From: xberri@europa.aero.org (Jason E. Berri)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Subject: SCDX 2182
Date: 20 Jul 1993 13:46 -0800
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation
Distribution: world
Reply-To: xberri@arecibo.aero.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: europa.aero.org
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2182--July 6, 1993 ::
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Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2182
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
EUROSPORT--Eurosport has once again vanished from the screen's of Sweden's
largest cable network, operated by Swedish Telecom. The problems with
Eurosport started last year, when the channel demanded payment from
Scandinavian cable operators, but insisted that the programming still be
carried as a free channel to subscribers, at the same time that Eurosport was
also available free on satellite. The channel was removed from cable systems,
and only returned with the merger with Screensport, when the new Eurosport
took Screensport's place as a pay channel.
Now, Eurosport wants to go back to being free to subscribers, at the same
time that it wants to keep being paid by cable operators. It's withdrawn
rebroadcast permission for Swedish Telecom's 100,000 subscribers, but remains
on other Swedish cable systems, and is still free on satellite.
The whole picture gets more complicated because Eurosport is creating a
special Scandinavian service, Eurosport Nordic, which is due to begin on
September 4th. The problem with the new service is that it is to be offered
on Norway's Thor satellite, which no one outside of Norway has access to.
Even if they could, it's hard to say now many Swedes would upgrade to a
motorized system, buy a new decoder, and then pay 10 dollars a month for
Swedish commentaries, when they can get the English commentaries for free on
Astra. (Svensk Kabel Television, "Paa TV")
FILMNET--On the other hand, Sweden's second largest cable company,
Kabelvision, has decided FilmNet charged too much, and has stopped
distributing the pay-movie channel. Thirteen hundred subscribers are being
offered the rival TV1000 instead. ("Paa TV")
RADIO--The first 38 frequencies for Sweden's new private commercial radio
stations will be unveiled on Thursday. It had been hoped that the first
stations would have been on the air by Midsummer, but the frequency
allocation authorities here ran into unexpected resistance from their
colleagues in Finland, Norway, and Denmark.
The first frequencies approved will be in northern and central Sweden,
including 10 in Stockholm. A further 22 frequencies for the southern and
western parts of the country are to be announced later in July.
There are 266 applicants for radio licenses, 66 of them for the 10 channels
in Stockholm. Since there are more applicants than available channels,
frequencies are to be auctioned off the the highest bidder in early
September. The stations who bid highest will have 6 months to get on the air.
(TT)
NORDIC TV CHANNEL--At the meeting of the Nordic Prime Ministers on the
Norwegian island of Lofoten last week, they agreed to have a study of a
possible joint Nordic television channel finished by October 15th. The public
service broadcasters of the 5 countries would produce the programming, which
would be carried by satellite. ("Dagens Nyheter") Hopefully not on Norway's
Thor, or no one will be able to see it.
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
ASTRA--Right now Europeans are keeping an eye on the new Astra 1C satellite,
which officially went into operation on July 1st, adding 18 more channels to
the 32 transponders already present at 19.2 degrees East longitude. Despite
the July 1st date, none of the new channels has actually begun broadcasting,
but transponder 47 is now running Astra technical information in English,
German, French, and Spanish.
Here's the list of channel allocations (and reported start dates):
Transponder 33 ZDF (August 27)
Transponder 35 Children's Channel (July 1)
Transponder 36 Spanish channel (October 1993)
Transponder 37 Cartoon Network/TNT (September 17)
Transponder 40 another Spanish channel (October 1993)
Transponder 41 Discovery (July 22)
Transponder 42 Bravo (July 22)
Transponder 44 Galavision (September 1)
Transponder 46 Nickelodeon (September 1)
Transponder 47 Astra technical information
On two transponders outside the reach of ordinary satellite receivers: the
second FilmNet channel, FilmNet Movies, will be on transponder 63, with RTL-5
on transponder 64. Those are intended for cable networks in the Benelux, and
not home viewers. RTL-5 is to launch on October 2nd.
