From wood@stab.sr.seWed Apr 3 10:26:01 1996 Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 09:08:20 +0100 From: George Wood To: wood@rs.sr.se Subject: MediaScan/Sweden Calling DXers 2245 Part II This edition seems to be too large for my mail program to handle. Here's the rest. Sorry about the hassle: ASIASAT--Hong Kong's Asiasat consortium, which is partly owned by the Chinese government, has abandoned China's troubled Long March launcher in favour of a Russian system for the 1997 launch of Asiasat 3. Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co said on March 23 its third orbiter would be sent into space by Russia's Proton launcher from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan sometime in 1997, Xinhua news agency reported from Hong Kong. Asiasat 3 will be the Hong Kong company's first orbiter not launched by a Chinese Long March rocket. Asiasat is owned in equal parts by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, Britain's Cable & Wireless Plc and Beijing's state-owned flagship multinational International Trust and Investment, or CITIC. Xinhua gave no explanation for Asiasat's decision to abandon state-run launch contractor Great Wall, whose launches of Asiasat 1 in 1990 and Asiasat 2 in November 1995 rank among China's crowning space successes. Space industry sources have said several failures by China's launcher - - including a spectacular January 1995 explosion of the rocket carrying Hong Kong's Apstar 2 -- had sent insurance premiums for Chinese launches up sharply. Asiasat struggled for months before lining up insurance for Asiasat 2, China's first commercial launch after the Apstar 2 disaster, which killed a family of six in a rain of fiery debris near the Xichang launch centre in Sichuan province. Several major 1996 and 1997 launches are booked to use the 3B, China's biggest, including two Intelsats and an Apstar 2R to replace the destroyed Apstar 2. Asiasat 3 will provide Asia-wide C-band coverage similar to that of Asiasat 2 with the addition of three high-power ku-band beams, Asiasat said. It is designed for digital applications covering television distribution and business networks. (Reuters) China's troubled space programme suffered another blow on March 26 when Intelsat said it had cancelled two satellite launches following the fiery crash last month of a Chinese rocket carrying an Intelsat orbiter. The cancellations follow two others earlier this month. Intelsat, a consortium backed by 136 governments, said it scrapped the contracts because it doubted that China's Great Wall Industry Corp could launch two communications satellites next year as scheduled. A probe of last month's launch disaster -- now thought to have been even more deadly than first reported by China's state-run media -- has frozen China's launch schedule. "We want to make sure these satellites are launched in a timely fashion. We're not convinced the Chinese can meet our schedule," said an Intelsat spokesman. The consortium is in talks with Lockheed Martin Corp of the United States about launching the two satellites, which are intended to offer voice, video and data transmission. (Reuters) MURDOCH--Rupert Murdoch's STAR TV announced on March 25 a new Chinese TV service which it hopes to develop into a pay TV network in China, ending the latest round of speculation about its intentions in the vast market. STAR, owned by Murdoch's News Corp, unveiled Phoenix Television, a three-channel satellite-delivered service in the Chinese language of Mandarin that will at first be free to subscribers. The first of its three channels was to start on March 31. "The idea is eventually to launch subscription television services but that is some way down the track...not in the short term," said a spokeswoman for STAR. "At the beginning these are going to be very much advertising-supported channels," she said. Murdoch has had a hard time cracking mainland China. He managed to anger officials in the world's biggest market by saying in 1993 that satellite television and telecommunications posed an "unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere", industry analysts said. STAR's current programming in the Mandarin Chinese language is seen free by around 30 million cable subscribers in China. It is also picked up by viewers in Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia. Speculation leading up to Monday's announcement had placed Murdoch in breakthrough joint venture talks with Chinese establishment bodies such as the People's Liberation Army and China Central Television (CCTV). Instead, STAR said on Monday it would hold 45 percent of Phoenix, and two privately held Hong Kong companies the rest. "There is no military involved," the spokeswoman said. Later this month Phoenix will launch the first of its channels, an entertainment channel replacing STAR's existing Chinese channel. Later this year Phoenix will also offer STAR Sports, a joint venture between STAR and Liberty Media/Telecommunications International (TCI) of the United States, and a drama and movie channel. A spokeswoman for STAR would not disclose financial details, though media reports have put its value at US$60 million. Phoenix will be delivered throughout Asia via the AsiaSat 1 and AsiaSat 2 satellites, which currently deliver STAR. STAR's partners in Phoenix are Today's Asia Ltd with 45 percent and another privately held concern China Wise International Ltd 10 percent. Today's Asia was founded by businessman Chan Wing Kee, managing director of Hong Kong-listed Yangtzekiang Garment Manufacturing Company, and Singaporean Liu Chang Le. China Wise is a Hong Kong company representing national and provincial television stations in China as a sales and advertising agent. Through its venture partners STAR said it had entered programme and supply agreements with media organisations in China, including China International Television Corp and China Television Programmes Agency. STAR is also holding talks with CCTV, but the spokeswoman said CCTV was not a signatory to the latest deal. Gary Davey, chief executive of STAR TV, said in a statement: "We have always hoped that when the time was right STAR would play a leading role in the development of Chinese-language commercial television services. "Today, with Today's Asia and China Wise International Ltd as our allies, we are in no doubt the time has come." (Reuters) INDONESIA--News Corp.'s Star TV and Indonesia's sole satellite- television licensee, Indovision, formally announced that they are consolidating marketing, distribution and technical operations -- a move that has other satellite broadcasters grumbling about a monopoly. Star, or Satellite Television Asian Region Ltd., as it's formally known, and Indovision will control not only how Star programming gets into homes, but how other programs get there as well -- if, that is, other satellite broadcasters participate in the Star-Indovision service. But Star may find itself alone on Indovision, according to an executive from a rival broadcaster. HBO Asia, Discovery Communications Inc., Turner Broadcasting System Inc., and sports network ESPN, which is 80%- owned by Walt Disney Co.'s Capital Cities/ABC Inc. unit, are all searching for ways around Star's control of Indonesian satellite television. The executive also said that many broadcasters could use another satellite, PanAmSat 2, to reach Indonesia. Star has been pushing hard for months to control the standard for how Indonesians will receive subscription satellite television as a new digital satellite, Palapa C1, becomes operational later this year. The satellite replaces the Palapa B2P analog satellite that now carries Star programming; the Discovery Channel; Turner's TNT, Cartoon Network and CNN International; ESPN; and HBO Asia. The other broadcasters on Palapa are less than amused by Star's maneuvers, especially since Star is said to want to charge an annual fee to be included in the service. "The unanswered question is whether Star will be the gatekeeper" for satellite television in Indonesia, said William Hooks, managing director of HBO Asia, a Singapore-based joint venture of Time Warner Inc.'s Time Warner Entertainment Inc., Paramount Films of Southeast Asia Inc., Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Entertainment and Seagram Co.'s MCA/Universal. "Will it be like BSkyB [ News Corp.'s satellite operation in Britain], which is essentially a monopoly?" ("Wall Street Journal") INDIA--PanAmSat Corporation announced on March 19 that a major international broadcasting partnership will distribute a new Hindi- language television channel to south Asia over the PAS-4 Indian Ocean Region satellite. The channel, which will commence transmissions in the spring of 1996, will be offered by the partnership of Carlton Communications Plc of London, TVB of Hong Kong, the Hindustan Times of Delhi, India and Schroder Capital Partners of Hong Kong. The general entertainment channel will include original India-produced Hindi programming. It will be transmitted from Hong Kong over the PAS- 4 C-band South Asia/Middle East beam, which provides coverage to more than 100 million households throughout south Asia. The broadcast partnership initially intends to focus the TV service on the Indian subcontinent, where the channel will be distributed via PAS-4 to cable systems serving more than 15 million households. (via Curt Swinehart) India's Srishti VideoCorp and Singapore Telecom signed an agreement on Friday for promoting digital compression technology in Asia, a company statement said. "We look forward to working with Srishti VideoCorp in providing infrastructural services to make digital technology an indivisible part of satellite broadcasting in this part of the world," said Ng Seng Sum, a senior Singapore Telecom official. "For the first time viewers will be able to access digital quality video on their television sets," the company said.' Sristhi Videocorp broadcasts a youth channel through Intelsat channel and has joined hands with other television broadcasters to provide other channels on the same satellite to the Indian market. (Reuters) HONG KONG--Asia Broadcasting and Communications Network PCL announced Tuesday that it has signed contracts totaling U.S. dlrs 480 million for two satellites that would provide 500 pay television channels in Asia. ABCN, a subsidiary of Thailand's M. Group, will have Space Systems/Loral of the United States build two L-Star satellites, while Arianespace of France will supply rockets to put the satellites into an orbital slot granted to the Laotian government. The L-Star 1 satellite is scheduled for a December 1997 launch, with the L-Star 2 satellite to go up by the end of 1998, ABCN Chairman Sondhi Limthongkul told members of the satellite television industry in Hong Kong. "We plan to build a new multimedia information superhighway for Asia in the sky," Limthongkul said. The satellites will be procured and launched by ABCN, which consists of the M. Group, including International Engineering PCL, United Communications PCL and CMIC Finance and Securities PCL, all of Thailand. After launch, the satellite is to be handed over to Lao-Star Co. Ltd., a company held 80 percent by ABCN and 20 percent by the government of Laos. ABCN also awarded a contract to Telesat Canada to monitor and test the L-Star program as technical advisers. ABCN President Suradet Mukyangkoon said the company is looking for the two satellites to have between 3 million and 5 million subscribers within three years of their launch. (AP) RADIO--Karaoke software and equipment maker Daiichikosho Corp said on March 29 it will start a 100-channel music radio station in September through PerfecTV Corp's digital satellite broadcasting service. "We hope to expand our business into the home market, and aim for 200,000 household subscribers over the next three years," said a spokesman for Daiichikosho, the biggest business-use karaoke software maker in Japan. The Posts Ministry on Friday gave PerfecTV permission to provide digital satellite broadcasting services, the first such approval for a Japanese firm. PerfecTV, owned by Itochu Corp <8001.T>, Mitsui & Co Ltd <8031.T>, Sumitomo Corp <8053.T> and Nissho Iwai Corp <8063.T>, will start a test-run in April and launch a 54-channel pay service in September. Subscribers will need an antenna and a receiver costing about 70,000 yen for both radio and TV services, and will have to pay a monthly subscription to view the satellite programmes. Daiichikosho said in a statment that it planned capital investment of 2.3 billion yen for the new satellite broadcasting business in the year starting April 1. (Reuters) QUESTIONS: In answer to my question last time, Zacharias Llangas tells us that "extended C-band" is the span between 3.4 and 3.7 GHz. "This is supposed to provide extended bandwidth for transmissions for more TV channels or more communcations services per satellite." Frank Ostergren of "Aftonbladet" is trying to find out whenthe first sports commentary was broadcast on radio, and which Olympics was first on radio. He says he's sure the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932 was broadcast in the United States. But what about Amsterdam 1928? Or Paris 1924 ("Chariots of Fire"!)? The first Swedish sports commentary on radio was a boxing match from "Circus" in Stockholm in 1926. Any help would be much appreciated. Our e-mail address is: wood@rs.sr.se CYBERSPACE: EUTELSAT-- http://www.eutelsat.org LEARN MORE ABOUT SWEDEN'S P6 (NOW RADIO RIX)-- http://www.ncn.net/smarts/sweden.html (Tony Harding) ASIAPACIFIC SPACE REPORT-- http://www.asiaonline.net/spacerep/ (Curt Swinehart) POPULAR COMMUNICATIONS-- http://home.aol.com/popcomm (Jerry Weichbrodt) HISTORY OF MARCONI'S TRANSMITTING STATIONS-- http://eagle.uccb.ns.ca/steve/marconi/marconi.html (Steve Manley via Curt Swinehart) WIRED AND CBS--UP TO THE MINUTE, CBS News' overnight broadcast, and Wired magazine will collaborate on a weekly feature to debut on Wednesday, March 20 broadcast. "Wired on UTTM," to be broadcast every Wednesday morning at 3:40 AM and 5:40 AM , ET will include reports from Wired editors Peter Leyden, Todd Lappin, Kristin Spence and Mark Frauenfelder. "Wired on UTTM" will also be available on the Internet (http://uttm.com and http://www.wired.com). CBS News and UP TO THE MINUTE, with the cooperation of KPIX, the CBS Owned station in San Francisco, will maintain a broadcast location at the San Francisco studio for the new feature. UP TO THE MINUTE pioneered television news coverage of the Internet and new technology with the debut of "Digital Drive: Excursions in Cyberspace" approximately two years ago. UP TO THE MINUTE was also the first American network news program to establish a site on the World Wide Web. The UTTM web site logs an average of 2,000 users per day and is among the first to begin utilizing VDOlive, a program that allows the user to view news reports with continuous streaming video and audio. Beyond a library of data, the UP TO THE MINUTE home page offers a compendium of information on program reports and its anchors, Nanette Hansen and Rick Jackson. The UTTM site is linked to the CBS News Campaign '96 site (http://www.cbsnewscom/campaign96). (via Curt Swinehart) FROM RADIO RIDER--Don Imus' controversial speech at the TV and Radio Correspondents' dinner is online! Listen to Imus' remarks and Clinton and Gingrich's follow-ups via RealAudio from C-Span at: http://www.c-span.org/radiotv.htm. Britain's national rock AM station Virgin Radio is now on the Net full time at: http://www.virginradio.co.uk TIME Highway Radio, Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, MALAYSIA 24 Hours Personality-Driven Radio: http://thr.time.com.my BRS Radio Consultants web site links over 1100 radio stations on the Web. The BRS Radio Directory lists radio link's by; call letters, format, state/market, and Non-commercial stations. Each link includes the station's call letters, frequency, power, city of lic./market, and format. BRS Radio Directory: http://www.brsradio.com/stations/ BRS Home Page: http://www.brsradio.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. Our World Wide Web page is at: http://www.sr.se/rs A multimedia version of this bulletin can be found at: http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/scdx.htm Sound recordings of interviews from previous programs can be found at: http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/media2.htm Sound files of Mediascan are archived at: ftp.funet.fi:pub/sounds/RadioSweden/Mediascan. 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