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 : TS News in English is now available in the DER SPIEGEL forum on CompuServe. GO SPIEGEL and enter library 11 for the news ! The German language daily news is also there. We hope to begin posting the daily German language news this week to Usenet. Check out de.alt.tv.misc for daily satellite news updates. TELE SATELLIT European Satellite News - English Version Number 17, Week ending 18 September 1994 By Martyn Williams CompuServe 100025,1637 Internet martyn@euro.demon.co.uk (c) TELE Satellit Magazine TV 5 Europe, NBC Super Channel sign for Hot Bird The latest European broadcaster to sign for a slot on Eutelsat's new Hot Bird satellite is French language channel TV 5 Europe. The channel will remain on Hot Bird for at least 10 years, which is the duration of the contract negotiated through France Telecom. France Telecom have also signed a contract with MTV Europe for a Hot Bird transponder. The new satellite will be launched by Ariane around the end of the year. A statement from British Telecom released this week brought news that they had been awarded the contract to uplink NBC Super Channel. The statement also said that the channel would transfer to the Hot Bird 1 satellite on January 1st 1995, pending a successful launch. The value of the 10 year contract was put at GBP 30 million. Kabel Plus gains licence New German language TV channel Kabel Plus, formally known as Kabel 2, has gained a licence. The new channel is owned by PRO 7 (24.5%), Burda (49.9%) and several other shareholders (25.6%). The licence from the Bavarian authorities allows the new station to begin 24 hour broadcasting in early 1995. Initial reports suggest that they will use the Teleclub transponder on Astra 1A with Teleclub moving to Astra 1D. Skytext bid rejected The ITC has rejected a bid by Sky Television's Skytext service to operate a data broadcasting service across the UK's Channel 4 network because it arrived 9 minutes late. Only one other bidder applied for the licence, which will operate alongside the existing teletext service, and they will now receive the licence. Skytext bid GBP 355,000 / year with Simple Active bidding GBP 78,000 / year. Changes on Astra - The Family Channel has extended their broadcasting hours. From Wednesday 14 September the service began broadcasting until 0500 UK. Chinese News and Entertainment were previously broadcasting here from 0100 - 0400 UK. - CNE are now broadcasting via Sky's Sky Sports 2 channel. The broadcasts have been extended from three hours to five hours, as they were originally when CNE broadcast via Super Channel. The broadcasts also have a new start time, one hour earlier, at 0000 UK. - We reported last week that Sky will drop all 6.50 MHz audio carriers by the end of the year. TS News learned this week that German network ARD will cease broadcasting the main programme sound during October. Stereo will continue on 7.02 / 7.20 MHz. This is all in preparation for digital radio broadcasting. - VH-1 will begin on October 1st. The channel will be part of the Sky multichannels packet and therefore scrambled in VideoCrypt. - CMT Europe will begin broadcasting via JSTV's transponder 24 next week. There is some confusion as to whether the channel will remain in Sky multichannels but at present it looks like it will be dropping encryption. Overall broadcast hours are down by three hours but CMT gains three hours in the evening. The new broadcast times are 0600 - 1900 UK. - The Learning Channel will increase to five hours a day, from three, when it begins broadcasting via the Discovery Channel on Astra. The cable only station was available in the clear on Intelsat 601 until recently when UAP sent all their programmes in MPEG 2. The channel will also get a new logo for the DTH launch. Intelsat provide live demo at IBC INTELSAT is sponsoring a live demonstration of the latest in Satellite News Gathering (SNG) operation from its exhibit at this year's International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The demonstration at the INTELSAT booth is being provided by Newsforce. Live transmissions from the convention floor, including broadcasts from attendees at the show, are being uplinked using an 8.448 Mbit/s data rate through a 1.9 meter antenna located at the convention center. The transmissions are sent up to the INTELSAT 601 satellite at 27.5 degrees W and downlinked to a BT earth station at Madley, in the United Kingdom. The signal is then converted to analog and re-uplinked to the INTELSAT K satellite located at 21 degrees W and downlinked back to a PTT Telecom Netherlands TVRO also located at the convention center. The double-hopped link is visible on monitors at the INTELSAT booth so that show participants may compare the uplink and downlink qualities. Star launches new movies channel Hong Kong based Star TV is about to launch a new movie channel for viewers in South Asia watching on Asiasat's southern beam. The new channel, called The Movie Channel, will begin on October 1st. The new service will feature all movies twice a day, once with on screen Hindi subtitles and once with on screen Arabic subtitles to cater for the two main audiences of the Star network. Apstar dispute with Japan settled China's new Apstar 1 satellite will be located at 138 degrees East, an orbital slot belonging to Tonga, thus ending a dispute over the planned parking of the satellite. During test phases the satellite had been placed just one degree away from a Japanese telecommunications satellite forcing the Japanese government to threaten reprisals against China if telephone and data links in Japan were hit by interference. In brief .... - HBB TV on Eutelsat 2F3 now offers an English language news programme. "News at Ten" is broadcast weekday evenings at around 2000 UK / 2100 CET. From our mailbag .... Every week TS News receives many email messages asking for information and advice. We are normally able to supply answers or pass on details of others who can help but this week we need your help ! A reader in the Ivory Coast writes : "I live in Abidjan and would like to purchase a decent satellite system. What do you recommend that will work here ?" If you have experience of African satellite TV and can help this reader could you please email us and we'll put you in touch with our reader. 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 164 pages, full colour with tables, charts and news with many off-screen photos of the satellite channels plus an informative technical section. Part of the magazine is written in English. 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 CompuServe Der Spiegel Forum (SPIEGEL) - Windows Write version, library 11 Fax polling Netherlands +31-45-273615 *2*9 Fax polling Germany +49-89-496287 *9 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 Anonymous FTP to : ftp.funet.fi /pub/dx/text/satellite/telesatellit SAT NET BBS network TELE Satellit News, German (Updated Daily !) : CompuServe Deutschland on line (GERLINE) - ASCII version, library 15 CompuServe Der Spiegel Forum (SPIEGEL) - ASCII version, library 11 Fax polling Germany +49-89-496287 *8 Fax polling Netherlands +31-45-273615 *2*8 de.alt.tv.misc newsgroup on Usenet 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 ! Last Friday of every month, repeated following Sunday . DFS Kopernikus 2, 28.5 degrees east. 11.625 GHz, Horizontal polarisation. 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. - BAYERNTEXT page 575 / 576 - 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