A number of these stations could start test transmissions earlier. There is a
Nickelodeon test pattern on transponders 44 and 46.
The Children's Channel was supposed to start on transponder 35 on July 1st.
This hasn't happened yet, but it may be popping up anytime. The Children's
Channel stopped its relays on transponder 5 some weeks ago, and the signal on
the shared transponder 24 is pretty weak.
There's also a test pattern on transponder 39, which is officially listed as
a "to be announced" channel.
ZDF will start and the ARD Eins Plus transponder on Astra 1B will be replaced
with ARD's Das Erste service on August 27, when the International
Funkausstellung begins in Berlin. There's a report that Germany's BR3 wants
to move from Kopernikus to Astra, and this could also happen when the
Funkaustellung opens. (Internet News via Kauto Huopio)
British Sky Broadcasting has begun promoting its new Multi-Channel package,
which starts on September 1st. Besides Sky News and Sky One, the basic
package will also include the Children's Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon,
Discovery, Bravo, and UK Gold. Sky also says Country Music Television and the
Family Channel will be included, so presumeably both will be on Astra 1C.
After the September launch they are to be joined by new stations: a 24 hour
shopping channel called QVC and another new channel aimed at women called UK
Living. Coming in the new year are Nickelodeon's evening outlet Nick at Nite
and MTV's softer alternative VH-1.
Presumeably, all of these channels will be coded, although it's hard to see
why MTV and some of the other channels would want to lose their European
audiences. It's possible subscriptions to some of these channels will also be
made available to viewers outside the UK.
Not in the package is the proposed European Science Fiction Channel. "Sky
Guide" says this has been postponed, because they wanted to share the
Nickelodeon transponder, but Nickelodeon would only guarantee a short lease
so it could launch the cult "Nick at Nite" service in the future. The Sci-Fi
Channel is looking for another Astra broadcaster to sublease them a
transponder for a longer period. ("Sky Guide")
All of the 1C transponders seem stronger than those on Astra 1B. Even the
signals on the vertical transponders 42 and 44 are strong here in Stockholm.
There's probably a lot of people who wish CNN would switch to Astra 1C, so
people in Scandinavia could watch it, since no one outside of Norway can see
the CNN downlink on the Thor satellite.
There's no telling when the other transponders will be filling up. There's
been lots of speculation about stations that want to use the Astra system, so
there shouldn't be a problem finding programmers.
RADIO--Looking farther field, "The Times" says the BBC is expected to drop
plans to broadcast its 24 hour radio news service on Radio 4's long wave
frequency when the final details for the station are announced in the Fall.
This follows a deluge of complaints from listeners in Britain and Continental
Europe who complained they would not be able to hear Radio 4. (James
Robinson) Apparently the rebroadcast of Radio 4 on Astra hasn't helped.
There's no indication yet what the BBC intends to do with its all-news
service. It would be nice it if too was on Astra, and hopefully Radio will
stay there as well.
NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
RFE/RL--The Clinton administration has decided not to merge Radio Free Europe
and Radio Liberty into the Voice of America. Instead, all three are to be
included under a new Board of Governors. According to one VOA insider we
spoke to, what happened was:
"RFE/RL mounted an intensive lobbying and publicity effort, and it worked.
The thinking in Congress was that an independent entity like RFE/RL was
preferable to a State Department-controlled and thus jounalistically spinelss
entity like VOA (so they said).
"It then appeared that all international broadcasting would be subsumed under
the Board for International Broadcasting. Now it was the U.S. Information
Agency that was facing extinction, and it mounted its own campaign of
survival.
"Top USIA and BIB officials met secretly to work out a compromise, and this
is it. It has the head of a fish and the tail of a 1959 DeSoto, and the wings
of a turkey. All the old bureacracies are preserved, and a new one, Asia
Democracy Radio, will be created. The new entity is independent, sort of, but
part of a government agency, sort of. Sort of a Platypus Duckbill, an
institutional mammal that will lay eggs.
"The BBC World Service must be laughing out loud at this. It will be like
pitting the Royal Marines against the Keystone Cops."
GALAXY--North American satellite viewers are celebrating the successful
launch of the much-delayed Galaxy 4 satellite from French Guyana on June
24th. (Reuters) The satellite, which like Astra 1C is a Hughes 601
spacecraft, is to replace Galaxy 6 at 99 degrees West. It carries 24 C-band
transponders, and 24 Ku-band transponders. Programmers are to include CBS,
Warner Brothers, and Worldvision Enterprises.
SHORTWAVE:
FRANCE--Radio France International has begun broadcasting in Albanian, daily
at 18:40-18:50 hrs on 7135 kHz. (BBC Monitoring)
HUNGARY--Radio Budapest resumed broadcasts in Slovak, Russian, Serbian,
Romanian, and Croatian on July 1st. These services had been suspended in 1991
due to lack of money. (BBC Monitoring)
ITALY--IRRS (the Italian Radio Relay Service) broadcasts in English, French,
Spanish, Russian, and Polish on 7215 kHz. A program in Russian from UNESCO is
carried irregulrly Sundays at 04:00 hrs, with other Russian programs Sundays
at 04:30, 04:45, 08:15, 08:45, and 09:00 hrs. (IRRS)
LITHUANIA--Beginning June 18th, Radio Vilnius has been broadcasting at 23:00
hrs on a new frequency of 12040 kHz. (Radio Vilnius via BBC Monitoring)
MOROCCO--The new Voice of America relay station in Morocco was to begin
operation on June 23. The schedule is: English 16:00-22:00 hrs on 15410 kHz
and 16:00-17:30 hrs on 177785 kHz. The latter frequency is also used for
Portuguese at 17:30-18:30, Frnech at 18:30-20:30, and Hausa (weekdays) and
French (weekends) at 20:30-21:00 hrs. Transmissions on these frequencies from
Greenville will be stopped. (Dan Ferguson, VOA)
THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL:
You've got your CD, maybe you've got a new DCC machine, or a Sony Mini-Disc.
They're all sharp and exact, digital. They use little pulses to represent 0's
and 1's, rather than the fuzzy warm sliding scale of the analog world.
And digital is the wave of the future. The major electronics manufacturers
have just reached agreement on standards for the coming digital video
cassette recorders, which will be appearing within the next four years.
More and more broadcast projects will be digital, promising more choice of
programming, better quality, and in some cases the ability to interact from
home. At Swedish Radio there's a project underway in digital editing. The
entire News Department in Stockholm and the regional center in Malm are
storing interviews on hard-disks, where journalists can edit using PC's
rather than tape decks.
Here in Europe, both Britain and Sweden have tested Digital Audio
Broadcasting, or DAB, the system that will ultimately replace FM when regular
broadcasts begin in 1995. Up to 6 programs can be carried on a DAB signal,
with the same program on the same frequency all over a country. Besides CD-
quality, the big advantage of DAB is that there's no problem with fading, a
major problem with car radios. Either you've got the signal, or you don't.
A year of DAB tests is beginning in July in the United States, where a
company called USA Digital Radio has developed a system where existing medium
wave and FM broadcasters can transmit digital signals along with their
current analog signals.
This is reminiscent of experiments by Astra here in Europe, inserting digital
signals in between the existing satellite analog audio subcarriers. Some
German satellites are already carrying digital radio, but that system will
probably be made obsolete when DAB starts.
Meanwhile, two American suppliers of digital radio on cable and satellite are
moving into Europe. Digital Music Express and Digital Cable Radio are already
available to nearly 16 million subscribers in the United States. They offer
between 30 and 50 channels of music, ranging from classical to heavy metal.
There are no announcers or commercials. Instead, information about the music
is displayed in the decoder box.
Digital technologies are changing television as well. Two American companies,
DirecTV and US Satellite Broadcasting, are planning systems to transmit up to
150 channels by satellite. Most of those channels would probably carry pay-
per-view movies, with the same current block-buster staggered on many
channels so one verison is starting every 20 minutes. DirecTV hopes to be in
operation by December.
The Astra 1D satellite, to be launched next year, and the 1E satellite the
year after, will also carry digital transponders, which will squeeze 10
signals into the transponder currently used for one analog signal.
Digital television is also leading towards cinema quality high defination
television. The European Commission has finally dropped its support for the
obsolete semi-analog MAC system, and the new Astra satellites are likely to
carry digital HDTV channels.
In the United States, rival companies and groups have put aside their
differences and agreed on a single digital system for American HDTV, removing
a major roadblock to its development and arrival in American homes. If
approved by the Federal Communications Commission, the system could set the
standard in the United States for HDTV.
Although it's hard to say if HDTV will really catch on. The Federal
Communications Commission will be giving existing stations 6 MHZ of extra
spectrum for HDTV, on the condition that currently used spectrum is returned
within 15 years. But, writing in "Wired", media guru Nicholas Negroponte says
the last thing stations will use all that new bandwidth for is HDTV, because
the programs and the receivers will be scarce.
Instead, he says stations could broadcast a variety of digital services, such
as 3 conventional digital TV signals, two digital radio programs, a news data
channel, and a paging service. At night, they might spew bits into the ether
for delivery of personalized newspapers to be printed in people's homes.
But all this is nothing compared to some of the stuff that's coming. It seems
that virtually every software, hardware, cable, and entertainment multi-
national is finding partners to develop multi-media boxes to add computers to
our TVs, so we can surf through 500 channels of interactive services.
Major conglomerates are joining up to produce the media of the future, often
based on the tremendous bandwidth of the optical fiber that will replace the
copper currently used for telephone and cable television lines. The
information highways of the future will unit audio, video, data, and
telephone in an interchangeable matrix.
When cable networks can carry 500 channels, computer-based home decoders will
open the door to such services as electronic TV guides, home shopping,
interactive games, and ordering movies and CDs.
Interactive television also means that home viewers can pick which camera
shots they want to look at during concerts or sports events.
You can order air or theater tickets, and have them printed out right there
at home. You can also send pictures of the kids to Grandma over the system,
or electronic mail, or browse data bases.
A look at who's working together is like a Who's Who of the computer,
electronics, and entertainment industries. Software giant Microsoft has been
talking with entertainment conglomerate Time-Warner and the huge cable TV
company TCI about establishing a standard for the coming generation of
interactive programs. The country's two largest cable operators, Time-Warner
and TCI, are also working with the Japanese video game company Sega to launch
a home video game channel on cable TV by next year.
Microsoft has also joined up with General Instruments and Intel to develop a
cable converter box with PC power. Apple and IBM are planning to work
together with Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta on interactive cable television
services.
The US West telephone company has bought into Time-Warner, the second largest
cable operator in the United States, and owner of Home Box Office. "Newsweek"
predicts AT&T and TCI may get together as well.
AT&T and IBM have both come up with rival systems to provide movies on demand
with a push of a remote control button.
One of the most ambitious projects to come along is 3DO, an interactive disk
player envisonaged by game software tycoon Trip Hawkins and backed by MCA,
AT&T and Time-Warner. The 3DO player will allow you to play music and photo
CDs, watch music videos and movies, play video games with actual footage from
popular films like "Jurassic Park" and "Star Wars", connect to online
databases or have a simulated boxing match with someone across the country.
Panasonic's 3DO machine is due out in October.
Most of those efforts are in the United States. But Swedish Television's
Research and Development Department has developed one of Europe's first
broadcast multi-media systems, called Idun, after an ancient Norse goddess.
In many ways it's an updating of the current tele-text system of sending text
over the airwaves using the blank lines in conventional analog pictures.
But instead of a few lines of text, the information Idun users will access
will appear newspaper-like in windows on the screen, with video-quality
moving illustrations alongside. There will be a TV guide, which can also be
used to instruct a VCR to record programs (when they really begin, a must in
Sweden where programs are typically late-starting).
The system can be used by terrestrial broadcasters, with user replies going
over telephone lines, for interactive applications, such as educational
programs and games downloaded to the receiver. We asked Swedish Television
research engineer Anders Ahl how Idun differs from systems being planned in
other countries?
ANDERS AHL: None of the the systems that I know have a way to distribute
multi-media documents, the kind of programs that you find on CD-ROM today. At
least they haven't shown anything like that. Also most of them are focused on
the commercial aspects, where you can buy tickets or order pizzas or CDs when
you see a particular commercial. We're thinking of more public service
applications.
We also think this kind of data broadcasting system needs to be independent
of all kinds of platforms, that includes software and hardware platforms. The
receiving equipment could be a PC, a Macintosh, a Sun work station, whatever,
within the TV set. It shouldn't have to be dependent on an Intel processor or
Microsoft software.
RADIO SWEDEN: Can Sweden introduce this kind of technology by itself, or are
you dependent on finding partners in other countries, who will also introduce
it?
AA: I think to be realistic, to get a mass market, we need to go abroad, to
keep the cost of receivers down. But of course we could develop it in Sweden.
But it has the potential to have a wider market, at least within Europe.
RS: Have you been talking to other public broadcasters in Europe about this?
AA: Yes, we showed this at a big exhibition about two weeks ago. And many TV
companies within Europe were very interested, as well as some broadcasters
from other parts of the world, and receiver manufacturers. So I think there
is a possibility of a larger scale project in co-operation with someone else
outside Sweden.
RS: What is the timetable here? Assuming you can find these partners, who
long will it be before this technology is introduced?
AA: I think, to be realistic, it will be two years before you could have a
full system, and the first black box prototypes. But for a service on a daily
basis, I think we will have to wait longer, perhaps for when a new TV system
is introduced. That would be 1996 or 1997 or something like that, as part of
a new TV system.
It could be implemented today by replacing a tele-text service or a TV stereo
channel. But the most likely first application will be in connection with new
digitial HDTV transmissions, beginning with satellite relays.
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Sweden Calling DXers is the world's oldest radio program for shortwave
listeners. Radio Sweden has presented this round-up of radio news, features,
and interviews on Tuesdays since 1948.
Radio Sweden broadcasts in English:
Europe and Africa:
15:00 hrs on 1179 khz (weekdays only)
16:15 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz
17:30 hrs on 1179, 6065, and 9645 kHz
20:30 hrs on 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz
21:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 khz, and
22:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz
Middle East and East Africa:
15:00 hrs on 15190 kHz and
17:30 hrs on 15270 kHz
Asia and the Pacific:
12:30 hrs on 15240 and 21500 kHz
22:30 hrs on 11910 kHz and
01:00 hrs on 9695 and 11820 kHz
North America:
15:00 hrs on 15240 and 21500 kHz and
02:00 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz
South America:
00:00 hrs on 9695 kHz
The broadcasts at 12:30, 16:15, 17:30, 20:30 (weekends only), 21:30, and
22:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe by satellite:
Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) transponder 26 (Sky Movies Gold/TV Asia/Adult
Channel) at 11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.74 MHz,
Tele-X (5 degrees East) (TV4 transponder) at 12.207 GHz, audio subcarrier
7.38 MHz.
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283,
from Internet, MCI Mail or CompuServe (to the CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516),
through the FidoNet system to 2:201/697 or to SM0IIN at the packet radio BBS
SM0ETV.
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, with the exception of items from BBC
Monitoring, which are copyright.
We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition, Sweden
Calling DXers, and our programs in general.
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Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening!