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Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 10:57:41 -0700
Message-ID: <$scdx2196.1994@ampr.org>
From: p00489@psilink.com (Terry Stader)
Subject: SCDX 2196
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2196--March 15, 1993 ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2196
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL--When the new Radio Sweden schedule goes into effect
on March 27th, Radio Sweden is also officially launching Stockholm
International on our FM transmitter on 89.6 MHz. The head of the Radio Sweden
English Service, Sarah Roxstrom, discussed Stockholm International in today's
edition of "MediaScan". For those of you who missed the program...
The channel currently carries a motley collection of programming from Radio
Sweden in various languages (English, German, Russian, Swedish, Estonian, and
Latvian), the immigrant programs department in many languages (Finnish,
Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Assyrian, Spanish, Turkish,
Polish, Albanian, and Arabic), and from domestic radio. Sarah Roxstrom:
"The idea now is to give this channel a new profile, more as a service to
foreign visitors. This would mean extending the English and probably German
programming. At the moment we broadcast an hour of the BBC World Service
every morning between 6:00 and 7:00 AM local time. That's half an hour of
"Newshour" at the moment, and half an hour of "Europe Today".
"From the 27th of March we're going to be broadcasting an hour and a half of
"Morning Edition" from National Public Radio every day between 13:00 and
14:30 local time. That will be followed by the regular half hour from Radio
Sweden in English. Because we're a local station, concentrating on Sweden and
the other Nordic countries, we want to give our listeners the chance to hear
world news from the BBC and from NPR."
When Sweden introduces Digital Audio Broadcasting, scheduled for 1995,
Stockholm International will be one of the national channels in the DAB
stream.
WORLD RADIO NETWORK--We're getting National Public Radio through the World
Radio Network, which provides satellite channels in Europe and North America
for international broadcasters in English, including Radio Sweden. WRN's Karl
Miosga was also in today's program, where he announced that WRN is changing
its audio subcarrier on Astra. The transponder will remain MTV's transponder
22, but on April 1 the audio will officially shift from 7.74 to 7.38 MHz.
Tests will begin on the new audio frequency on around March 25th. The change
is because many older satellite receivers don't reach 7.74 MHz audio.
Besides Stockholm International, WRN programming is also carried over Radio
Finland's Capital FM in Helsinki on 103.7 MHz. In addition to Radio Finland,
Capital FM rebroadcasts NPR and Radio Australia from WRN, as well as VOA,
Deutsche Welle, and Radio France International. Cable systems in Europe
relaying WRN include one in Croydon in the UK, and systems in Amsterdam and
Dublin will be adding WRN at the end of March.
In North America a number of public radios stations will be carrying WRN
programming.
Back here in Europe, WRN is working on adding a German service.
RADIO SWEDEN--When our new Radio Sweden schedule goes into effect on March
27th, we'll be available via WRN in Europe on MTV's Astra transponder 22,
audio soon to be 7.38 MHz, at 20:00 hrs UTC, and to North America on the ASC-
1 satellite, on SCOLA's transponder 23, audio 6.2 MHz, at 20:00 and 00:00 hrs
UTC.
We'll also continue to be available in Europe on our own Astra channel, on
the Sky Movies Gold transponder number 26, audio 7.74 MHz, at 16:15, 17:30,
21:30, and 22:30 hrs UTC and weekends at 20:30 hrs.
For those of you listening on shortwave, we'll be on the air to Europe at
those times on 1179 and 6065 kHz, along with 9655 and 15390 kHz at 17:30, and
9655 kHz at 21:30 hrs. The 17:30 and 20:30 hrs broadcasts should also be
audible in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Our North American schedule will be at 12:30 and 13:30 hrs on 15240 and 17870
kHz and at 02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 6040 and 9850 kHz.
Latin American listeners can tune in at midnight 30 hours on 6065 and 9850
kHz.
We'll be broadcasting to Asia and the Pacific at 11:30 hrs on 13775, 15120,
and 15240 kHz, at 23:30 hrs on 11910 kHz, and at 01:30 hrs on 9695 and 11695
kHz.
SIRIUS--Sweden's new Sirius satellite has begun testing from its new position
alongside the Tele-X satellite at 5 degrees East. Sweden's TV 4, which is
regularly on Tele-X, is also being relayed, as a test, on Sirius, on 11.932
GHz. And the Tele-X sound carriers, including Radio Sweden, are along as
well. There have been tests in PAL on 12.015 GHz, and now there's a D2-MAC
test pattern on 12.092 GHz.
Speculation continues about what stations may appear on Sirius. Can the
Swedish Space Corporation lure Scansat to move its various TV3 and TV1000
channels from Astra? (Which would undoubtedly anger many Scandinavian Astra
dish owners.) Bertil Sundberg speculates in "Paa TV" magazine that Scansat's
FilmMax might consider moving from its location on distant Intelsat 601.
The feared interference between Sirius and Norway's Thor, located nearby at 1
degree West, and using the same frequencies, has not appeared (at least on my
1.2 meter dish, there might be more of a problem on smaller dishes).
FINLAND--All local radio licences in Finland are up for renewal this year.
There are plans to build networks, and the national commercial TV network MTV
(NOT the American music video network) has applied for a national radio
licence. Currently Finland has no national commercial radio. (Kauto Huopio
and FNB)
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
RADIO--There's a proposal for a new instore radio service for McDonalds. So
far there's no indication where it might appear. But a radio station
scheduled to appear on the CMT transponder on Intelsat 601 on 7.38 MHz has
been delayed until May. It could be for McDonalds. (James Robinson)
There's a new radio station called "Arabic Radio" on MBC's transponder on
Eutelsat II-F1, on 7.38 and 7.56 MHz. (James Robinson)
A radio station called "N-joy" is scheduled to begin on Premiere's Astra
transponder 17 on 7.38 and 7.56 Mhz on April 4th at 16:44 hrs local time.
(James Robinson)
CNN--CNN has appeared with a strong signal at 21.5 degrees East on 11.095
GHz. (Spyros Abatielos, Greece) Very curious. Eutelsat I-F5 is in this
position, in an inclined orbit. Anyone else find this transmission?
ARIANE--The failure of the Ariane 63 launch, carrying the Turksat 1 and
Eutelsat II-F5 satellites, was due to cooling problems and a faulty bearing.
Alterations to equipment are now underway to prevent the re-occurence of such
a problem, but this will mean that this year's launch schedule will not
resume until the beginning of June.
This means that Astra 1D will not launch until December this year as a result
of the Airane problems. The satellite was originally set for a September
launch, but this will now not happen, putting a spanner in the works of a
number of broadcasters who were counting on a successful launch on-time.
It is reported that all available transponders on Astra 1D have already been
booked, although further details are yet to emerge. ("Skyguide")
QVC--The home shopping channel QVC, having lost its bid to buy Paramount in
the US, is now said to be planning to expand into European markets.
Clarification of the legal situation would, however, be required from the
European Union. The current position is that teleshopping channels are
prohibited unless they broadcast to one member state only. ("Skyguide")
QVC is currently part of the Sky Multi-Channels package. There are those who
wonder why on earth such a channel bothers to scramble its signals?
NO NICK--Unconfirmed reports suggest that Sky and Viacom have dropped plans
to launch Nick At Nite, advertised as part of the Sky Multi-channels package.
Earlier reports suggested that the channel had been delayed due to problems
with program rights and acquisitions.
In the event that the channel is dropped, at least for 1994, it is likely
that the Travel Channel, already broadcasting on Intelsat 601, will be
offered time on Astra and will join the multi-channels package to replace
Nick at Nite.
In this event, the only apparent spare time is the 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM British
time on JSTV's transponder 24, or the currently vacant (and Sky-owned)
Transponder 47, which could be a more likely option. (Transponder 24 is now
showing a new Astra promo tape in several languages during the spare hours.)
The Travel Channel currently broadcasts midday to midnight on Intelsat, so
while there is enough time available on transponder 24 to carry the channel
in its entirety, the time-shift could be a problem for the channel.
("Skyguide")
CHINESE CHANNEL--The Chinese Channel has announced that it will launch its
European service on Astra on March 18, although it refuses to tell anyone
which transponder it will launch on. ("Skyguide")
SKY SPORTS--Sky has temporarily shelved plans for Sky Sports Two (again) by
transferring football matches which clash with the current West Indies
cricket coverage to Sky One. The move is partially for technical reasons,
namely the difficulty in getting viewers to re-tune their receivers, but
primarily for marketing reasons. The soccer matches on Sky One are achieving
very respectable ratings, and is
likely to bring an increased number of new subscribers to Sky Sports.
("Skyguide")
SKY FREEBIES--While the soccer is screened on Sky One, all the Sky
Multi-channels broadcast in soft videocrypt mode, so a viewing card is not
required. Again, this is partially for technical reasons (there are some Sky
Sports subscribers who do not take multichannels), but also with the
marketing intention of capturing the die-hard viewers who have not taken up a
subscription to multichannels. ("Skyguide")
SKY MOVIES FREEBIES--Sky's promised preview weekend for non-movie
subscribers, delayed from its original date in February, has now been
announced for the weekend of April 9 and 10. The previous attempt had to be
cancelled due to the objections of several major movie distributors.
Presumably these difficulties have been ironed out, since Sky intends to
"give away" a number of major movies in the April weekend, including Wayne's
World, Cape Fear, Lethal Weapon 3, Alien 3, Edward Scissorhands and Star Trek
6. Sky Movies Gold will apparently not be included in the promotion.
("Skyguide")
INTELSAT--United Artists, provider of a number of television channels for the
cable television industry in the UK, has announced that it will cease its
conventional PAL broadcasts of Wire TV and The Parliamentary Channel in May,
in favor of a digitally compressed service.
The channels will share just one transponder on Intelsat 601, thus saving UA
some GBP 1.2 million a year in transponder and uplink rental. While cable
operators will have no trouble obtaining suitable digital decompression
equipment, (UA would be able to afford to give it away since it is saving so
much money on transponder rental) home viewers are likely to be very much
left out in the cold. ("Skyguide") Wire TV is already broadcasting coded,
using the SAVE system, and shares its current transponder with the Learning
Channel.
EURONEWS--Euronews, the troubled pan-European news channel, is in danger of
being closed down because of spiralling costs and dwindling
viewer levels. The channel faces impending competition from a news service
planned by TF1. TF1 is to launch its news channel on June 24th. Jean-Pierre
Elkabbach, chairman of France Television, has held initial talks with ARD in
Germany. France Television said that ARD should invest in the channel and
provide German-language news material. Discussions have also been held with
RAI in Italy to operate on a similar basis. ("Satnews")
EUROPEAN CABLE TV ALLIANCE--A major pan-European cable television joint
venture has been formed by Philips Media and United International Holdings
Inc. An agreement in principle has been made to operate pan-European cable
television services.
Philips currently has cable TV interests in Germany, the Netherlands,
Belgium, France and Austria, and United has interests in Norway, Sweden,
Ireland, Hungary and Malta. Cable services belonging to United in Israel will
also be brought into the venture.
Out of the combined cable services, more than 1.5 million of the 2.5 million
homes that are passed for service are connected and paying monthly
subscriptions. The joint venture will be the largest privately-owned,
multi-channel subscription TV company in Europe.
The alliance, subject to regulatory approval, will be concluded
by the autumn. ("Satnews")
UKRAINE--A weekly 50 minute program from the Ukraine will be carried every
Friday via the Ghorizont at 11 degrees West. This has been monitored between
22:50 and 23:42 hrs following OITV programming from Ostankino Channel 1 TV
from Moscow on C-band 3675 MHz. (BBC Monitoring)
NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
INTERACTIVE TV--A well-publicised trial of futuristic cable television
services has been delayed by Time Warner for six months as the technology is
still not ready.
A spokesman for Time Warner Cable said that a trial of interactive television
will be delayed until October at the earliest in Orlando. The planned Full
Service Network trial is delayed due to refinements within the set-top
control box and network computer software. But the company believes that it
will still be providing service to more than 4,000 homes by the year-end, and
80 percent of its 7.8 million customers by 1998.
While Time Warner delays its service, AT&T, TCI and US West are extending an
existing trial of Viewer-Controlled Cable TV until the end of June, adding a
range of new features in a bid to gauge user feedback. The companies said
that a number of operational changes will be made to the pay-per-view and
video-on-demand cable television
service.
One of the new services will be a personal intermission service, whereby a
customer can halt a video programme for 15 minutes at a time, rejoining the
programme on another channel later. New programming will also be added to
the service to assess whether customers are influenced by greater programming
and technology changes. Trials of the network have been ongoing since 1992.
("Satnews")
LATIN AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
RADIO--The first Christian radio network via satellite in Latin America,
ALAS, will soon begin technical tests, using an Intelsat 6 satellite
(presumeably C-band on Intelsat 601 at 27.5 degrees West or Intelsat 605 at
24.5 degrees West). (HCJB via BBC Monitoring) Previous reports have indicated
ALAS would use digital encryption, unfortunately denying HCJB reception to
TVRO owners in the Americas.
ASIAN MEDIA NEWS:
INDIA--All India Radio is planning to introduce 20 radio channels, via 5
transponders on Insat 2B. Twelve of these channels will be earmarked for
regional languages. (BBC Monitoring)
PUBLICATIONS:
The new edition of Radio Sweden's booklet "Communciations in Space: The DXers
Guide to the Galaxy" is now available free of charge. Just write to Radio
Sweden, S-105 10 Stockholm, Sweden. You can also send a fax. After the
international access code from your country, the number is: 468-667-6283.
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Sweden Calling DXers 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 (beginning Mar. 27):
Europe and Africa:
16:15 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz
17:30 hrs on 1179, 6065, 9655, and 15390 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 Africa:
17:30 hrs on 6065, 9655, and 15390 kHz
20:30 hrs on 6065 and 9655 kHz
Asia and the Pacific:
11:30 hrs on 13775, 15120, and 15240 kHz
23:30 hrs on 11910 kHz and
01:30 hrs on 9695 and 11695 kHz
North America:
12:30 and 13:30 hrs on 15240 and 17870 kHz
02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 6040 and 9850 kHz
South America:
00:30 hrs on 6065 and 9850 kHz
The broadcasts at 16:15, 17:30, 21:30, and 22:30 hrs (and weekends at 20:30)
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.
Radio Sweden is also relayed to Europe via the World Radio Network on MTV's
transponder 22 on Astra, audio 7.38 MHz, daily at 20:00 hrs UTC.
Radio Sweden can also be heard on WRN's North American service on ASC-1, on
SCOLA's transponder 23, audio 6.20 MHz, daily at 00:00 and 20:00 hrs.
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283,
from MCI Mail or CompuServe to the CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516, from
Internet to 70247.3516@compuserve.com, 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!