From WOOD@stab.sr.seSun Oct 22 23:24:28 1995 Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 14:30:51 +0100 From: George Wood To: wood@rs.sr.se Subject: MediaScan/Sweden Calling DXers 2233 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2233--Oct. 3, 1995 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2233 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: We're experiencing a problem with the mailbox handling schedule requests and the MediaScan mailing list. If you send a request that doesn't seem to work, please let me know: wood@rs.sr.se NORDIC MEDIA NEWS: DAB PREMIER--The telecommunications world is currently gathered in Geneva for Telecom 95, as we mark the 100th anniversary of Marconi's first radio broadcasts. And international broadcast history has been made here in Sweden. Last Wednesday, Swedish Radio and the BBC both became the first radio companies in the world to begin regular broadcasts in terrestrial digital radio, Digital Audio Broadcasting, the Eureka 147 system that's to be used in Europe and many other countries. The man behind Swedish Radio's DAB broadcasts is Christer Grewin, Head of the Transmission Development Department, who we interview in today's program. DVB--Digital Video Broadcasting is on the way, as well. Here in Scandinavia it's Nethold, owners of FilmNet, who will be first with DVB. The Astra 1E satellite is due to be launched from French Guyana in just two weeks. It's transponders will be equipped for digital transmissions, using the MPEG-2 system, and Nethold has announced it will start digital broadcasts to Scandinavia and the Benelux before the end of the year. In today's program, Jan Friedman of Nethold Nordic describes their planned offerings. This will include local channels, premium channels like today's FilmNet, international themed channels, near-video-on- demand, pay-per-view events, home shopping, and interactive games. During 1996 Nethold will expand its offerings to Africa and the Middle East using the new PanAmSat-4 satellite. Altogether, Nethold has booked 24 transponders on Astra 1E, Astra 1F, scheduled for launch in April, the later Astra 1G, PAS-4, and Eutelsat's Hot Bird 1 and 2. ("Dagens Nyheter" and "Tele-satellit") Nethold is also linking up with Silvio Berlusconi's Finninvest, Pearson, which is selling its stake in British Sky Broadcasting, and DirecTV, the digital satellite service operated by Hughes to North America. Together with satellite operator Measat, they plan to launch a digital service from a new satellite at 28.5 degrees East. ("What Satellite TV") ANALOG RADIO--Stockholm has a new radio station on 104.7 MHz FM. That frequency used to belong to Radio Q, an ambitious station with public affairs programming mainly for women. Unfortunately they ran out of money in July, and sold their licence to CLT, the owners of Radio Luxembourg. Since then the transmitter has been silent, and when we talked to Travis Baxter of CLT back then, they hadn't decided what to do with the new station. In the meantime, CLT has also acquired Stockholm's sole English- language commercial station, the hard rocker Bandit Radio. Test broadcasts on 104.7 started during the weekend. Yesterday CLT's Travis Baxter was here in Stockholm, closeted with the head of Bandit, Tom Macalevee, who is now apparently in charge of the new station. Unfortunately they were unavailable for comment. But to judge from what's being played in the test broadcasts, the soft pop on new station won't sound quite like Bandit's hard rock. PRIVATE RADIO--Despite opposition from the Swedish government, 14 new private radio frequencies in 7 communities here are to auctioned off to the highest bidder next month. The government has tried to stop the auction, which was authorized under legislation passed by the previous Conservative-led administration. But last year the now opposition Conservatives and Liberals used a constitutional loophole to prolong the old system by one year. Parliament can stop the auction on November 23 at the earliest, which will probably be three days too late. (TT) Meanwhile parliament is starting a study into new rules for commercial and community radio here. The working group is expected to propose an alternative to the highest bidder system for frequency allocations, as well as stricter rules on program content. (TT) KINNEVIK--Back in the satellite TV world, Sweden's Kinnevik didn't move its TV1000 and 3 TV3 stations from Astra on October 1st as previously announced. Because of the shortage of D2-MAC decoders for people who have been watching Kinnevik's stations on their new home on the Sirius satellite, use of Astra will probably continue until the end of the year. (Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV") On the other hand, both Kinnevik and FilmNet have taken counter- measures against pirate decoder cards, which were deactivated last week. TV1000 pirate cards may have looked like they came back to life again during the weekend, but that's just because the station was running uncoded as part of a promotional campaign. EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS: DISNEY--The Disney Channel began operations on Astra transponder 26 Sunday, available only to British viewers with a full subscription to Sky's movie channels. However, Walt Disney executives say they play to spread the channel across Europe as well as into the Asia/Pacific region. The Disney Channel already has 14 million subscribers in the U.S., and is also available in Taiwan. Disney's current joint venture in Germany in the Super RTL channel is expected to lay the foundation for introduction of the Disney Channel there. Dennis Hightower, president of Disney's Television and Telecommunications Division says the company's pending merger with Capital Cities/ABC, parent of the ABC television network, will provide an important platform for expansion via the ESPN sports channel. The proposed merger with ABC will allow Dinsey to use ESPN to expand its global television in ways that are not yet obvious to the public, he says. (Reuters) Capital Cities/ABC is the largest owner of the Scandinavian Broadcasting System, which operates satellite stations broadcasting to Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands. SBS recently purchased the remaining 25 percent of TV 5 Nordic, or Femman, Sweden's third largest commercial TV broadcaster. While the new connection does not mean SBS will have automatic access to Disney programming (Disney programs are already being carried by Swedish Television, commercial arch-rival TV3, and FilmNet), SBS is well-placed to become Disney's Scandinavian outlook. ("Dagens Nyheter") CHRISTIAN CHANNEL--The new Christian Channel Europe went on the air Sunday, uncoded early mornings on transponder 47. The current schedule is 05:55-07:55 hrs during the week, 05:00-07:00 hrs weekends. For the schedule from October 30, see below. (James Robinson) CCE hopes to expand into 24 hour operation, and the current offerings of Christian rock videos are to get their own channel, Christian Music Television. The line-up excludes mainstream evangelist Billy Graham, but includes controversial Morris Cerullo, whom critics have accused of dubious fund-raising methods. (Reuters) ONE TRANSPONDER-SEVEN CHANNELS--Our correspondent James Robinson has given us the new schedule for transponder 47 beginnning October 30th: 04:00-07:00 hrs Christian Channel (clear PAL) 07:00-11:00 hrs Sky Soap (Monday to Friday) (Sky Multichannels) 11:00-16:00 hrs Sky Travel (Monday to Friday) (Sky Multichannels) 16:00-19:00 hrs History Channel (Monday to Friday) (Sky Multi.) 19:00-22:00 hrs Sci-Fi Channel (Monday to Wednesday) (Sky Multi.) 22:00-01:00 hrs Sky Sports Gold (Monday to Wednesday) (Sports premium) 01:00-04:00 hrs Sci-Fi channel (daily) (Sky Multichannels) from 19:00 hrs Friday and all weekend Sky Sports 2 (Sports premium) (So, James asks, what runs 19:00-22:00 hrs Thursdays?) SKY MULTICHANNELS--European Business News and the Playboy Channel are joining Bravo on transponder 42. Beginning November 1, Playboy will be 00:00-04:00 hrs, with its own subscription system. Beginning October 30, EBN will be 06:00-12:00 hrs, as part of the Sky Multichannels package (and still uncoded and 24 hours on Hot Bird). Viacom is launching Paramount TV on transponder 46 19:00-02:00 hrs (when Nickelodeon is off the air) on November 1, also as part of Sky Multichannels. (James Robinson) Sky is squeezing all these channels together because of an alleged shortage of Astra transponders. There are in fact at least 7 empty Astra transponders (see below for some new channels), but they are all on Astra 1D, out of the range of many older satellite receivers. The multitude of new part-time channels are expected to expand into full- time digital offerings on the new Astra 1E satellite (although a new MPEG receiver will certainly cost people much more than a simple Astra 1D converter). (Curt Swinehart) Besides Britain, the Sci-Fi Channel will be made available via cable and satellite as well in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. ("Tele-satellit") The much vaunted Sega Channel, certain to arrive as part of the Multichannels package, will now not be seen until next Summer. ("What Satellite TV") ASTRA--Astra 1E is scheduled for launch with Ariane between October 13 and 16. (Curt Swinehart) CHINA NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT--China News and Entertainment is moving to Astra transponder 53 on October 30. (James Robinson) NBC SUPER CHANNEL--Despite its new November schedule, mailed recently, NBC Super Channel is beginning the planned split in its Astra and Eutelsat services on October 30. From that date the Astra service will carry the CNBC business channel 13:00-21:00 hrs UTC, while CNBC will be carried on Eutelsat II-F1 13:00-17:00 hrs. (James Robinson) The Astra service is to eventually become a 24 hour business channel, while Eutelsat will become a pure entertainment channel. This is despite Astra's concentration on entertainment, and the lack of any other business channels on that system, while Eutelsat and Hot Bird are the home of European Business News, BBC World, Euronews, and Deutsche Welle. TURNER--Turner Broadcasting is revamping its schedule on Astra transponder 37. Beginning October 22, the highly popular Cartoon Network is expanding its schedule by 2 hours until 21:00 hrs daily, with a corresponding cut-back in the B and C movies carried on TNT. (James Robinson) HOME ORDER TV--The German Home Order TV begins on Astra transponder 62 on October 16. (James Robinson) RADIO--Radio Austria International is joining Astra Digital radio on November 1. (James Robinson) Teleport London International has announced that it has signed a 10 year contract with the BBC World Service to distribute multiple digital radio services from the UK. The service, which began on October 1, involves the supply of ulink services and satellite capacity on the Intelsat 702 satellite. 9 MHz of transponder capacity is being used to relay programming to the BBC's planned Asiasat 2 uplink in Cyprus, and for broadcast to the Middle East and Africa. ("Tele-satellit") COURT TV--So successful has been Sky News' coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial every evening that British Sky Broadcasting has decided that after the trial the time slot will be taken up by further trial reporting from Court TV, the American provider of the Simpson coverage. ("What Satellite TV") AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS: WARNER-TURNER--After weeks of speculation, Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting finally announced agreement on terms to merge on September 22. The USD 7.2 million deal will create the world's largest media and entertainment company, with combined revenues exceeding USD 18 billion (compared to USD 16 billion for the new combined Capital Cities/ABC and Disney). Ted Turner becomes vice chairman of Time Warner and will retain control of TBS plus Time Warner's Home Box Office. Because of his cable interests, John Malone, head of TCI, a major TBS owner, becomes a passive stockholder in Time Warner with non-voting stock, pending a change in federal law. ("Tele-satellit") TELSTAR--On September 23 Ariane successfully launched Telstar 402R. The new satellite is expected to be fully operational at 89 degrees West from December 1. It replaces a satellite that was lost in 1994. The new satellite carries 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. Broadcasters and leading syndicators will beam programs to network affiliates through-out the United States, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. (Curt Swinehart and "Tele-satellit") AMERICAN SATELLITE SHIFTS--SBS 6 is moving from 95 degrees to 74 degrees West between October 16 and 31; Galaxy 3 may be decommissioned by now; and Galaxy 3, expected to be launched on December 14, is to be placed at 95 degrees West, becoming operational by March, 1996. (Curt Swinehart) ASIAN-PACIFIC MEDIA NEWS: AUSTRALIA--Media barons Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer reached an uneasy truce in late September when Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting formed an alliance with Packer's Nine Network to launch a 24 hour news channel for Australia. Optus Vision and Foxtel have agreed to carry the service, which will be called News Channel. Domestic and international news will be provided in part by Sky News in London and Nine Network's news resources. (Reuters and "Tele-satellit") BAHRAIN--Bahrain has become the latest country to ban reception of satellite television and radio. ("Tele-satellit") PAS-4--Four C-band channels have been active on PAS-4 at 68.5 degrees east, all in clear PAL: 3870 GHz ESPN 3910 GHz Sony 4085 GHz CNN International 4115 GHz Cartoon Network/TNT (Bertil Sundberg) RIMSAT--Here's the latest in the confused Rimsat saga: Rimsat, Ltd., of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a US company which leased the use of 2 satellites from Russia's Informcosmos: Gorizont 29 launched on 18 Nov 1993 and located at 130 degrees East, and Gorizont 30 launched on 20 May 1994 and located at 142.5 degrees East. Those 2 slots were leased to the Kingdom on Tonga and are now also known as Statsionar-R1 and Statsionar-R2. The dispute between Rimsat and several Russian agencies is fairly complex. First of all the 2 satellites were manufactured by NPO-PM, the prime contractor for the Informkosmos agency. Intersputnik is the operator of the Raduga, Gorizont, Gals and Express Russian satellites on behalf of Informcosmos. Those agencies are subsidiaries of the Russian Space Agency (RSA). The first agreement between Rimsat and Informcosmos was to build and launch the 2 satellites, and this contract was honored and paid for. The things get mixed up because Rimsat also has an agreement with Informcosmos to build and launch a new generation satellite (possibly in the Express series) and several others with Intersputnik for the lease of aged satellites. Rimsat says it stopped paying for the construction of the new satellite in May 1994 because Informcosmos was unable to give details on the construction and launch dates, and another leased satellite wasn't made available in mid-1994 by Intersputnik, even though Rimsat had paid for the satellite. After obscure negotiations, Informcosmos decided to take over the 2 Rimsat satellites (Gorizont 29 and 30). This was blocked by NPO-PM, which in turn led to the RSA revoking Informcosmos' licence under which Rimsat operated, and giving it to Intersputnik! On 21 August 1995 Rimsat's clients were ordered to make payments to Intersputnik otherwise they would lose service by midnight August 31. An American Federal Court blocked the seizure on 30 August and US Senators protested against the Russian action. Meanwhile Intersputnik has reached agreed with the Kingdom of Tonga for the use of the orbital slots... Since Intersputnik is now authorized by both the satellite owner and the slot owner it claims to be the operator of both Gorizont 29 and 30. (Jean-Phillipe Donnio, in "Tele- satellit") AFRICAN MEDIA NEWS: SOUTH AFRICA--South Africa's SABC says it hopes to have 14 pay TV channels on the air by the end of next year. Two free channels will launch this December, 8 pay channels by June, and the remainder by the end of next year. SABC says the system could eventually be expanded to as many as 21 channels. ("Tele-satellit") RADIO IN CYBERSPACE: REALAUDIO--Ziff Davis Interactive is carrying the popular weekly radio show "On Computers with Gina Smith" in the RealAudio format on the Internet. The program is being carried on a trial basis through the end of October on Sundays between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM Pacific Time at: http://www.zdnet.com There's also a live video version using CU-SeeMe. (Curt Swinehart) ABC Radio has been carrying the Simpson trial live using RealAudio. See: http://www.realaudio.com STREAMWORKS--Taiwan's International Community Radio Taiwan is providing 24 hours of English programming using the Streamworks system. Access to the server is included in the most recent version of the free Streamworks software (available at http://www.xingtech.com). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden Calling DXers/MediaScan is the world's oldest radio program about international broadcasting. Radio Sweden has presented this round-up of radio news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since 1948. It's currently broadcast on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. Radio Sweden broadcasts in English: To Europe: 17:15 hrs 1179 and 6065 kHz 18:30 1179, 6065, 7240, and 9655 kHz (also Africa/Middle East) 21:30 1179, 6065, and 7230 kHz (also Africa/Middle East) 22:30 1179 and 6065 kHz (also Africa/Middle East) 23:30 1179 kHz Asia/Pacific: 12:30 hrs 9835, 13740, and 15240 kHz 01:30 hrs 7120 kHz North America: 13:30 and 14:30 hrs on 11650 and 15240 kHz 02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 7120 kHz Latin America: 00:30 hrs on 6065 and 9850 kHz The broadcasts at 17:15 and 18:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe by satellite: Astra 1C on ZDF's transponder 33 at 10.964 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.38 MHz Tele-X via TV5 Nordic/Femman's transponder at 12.475 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.38 MHz Radio Sweden is also relayed to Europe via the World Radio Network on VH-1's transponder 22 on Astra 1C, audio 7.38 MHz, daily at 22:00 hrs CET. Radio Sweden can also be heard on WRN's North American service on Galaxy-5, on WTBS's transponder 6, audio 6.8 MHz, daily at 16:00 and 20:30 hrs Eastern time. Our new World Wide Web page is at: http://www.sr.se/rs Sound files of Mediascan are archived at: ftp.funet.fi:pub/sounds/RadioSweden/Mediascan. You can also find the programs among the offerings of Internet Talk Radio at various sites, including: ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Mirrors/RadioSweden/MediaScan Radio Sweden news (recorded at 01:30 hrs UTC daily) is available in the Real Audio format via the World Radio Network, at: http://www.wrn.org Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283 or by e-mail to: wood@rs.sr.se 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. We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition, Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general. The mailing list for the Electronic Edition is now open to general subscription. If you can send e-mail over the Internet, send a message to: subscribe@rs.sr.se You ought to get a confirmation message in reply. To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to unsubscribe@rs.sr.se To get a copy of Radio Sweden's English program schedule, write to: english@rs.sr.se And for general questions, comments, and reception reports, our e-mail address is: info@rs.sr.se ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening!