Monster Media 1996 #15/Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO/ham/tsn.zip/TSN0324.TXT

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TELE-satellit
EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE
International Satellite Broadcasting News
Number 94, Week ending 24 March 1996
By Martyn Williams
News Desk : Internet [e-mail]  or CompuServe CIS:martynw
(c) TELE-satellit Magazine


CHINA - HOMES, MILITARY BASE DESTROYED BY ROCKET
  TEL AVIV, Israel (TS) -- Israeli TV showed at the weekend pictures
taken by a scientist that showed the devastation caused by the falling
wreckage of a recent Long March rocket failure.
  In contradiction with the official Chinese news agency report that
six people were killed and 80 homes destroyed, the Israeli scientist's
film showed dozens of destoyed buildings, many said to be part of a
nearby military installation.
  China has been critisised many time since the incident for its lack
of down range safety at rocket launches.


FLEXTECH, BSKYB DISCUSSING MERGER - REPORT
  LONDON, England (TS) -- The Independent Newspaper in the UK has
reported that Flextech and BSkyB have discussed a possible merger of
their respective pay TV channels.
  Flextech owns and operates thirteen satellite channels including UK
Gold, UK Living, TCC and the Family Channel. It is half owned by TCI
of the US and operates TCI channels in Europe including Discovery
Channel, Learning Channel, Country Music TV and Bravo.
  The two companies already have close relationships with Flextech
using BSkyB for all of its UK subscription management.


GERMANY TO GET FIRST TASTE OF EURO DIGITAL TV
  BONN, Germany (TS) -- Germany will be the first nation to get a
taste of the new digital TV package being planned by Bertelsmann AG,
Canal Plus, News Corp and Havas.
  The service will launch a preview service later this year and give
many Germans their first taste of pay television and special interest
channels.
  Currently much TV in Germany is free to air and general
entertainment of interest programming.
  The Bertelsmann and Canal Plus developed SECA digital TV set top box
would be used the company also confirmed.


UK EXTENDS SATELLITE BROADCASTING LAWS
  LONDON, England (TS) -- The British government has extended laws
governing satellite TV programming uplinked from the UK. Under
previous laws, programming beamed from the UK to Europe had to conform
to British broadcasting laws but programming heading to other regions
of the world escaped the licencing.
  This made it possible to establish a TV channel in the UK and
broadcast to an area outside of Europe with no licence and no need to
conform to British regulations.
  The new rules now cover all nations of the world.


CARLTON TO LAUNCH NEW CHANNEL
  LONDON, England (TS) -- London's Carlton Communications is to launch
a new satellite TV channel targeted at India. TV India will be the
fourth such international channel operated by the broadcaster.
  Main shareholder in the venture will be The Hindustan Times with a
30% stake, Asia Pacific Fund II will hold 25% with the remaining 45%
being split equally between Carlton, Pearson and Hong Kong's TVB.
  Programming on the general entertainment channel will include
original India-produced Hindi programming.
  The new channel will broadcast on PanAmSat's PAS-4 Indian Ocean
Region satellite. 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.


EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON COPYRIGHT
  BRUSSELS, Belgium (TS) -- The full text of a recent European
Commission press release follows:
     EUROPEAN DOCUMENT RESEARCH - March 20, 1996
     The European Commission has invited the Council to sign the
"European Convention relating to questions on copyright law and
neighbouring rights in the framework of transfrontier broadcasting by
satellite."
     The Convention, which is annexed to the Commission's proposal,
defines transmission broadcasted by satellite and states that authors
have the exclusive right to authorise the broadcasting of their
protected works in accordance with the provisions of the "Berne
Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistics Works" (Paris
Act, 1971), and lays down the rules regarding collective agreements
concluded between collecting societies and broadcasting organizations.
     The Convention furthermore contains provisions for the minimum
protection for holders of neighbouring rights based on the Rome
Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms
and Broadcasting Organizations (1961). None of these provisions would
prevent countries that are party to the Convention from providing a
more favourable protection for the right-holders concerned.
     The Convention would also provide for a transitional period to
enable existing contracts to be adapted to the new rules, particularly
in the case of international co-productions.
     Ref: COM(96) 6 final, January 31, 1996 EDR 169/x
     This document is available immediately from European Document
Research on our normal terms. For further information and for copies
of EC documents, please contact EDR at Rue de Treves 61, 3eme etage,
B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. Telephone [phone], fax (322) 230
8965.


CNN ANCHOR LEARNS ABOUT SATELLITE FEEDS
  SAN FRANCISCO, California, USA (SHOPTALK) -- CNN and Novell Inc. are
at odds following an appearance by CNN Business Day co-anchor Deborah
Marchini at Novell's Brainshare Conference this week.
  CNN executives claim that her appearance there violated the
network's conflict of interest policy when her session (without her
knowledge) was made available, via satellite, to news organizations.
According to Lou Dobbs, a CNN executive vice president (and Marchini's
boss), Marchini was only allowed to accept the Novell engagement on
one condition--that Novell promised in writing not to videotape or
audiotape the session.  Following a 1992 incident, in which Dobbs was
reprimanded by the network for doing paid video work for Wall Street,
any CNN employee must have paid speeches approved by a CNN executive.
Marchini "is going to feel terrible about his," said Dobbs, who
wouldn't disclose just how much she was paid for the appearance.
  "It seems apparent that Novell had an internal communications
problem and that one department didn't know of the restriction
agreement. This appears to be an innocent mistake."  (Wall Street
Journal via Shoptalk)


INTELSAT INCREASES DIGITAL CAPACITY
  WASHINGTON, DC, USA (INTELSAT) -- Intelsat recently completed
testing live digital two-way transmissions between Canada and the UK
at a rate of 155 Mbit/s.
  These tests were carried out with Teleglobe and BT, INTELSATs
respective Signatories. The 155 Mbit/s rate is a new rate of
transmission for Intelsat and is an important element of the
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) of rates now established for use
in modern telecommunication networks. This higher transmission rate
and greater flexibility will open up a new range of satellite-based
applications to customers.
  Transmissions at 140 Mbit/s within INTELSATs global system have
been handled for a number of years.  Almost all such transmissions are
undertaken on a temporary basis, in order to restore international
services lost due to undersea cable failures.  The significance of the
step up to 155 Mbit/s lies in a new family of applications which are
likely to emerge within SDH-based networks.


PAS-2 UPDATE
  MELBOURNE, Australia (IRMA) -- International Radio Monitors noted
the following uncoded transmissions on Panamssat's PAS-2 as of 21st
March:
  3967  6.80  Vert  CNNI
  4111  6.60  Hori  CNBC
  4030  6.60  Vert  NHK
  4000  6.20  Vert  CNN NEWSOURCE & AUDIO (NOT 24HRS TX)
  3905  6.20  Hori  TEST PATTERN SYLMAR,CA
  3930        Vert  REUTERS & OTHER OCCAS. FEEDS
  12415 6.20  Vert  STRONG COLOR BAR PATTERN
  The channels were viewed from Melbourne on Australia's East Coast
with a 2.4 meter mesh dish, dual ku/C band fee, LT-8500 receiver.
Coded transmissions have been omitted.
  International Radio Monitors (Australia), [e-mail]


INDIA LAUNCHES PSLV
  SRIHARIKOTA, India (PTI) -- The successful launch of PSLV-D3 has
brightened the prospects of India entering the launch business before
the end of this decade.
  It has also given India the confidence to launch its remote sensing
satellites in future and quicken the pace of producing  the indigenous
Geostationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
  Indian space research organisation (ISRO) chairman, Dr K
Kasturirangan, who was present at the launch site, declared there
would be no more dependence on other countries for launch of
indigenous remote sensing satellites. each of the three remote sensing
satellites launched so far has cost the country 30 million us dollars
apiece.
  ISRO will offer its PSLV for commercial launches after one more
launch. However, the schedule for the next launch named 'PSLV-C1'
(Continuous-1) will be finalised only after the analysis of today's
flight data.
  IRS-P3 is the first indigenously launched remote sensing satellite
whose  data will be distributed globally through the american  eosat
company under a 10-year contract  signed with ISRO's corporate wing,
ANTRIX corporation, last year.
  The contract is expected to generate over one billion dollars for
ISRO. EOSAT is already receiving data from IRS-1B and IRS-1C.
  Today's launch has also validated some of the technologies and
systems  which are common with the GSLV which could be launched as
early as 1998, according to Dr Kasturirangan.
  Many of the control systems, liquid and solid stages and strap-on
motors of PSLV will find their way into GSLV with or without changes.
  GSLV will use the indigenous  liquid vikas engine for its second
stage, which has been found to work well in all the three PSLV
launches.
  Cryogenic engine for the third stage   is  expected from the Russian
space agency, Glavkosmov, by next year. (S.Ramani on Usenet)


MTV ANNOUNCES BIG INTERNATIONAL PLANS
  LOS ANGELES, California, USA (MTV) -- Music Television MTV will
significantly expand its international operations in Europe, Asia and
Latin America it was announced last week.
  The company will take full advantage of new technologies, such as
digital compression, by introducing new services within its European,
Latin American and Asian networks as well as increasing the amount of
regionalized programming it produces around the world, including
Japan.
  MTV Europe, which currently reaches 52 million homes in 36 countries
is refining its programming and playlist so that it is further
customized to local tastes in its key European territories. Using
digital compression technology, the network will tailor music
playlists and will produce regionally specific programming on top of a
core of new pan-European shows. The major components of the expansion
are the addition of more live-programming and long-form shows that
will be created and produced in Europe. The amount of live programming
will be tripled, there will be at least two new long-form series and
up to five additional short-form shows added to MTV Europe's
programming.
  MTV Asia  As part of MTV's international expansion plans, MTV Asia
has added a third service -- MTV India. In January 1996, MTV India
launched as a 24-hour satellite feed for the  subcontinent which will
have five hours a day of India-specific programming produced locally
by MTV India's Bombay staff by the end of the year.  In addition, MTV
India will significantly expand its sales and marketing operations
with offices opening in New Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta in 1996.
Similarly, MTV Mandarin will greatly increase its local production and
programming and add local marketing and sales offices throughout its
regional offices in Taipei, Hong Kong and Beijing. MTV Asia will
continue to provide South East Asia with 24 hours of music programming
that serves Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and the
Philippines and is headquartered in Singapore.
  MTV Latin America and MTV Brasil, which currently reach more than 21
million homes, will split into three services -- one targeted to the
Northern territory including Mexico, Central America and the
Caribbean, one targeted to the Southern cone including Argentina and
Chile, and the already-existing MTV Brasil.  This initiative builds on
the overwhelming success of MTV Brasil -- already a regionalized
service.  The split is scheduled to take place in the third quarter of
1996. The network's investment will allow MTV to tailor the music mix
to appeal to the tastes of each territory, including time-shifting the
services to respond to the difference in time zones, custom-tailoring
voice-overs for bumpers and interstitials and increasing Spanish
language programming.  In addition, there will be significant
investment in on-the-ground productions. The headquarters for the
Northern service will be located in Mexico City, while the Southern
feed will be headquartered out of MTV's existing office in Buenos
Aires, Argentina with local staff increasing in each regional office.
MTV Latin America will continue to base its main headquarters in
Miami.  MTV Brasil will continue to be based in Sao Paulo.
  In addition to increasing its investment in its pan-continental
channels, MTV will also continue to commit growing resources to MTV
Japan.  In Japan, where the cable industry is in its nascent stages,
MTV will create more programming tailored specifically to the Japanese
market. MTV Japan has provided its viewers with a 24-hour Japanese
language service since 1992.


DMX CANADA IS DENIED
  CALGARY, Alberta, Canada (DMX) -- Shaw  Communications' Heather
Shaw, president of DMX Canada, last week expressed disappointment that
the federal government decided to refer DMX Canada's license back to
the CRTC.
  "Shaw Communications was committed to creating a unique world-class
pay audio service for Canada," said Ms. Shaw.  "The federal government
has, for the third time, decided to hold back digital pay audio
services from Canadian consumers. In our estimation this will
effectively stop the development of a Canadian pay audio service and
allow U.S. grey market services to enter into Canada without featuring
Canadian musicians."
  Shaw Communications received a license in December 1995 for DMX
Canada to provide pay audio service to subscribers via cable or
satellite.  DMX Canada is 80 percent owned by Shaw Communications with
the remaining 20 percent held by DMX Inc.
  "DMX Canada was prepared to create jobs in Canada.  We will no
longer be able to create those jobs or to feature Canadian artists on
the DMX international service," said Ms. Shaw.


INTELSAT LOOK FOR NEW SATELLITES
  WASHINGTON, DC, USA (INTELSAT) -- The 109th meeting of the
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT)
Board of Governors, which met in Bangalore, India, 14-19 March,
approved the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a
competitive procurement of two new, high capacity satellites
designated as FOS II (Follow-On-Satellites).
  The two satellites will be deployed over the Indian Ocean Region
where they will replace INTELSAT VI spacecraft beginning in 2002.
INTELSAT currently has 24 satellites in orbit, five of which provide
service in the Indian Ocean Region.


INTELSAT ANNOUNCES LAUNCH CONTRACTS
  WASHINGTON, DC, USA (INTELSAT) -- The Board authorized the award of
a contract to Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, Inc. for the
launch of two INTELSAT VIII/VIII-A  spacecraft using two Atlas IIAS
launch vehicles subject to successful negotiation and conclusion of
contract terms.
  The Board also authorized the termination of two contracts with
China Great  Wall Industry Corp. for the launch of the INTELSAT 804
and 805 spacecraft.
  This termination is without prejudice to INTELSAT's consideration of
the use of the Long March launch vehicle in the future.


IN BRIEF
- Latest news from Russia points to an April 9th launch date for the
Astra 1F satellite. It will be carried into space by a Russian Proton
rocket.
- The next Asiasat satellite, Asiasat-3, will be launched in 1997. The
satellite will broadcast across Asia with coverage similar to Asiasat
2 and the addition of three high powered ku-band transponders.
- JS-TV, not to be confused with London based Japanese broadcaster
JSTV, is to launch soon. JS-TV is a service of the UK supermarket
chain J Sainsbury and will broadcast a closed circuit program for
staff and managers to watch in the company's premises in the UK.
- AT&T has announced it will begin selling consumer receivers for the
American DirecTV and USSB digital DBS systems.
- An Arabic radio broadcaster is being heard in the evenings on
Eutelsat 2-F1 at 11.638 h. On subcarriers 6.60 and 7.20 MHz the
program was heard closing at 2200 CET with the message, "Simayeh
Azadi wishes a happy new year" (Stefan Hagedorn via Sat-ND)
- Lunchtimes have seen a new broadcast on Intelsat K. The frequency is
12.703 v and a testcard in NTSC has been seen (Stefan Hagedorn via
Sat-ND)


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