Ted Turner's TNT is enjoying in Europe is a classic movies channel drawing on archive material and available free of charge. New porn channels target Europe Two new TV channels are planning to launch direct to home porn channels to Europe. Several weeks ago we mentioned a possible new channel from Italy and we now have more details. The channel, called Satisfaction Club Television, conducted a test broadcast on Gorizont late on Friday night after the close down of Cable Plus for about 30 minutes. The channel hopes to start regular transmissions on November 25 via Eutelsat 1 F5 at 21.5 degrees East. Marcello Berengogardin in Italy, who told us about the test broadcast says that the scrambling system will be VideoCrypt 2 allowing broadcasts to European receivers but not the UK standard VideoCrypt 1 system. The uplink is still not known, they cannot uplink hardcore pornography from Italy, and last nights broadcast was not from the Cable Plus site. There have also been several ads placed in UK listings magazines this month for a new station calling itself TV Erotica. The service is possibly a European version of the US channel and this association is giving the channel more credibility than new start up channels in the past like TV69. In the US, TV Erotica broadcasts a pay per view service via Telstar 302 on transponder 16 from 10pm until early morning. Special thanks to Marcello Berengogardin and Chris Donelly for help in this report. Astra 1D launch details Final preparations are now underway for Astra 1D's November 1st (CET). Scheduled liftoff time is 9:37 p.m. local time October 31st, (Nov. 1 - 0037 UTC / 0137 CET). Astra 1D is the sole passenger on the Ariane 42P rocket, launched by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Center on the northeast coast of South America. The launch window extends from 0137 CET to 0230 CET. Built by Hughes Space and Communications Co. in El Segundo, Calif., Astra 1D is a high-power HS 601 body-stabilized satellite. With its solar panels extended, the spacecraft will measure 69 feet (21 meters) long in orbit and generate 3.5 kilowatts. It carries 18 active transponders that will be used to broadcast programming directly to more than 16 million homes throughout Europe. European viewers can catch the launch live on RTL-4 with coverage also expected on Euronews, SAT 1 and n-tv. In the US the launch will be carried live on Galaxy VII, Transponder 13. If the launch is delayed by a day it will be carried on Galaxy IV, Transponder 9. ECC '94 show news Martyn Williams at European Cable Communications '94, London Leading the world ! The message repeated most at ECC '94 was that the UK is leading the world in cable TV technology and the coming super highway. During his opening address, Richard Woollam, Director General of the Cable Communications Association, underlined this, "The UK is leading the world in the development of a fibre broadband network to deliver the multi-media communications services of the future - it is not a point that can be debated - it's actually happening today - in Japan they are still thinking about it - in the rest of mainland Europe they are at the least five years, and more realistically ten years behind in their regulation, legislation and network role out programme and in the US they are still trying to decide who will build it and more significantly pay for it - in the UK it is being built now !" The convention and exhibition, held in London this week, attracted every major executive from the UK cable industry and also served to help the Cable Television Association present a new image and new chairman, Eugene Connell. Connell is the President and Chief Executive Officer of NYNEX cablecomms and announced the name change explaining that "now we are an info-entertainment industry, we're multimediators - the Information Superhighwaymen, representing a convergence of a dozen different businesses into the ultimate communications system - the M2000". Speakers at the conference included Ian Taylor MP who said that he wanted cable communications to extend beyond the home and into hospitals and schools, to help the fabric of the community and be used as a vehicle for carrying information from medical news to police requests and reports. Speaking at a press conference later Taylor said that the government was considering all possibilities of allowing the cable system to extend into areas that would prove non cost effective using existing co-ax technology. These possibilities included the use of the radio spectrum, such as MMDS. Taylor said he was also pleased that cable was taking communications where they had never gone before such as the 15% of cable phone subscribers who have never before been connected to the phone network. Later in the day Marjorie Mowlem MP, Shadow Heritage Secretary until last weekend's shadow cabinet reshuffle spoke of what policies a future Labour government would pursue in relation to the cable industry. Most welcome was her comments that the Labour government recognised the huge amount of investment by the cable industry and that British Telecom's entry into the entertainment industry would be blocked until around 2000 - 2002. Speakers also made the point that cable had an image problem in the UK and that needed to be changed. A complete review of customer service was needed at most operators as was the way that they entered neighbourhoods and dug up streets causing disruption. - EBN goes for spring '95 launch EBN: European Business News has announced 27 February 1995 as the launch date for the new service. The channel will use the new Eutelsat Hot Bird satellite and be available initially in the clear with a possible future move to scrambled transmissions. Alongside the TV channel will be a data and video service aimed at desktop PC owners in offices across the continent. The main language of the channel will be English with German language segments from day one and additional languages following. - DMX - no launch date yet but more details Digital audio service DMX were unable to supply a firm launch date for transmissions via Astra but were able to give us more details of hardware availability and subscription management. Speaking to Tele Satellit a representative of DMX said that the 86 channel music service would be launched around the latter part of March or early April next year. The hardware was already being designed by three European manufacturers - Pace, Kathrein and Technisat. A subscriber launch for Northern Europe would occur simultaneously with BSkyB in the UK, Selco in Germany and MultiChoice in Scandinavia and the Benelux handling subscriber management. DMX's main competitor, MC Europe, were still unable to provide any details about a DTH launch except that it was expected sometime in the first half of 1995. - GI demonstrates DigiCipher II General Instruments were on hand at ECC '94 demonstrating the DigiCipher digital TV system. According to GI "DigiCipher is an all digital television system designed to digitise, compress, packetise, encrypt, multiplex, forward error correct, and modulate a number of NTSC, PAL and/or SECAM television signals for transmission in a single satellite transponder" ! A special link was set up across PanAmSat for the exhibition was sending NBC News, MTV Latino, USA Network, BBC, FOX Latin America, TV 5, Cinecanal and ESPN International in a single transponder. The pictures on the stand seemed to suffer no noticeable degradation in quality or suffer any errors in the process. - Cartoon Network takes animation to the classroom Cartoon Network and Hanna Barbera have introduced "Animated Projects", a fascinating resource pack for primary schools. Animated Projects traces the history of animation, science and technology involved in its creation and offers practical topics and projects to be incorporated in the classroom. The packs are available free of charge to all schools in Europe. The launch is in early December but you can write now to get your name of the list ! Just send your name, position, school name, school address and type of school (mixed, boys, girls) to : Animated Projects, PO Box 21, Southall, Middlesex, UB2 4AB, United Kingdom. - MBC audience continues to rise Latest audience research in Saudi Arabia suggests that MBC's audience in that country has risen from 9% to 26.2%. In Saudi Arabia, where the station is available on the nationwide MMDS system, MBC comes in second place after Saudi TV 1 according to the JICME data. MBC is also claiming a growing audience for the new MBC-FM radio service which is broadcast via satellite and on FM 101 - 103 in some areas of the Gulf region. The station says it receives around 70 faxes and 50 phone calls a day for it's three hour request show. Duma adopts draft law on broadcasting Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL Inc. On 26 October the State Duma adopted the first reading of a controversial draft law on television and radio. Ostankino and Russian television newscasts reported that the bill provides "exclusive" state supervision over the Russian electronic media, puts limitations on the number of foreign films and documentaries on the country's airwaves, and begins a campaign aimed at purifying the Russian language used on radio and television. According to the reports, the bill would set up a special federal agency to monitor the content of all programs on national and regional radio and TV stations, both public and private. TV Sat - now DSR leaves TS News Bureau Munich Once Deutsche Telekom announced that TV-SAT was up for sale it seemed inevitable that the 16 channel DSR service would leave and now it's official. In parallel with the TV broadcasters, none of whom have renewed their lease, DSR will leave at the end of the year. New logo for Pro 7 German entertainment channel Pro 7 has unveiled a new logo. The image is now superimposed in the top left hand corner of the screen. Pro 7 has also taken the opportunity to make the on screen identifier translucent. The name of the channel remains the same but the word "7" is now spelled out : PRO SIEBEN Last week NHK started using a more discreet logo. The style remains the same. You couldn't make this up ..... I couldn't believe what I was watching last week .... a TV channel from Argentina devoted to nothing but Tango (the dance, not the drink) with a little Argentine propaganda thrown in ! Yes, it's true folks - Europe's latest TV channel is Solo Tango, testing all last week on Eutelsat 2 F1 on 11.617 GHz. The audio was Spanish but with on screen English subtitles. As well as a programme giving viewers a look at the modern Argentina, the promised programmes include Tango Lesson, Cine Tango - a look at tango in the movies and my favourite, Tango News - news about tango from all over the world. Where do I sign up for this ..... In brief ... - David Letterman is bringing his CBS Late Show to the UK during the May sweeps. It will be the first overseas outing for any late night talk show and will come from LWT's South Bank TV Centre. Dave also promises to take his cameras out onto the streets of London. - Curt Swinehart in the USA tells us that the CNN audio we mentioned last week on the B-MAC AFRTS feed (Intelsat 702, 4.170 MHz, 7.38 MHz audio) is in fact a feed channel for the American Forces Radio Network. CNN audio is carried at some times of the day in addition to other AFN traffic. Curt reports that the same feed is also on Spacenet 2 at 69 degrees West. Sightings ... TS News Desk Munich, Markus Hammer - 23.5 E DFS KOPERNIKUS 3 11.549 V, JAM FM has a new contact number 030-6044023 or 6044026 (fax) - 16.0 E - EUTELSAT 2 F3 10.986 H - Saturday and Sunday, TESUG TV 11.163 H - Feed for Philips with spanish on 6.50 and dutch on 7.74. 12.533 H - Newsfeeds in NTSC from Jerusalem Capital Studios (JCS) for US TV and in PAL for Sky - 13.0 E - EUTELSAT 2 F1 11.617 V, TV13 during the day and other feeds during the night. Saturday saw tests for french music channel MCM and more recently during the evenings there were broadcasts from "Tango Solo", a Spanish language classical dance music programme. 11.146 H, Football Karlsruhe SC / Real Madrid for Eurosport - Spanish 7.02, German 7.20 - 10.0 E - EUTELSAT 2 F2 11.060 V, RAI feeds 11.142 H, Feed for Canal Sur 6 11.595 H, Basketball feeds for Cine 5 with Turkish on 6.60 - 3.0 E - TELECOM 1C 12.604 and 12.648 V - These have been used for the evening feeds of Arabic language BBC World Service News to the Orbit package. - PAL, audio 6.60 - 18.5 W - INTELSAT 515 11.010 V, Italian feed. Testcard with "PALERMO" - 21.5 W - INTELSAT K 11.666 H - OB for Pro 7's talkshow River Cafe. - 27.5 W - INTELSAT 601 3.905 R, Outside broadcast with CFI audio on 5.80 and 7.25 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 132 pages, full colour with tables, charts and news with many off-screen photos of the satellite channels plus an informative technical section. 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 : CompuServe UK Forum (UKFORUM) - Windows Write / ASCII version, library 19 CompuServe European Forum (EURFORUM) - Windows Write version, library 5 CompuServe Deutschland on line (GERLINE) - Windows Write version, library 15 fax polling +49-8282-81003 fax polling +49-2163-81744 fax polling +49-611-307307 - due on line in two weeks NBC Super Channel - NBC Text page 171 ISDN Mailbox IDTRANS (128 kBps), User Gast, Password SAT, +49-89-45001424 alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup on Usenet World Wide Web : http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html Fidonet SAT.028 newsgroup Fidonet RADIOCOMMS.FR Globalnet : GN.ONDES.COURTES.FR Sparknet : SK_SATELLITE Anonymous FTP to : ftp.funet.fi /pub/dx/text/satellite/telesatellit SAT NET BBS network TELE Satellit News, German : CompuServe Deutschland on line (GERLINE) - ASCII version, library 15 CompuServe Der Spiegel Forum (SPIEGEL) - ASCII version, library 11 fax polling +49-8282-81003 fax polling +49-2163-81744 fax polling +49-611-307307 - due on line in two weeks SAT NET BBS network ISDN Mailbox IDTRANS (128 kBps), User Gast, Password SAT, +49-89-45001424 TELE Satellit Hotline +49-90-6350613 Zeiten: Do 15-20 Uhr, Sa 14-20 Uhr TELE Satellit TV ! 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Audio 6.60 MHz. 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 on CompuServe plus other networks worldwide including Internet, Nifty Serve Japan and Fidonet. - *44022999# ,menu option 30 on BTX / Datex J - 3615 SATPHONE on Minitel - Phone 3670-8192 in France - 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 - Radio Netherlands Media Network, Thursday, 23 minutes into the English programme via shorwave and The World Radio Network - 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