Monster Media 1996 #15

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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2245--April 2, 1996 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2245 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NORDIC MEDIA NEWS: SWEDEN--Yesterday Lisa Soederberg took over as head of Sweden's public service radio broadcaster, the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, which includes Radio Sweden, four national channels, and 25 local radio stations. Lisa comes to her job from the News Department, where she's spent most of her career, most recently as News Director. In fact her predecessor as head of Swedish Radio was also News Director. Lisa Soederberg is with me in the studio today. For those of you who've missed today's program, you can hear download it in au-format from our Web pages (www.sr.se/rs) or access it in RealAudio from the World Radio Network (www.wrn.org). RADIO SWEDEN--We've also just opened a new attraction on our Web pages called Virtual Sweden, where you can experience this country in images, and access information about Sweden as well. KINNEVIK RADIO--There's been a shake-up among Stockholm's private radio stations. When commercial radio licences were first auctioned off to the highest bidders here a couple of years ago, two of the new Stockholm stations tried to do more than just play pop music. Both went broke. Radio Q concentrated on programming for women, and recently had to sell out to Luxembourg's CLT. Storstadsradion (Big City Radio) on 106.3 MHz concentrated on sports. Ultimately they sold out to the Kinnevik media empire. Kinnevik already had a Stockholm stations (now they have 3), so they changed the format on 106 to classical music, and renamed the station Classic Radio. Unfortunately for them, they had to compete with Classic FM, owned by a British company, which did better. A few days ago Classic Radio went off the air, and has been replaced with a new rock format, and a new name, Power 106. (The Stockholm newspapers are still running the Classic Radio schedules.) KINNEVIK TV--Meanwhile, Kinnevik is having trouble on the TV front. Last weekend they had to abandon plans to launch their new Sports Channel (Sportkanalen) 7 days a week, because of competition from rival FilmNet's SuperSport. Instead, the Sports Channel has relaced Kinnevik's existing women's channel TV 6 on weekends. But this has led the country's largest cable operator, owned by Swedish Telecom, to cancel its contract with TV 6, on the grounds that the station has violated the agreement by changing its format. The two sides are negotiating, before the cancellation goes into effect on April 25. ("Svenska Dagbladet") MORE SPORTS--Both new channels, SuperSport and the Sports Channel have been accused of violated UEFA rules by broadcasting Swedish soccer matches, without signing a contract with the Swedish Football Association. ("Svenska Dagbladet") SuperSport seems to have become just about the only station in Europe broadcasting American baseball. Games are at 17:00 hrs CET Tuesdays, apparently rerun at 16:00 hrs CET on Thursdays. NBC Super Channel is to start carrying live games on Friday nights (Saturday mornings really) at 1:00 AM CET. DIGITAL TELEVISION--The Swedish government has called on the National Board for Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK) to investigate when decoders for terrestrial digital television will be available to consumers. This follows the agreement between Sweden's minority Social Democrat government and the opposition Liberal and Center Parties to introduce digital terrestrial TV here in 1998. Digital satellite receivers already exist in North America for the DirecTV system, and are about to be introduced in Europe, by Nethold and others. The government wants NUTEK's report by this Fall so that parliament can make its decision on the timetable to the introduction of digital TV. At the same time, the govenrment is calling on the telecommunications authorities to allocate the frequencies for digital terrestrial TV. Initially there will be four allocations, which will provide 16 channels, including the current terrestrial broadcasters, the public service SVT 1 and SVT 2, and the public service TV 4. (TT) THE NORDIC INTELSAT--Intelsat 707 was launched on March 14 on an Ariane rocket. Originally intended to serve the Nordic region from 1 degree West, this was changed after the failure of a Chinese rocket to launch the Atlantic relay satellite Intelsat 708. Intelsat decided to deploy the 707 satellite tp 50 degrees West in place of Intelsat 708. But the March (14-19) meeting of Intelsat's Board of Governors, after reviewing the deployment plan for the entire Intelsat fleet in the Atlantic region, reversed the decision. Intelsat 707 will enter into service at 1 degree West in mid-April. It carries 40 Ku and C-band transponders. Curt Swinehart writes: "Speculation is that this change of heart on the part of Intelsat has everything to with the recent 'breach of contract' charge made by Comsat vs Panamsat, News Corp, and Televisa." As we reported before, Rupert Murdoch and his partners cancelled their contract with Intelsat (and Comsat) for their DTH service to Latin America, after the 708 crash, despite Intelsat's decision to move 707 to the same slot. Comsat has charged that partner Televisa, which is a major owner of Panamsat, was instrumental in influencing the other partners to decide to switch to Pamamsat. EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS: REGAL SHOP--Regal Shop has ceased transmissions on Astra transponder 41 between 00:00 and 09:00 hrs. (James Robinson) RACING CHANNEL - The Racing Channel, transmitting on Astra 1D channel 60, will from 1 May be on air until 18:00 hrs UTC instead of 1500 hrs. >From then on, the channel will transmit as follows: >From 1 November from 11:00-17:00 >From 1 May 1997 from 10:00-16:00 (James Robinson) SKY--Sky Movies Gold is reportedly reducing its transmission hours, although in the movie listings for May on SkyText, a film is listed for Sky Movies Gold at 15:00 UTC on 3 May. If this is the case, perhaps Movies Gold is moving, because the Racing Channel is definately staying on Channel 60. If Sky Movies Gold does move, it is likely to go to Channel 53 (10.773 GHz H). This is because SBS6 is leaving this transponder on 1 May. (James Robinson) CNBC - CNBC is now officially part of Sky Multi-Channels, as from 25 March. This is despite being unscrabled. It is not clear however, whether they intend to scramble the service in the future. Sky News is also a Multichannel, but this is not going to be scrambled. Therefore, it does not mean necessarily that CNBC is to do this either, but they do have an option to do so if they wish. (James Robinson) RADIO--NDR's five German domestic services are due to start transmissions in ADR (Astra Digital Radio) this month. They will use 6.12-6.84 MHz on Transponder 25, meaning that very soon, N3 TV will drop its 6.50 subcarrier. The precise date has not yet been announced. Another station due to start ADR transmissions is WDR 3. This will eventually use the 6.48 subcarrier of Astra Transponder 39 (WDR 3 TV). The date for the service has not yet been announced. Also announced last weekend for ADR launch is the German-language Swiss domestic radio service Radio DRS. This will utilise subcarriers on Transponder 55 of Astra 1D, used by Teleclub, the Swiss pay movie channel. The precise frequencies are yet to be announced. (James Robinson) DMX--During the Olympics, DMX, the new 24-hour a day pay music service on Astra, sueing ADR will launch an Olympic music channel. This will feature music to be transmitted in the Olympic Village during the games. The frequency has yet to be announced. The full list of DMX services (sent by James Robinson) is as follows: (The numbers alongside each channel are "transponder number/subcarrier". Where no number is shown the channel is not yet available). 1 Symphonic 12/7.74 61 Dutch Hits 35/7.92 2 Chamber 12/7.92 62 Dutch Easy Listening 3 Opera 12/8.10 63 Flemish Hits 8/8.46 4 Light Classical 41/7.74 64 Italian Hits 35/7.74 5 Baroc 65 Italian Traditional 6 Classical Guitar 47/7.74 66 Danish Songs 35/8.46 7 Piano 41/8.46 67 Norwegian Hits 35/8.28 8 Beautiful Instruments 20/7.92 68 Swedish Songs 9 Contemporary Instrumental 38/7.74 69 Greek Sounds 8/7.92 10 New Age 38/7.92 70 Hebrew Hits 8/7.74 11 Classic Rock 15/8.10 71 Oriental Sounds 8/8.10 12 Folk Rock 41/7.92 72 Turkish Songs 13 Dance/Techno 12/8.46 73 World Beat 14 US Hits 16/8.10 74 Indian Music 38/8.28 15 Album Rock 15/7.56 75 Reggae 20/8.28 16 Heavy Metal 16/8.46 76 Cajun 17 Alternative Rock 16/8.28 77 Czech Songs 18 Rap 16/7.92 78 Polish Hits 19 UK Hits 12/8.28 79 L American Hits 35/7.56 20 European Pop Hits 16/7.74 80 Flemenco 34/6.12 21 Power Hits 8/8.28 81 Brazillian Music 34/8.84 22 New Music 42/7.74 82 Mariachi 38/8.46 23 Rythm & Blues 34/6.66 83 Sulsa 24 50s Oldies 47/8.10 84 Christian Inspir. 25 60s Oldies 41/7.56 85 Gospel Music 26 70s Oldies 47/8.28 86 Hawaiian Music 42/8.10 27 80s Oldies 87 Polynesian Sounds 28 Soul Classics 41/8.28 88 S African Sounds 34/6.30 29 Beach Party 41/8.10 89 Chinese Songs 30 Classic Pop Artists 20/7.74 90 Children's Classics 31 Love Songs 18/7.92 91 32 Soft Hits 47/8.46 92 33 Great Singers 18/8.46 93 34 Contemporary Singers 18/7.74 94 35 Smooth Hits 18/8.10 95 36 Cool Music 96 Olympic Music 37 Show Tunes 97 38 Movie Soundtracks 98 39 Light Jazz 15/8.10 99 40 Classic Jazz 15/8.28 100 41 Big Band/Swing 15/8.46 101 42 Dixieland 42/7.92 102 43 Jazz Vocal Blend 38/8.10 103 44 Traditional Blues 20/8.10 104 45 Contemporary Blues 42/8.46 105 46 Traditional Country 42/8.28 106 47 Modern Country 18/8.28 107 48 Blue Grass 108 49 Folk Music 34/6.48 109 50 Irish Folk 110 51 Swiss Folk 111 52 German Songs 35/8.10 112 53 German Rock 47/7.92 113 54 German Folk 114 55 German Light Music 115 56 German Hits 116 57 French Chansons 20/8.46 117 58 French Pop Hits 118 59 French Chanseaurse 119 60 French Riviera 120 EUTELSAT--As from 1 April, RTL TV is no longer transmitting in PAL on Eutelsat 2-F1. As from 2 April, it will transmit in clear MPEG2, on 11.588 GHz Horizontal. On Eutelsat 2F3, Muslim TV Ahmediyyah is no longer transmitting on 11.575 GHz. You can now find the channel, apparently 24 hours a day, via Intelsat 603 at 34.5 degrees West, on 11.004 GHz Vertical. The change took place on 1 April. (James Robinson) ASTRA--The first commercial Proton launch, carrying the Astra 1F satellite, has been rescheduled for April 9, from March 28. (Curt Swinehart) BRITAIN--The British government said on March 25 it was extending the rules regulating the content of television services broadcast to Europe to cover other countries around the world. "Technology and the (relatively low) costs of satellite broadcasting now mean that any organisation could broadcast from the U.K. to anywhere in the world," National Heritage Secretary Virginia Bottomley said in a statement. She said she had signed an order extending the existing regulatory and licensing powers of Britain's Independent Television Commission (ITC) to all television services broadcast from Britain regardless of which country received the service. "Currently, the ITC can only licence television services which are broadcast to Europe," Bottomley said. "This means that anyone can broadcast from the U.K. to countries beyond Europe without requiring a licence and under no regulatory control." >From now on, she added all broadcasters would be "obliged to comply with this country's rules on taste and decency and impartiality... Today's action ensures that the U.K. maintains its international reputation for high standards in television programming". Bottomley also announced that the government intends to introduce an amendment to the Broadcasting Bill currently being considered by parliament which would reinforce the ITC's duty and powers to satisfy itself that any organisation applying for a licence had no political objectives. She said the government was also considering whether to make the provision of false information to secure a broadcast licence a criminal offence. (Reuters) DIGITAL TELEVISION--Digital television looks set to be at the centre of entertainment in many homes across Europe by the year 2000 and has been tipped to replace the personal computer as a gateway onto the information superhighway. Digital television promises consumers improved picture quality and a vastly increased range of choice -- at a price. Movie moguls, publishing companies, and satellite launchers, are sizing up this new market, which offers a more flexible and cost effective way to reach more customers. Digital television converts pictures and sound into electronic particles, compresses them into easily transmitted packets for transmission over cable networks or satellite transmission, then reorganises them back on the TV screen. Subscribers need a black-box to handle the technology, but in a couple of years digital TVs will be available. This not only means better quality, but allows a massive increase in capacity over conventional analogue networks, where signals are transmitted by radio waves. But with thousands of channels becoming available, the question remains, will it be possible to fill all this potential capacity with programmes that people will pay for? "Digital TV is going to be one of the most important areas of telecommunications involving pictorial information," said Professor Anthony Constantinides of Imperial College's department of electrical and electronic engineering. Constantinides says this method of delivering entertainment and information will also take over from the personal computer as pioneer of the so-called information superhighway. "We would have video-on-demand, picture databases...you could advertise houses, shopping, banking, you could access from home on a high resolution screen," Constantinides said. Video-on-demand allows subscribers to dial-up the film of their choice, which then spurts back down a cable or bounces off a satellite into the home. Yet experiments, such as one conducted by Time Warner in Orlando, Florida, have shown a reluctance to pay premium prices for this type of service. A stroll to the local video store is still favoured. In Europe, the advance of digital television is being led by sports programmes. "Digital TV has been running for a couple of years. SIS (Satellite Information Services) for horse racing runs into betting shops in Britain," said Barclay Dutson, managing director of industry consultants Vision Group. "Telepiu in Italy has started digital test transmissions this year," said Dutson. Telepiu, which has 800,000 subscribers to its analogue service, is jointly owned by South African financier Johann Rupert's Nethold group, and German media magnate Leo Kirch. At a recent conference in London, Herve Payan, Telepiu's general manager, said the company wants 150,000 subscribers this year. So far the company has 770. Among the services to be offered by Telepiu is pay-per-view Italian soccer. This shows the kind of technical flexibility and ability to target small groups of consumers which only digital televison can offer. Subscribers can sign up for single games, or buy a season ticket. And soccer clubs can insist that local subscribers can be blacked out to help protect their local "gate" revenues. Analogue TV cannot do this in a targetted way. And more satellite launches are planned. "When the new ones go up, from the middle of this year, you could have a bouquet of channels in Germany and Italy," says Dutson. German media giant Bertelsmann AG, cable TV operator Canal Plus of France, and Britain's BSkyB recently announced an alliance to attack digital satellite television markets in Europe. Jolyon Barker, managing consultant with Arthur Andersen, also sees an impact from less likely sources. "We may see BT (British Telecommunications Plc) and BSkyB (owned 40 percent by Rupert Murdoch`s News Corp Ltd) building a relationship. Other telecommunications groups like ATT recognise that there are revenues to be earned here," Barker said. As telecommunications embrace computer technolgy, and computer companies increasingly communicate over telephone lines, the traditional demarcation lines have become blurred -- even movie-makers are now seeking to beam films into the home. "Top entertainment companies, the major studios have a huge interest, like Viacom and Time Warner. Another exciting participant could be (software giant) Microsoft which is developing the interfaces and even investing in content for this new age," Barker said. It remains to be seen whether this mass of data available over a multitude of channels will provide consumer satisfaction. Barker says that individuals can only really use between eight and 16 channels. (Reuters) NORTH AMERICA: CANADA--At 15:47 EST on March 26 following a malfunction in a solar power array on the Anik E1 satellite, Telesat lost both the C and Ku- bands. More than 50 percent of the satellite's capacity (24 C-band, 16 Ku-band transponders) has been lost. Telesat Canada, which had been leasing satellite services to U.S. concerns, exercised its pre-emptive rights on the leased capacity to make it available to Canadian customers. The company may have to lease temporarily some channels from U.S. satellites to meet Canadian requirements. (Telesat via Curt Swinehart and "Wall Street Journal") More news from: http://www.telesat.ca INMARSAT--Inmarsat III is to be launched from Cape Canaveral later today. Launch windows are 23:02-23:41 UTC and 01:37-02:05 UTC. Coverage on Galaxy 6 transponder 18 begins at 22:00 hrs UTC. (Curt Swinehart) ATT/DIRECTV--AT&T Corp. entered the entertainment world March 25, saying it began to sell its satellite television service DirecTV to its customers in four states and will roll out the service nationwide this summer. AT&T customers in Dallas, Los Angeles, Tampa and St. Petersburg, Fla., and Hartford, Conn., can order the service, which offers 175 channels of movies, pay-per-view, sports, and news for $29.95 a month, by calling a toll-free number. The satellite dish and related equipment to receive the signal costs $800, but AT&T is offering incentives to its long-distance and Universal Card customers. Customers buying with their Universal Card pay no interest for a year on equipment bought, and get a free pay-per-view movie a week for a year. After a year as an AT&T long-distance and DirecTV customer they get a free month of DirecTV. Basking Ridge, N.J.-based AT&T also said it signed an agreement with U.S. Satellite Broadcasting Co. to market its package of movies and entertainment, giving those who sign up for DirecTV a free month of U.S. Satellite programming. U.S. Satellite is the only other service that can be received on the same satellite dish. Installations are scheduled to start on May 1 in the four states, and AT&T will also take orders from customers in other parts of the country to schedule an early installation. The launch follows January's deal in which AT&T paid $137.5 million for a 2.5 percent stake in DirecTV Inc., a unit of General Motors' Hughes Electronics Corp. AT&T is planning to package together long distance, local and wireless telephone, Internet access and entertainment for its 80 million residential customers across the country. Facing unprecedented competition in basic telephone services, companies like AT&T hope the lure of entertainment and the sheer breadth of services offered will stop customers hopping from one supplier to another, and bolster profits. For DirecTV it offers a huge new outlet for its services which have already garnered more than 1.3 million customers in 20 months. The company is now aiming for 2.5 million to three million by the end of the year. AT&T, DirecTV and fellow satellite broadcaster PrimeStar which is majority owned by Colorado-based Tele-Communications Inc. have a headstart over a gaggle of TV service competitors, and analysts say they need to move fast. "These players are looking at 1996-1997 as the last big opportunity to build market share clear of the competition," said Jimmy Shaeffler of consultancy Carmel Group. Regional Bell phone companies are building broadband networks, both wired and wireless, to carry voice, video and data. AT&T's arch-rival MCI Communications Corp. is teaming up with News Corp. to offer a satellite TV service. For AT&T and DirecTV the theory is that customers who pay hundreds of dollars for a satellite dish now are seen unlikely to throw it out for other services later. However AT&T's dish price looks a little high to get them coming in in droves, and may have to be reduced. "Its a little high, but is the first shot of the gun," Shaeffler said. (Reuters) ASIA: CROWDED IN ORBIT--Space might stretch on till eternity, but not for the satellite industry over Asia. As Asia plugs in more televisions and telephones, the satellites that bounce their signals down to earth are heading for gridlock. The more satellites that go up the closer they get, and the closer they get the more they interfere with each other and distort each other's signals. At least a dozen satellites are scheduled to vault into Asian skies in this year, more in 1997 and 1998 and there are already at least 40 blinking down on the region, according to industry figures. "It's certainly crowded," said Peter Jackson, chief executive of Hong Kong based satellite company Asiasat in a recent interview. "But remember, we didn't have any satellites over Asia until recently, so we're really catching up to the U.S." A decade ago few Asian television viewers enjoyed much choice and telephones were hard to come by in less developed countries. But the region quickly got smart. It started its own satellite industry both building satellites and the rockets to launch them into space, and foreign broadcasters and telecoms companies eager to get rich in the region clamoured on board. Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, China and India are among Asian countries with satellite industries in varying stages of development. Witness China. In an effort to earn foreign exchange, China set up a commercial launch industry in its mountainous inland Sichuan province, using converted ballistic missiles. It quickly attracted foreign satellite builders and customers because its launch prices undercut the industry. However, a string of mishaps, including the February explosion of the international satellite Intelsat on board a Long March 3 rocket, has tarnished China's programme. The problem is that there are few launch alternatives as there aren't many prime, unpopulated sites in the world from where rockets can be launched. Launch companies generally have long waiting lists. One company owned by an international group has even sprung up to launch satellites from floating platforms in the sea. While satellites don't come cheap, increasing supply over Asia is bringing down prices for customers who can now choose from a variety of providers, industry participants say. Customers can now decide to choose a carrier that will allow them to blanket the whole region with their signal or spotlight a particular country. "I think you're seeing a more realistic costing," said Asiasat's Jackson, who has not adjusted the prices on his high-powered satellites despite competition. He said operators are probably getting better value from smaller transponders (the part on a satellite that customers lease). These were traditionally priced about the same as higher-powered transponders that span regions, but now there are more of them the prices are coming down, he said. Japanese operators, whose satellites are among the highest priced in the world, say a stronger yen has allowed them to drop prices because the cost of buying satellites has fallen. "The general trend is that satellite's acquisition costs are decreasing partly due to the yen's appreciation," said Yasuo Okuyama, spokesman at Japan Satellite Systems Corp (JSAT). "The transponder prices will drop to about one third the present level when digital system starts this spring," Okuyama said. Currently transponders on Japanese-owned satellites cost around 400 million to 500 million yen. Leasing space on a satellite in the rest of Asia usually costs around US$2 million a year for a C band transponder that sends a signal to a big dish owned by, say, a bank or a cable television operator. For a more powerful Ku-band transponder that beams to small private dishes the cost is around US$4-5 million a year. Satellites themselves are insured for around US$200 million each. Industry experts say satellites are spaced about 2.5 degrees apart over Asia. This is still roomy compared with the two degrees spacing over the United States. But as each new satellite squeezes into the sky there is greater potential to interfere with neighbouring satellites. "You're certainly talking about an era where you're going see more interference," said Asiasat's Jackson. As there is no international body to arbitrate on interference, countries who launch the satellites must coordinate with their neighbours to ensure they can coexist. In one current dispute over orbital positions, Thailand and China have failed to agree on placement of two upcoming satellites, which will interfere if launched where the two nations currently want to put them. They have agreed to resume discussions soon. (Reuters) CHINA--The explosion of a Chinese Long March rocket that crashed into a populated area on February 13 was deadlier than previously announced, BBC World Service news reports. The news broadcast, said an Israeli space technician smuggled out of China a video tape that showed thousands of casualties in the explosion. Officials of China's state-run contractor Great Wall Industries said earlier this month the Long March 3-B rocket killed six people, injured 57 and destroyed 100 homes when it slammed into a populated area seconds after liftoff near the launch site in China's southwestern Sichuan province in China's gravest space accident in recent years. A satellite for the Washington based INTELSAT organization with an insured value of $205 million was also destroyed in the disaster. INTELSAT officials present in China during the explosion declined to comment on reports that the Long March explosion was deadlier than announced by Chinese officials. The INTELSAT officials were interviewed by Reuters March 14 when the organization launched another satellite aboard a Western European Ariane rocket from the European Space Agency (ESA) launch center in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. The Paris-based Arianespace company that makes and markets the Ariane rocket series, leader in commercial space launches, played down the Chinese disaster when it became known in February. "This is no time to go pointing fingers at our competitors mishaps ... Failures like this are not good for the industry as a whole," an Arianespace spokesman told Reuters. Arianespace has long been critical of Long March's cost cutting practices. Industry analysts said the cost of launching in China is now half of what a European or American rocket launcher charges. Though two French military officers were killed at the Kourou base in May 1995 during tests of the new generation Ariane-5 rocket engine, no deaths have been reported during launches in French Guiana since Europe began using the equatorial facility 30 years ago. (Reuters) 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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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!