Article: 2550 of rec.radio.info Xref: news.cs.tut.fi rec.radio.shortwave:23625 rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc:678 rec.radio.amateur.misc:40816 rec.radio.info:2550 Path: news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!tribune.usask.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!alberta!nebulus!ve6mgs!usenet Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:54:51 GMT From: p00489@psilink.com (Terry Stader - KA8SCP) Subject: SCDX 2189 Message-ID: <$scdx.2189@ampr.org> Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave,rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc,rec.radio.amateur.misc,rec.radio.info Followup-To: rec.radio.shortwave,rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc Approved: rec-radio-info@ve6mgs.ampr.ab.ca Lines: 432 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2189--Oct. 19, 1993 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2189 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NORDIC MEDIA NEWS: NORTH STAR--We've reported before on a proposal before the Nordic Council for a joint Nordic television channel. Those plans took a concrete form Friday (October 15), when the public service broadcasters of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland presented a formal proposal. Should the prime ministers of the four countries approve the project at a meeting next month, the broadcasters say the Nordic satellite channel "Nordstjarnan", or "North Star", could be on the air by the end of 1994 or early 1995. As a satellite channel, it would only be available to cable subscribers or home dish owners, at a cost of around 7 dollars a month. Some films and other more attractive programming would be offered for an additional charge. The fifth Nordic country, Denmark, is not participating in the project because the channel would not be available to all viewers. The Danes would prefer to strengthen the current Nordvision co-operation. (TT and "Pressens Tidning") SWEDISH COMMERCIAL RADIO--We reported last time on the allocation of the first commercial radio frequencies in Sweden, which were awarded in an auction solely on the basis of the highest bids. Now the Local Radio Licencing Board has asked that more frequencies be allocated northern and central Sweden, especially in Norrkoping, to the southwest of Stockholm, Uppsala, just north of the capital, and Umea in the far north. All three cities received frequencies for two stations, so that there would be some competition, or at least alternatives for potential advertisers. But the highest bidder auction system worked against that ambition. In Norrkoping the same group won bids for both channels, while a local newspaper bought both licences in Umea. A Christian fundamentalist group won one frequency in Uppsala, and since they don't plan to carry ordinary advertising, the Licencing Board is afraid the remaining broadcaster will have a monopoly on advertising rates. The auction for licences in southern and western Sweden will be held in early December. Five channels will be allocated in Gothenburg, and two each in 9 other cities. (TT, "Pressens Tidning", and "Journalisten") SWEDISH COMMUNITY RADIO--Sweden's Community Radio Board has threaten to fine three community radio stations for illegally carrying networked news from the Swedish news agency TT. The community radio law says centrally produced programming can only be used "to a limited extent", which the board has interpreted to mean that carrying a short bulletin of networked news once an hour is forbidden. The stations have objected to this interpretation. Altogether 20 Swedish community radio stations are relaying news from TT. (TT) SWEDISH RADIO--Sweden's public service radio broadcaster, Swedish Radio, is investigating introducing a national program in the Finnish language after digital radio is introduced here in 1995. The largest immigrant group in Sweden comes from Finland, and Finnish programming currently accounts for around 2 and a half hours a day on Swedish Radio's Program 2. That channel primarily offers classical music, but also carries minority language and educational programming. In Stockholm these have been shifted onto other transmitters, and Program 2 in the capital is a 24 hour classical channel. Swedish Radio hopes to extend this service nationally when digital radio is introduced. (TT) THOR--We've often mentioned Norway's Thor satellite, which offers a Scandinavian package of CNN, Eurosport, the Children's Channel, Discovery, MTV, and Filmnet Movies, however using obscure encoding systems generally found only in Norway. Now Filmnet has begun distributing Thor subscriptions in Sweden, for around 8 dollars a month. However, Filmnet may also be involved in a European version of Sky's Multi-Channel package, called "Multi- Choice Kaleidoscope". (Bertil Sundberg in "Elektronikvaerlden") EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS: ASTRA--The Adult Channel has left transponder 26, home of Sky Movies Gold and Radio Sweden. TV Asia now occupies this transponder continuously between 23:00 and 17:00 hrs UTC. TV Asia has stopped broadcasts from transponder 8, and Sky One now continues there until 01:00 hrs UTC daily. Some British local ILR stations are to appear on the Discovery and Bravo transponders in the near future. (James Robinson) QVC began its broadcasts on Astra transponder 38 as scheduled on October 1st. The transmissions are encoded in Videocrypt. (James Robinson) British Sky Broadcasting has been publicly rapped by the Independent Television Commission's Television Advertising Complaints report for August 1993 over TV adverts for its multichannel offering. The complaints centered around BSkyB's claims that 14 channels were being added into the Multichannels package, and that nine of them had never previously been carried on satellite. Complainants pointed out that some channels would not be encrypted on the launch date and would remain available without payment of a subscription fee, others would not be on the air at the time of launch, and that some of the channels claimed to be available for the first time on satellite had been, in fact, carried on Intelsat and Eutelsat satellites for some time. ("Satnews") EUTELSAT--Egyptian Television's long-awaited international channel seems to be about to start. James Robinson reports low-powered test signals from Nile TV International on Eutelsat 2-F3, on 11.146 GHz. This same satellite also carries the Egyptian Space Channel, and other Middle Eastern broadcasters from Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia. Telepace has also moved to this satellite, replacing RTP. An Algerian network was to transmit on the Telepace transponder. (James Robinson) But BBC Monitoring recently reported that those plans have been postponed. Portugal's RTP has joined Italian, Spanish, and Turkish channels on Eutelsat 2-F2. (James Robinson) RTL--Luxembourg's RTL Television is to begin relays of its French service by satellite soon. The choice is between Astra, Eutelsat, and France's Telecom satellite. RTL currently broadcasts to eastern France from Luxembourg and is also carried on some French cable networks. (AFP via BBC Monitoring) MCM--MCM Euromusique is determined to introduce encryption for its 24-hour music service from October 15th. After being forced off the air for some time because of financial problems, the station is determined to remain "on air" in the future. It will be encrypting its signal in D2-MAC/Eurocrypt-M, and annual Europe-wide subscriptions will be a FFr150 one-off payment for the smart card, followed by FFr200 per year. ("Satnews") This apparently refers to the on-again, off-again D2-MAC signals on TDF1 on 11.727 GHz, which have been in the clear. MCM is also part of the Canal Satellit Nagravision package on Telecom 2A. HISPASAT--Two new television channels, one with cultural programs, the other with exclusively sports programs, are to begin broadcasts on Spain's Hispasat satellites in December. They will be operated by the public RTVE and are to be in the clear. (RNE via BBC Monitoring) HDTV--Broadcasters and regulatory authorities in Europe are working together to find a common standard for digital high definition (HDTV) services. A memorandum of understanding has been signed by a group of satellite operators, broadcasters, manufacturers and regulators, with the signing ceremony in Bonn, Germany. The group, known as the European Launching Group for Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) project, comprises of 85 members including one Japanese electronics firm. ("Satnews") MIDDLE EASTERN MEDIA NEWS: ARABSAT--Arabsat, the Arab Satellite Communications Organisation, has signed a USD 104 million loan with eight banks to part-finance the building and launch of two new satellites. Aerospatiale, the French aerospace company, is building the satellites at a total cost of USD 258 million. The first satellite is set to be launched in 1996, with the other to be mothballed for an unspecified period. The loan has been syndicated primarily through Middle Eastern banks. Arabsat is paying cash for around 60 percent of the total satellite's cost from existing cash reserves. "(Satnews") AFRICAN MEDIA NEWS: SOUTH AFRICA--Sky News was due to start 12 hours a day of broadcasts to South Africa, beginning October 3rd. Using a relay from Intelsat, the broadcasts are on the SABC's CCV channel. CNN is also carried on CCV. Sky plans to increase its African coverage beyond South Africa. ("Business Day" via BBC Monitoring) ASIAN MEDIA NEWS: STAR-TV--At the annual meeting of News Corporation, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch announced the splitting of his new Asian aquisition, Star-TV, into four divisions, one each for China, India, Indonesia and the Middle East. Murdoch also reported his Fox cable channel in the United States plans to begin service on March 1st to between 20 million and 30 million homes. Fox has also launched a small cable channel to South America, while Europe's Sky News has just started a service to South Africa (see above). The Hong Kong-based Star-TV faces problems following China's recent announcement of new rules limiting access to satellite dishes, including a virtual ban on purchases or installations by individuals who had been snapping up dishes to pull down foreign television broadcasts. The past two years have seen an explosion of foreign satellite television in China, posing a serious threat to the Communist government's information monopoly. Department stores and other shops took advantage of a dearth of explicit regulations and sold tens of thousands of low-cost satellite dishes. (Reuters) ASIASAT--Star-TV plans to expand when the Asiasat-2 satellite is launched in early 1995. Australia's most profitable commercial TV network, the Nine Network, has taken options on 10 transponders on the new satellite, half the high-powered transponder capacity. The satellite's footprint is planned to extend from Japan to the Middle East and south to Australia. ("World Broadcast News") PALAPA--Asia's first business television channel will begin broadcasting next month. Among the owners of Asia Business News are Dow Jones, the American cable giant TCI, Television New Zealand, and the Singapore Broadcasting Corpation. The channel will transmit on Indonesia's Palapa B2P satellite. CNN, the sports channel ESPN, Home Box Office, and Australia Television International already use Palapa. ("Satnews") BBC--The BBC has formed a joint venture with a Japanese trading company to launch a Japanese version of World Service Television (WSTV) early in 1994. Signing the agreement with Nissho Iwai, Japan's seventh-largest trading company, is a break with tradition for the British state-owned broadcaster which is usually reticent about forming alliances with profit-making organisations. A new company has been formed for the joint venture. Nissho will be the majority partner in Satellite News Corporation, and it will act as the advertising agent for BBC WSTV. The BBC will retain the final control on editorial matters. WSTV will initially be available to cable and satellite viewers in the region, although a deal is understood to being made with one of Japan's six terrestrial broadcasters for retransmission rights. ("Satnews") NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS: MEDIA MERGERS--In the United States, the competition between Viacom and QVC to buy Paramount Communications has been eclipsed by one of the biggest corporate mergers in history, between the country's largest cable operator, TCI, and Bell Atlanta, which operates the telephone networks in the Middle Atlantic states. Together, the two companies serve 42 percent of the American population. While Bell Atlantic has expertise in two-way audio technology, TCI's strength is in sending multiple video signals, with a wide variety of programming. Together, as they install high-capacity fiber optic networks across the country, they will eventually be able to offer users a vast array of new entertainment and information technologies, including hundreds of cable TV channels, pay-per-view movies on demand, video games with competitors thousands of miles away, armchair shopping, two-way educational programs, and research access to vast databases. Media analysts say the merger is likely to speed access to a national "information superhighway", but consumer advocates warn that it could also create less competition, driving up users' rates. The deal also includes TCI's programming company Liberty Media, which partly owns the shopping network QVC. Experts say the merger may strengthen QVC's bid to buy Paramount. Recently the telephone company serving New York and New England, Nynex, bought into QVC's Paramount rival Viacom, which besides being a major cable operator, also owns MTV, VH-1, and Nickelodeon. In a similar move, the US West telephone company is investing in America's second largest cable operator, entertainment giant Time-Warner. ("San Francisco Chronicle", "New York Times", and "San Jose Mercury News") REGIONAL NEWS CHANNELS--King Broadcasting, which owns four television stations in the Pacific Northwest, says that it is to launch a 24-hour cable news channel specialising in regional coverage. Around 1.5 million viewers will be able to tune into the service, known as Northwest Cable News, from Spring 1994. Once operational, it will be the largest regional news service in the US, and it will hire 100 additional staff to provide regional news coverage. ("Satnews") KRON TV in San Francisco is also creating a cable-only regional news channel. When the new Cable Consumer Protection Act forced cable operators to negotiate for the rebroadcast of over-the-air channels, KRON demanded that cable operators carry the new news channel as a condition. Other cable operators have been compelled to carry NBC's new cable channel America's Talkiing, a spinoff off CNBC, which will offer talk shows and informational programming. ("San Francisco Chronicle") KGAY--KGAY, the audio service for gay and lesbian listeners, has left satellitetelevision. They were behind in paying their uplink bill and the uplinker pulled them on September 14th. It is not know if they will try another attempt at launching again to continue their service. ("Satnews") KGAY broadcast from Denver on Galaxy 3, transponder 22, 7.46 MHz. ("Satellite TV Week") DMX--International Cablecasting Technologies Inc. has signed a USD 20 million contract with Spar Communications Group for the supply of digital audio receivers that will receive ICT's 120 channel Digital Music Express (DMX) service by DBS satellite. DMX initially started with a 30 channel offering, but the company is in the middle of an aggressive service and geographical expansion programme. With the new receivers, customers can tune into 120 20Khz CD-quality music channels at the touch of a button. The new offering will be initially restricted to the North American marketplace, and it will enable the company to expand its business music offering, DMX for Business, which provides commercial-free, DJ-free music to stores, offices and factories. A 75cm antenna will be used to receive broadcasts throughout the USA and North America from the SBS-5 satellite. Each receiver is fully addressable, enabling special broadcasts to be sent to subscribers. There is also the capability to offer generic corporate programming broadcasts on under-utilised channels, switching in receivers as required. ("Satnews") MBC--When the London-based Middle East Broadcasting Centre bought the UPI news agency there were reports the Arabic language channel would expand its broadcasts from the Middle East and Europe into North America. Instead, MBC is buying into an existing channel. MBC has signed an agreement with the Arab Network of America, the dominant Arabic language network of the US, to exchange news and programming. ANA broadcasts its programming by satellite from studios in Washington, and broadcasts are relayed on many cable television systems throughout North America. A nationwide Arabic radio service is also provided by ANA, and distributed over satellite for local terrestrial redistribution. ("Satnews") ANA broadcasts on the Satcom 2R satellite, transponder 1. SHORTWAVE AND LOCAL MEDIA NEWS: AFGHANISTAN--The Radio Afghanistan external service has been heard on 4775 kHz with the following schedule: 14:00 Urdu, 14:30 English, 15:00 Russian, 15:30 hrs Arabic. (BBC Monitoring) AZERBAIJAN--The external service of Radio Dada Gorgud broadcasts in Arabic at 15:00-17:00 hrs on 6175 kHz, in Persian and Turkish at 13:00-14:00 hrs on medium wave (1476 kHz?), and in English at 17:00-18:00 hrs on 15240 kHz. New services were added in January in Talysh (spoken in southern Azerbaijan), Kurdish, and Armenian on 1476. 4957, and 15240 kHz. French and German broadcasts are due to begin in mid-October, each 15 minutes long. (Radio Dada Gorgud via BBC Monitoring) CAMBODIA--Radio UNTAC, the Cambodian voice of the United Nations, ended its broadcasts on September 23rd, after 13 months on the air. (BBC Monitoring) RUSSIA--During the recent siege of the Russian parliament, a very low- powered radio station calling itself Radio Parliament was heard on around 580 kHz. A group of Russian television journalists say that they are planning to launch their own independent channel. Evegenii Kisselev said on the Ostankio TV weekly political programme Itogi that the channel called Segondnya (Today) would begin in October, using journalists from the Ostankio and Russia-state television broadcasting companies. Many journalists are leaving the state-owned company because of alleged interference by political paymasters. ("Satnews") The independent TV station NTV ("Nezavisimoye Televideniye" - "Independent Television") was scheduled to go into operation on channel 5 in St. Petersburg on October 10th. It apparently will be owned by the "Most" group. (BBC Monitoring) Russian president Boris Yeltsin has been set a letter by the directors of the transfer of the fourth state-run channel to the "Most commercial company". Ostankino is concerned that the creation of independent superstations will actually restrict viewer choice instead of expanding it. ("Satnews") SOMALIA--The pro-Aydid Radio Mogadishu, the Voice of the Great Somali People, reappeared on September 22nd on 6870 kHz. It suffered from continuous interference on the channel, which took the form of a pulsating white-noise signal apparently transmitted without carrier but centered on 6870 kHz. On September 27th the pro-Aydid station moved to 6877 kHz, where it was free of interference. (BBC Monitoring) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden Calling DXers is the world's oldest radio program for shortwave listeners. Radio Sweden has presented this round-up of radio news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since 1948. Radio Sweden broadcasts in English: To Europe: 17:15 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz 18:30 hrs and 21:30 hrs on 1179, 6065, and 9655 kHz 22:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz 23:30 hrs on 1179 kHz To East Africa and the Middle East: 18:30 hrs on 15145 kHz To Asia and the Pacific: 12:30 hrs on 15240, 17740, and 17865 kHz 23:30 hrs on 11910 kHz 01:30 hrs on 9695 and 11695 kHz To North America: 13:30 and 14:30 hrs on 15240 and 17870 kHz 02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 9695 and 11650 kHz To Latin America: 00:30 hrs on 9695 and 11650 kHz The broadcasts at 17:15, 18:30, 21:30 (weekends only), and 22:30 hrs are relayed on satellite on Astra transponder 26 (Sky Movies Gold) audio 7.74 MHz and Tele-X on 12.207 GHz (TV4) audio 7.38 MHz. Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283, from Internet, MCI Mail or CompuServe (to the CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516), through the FidoNet system to 2:201/697 or to SM0IIN at the packet radio BBS SM0ETV. 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, with the exception of items from BBC Monitoring, which are copyright. We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition, Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening!