From satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk Mon Nov 8 01:55:45 1993 Received: from post.demon.co.uk by cs.tut.fi with SMTP id AA27290 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 01:55:24 +0200 Received: from orbital.demon.co.uk by post.demon.co.uk id aa10945; 7 Nov 93 21:55 GMT Received: from (server@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by orbital.demon.co.uk (8.6.4/8.6) with SMTP id VAA18003; Sun, 7 Nov 1993 21:39:48 GMT Received: from post.demon.co.uk (post.demon.co.uk [158.152.1.72]) by orbital.demon.co.uk (8.6.4/8.6) with SMTP id VAA17813 for ; Sun, 7 Nov 1993 21:32:48 GMT Received: from post.demon.co.uk via puntmail for satnews@orbital.demon.co.uk; Sun Nov 7 20:01:20 GMT 1993 Received: from demon.demon.co.uk by post.demon.co.uk id aa29882; 7 Nov 93 19:52 GMT Received: from eros.britain.eu.net by demon.demon.co.uk id ac12278; 7 Nov 93 19:52 GMT Received: from compulink.co.uk by eros.britain.eu.net with UUCP id ; Sun, 7 Nov 1993 19:51:59 +0000 Received: from smtpsrvr by cix.compulink.co.uk id aa16250; 7 Nov 93 19:23 GMT Received: by gonzales.compulink.co.uk. (5.65/25-eef) id AA20967; Sun, 7 Nov 93 19:22:20 GMT Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 19:22 GMT0 From: Darren Ingram Subject: Satnews 119-3 To: satnews@orbital.demon.co.uk Cc: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk Reply-To: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk Message-Id: Sender: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk X-Mailing-List: Satnews Status: RO Matthew Aden has been appointed director of sales for Jerrold/General Instrument (UK). Formerly sales manager for GI's central region in Dallas, USA, Aden will report to Tony White, managing director (UK) to help expand the company's sales in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Intelsat has introduced a new corporate logo which is designed to reflect "..the company's status as a dynamic, customer-orientated provider of satellite communications on a global basis." and, according to CEO Irving Goldstein: "Our new logo effectively illustrates that Intelsat is changing the way it operates, and it represents that change to our customers and others in the telecomunications industry." BellSouth has purchased a 22.5 percent stake in Prime Management, the operator of the Prime Cable television network in Texas, USA for US$250 million, marking its first inroads into US cable television systems. One of the first ventures for the company with the investment will be into a US$450 million CTV network in Las Vegas. Viacom, CUC International and AT&T are trialing a new home shopping interactive cable television service in California next year. Time Warner has also signed an agreement with CUC to create an interactive home shopping network in Orlando, Florida, which will operate on its commercial Full Service Network interactive system. Richard Wolfe has been appointed Chief Executive of Travel 1, the new cable and satellite television channel set to be launched early next year in Europe. Wolfe was formerly the chief executive of The Children's Channel. Poland's National Broadcasting Council has issued the first licences for radio and television broadcasting to a private broadcasting company. A ten year licence has been granted to Polsat, a station which has been broadcasting from Holland for 10 hours a day. Polsat now plans to being the service back to Poland and increase its involvement with the community. Optibase has released version 2.01 of its MPEGLab+ MPEG encoding system for the PC, enabling MPEG encoding at a speed of 25 frames per second at a comparable PAL resolution of 352x388 pixels (a standard PC monitor displays 640x480 pixels. The product enables encoding and compression of digital video and audio on a PC to be made in real time. The first independent television channel in Russia to produce its own news bulletins started on 10 October. The channel, staffed by a group of reporters who left the government TV company Ostankino, have received backing from a number of private businesses and banks who are keen to see a more 'free range' of programming. Medialink in the UK, the world's largest satellite video news release distribution company, has signed an agreement with the Spanish news agency EFE for providing distribution feeds in Spain. Agreements are also being finalised with companies in Germany, France, Belgium, Israel and Switzerland. Satellite Media Services, the London-based distribution service for audio and data to British radio stations, has introduced a new ratecard for customers. A sample price of GBP595 sees the distribution of a new music track to all the commercial radio stations in the UK and Western Europe. Satnews hopes to review the SMS system in the coming months. According to the European Space Agency the Meteosat 6 satellite has arrived at the Guiana Space Centre for a launch on an Ariane rocket launcher in mid- November. The new satellite will be used to provide up-to-the-minute weather information from around the world to provide accurate forecasting data. RTP Intemacional, the Portuguese international television channel has moved to Widebeam capacity on Eutelsat II-F2 at 10 degrees Eastfrom Eutelsat II-F3. The channel now transmits from 17.00-12.00 GMT midweek,and from 15.00 23.30 weekends. The switch means that RTP Intemacional joins the two Italian channels Rai Uno and Rai Due and the Spanish channel TVE Intemacional at one orbital position. All four channels are members of the Bruges Group of public satellite broadcasters in Europe. Telepace, the Vatican channel, has moved to Widebeam capacity on Eutelsat II-F3 from Eutelsat II-F2. The channel generally transmits from 16.30-17.00 GMT. Plus Communications, owners of Kanal 6 and Kanal Market is launching a new Turkish-language entertainment channel on Eutelsat II-F4. The channel, called Kanal D, will transmit in the clear 24 hours a day. Reuters took out a three year lease on Widebeam transponder 49 on Eutelsat II-F4 from 1 October for digital business networks. Reuters TV already has a lease on Superbeam transponder 40 on Eutelsat II-Fl to link its International Broadcast Centres in London and Moscow. Egyptian national broadcaster the ERTU began test transmissions on 9 October of Nile TV on Eutelsat II-F3. The channel will be officially launched early next year and will consist of two hours a day of English language and one hour of French-language programming about Egypt. ERTU already transmits the Arabic-language Egyptian Satellite Channel on Eutelsat II-F3. A new compact steel-enclosed video to fibre optic transmitter which is powered from the host equipment or by mains power cubes -- known as the FOX video transmitter and receiver -- provides a direct interface between a video signal and fibre-optic cable. The Cypriot radio station RIK 1 has launched on the RIK television transponder on Eutelsat II-F4. Meanwhile, on Eutelsat II-F3, Turkish language radio station Number One FM has launched in the transponder used by HBB. Asia Satellite Telecomms Co. and Shinawatra Satellite Co. have settled a long-running and bitter dispute over orbital slots, whereby Shinawatra will abandon its claim to the 101 degrees east slot so that AsiaSat 2 can be launched into a 100.5 degrees east position, and in turn AsiaSat will relinquish its 77.5 degrees east option so that Shinwatra can collocate its Thaicom 1 and Thaicom 2 satellites at 78.5 degrees east. A model of a future Inmarsat-P hand-held satellite phone -- smaller than any of today's cellular phones but usable anywhere on Earth -- was presented to Inmarsat director-general Olof Lundberg by Kurt Hellstrom, president of Ericsson Radio Systems to show the type of device the company was working on producing. Bangladesh has joined Inmarsat, the international mobile satellite organisation, through the signatory the Bangladesh Telephone & Telegraph Board. Brunei has also joined and Senegal is expected to have become a member by 22 October, taking the membership up to 72 countries. Figures released by the British Audience Research Bureau (BARB) show that in August around 70,000 Astra satellite systems were sold, taking the UK DTH market to around 2.5 million homes. CORRECTION: In Satnews 116 we erroneously said that Hughes had launched a US military satellite called HFG Follow-On F-2. The satellite is actually called UHF Follow-On F-2. We apologise for the error. At the time of going to press, it is undecided whether Associated Newspapers or Mirror Group Newspapers is to be awarded a contract to provide a new cable television service in London, UK. Members of the six-company Interconnect Group are still unsure over who should be awarded the contract for the London-only channel. A decision was to have been made at the European Cable Communications conference in London, but this did not take place. Deutsche Aerospace, the defence and satellite offshoot of Daimler-Benz in Germany, is closing six sites and shedding thousands of jobs in a last-ditch attempt to return to profitability. Cutbacks in the worldwide defence marketplace were cited as prime drivers for the restructuring. Reports say that various British Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations are to appear on the audio subcarriers of Bravo and Discovery aboard Astra 1B in the near future. C-Cube Microsystems has launched a digital compression video chip which can compress and decompress video on demand in real time. The new VideoRISC chip is being marketed as an ideal component for use in multichannel video compression systems, such as the planned 500-channel cable television services being planned for the USA. France's largest television station, TF1, has seen its half-year profits fall 14 percent to US$50.2 million compared to the previous year. TF1, which has a 40.8 percent share of the French TV audience, managed to increase its share of advertising to 54.4 percent. Around the world Turner channels -- In Europe TNT and The Cartoon Network -- will feature 10 hours of cartoon programming with The Great International Toon-In on 26 November. At the same time there will be a worldwide premiere of Moxy, a new generation of cartoon character that relies on computers, graphics and the capturing of human motions for its programming. Telecasts will be made around the world by satellite on this day. Three prisoners in an Iowa Prison have lost their case heard in the US Supreme Court after they claimed that the lack of round-the-clock cable television violated their right of 'equal protection' under the US Constitution. Inmates get 24-hour cable TV in their cells at the Iowa State Penitentiary, but the complaints arose because prisoners in the hospital can tune in only between 0600-2200 daily. The Children's Channel, the UK's first television channel for children, has signed a major deal with six cable network operators which will see its channel carried over cable networks for the next ten years. The channel will be relayed on up to 5.5 million households (once build is complete) in the UK and Ireland. The participating networks are Encom, Comcast, General Cable, Jones, Telewest and Videotron. Russia has been formally invited to hold talks with The US, Canada and members of the European Space Agency with a view to participating in the Permanently Manned Civil Space Station program as a recognition of Russia's achievements and endeavours in space to date. Hero Teleport and Hero Communications in Miami, USA recently provided facilities for a last-minute transatlantic interview from Madrid, Spain for TV Cinco, who was interviewing Miami's vice mayor about recent crimes in Miami against tourists. An Intelsat-K satellite was used for the transatlantic link GEMS, the Spanish language cable television programming channel dedicated for women, is now being carried on Puerto Rican cable TV networks operated by Century Cable and Community Cablevision, says Gary McBride, president of GEMS Television. IDB Communications Group Inc. has signed a letter of agreement with Motor-Columbus AG, the parent company of TC USA, to take over an additional 60 percent of the capital stock of TC WorldCom AG (WorldCom Europe) for US$10 million, expanding its private line and long-distance telecomms business operations. Echosphere has opened a new sales office in London, UK to provide greater support to UK dealers and customers alike. The office will be headed by Robert Lakos, who will also be responsible for handling Echosphere's African business affairs. Wire TV, a cable television channel in the UK delivered by satellite has introduced a teletext service to provide viewer support and information. Comsat Corp. has reported a third-quarter profit of US$17.4 million compared to a loss of US$6.4 million in the same period last year. Graff Pay-Per-View Inc. has signed a letter of intent to acquire PSP Holding Inc., designed of proprietary hotel room PPV software, for an undisclosed fee, to assist its Guest Cinema Inc. subsidiary increase its share in the hotel movie network business. RTVE, the Spanish state-owned broadcasting company, is to sack 2,700 jobs as part of a massive restructuring programme designed to wipe a US$1.1 billion debt incurred by the station. The emergence of private television stations in Spain has led to the decline in the fortunes of RTVE. GPT in the UK has supplied an advanced C-Mux Plus SDH system to cable networks operated by Southwestern Bell in the UK. A field trial of GPT CableCom's EMOS network management system is also being trialed on Southwestern Bell cable networks. Meanwhile Nynex CableComms has installed its first GPT System-X digital public exchange and will cut its customers onto the exchange shortly. Four other exchanges are being installed within Nynex's network. Scientific Atlanta has formed a new Broadband Communications Group to expand business in the worldwide digital video compression and direct-to- home satellite markets, and will be principally responsible for the marketing of MPEG based products, business television, B-MAC encryption and other satellite transmission products. IT Southern in the UK has been awarded a ten-year contract to supply a complete facilities management billing service for Metro Cable Television, a six area cable television network operator. IT Southern will handle billing for over 130,000 subscribers through its Cablemaster accounting system. ICL UK announced at the European Cable Communications conference that it is actively marketing its Interconnect2000 cable telephony intercarrier administrative system to enable cable telephony network traffic switching for optimal cost routing. TV Ashai in Japan is being investigated by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications after it broke with tradition of supporting the ruling party in the July general elections. It has been charged, instead, with giving intentional bias in its coverage to help the reformist parties. If found guilty, the channel could be suspended from broadcasting for three months. STOP PRESS: Arianespace has launched an Intelsat VII satellite into orbit (Intelsat 701) aboard Arianespace flight 60. The satellite will be used to provide services in the Asia-Pacific region. Arianespace flight 61 has been scheduled for 19 November. DIARY 27-29 October Home Satellite TV Asia Phuket, Thailand Tel: +1 305 767 4687 29-31 October Broadcast India 93 Bombay, India Tel: +91 22 215 1396 2-4 November Satellite Communications (3rd Euro Conf.) Manchester, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 2-4 November CATV and satellite conference & equipment exhibition Budapest, Hungary Tel: +36 1 173 6259 3 November Telecommunications in Euroipe London, UK Tel: +44 71 637 4383 3-5 November 3rd CEPT Radio Conference Madrid, Spain Tel: +45 4492 4492 3 November Telecommunications in Europe London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 637 4383 4 November Broadcast Audio equipment exhibition Birmingham, UK Tel: +44 (0) 941 38575 4 November The Essential Workshop on PR in the Broadcast Media London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 490 8111 8 November Telecom Trends (cable telephony) Opportunities in Europe New York, USA Tel: +1 303 837 0900 10-11 November Adam Smith Institute Conference/Exhibition for Satellite Communications for Business Users Amsterdam, Holland Tel: +44 (0) 71 490 3774 10 November Digital terrestrial television London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 10 November Digital TV by satellite London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 15 November The future of Ka band for satellite communications London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 16-18 November Broadcast technology equipment exhibition Tokyo, Japan Tel: +81 3 284 0165 23 November Spectrally efficient techniques for satellite communications London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 25-28 November Communications & Broadcast 93 Istanbul, Turkey Tel:+44 71 486 1951 26 November Telecommunications Contracts London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 637 4383 29-30 November A Charter for Public Broadcasting (EBU) Brussels, Belgium Tel: +41 22 717 2111 30 November-1 December Sircom '93 Paris, France Tel: +33 1 48 20 63 84 1 December The incredible shrinking satellite London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 1-2 December European Science Media Conference Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 767 6111 7-8 December 10th European Satellite Communications Conference London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 81 742 2828 8 December Cable Services and interactive data services London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 356 3513 (Phil Tarr) 13-14 December Exploting the future potential of cable telephony London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 412 0141 1994 16-20 January 16th Annual Pacific Telecommunications Conference Honolulu, Hawaii Tel: +1 808 941 3789 16-20 January Saudicom '94 Riyadhi, Saudi Arabia Tel: +44 (0) 71 486 1951 25 January Vertical Blanking Interval London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 26-27 January Development of telecommunications in the CIS, the Baltics and the Central Asian Republics Vienna, Austria Tel: +44 (0) 71 490 3774 8-10 February Integrated Communications 94 London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 733 394304 15-17 February Smart Card 94 London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 733 394304 15 February S80T-a microsatellite for low cost mobile communications London, UK Tel: +44 (0) 71 240 1871 11-13 April Cable & Satellite 94 Olympia, London Tel: +44 (0) 21 705 6707 25-29 April 1994 Africa Telecom Cairo, Egypt Tel: +41 22 730 5811 15-21 May 1994 Input '94 Montreak, Canada Tel: +1 514 597 4385 20-25 September Live '94 Earls Court, London Tel: +44 (0) 71 782 6000 30 November-2 December Cable & Satellite Asia Hong Kong Tel: +44 (0) 21 705 6707 30 November-2 December MIP Asia Screening & Conference Hong Kong Tel: +44 (0) 21 705 6707 1995 21-24 January Middle East Broadcast 95 Bahrain, UAE Tel: +44 (0) 71 486 1951 25 August-3 September International Funkaustellung '95 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 3038 0 Companies are requested to fax information about forthcoming events to "Diary" on +44 203 717 418 or through mail in good time for publication. There is no charge for this facility. Entries used as space permits. .END