Monster Media 1996 #15/Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO/ham/scdx.zip/SCDX2246.TXT

Text File | 1996-04-21 | 18KB | 455 lines

  :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
  ::      SWEDEN CALLING DXERS       ::
  ::       from Radio Sweden         ::
  ::   Number 2246--Apr. 16, 1996    ::
  :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


Shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden.

This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.

Packet Radio BID SCDX2246

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: I'll be in London next week, covering the Cable and Satellite
Show, and there won't be a regular Online Edition. But many things
have been happening in the media universe lately. Here's a selection
of the biggest stories from the wires:

NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:

SUPERSPORT--

We recently talked to the head of Nethold Nordic, Jan Friedman, about
their decision to carry their otherwise digital MPEG SuperSport
channel in D2-MAC on Astra, as MPEG receivers are still not on the
market. However, it looks like the channel (one of the few carrying
American baseball in Europe) is about to disappear from screens across
Scandinavia.

Nethold's subsidiary FilmNet announced before Easter that the
SuperSport D2-MAC transponder will be closed shortly after the
holidays. FilmNet had planned to keep the D2-MAC service running much
longer, but it says that the company that rented out the necessary
equipment wants it back earlier than expected. (Is rival Kinnevik and
its Sportkanalen involved here, one wonders?)

"We deeply regret this", says FilmNet's head of information Yvonne
Lilliedahl.

According to FilmNet the necessary MPEG receivers should be available
by the start of summer for around one thousand dollars. (TT)


EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:

ASTRA 1F LAUNCHED--

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's space center launched its first foreign
commercial satellite Tuesday (April 9) as part of a Russian-American
joint venture.

A Russian Proton booster rocket carrying an American-made Astra-1F
communications satellite blasted off at 3:09 a.m. (2309 GMT Monday)
from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan, the ITAR-Tass news agency
said.

The launch of the satellite, belonging to the European aerospace
company SES, had been postponed from March 28 after engineers found a
leak in its propulsion system.

The three-ton Astra-1F was manufactured by Hughes Aircraft, a unit of
General Motors Corp., for SES, a Luxembourg-based company that
provides television and radio services in Europe.

Once in orbit, the satellite will broadcast programming to countries
in Central Europe. The Interfax news agency said the Astra-1F was
expected to circle Earth for the next 14 years.

(Astra 1F will be placed alongside the other 5 Astra satellites at 19
degrees East. Like Astra 1E its Ku-band transponders are devoted to
digital broadcasting.)

CANAL PLUS AND DISNEY--

PARIS (AP) -- France's popular Canal Plus entertainment pay channel
soon will carry The Disney Channel in French, both companies announced
Tuesday.

Canal Plus chairman Pierre Lescure and Walt Disney Television
International chief Etienne de Villiers said the channel would
broadcast French and European programs along with Disney films.

It will be beamed to viewers via the Astra satellite.

"Since the 1930s with the release of the first animated feature films
in France, Disney has been embraced by French families," said Pierre
Sissmann, president of Disney's TV operations in France.

(This comes while France has virtually single-handedly led a campaign
against American programs on European satellite television, trying to
force "European" quotas on broadcasters. The primary target of French
wrath has been Ted Turner's Cartoon Network, for foisting that
apparent enemy of European culture, Yogi Bear, on European children.
Mickey Mouse is apparently more European than Yoga and Booboo.

Ironically, the same week France initially launched its anti-American
cartoon campaign a couple of years ago, government authorities in
Paris also praised the high cultural value of MTV, which along with
Disney one would think ought to be considered a perfect example of
American "cultural imperialism".)

(Germany's Super RTL is carrying Disney programming in German. But as
the English language Disney Channel is only available to people in
Britain and Ireland who subscribe to both of Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB
film channels, access to Disney programming is still greatly limited
in Europe.)

CLT AND BERTELSMANN--

BRUSSELS, April 3 (Reuter) - Luxembourg's Compagnie Luxembourgoise de
Telediffusion (CLT) which, with German media group Bertelsmann, is to
form Europe's largest broadcaster, is a stalwart of the European
multimedia scene. CLT's planned link-up with Ufa, Bertelsmann's
European film and television subsidiary, will confirm the
broadcaster's position as the leading audiovisual group in Europe.

The deal will create a venture with total sales of over 6 billion
marks ($4.05 billion), the German market being the most important to
the two companies and the one the deal is focused on.

CLT, 65-years-old this year, has some 40 years of experience in
commercial TV broadcasting. But the group also includes publishing,
production and advertising marketing companies and owns a portfolio of
broadcasting rights. In radio, star stations included the English
service of Radio Luxembourg which began broadcasts in 1933, using what
was then the world's most powerful radio transmitter.

CLT moved along with the development of television technology,
becoming a prime satellite user in Europe. It now has 27 TV and radio
stations in nine European countries, its prime source of revenue and
profit being RTL, Germany's largest commercial TV station.

The next challenge for CLT is digital TV, an area where several
competitors are already hard at work to collect market share. Here the
Bertelsmann deal might give it access to key decoder technology and
help fund development. Under the agreement Bertelsmann is to pay
holding company Audiofina, which now controls CLT, 30 billion
Luxembourg francs in cash. Sources close to the deal expect the money
be ploughed straight back into satellite TV development.

In return for the cash and the Ufa activities Bertelsmann will gain
control of under half of CLT. The deal will relieve pressure on Groupe
Lambert Bruxelles, the holding company of Belgian financier Albert
Frere, which together with French media group Havas controls
Audiofina.


VIACOM AND KIRCH--

NEW YORK (Reuter) - Viacom Inc. and German media group KirchGroup said
Monday they would form a strategic alliance to broaden Viacom's
presence in the European television market and expand KirchGroup's
programming lineup. KirchGroup, headed by German financier Leo Kirch,
is preparing to launch a digital pay TV service in Europe.

KirchGroup has acquired from Viacom's Paramount Pictures all free and
pay television rights in German-speaking territories to Paramount
television shows and films produced during the term of the agreements.
KirchGroup also will obtain Continental European rights to some
Paramount television series produced during the term of the agreements
as well as an expansion of rights KirchGroup holds to the Paramount
movie and television library.

(This should include "Star Trek".)

Additionally, KirchGroup has agreed to carry Viacom's MTV Europe and
VH-1 Germany networks, a block of Nickelodeon network programming as
well as certain future Viacom programming networks for its new digital
pay TV service.

Viacom, an entertainment and publishing company based in New York,
also obtained an option to acquire a 12 percent stake from KirchGroup
in Gestevision Telecinco SA, owner of Spain's Estudios TeleCinco. The
agreements also contemplate other strategic activities between the two
companies.

A key goal for Viacom in the deal was to secure distribution of its
television networks, the source said. Regional competitors to its MTV
and other television services are proliferating in Europe, Asia and
Latin America as direct-broadcast satellite television and other
technologies give viewers more choices.


MIDDLE EASTERN MEDIA NEWS:

BBC ARABIC SERVICE LEAVES ORBIT--

LONDON, April 8 (Reuter) - BBC Television's Worldwide Service said on
Monday that its contract with a Saudi-owned network to carry the BBC's
Arabic-language service to the Middle East was being cancelled.

The decision means the BBC will be unable to broadcast its
Arabic-language television service to the Middle East unless an
alternative carrier is found.


Phil Johnstone, a spokesman for BBC Worldwide Television, said he
could not disclose the reason for ending the agreement with Orbit
Communications, a Saudi-owned satellite relay station in Rome. But he
said the decision was mutual.

ROME, April 9 (Reuter) - A Saudi satellite relay station has
pinpointed a British Broadcasting Corporation programme about human
rights in Saudi Arabia as its reason for scrapping the BBC's Arabic
television service to the Middle East.

The programme, created by the investigative reporting show Panorama
and aired in Arabic last week, was a "sneering and racist attack on
Islamic law and culture" the head of Rome-based Orbit Communications
said in a statement.


But the BBC defended itself, saying in a statement issued in London
that it was "satisfied it has complied fully with all the terms of its
contract with Orbit Communications including its obligations as to
editorial standards, content, quality and local sensitivities."

It said the contract gave the BBC "full and complete editorial control
of the channel".

The BBC's Worldwide Television announced on Monday that its contract
with Orbit was being ended. Cancellation will leave the BBC's
Arabic-language television service with no outlet to the Middle East
unless another carrier can be found.

Orbit is owned by a group chaired by a cousin of King Fahd of Saudi
Arabia. Tensions had already appeared in the Orbit-BBC link over
coverage of the London-based Saudi dissident Mohamed al-Masari, long a
thorn in Riyadh's side.

The Panorama programme showed preparations for a public execution in
Saudi Arabia and included an interview with a Filipina who said she
had been flogged for breaching Saudi law by going out for an evening
with two male friends.

BBC Worldwide Television's Arabic Television broadcasts for eight
hours a day from a London newsroom. It is dependent upon Orbit for
transmission into the Middle East.

Orbit is a fully digital, pay-television service broadcasting on more
than 30 channels to 23 countries in the Middle East and northern
Africa.


ASIAN MEDIA NEWS:

CHINA AND PANAMSAT--

BEIJING, April 3 (Reuter) - China Central Television (CCTV) and
U.S.-owned PanAmSat Corp announced on Wednesday a satellite delivery
deal that will enable the Chinese state broadcaster to expand its
reach to 98 percent of the world's population.

The 10-year agreement widened coverage of CCTV broadcasts to include
Europe, the Middle East and Africa from April 1, a CCTV official said.
Previously, broadcasts covered Asia and North America only.

"Let the world know China and let China know the world," CCTV
President Yang Weiguang told reporters after signing the agreement
with Fredrick Landman, PanAmSat's president and chief executive
officer, in Beijing.

CCTV hopes to reach an audience of about 60 million overseas Chinese.
It will launch a music channel on July 1 and an English-language
channel on October 1.

PanAmSat said its global satellite system will broadcast up to six
digital television channels throughout the world for CCTV. CCTV has
not decided when to launch the remaining three channels. PanAmSat has
carried CCTV's Chinese-language channel since December 1994.

CCTV said its global broadcasts will be made available free of charge.
Advertising income from CCTV's domestic service will finance its
global broadcast network.

JCSAT FAILURE--

TOKYO, April 4 (Reuter) - Japan Satellite Systems Inc (JSAT) said on
Thursday that the life of its JCSAT-1 communications satellite would
be shorter than originally expected and the firm's new JCSAT-4
satellite would replace it.

JSAT found a slight leak in JCSAT-1's fuel tanks, a company
spokeswoman said. JCSAT-1, launched in March 1989, is used by
corporate customers for in-house communications and covers the
Asian-Pacific area including Japan, China and Hong Kong.

The spokeswoman said the satellite would be usable until August 1997.
Originally, it was intended to have a 10-year life. JCSAT-4 will be
launched in January 1997 as scheduled but in a different orbit than
originally planned so that it can take over from JCSAT-1, JSAT said.

The new satellite will also perform other functions and cover all of
Asia, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.

DIGITAL BROADCASTING IN JAPAN--

TOKYO (AP) -- An estimated 80 percent of all Japanese households will
receive digital satellite broadcasts either directly or through cable
television by 2010, a government report said Monday.

The report, by the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, is the
latest in a series of studies pointing Japan away from an analog
system and toward the all-digital broadcasting system favored in the
United States and Europe.

The ministry expects 60 percent of Japanese households to receive
satellite broadcasts through cable TV, with access to 200-250
channels. Another 20 percent should receive the broadcasts directly,
with access to up to 500 channels, the report said.

A ministry spokeswoman said the numbers in the report were proposed
targets that could change when the study is completed later this year
after a public comment period.

The move toward digital has been controversial since Japan's
electronics industry has spent billions of dollars developing
equipment for an analog system for high-definition television
broadcasts.


-----------------------------------------------------------------

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:

18:30 hrs    1179, 6065, 9655, and 11615 kHz (also Africa/Middle
East)
19:30        1179 and 6065 kHz  (also Africa/Middle East)
20:30        1179, 6065, 9430, and 9655 kHz (weekends only)
21:30        1179, 6065, 9430, and 9655 kHz (also Africa/Middle
East)

Asia/Pacific:

12:30 hrs    13740, and 15240 kHz
13:30 hrs    9835 kHz
01:00 hrs    7120 and 9435 kHz

North America:

11:30 hrs on 11650 and 15240 kHz
13:30 hrs on 11650 and 15245 kHz
02:30 hrs on 7290 kHz
03:30 hrs on 7115 kHz

Latin America:

00:30 hrs on 6065 kHz
01:30 hrs on 7290 kHz

The broadcasts at 12:30 and 18:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe
by
satellite:

   Astra 1C (19.2 degrees East) transponder 33 (ZDF) at
   10.964 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.38 MHz

   Tele-X (5 degrees East) via TV5 Nordic 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, 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 20:30
hrs Eastern time (from April 7 at 21:30 hrs Eastern Daylight
Time). And the World Radio Network is also carried live via
Internet Multicasting using the Streamworks system.

Each day's program, recorded at 01:30 hrs UTC daily) is also
available from WRN in the RealAudio format. See:

http://www.wrn.org

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.

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

Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to
[phone] or by e-mail to: [e-mail]

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:

[e-mail]

You ought to get a confirmation message in reply. To unsubscribe
from the list, send a message to

[e-mail]

To get a copy of Radio Sweden's English program schedule, write
to:

[e-mail]

And for general questions, comments, and reception reports, our
e-mail address is:

[e-mail]

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to this week's contributors                Good Listening!