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. Programming Note : This week we add two new outlets for the TS News : On London's CIX bulletin board system we can now be found in the Skyguide/telesat conference courtesy of Antony Purvis. On Eastern Europe's Fidonet Network you can now read TS News every week in the RU.SAT area. Thanks to Alexej Vladimirov for his assistance here ! TELE SATELLIT EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE European Satellite News - English Version Number 25, Week ending 13 November 1994 By Martyn Williams News Desk : Internet martyn@euro.demon.co.uk or CompuServe 100025,1637 (c) TELE Satellit Magazine Commission blocks German pay TV venture The European Commission has blocked the proposed joint venture between Bertelsmann, Kirche Gruppe and Telekom. The three were to have set up Media Service GmbH, MSG, but the commission feared that the new company would occupy a too dominant position in the German TV market. MSG would not provide any programmes but control encryption and subscriber management and it's this that lead to the EC fears. New channels entering the market could end up having certain conditions dictated to them by MSG. Bertelsmann and Kirche already own and operate Germany's only pay TV network, Premiere, along with Canal Plus. Telekom owns the massive German cable network and has a substantial stake in SES, the owners of Astra. Several weeks ago Bertelsmann expressed a wish for Canal Plus to join MSG. At a press conference on Wednesday the EC Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said that some of the parties could reapproach the Commission if they came up with a more European proposal. It is understood that the venture would be passed with the absence of Telekom and a possible collaboration with Canal Plus. ITN in talks to supply Sky News Britains Independant Television News are in talks with BSkyB over supply of news according to the Financial Times. A report, run in Thursday's edition, said that talks between the two were at an advanced stage and could result in ITN providing the Sky News channel to BSkyB. BSkyB are anxious to stem losses at Sky News which costs GBP 30 million a year to run and has neevr turned a profit. The FT reported that the deal would only go ahead if ITN could prove they would provide a better quality output at a cheaper price. BSkyB chief executive Sam Chisolm was quoted as saying "We have plenty of suitors who want to get involved with us in a whole range of areas. ITN is but one." The supply of Sky News by ITN would leave the UK with only two TV news providers, ITN and the BBC. The BBC are themselves keen to establish a worldwide news channel competing head on with CNN and are shortly to launch a European version. A possible BBC colaboration with Sky would be possible as the European news service is officially unavailable in the UK. ITN currently provide national and international news for the UK's Indepdent channels ITV and Channel 4 in addition to a special service for NBC Super Channel. Through WTN, they provide news feeds worldwide to many broadcasters. ITN's major shareholders are Carlton, Granada and Reuters. News Corp figures Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation released three month figures this week. The report outlined changes in the media empire across the world. News Corp are 50% owners of BSkyB and the statement said that operating profit has increased significantly. Total subscribers to the BSkyB network now total 3.6 million of which over 50% of subscribers take the complete package. In Asia News Corp owns 64% of Star TV and results indicate losses in line with expectations. Star now reaches 53.7 million homes or 220 million people, an increase of 28% in the year. According to News Corp, Star has increased penetration of India by 69% to 12.6 million households and China by 15% to 38.2 million homes. Star launched a new English language pay movies channel across the Middle East and India on October 1st joining STAR Movies in Taiwan and the Philippines. In Taiwan News Corp says that Star channels now command a 10.5% share of the viewing audience in Taiwan. - BSkyB will launch a path finder prospectus for the companies public share offering on Monday. Canal Plus posts increased profits Subscription revenue rose by 6.1 % in the first nine months of this year according to figures released by French pay TV group Canal Plus. Total subscription revenue was 5.57 billion francs. Advertising revenue dipped slightly by less than one percent to 324 million francs. Power Rangers return to TV3 this week American / Japanese childrens TV show The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers will return to Scandinavian TV this week. The show, along with all action childrens TV programming was pulled from TV3 after a five year old Swedish girl was beaten to death by her friends. No link between the death and childrens TV was proved although the current smash show has also been pulled by TV stations in Canada. Star goes digital in 1995 Star TV has announced that it will switch from Analogue to digital transmissions in July 1995 enabling up to 32 channels to be broadcast in place of the present eleven. The digital switch over coincides with Star's move to the new AsiaSat 2 satellite which will place a powerful C band signal across an even greater area of Asia. - Star received a licence this week to enable the transmission of seven new radio stations across the Asiasat 1 satellite. They include the BBC World Service and various pop music services. Sky to offer BT discount to subscribers To counter the growing number of people opting for a cable television service to get free or cheap phone calls through the Mercury telephone network, BT have signed a deal with Sky that will allow Sky to offer a discount on certain BT services. The discounts are understood to be for the BT Option series of services which give subscribers a guaranteed percentage discount in return for an annual fee. Sky subscribers will save six pounds on the Option 24 package and four pounds off the Option 16 scheme. Official skeptical about proposed Russian TV bill Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL, Inc. The Law on Television and Broadcasting adopted on first reading by the State Duma last week can only worsen the miserable state of public broadcasting, Vsevold Volchek, the director of the sociological service of Ostankino Television, said in Obshchaya gazeta issue No. 44. The bill includes controversial provisions such as a quota on the screening of foreign films, political correctness provisions, and a ban on explicit sexual scenes. It is not, however, the two state channels but commercial companies NTV and Sixth Channel, which are showing more domestic programs, noted Volchek. Additionally, the political programming on commercial television is much more objective than those on state channels, which recently aired a promotion campaign for controversial financial dealer Sergei Mavrodi. Finally, the law postulates that state television is subsidized by the government, but it does not mention the income it receives from advertisements. In reality, however, the lion share of the direct and indirect advertisement goes through state channels. Thus, the law is aimed to preserve the present situation rather to improve it, concludes Volchek. Sunergy Broadcast this week Sun Computer's eleventh Sunergy broadcast takes place this Wednesday. The title of the broadcast is "Reengineering the Manufacturing Enterprise". The host will be John Gage and the broadcast will include a panel of prominent industry experts as usual. For any further details on the Sunergy project please contact sunergy@sun.com The broadcast details for Sunergy are : CET Test 1630 - 1730, Broadcast 1730 - 1900. GMT Test 1530 - 1630, Broadcast 1630 - 1800. Worldwide satellite coordinates : US, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean GSTAR 2, 125 degrees West transponder 15, 12.110 GHz Vertical, Audio 6.20 / 6.80 MHz, 75uS GALAXY 7, 91 degrees West transponder 13, 3.960 GHz Horizontal, Audio 6.20 / 6.80 MHz, 75uS Europe INTELSAT K, 21.5 degrees West transponder 8, full, 11.665 GHz Vertical, Audio 6.60 / 7.40 MHz, 75uS Latin America INTELSAT K, 21.5 degrees West transponder H6, upper, 11.558 MHz Vertical, Audio 6.60 / 7.40 MHz, 75uS Sightings TS News Bureau Munich - INTELSAT 702, 1 degree West : 3.837 GHz - TV 5 has been broadcasting in PAL for around a week. (Volker Schafer) - DFS 2, 28.5 degrees East : 12.725 GHz, BBC News feed from Berlin 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 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 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