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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2206--Aug. 16, 1994 ::
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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 SCDX2206
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
TV4--Sweden's TV4 has left the Tele-X satellite, but remains on the new
Sirius satellite at the same position, 5 degrees East, on 11.938 GHz. Radio
Sweden has moved with it. TV 5 Nordic (or "Femman") remains on Tele-X.
SIRIUS--But that's not all that's happening at 5 degrees East. The Kinnevik
media empire, Scandinavia's answer to Rupert Murdoch, operates Swedish,
Norwegian, and Danish versions of its TV3 entertainment channel on the Astra
satellites, along with its pay film channel TV1000. An oldies film channel,
FilmMax, has been languishing way over at Intelsat 601 at 27 and a half
degrees West.
Until today, the music video channel Z-TV, the women's channel TV6, and the
shopping channel TV-G have been cable-only. But now Kinnevik is putting them,
FilmMax, and its TV3 service on Sirius.
In today's program (sadly not live on the Internet--see below) we interview
Peder Ramel, the head of Kinnevik's subsidiary Viasat, about what they're
doing. In brief:
TV3 Swedish, Z-TV, TV6, and TV-G are broadcasting in clear PAL on Sirius TV3
will continue to be on Astra as well). FilmMax is moving from Intelsat 602 to
Sirius, and remaining in coded D2-MAC.
The frequencies:
TV3 Sweden is on 11.785 GHz
TV6 and TV-G are sharing 11.862 GHz
FilmMax is on 12.015 GHz
Z-TV is on 12.092 GHz
Note that TV3 is only available in coded D2-MAC on Astra. Z-TV carries
"Saturday Night Live" and CBS' "David Letterman Show" weeknights.
Ironically, FilmMax is on the same frequency as competitor FilmNet on
neighboring Thor, with youth channel Z-TV on the same frequency as MTV on
Thor. Can it be a coincidence?
INTELSAT 702--There are other channels coming to the new Intelsat 702, which
has replaced Intelsat 515 at 1 degree West, and shares the position with
Norway's Thor satellite.
TV1000 is appearing on Intelsat 702 in coded D2-MAC, as is TV3 Norway,
apparently in clear PAL, and TV3 Denmark is coming later.
Some frequencies:
TV Norge continues on 11.016 GHz in clear PAL.
Swedish Television's channels 1 and 2 continue in coded D-MAC, but now
seem to be moving to 11.178 and 11.683 GHz.
Norway's TV2 is running a D2-MAC test pattern on 11.555 GHz, but will
begin regular encoded programming on August 22nd. The current service on the
Intelsat at 18 degrees West will end on September 16th (according to the
channel's Tele-text).
There are PAL test patterns on 11.038, 11.055, 11.080, and 11.095 GHz. And
Norway uses 11.500 GHz for occasional feeds. (Thanks to James Robinson for
helping monitor Intelsat 702.)
Other frequencies listed for this satellite include: 10.969, 11.133,
11.478, 11.540, and 11.579 GHz. Israeli Television will presumeably continue
to use two or three transponders, with an even narrower beam, making
reception outside the Middle East very difficult. (Bertil Sundberg in "Paa
TV")
TV1000--TV1000 caused a stir in the United States recently. Three nights a
week the station carries "A Thousand and One Nights", a series of
pornographic films, presented by Ylva Thompson, who often interviews erotic
personalities before introducing the films. Reportage on the program was
screened recently on an American cable channel, which led "The New York Post"
to denounce it as "The most repulsive thing ever broadcast on television."
("Aftonbladet")
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
(That from "The New York Post", owned by Rupert Murdoch, the man who gave the
world the page three naked lady. If you're interested in Mr. Murdoch's rise
to the media aristocracy, BBC World Service radio will repeat a half hour
program about him on Wednesday at 22:15 hrs. In two weeks there will be a
similar program about Ted Turner of CNN, also carried on Sunday the 28th at
02:30 and 16:15 hrs.)
VOX--In an interview with German news magazine "Der Spiegal" Rupert Murdoch
said that he aims to bring VOX into profit within three years. His plan
included introducing new strands of programming onto the channel including
children's programming, documentaries and game shows. He also revealed that
he is considering starting new channels for sport and children's TV onto the
German satellite and cable market. ("Tele Satellit" via Martyn Williams)
I still think Murdoch saved Vox from going off the air to keep NBC Super
Channel from getting an Astra transponder.
RADIO--Good news for DXers....Glenn Hauser's famous "World of Radio" program
is going to be carried on the World Radio Network, both here in Europe on
Astra (transponder 22, 7.38 MHz) on in North America on Galaxy 5 (transponder
6, 6.8 MHz), Saturdays at 16:00 hrs UTC.
Polish Radio is also joining the World Radio Network from September 1st.
Programs will be carried to both Europe and North America daily at 23:00 hrs
UTC. WRN is still lining up stations for its German service. (WRN)
There's a new station on the 7.38 subcarrier of the Travel Channel on
Intelsat 601. It's the Virgin Megastores in-store music station, called
Virgin FM, and not to be confused with Virgin 1215, which is on Astra.
Deutsche Welle's African service is now on the Deutsche Welle transponder on
Eutelsat II-F1, on 8.46 MHz, with English at 04:00 and 15:00 hrs UTC.
Radio Flanders International, besides its current home on the FilmNet
transponder 63 on Astra, is also going to use the TV5 Europe transponder on
Eutelsat II-F1, audio 7.92 MHz.
There are two new radio stations on the Show-TV transponder on Eutelsat II-
F2. Bust FM is a Turkish station on 7.38 and 7.56 MHz, while a Latin (or
perhaps Italian) Catholic religious station called Radio Maria International
is on 7.74 MHz, and also carries some progrmaming from Vatican Radio. (James
Robinson)
SDR3--Germany's SDR 3 is now on Astra, on ZDF's transponder 33, 7.38 and 7.56
MHz. (Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV")
TS-TV--TS-TV, the German language satellite program dedicated to the
satellite DXer, is moving to a new transponder, Eutelsat II-F2 at 10 degrees
East, on 11.141 GHz, vertical polarization. The transponder is widebeam, so
the program can now be received in wider areas of Europe.
The next transmission of TS-TV is on August 26th (Friday) with a repeat on
August 28th (Sunday). Transmission starts on both dates on 19:00 hours UTC.
Two highlights of the show: TS-TV features a newly developed way of moving
the LNC instead of the dish, and a also newly developed digital receiver for
the reception of very low signals. TS-TV has also started negotiations with
regular mainstream broadcasters to incorporate this special interest program
within their own fare.
Later transmissions of TS-TV are September 30th (repeat on October 2nd) and
October 28th (repeat October 30th), at 21.00 hours CET. ("Tele Satellit" via
Alexander Wiese and Martyn Williams)
TDRS--The C-band only TDRS satellite at 41 degrees West carried much World
Cup coverage from the United States to Europe. A test pattern remains on
4.040 GHz, reading "Teleport London International TX 1". (Bertil Sundberg in
"Paa TV")
FEEDS--Intelsat 601 and Intelsat-K are used to relay a number of sports
events, which by their nature do not occur on a regular basis. But there are
also regular feeds of programs from North America to Europe. For example,
"Entertainment Tonight" is carried on Intelsat-K Saturdays at 13:00 hrs UTC.
On at least one occasion, the link was closed a couple of minutes late, and
the beginning of the following feed from Paramount on Telstar 302, "Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine" made it through before Reuters pulled the plug.
(Back when NBC was still using Intelsat-K to feed Super Channel, I once
caught half an episode of "Sea Quest" before they turned off the feed.)
Anyone who encounters similar feeds is invited to pass the information along.
MIR--Video from MTV (but no noticiable sound) was recently relayed on the
Russian satellite at 16 degrees West, on 10.835 GHz, used to communicate with
the MIR space station. (Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV")
POLAND--PolSat, Poland's only private nationwide TV station, can continue
broadcasting, even though its licence has been suspended. On August 9th a
court suspended the licence, pending examination of 18 complaints filed by
rival stations which lost out to PolSat. But the following day the National
Broadcasting Council ruled the station can continue to use terrestrial
transmitters until the court issues a final ruling, expected in late
September. (AP)
PolSat began broadcasts in 1992, using Eutelsat II-F3 from the Netherlands.
SCPC--"Tele Satellit" news refers to a Dutch SCPC (single channel per
carrier) service on Eutelsat II-F1. This is the first time we've heard of
SCPC being used in Europe, although the system is very common in North
America. We'd be interested in any information about SCPC in Europe (although
the coming introduction of digital compression on satellite will probably
replace it).
ALBANIA--The Albanian news agency ATA has ended the relay of its English
service in RTTY on shortwave. (ATA via BBC Monitoring) This is a
disappointment, as ATA was one of the few remaining strong RTTY news
agencies.
AFRICAN MEDIA NEWS:
ALGERIA--Algerian Television is joining the other Arab broadcasters on
Eutelsat II-F3. There's a test pattern on 11.680 GHz announcing the service
is coming soon in French and English. Algerian Television broadcasts in
Arabic and French.
CHAD--Radiodifusion Nationale Tchadienne is currently observed via satellite
on the Intelsat at 1 degree West. The radio signal is in the single channel
per carrier (SCPC) mode on 3.860 GHz, with the audio at 70.8 MHz. (BBC
Monitoring)
MIDDLE EASTERN MEDIA NEWS:
TURKSAT--There are two new TV satellites in orbit. On August 10th an Ariane
rocket successfully launched Brazil's Brasilsat B1 and Turkey's Turksat 1-B.
The 22 transponder Turkish satellite follows the original Turksat that
crashed in a failed Ariane launch in January. Hopefully when it is position
at 42 degrees East and operational, at the end of September, it will gather
together some of the 9 Turkish channels currently carried on 4 different
Eutelsats, and the 4 Turkish TRT broadcasts to Central Asia currently carried
on Intelsat 604. It's also intended to relay Western European broadcasters to
Turkey. (Reuters and AFP)
CNN started on Eutelsat I-F4 after the failure of the first Turksat. CNN has
booked a transponder on the new satellite.
The next Ariane launch, flight 67, is scheduled for September 8 and should
carry the American satellite Telsat 402. ("Tele Satellit" via Martyn
Williams)
ORBIT--The 7 channel Arabic Orbit package in digital MPEG in the C-band on
Arabsat 1D is also being relayed to Intelsat 602 at 62 degrees East in the
Ku-band on 11.515 GHz. Apparently the service is to be marketed to Europe,
but decoders are said to cost around USD 4000, not to mention the monthly
charge! (Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV") Of course the Arabic version of BBC
World Service Television is still carried in the clear via Eutelsat I-F4 on
11.660 GHz.
ARABSAT--The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) has bought
another used satellite from Telesat Canada. The new satellite, Anik D1, would
replace the satellite Arabsat bought from Telesat in 1993. In March this year
this satellite, now known as Arabsat 1D, ran into trouble, and started
consuming more fuel than it should.
The current fuel will last 10 more months. The new satellite will start
orbiting over the Arab world in early 1995. In early 1996, the first of two
new satellites that Arabsat has ordered from the French company Aerospatiale
will be launched. (Reuters)
ASIAN MEDIA NEWS:
APSTAR VS. PAS--Ted Turner is planning to launch his non-stop cartoon and
movie channel, TNT and the Cartoon Network, to Asia starting October 6th on
China's new Apstar-1 satellite. But because of the controversy over Apstar,
which has taken an orbital position wedged too close in between two other
satellites, and China's attitude towards censorship, a number of Apstar
broadcasters are also booking transponders on the new PAS-2 satellite, which
has the advantage of being reached directly by uplinks from North America.
It begins service on August 23rd, and Turner Broadcasting, MTV, Discovery,
ESPN, Country Music Television, and Home Box Office have booked transponders.
(Reuters, AP, and "Tele Satellit" via Martyn Williams)
SEGA--Sega Digital Communications has decided to distribute computer software
by cable television networks in Southeast Asia. Operations will begin within
the yearin Taiwan and South Korea, expanded in stages throughout the entire
region. Details of cost structures have not been released. (Satnews")
KAZAKHSTAN--Kazakh Radio is now broadcasting in Korean at 15:00-15:20 hrs and
German at 15:20-15:40 hrs, on 900, 5035, 5915, and 6135 kHz. (Radio Japan
"Media Roundup" via BBC Monitoring)
UZBEKISTAN--Radio Tashkent, the external service of Uzbek Radio, has been
heard in German at 19:30-20:00 and 21:00-21:30 hrs on 9540, 9545, and 11905
kHz. Radio Tashkent has not been heard to broadcast in German before. (BBC
Monitoring)
NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
DIRECTV--The second US DBS satellite for the new DirecTV service was been
successfully launched by an Atlas IIA rocket from NASA's Cape Canaveral
launch site on August 4th. When the new satellite comes on stream the 2
satellite system will be able to offer around 150 digital channels. ("Tele
Satellit" via Martyn Williams and "Satnews")
LATIN AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
BRASILSAT--Brasilsat B1, launched on August 10th, is to relay 28 C-band
transponders to Latin America, from 70 degrees West. (AFP)
COUNTRY MUSIC TELEVISION--Besides new broadcasts to Asia, CMT will be booking
a transponder on PAS-1 for broadcasts to Latin America. It should be
available by early 1995. (AP)
GLOBAL MEDIA NEWS:
WOODSTOCK--This past weekend saw a couple of fairly important media events.
The one with the highest profile was the Woodstock 94 rock festival,
commemorating the 25th anniversary of the original Woodstock Festival. Here
in Scandinavia Woodstock 94 was available on the pay channel TV1000 (and
apparently to Germany via Premier, but none of the British stations seem to
have carried it), but anyone with a motorized dish could watch the festival
in the clear.
Woodstock 94 was carried on the Intelsat-K satellite on 11.498 GHz,, round-
the-clock, with the off-period Sunday filled with highlights from Saturday.
The broadcast used an unusual stereo pair: 6.63 and 7.40 MHz
CYBERSPACE--But there was another media event during the weekend, less
heralded, but perhaps more important in the long run. On Sunday afternoon,
the BBC Radio Five Live "Big Byte" computer program was carried not only on
satellite and medium wave, also experimentally as a live sound feed on the
Internet, the global network of computer networks that's turning into the
information superhighway.
There are already a few other sources of radio sound on the Net. Canada's CBC
puts some of its programs, such as "Quirks and Quarks" out. And there's
Internet Talk Radio, which produces 60 to 90 minutes a day available for the
downloading. The service also relays a couple of programs from National
Public Radio, such as "Tech-Nation."
But this seems to be the first time a program has gone out on the Net in
real-time, and is a taste of the future, when we may be able to tune into
dozens of radio outlets from our desktop computers, listening on speakers
while we use the computers for other tasks as well.
We'll have another report on Sweden and the Internet in our program "Horizon"
on August 25th.
SPECIAL FEATURE (from "Tele Satellit" via Martyn Williams):
by Gene Reich, VOA Washington
For nearly seventy years, international radio broadcasters have used
shortwave to reach their audiences. Shortwave is wonderfully suited to this
purpose, because it can span oceans and continents, thus making it possible
for international broadcasters to reach a vast number of listeners, but
shortwave has serious shortcomings as a broadcast medium: it is not totally
reliable, it is prone to interference, and the sound quality of shortwave is
poor as compared to other radio services. New technology is offering an
alternative: direct broadcast of radio programs from satellites. A small
Washington-based company called Worldspace is working with an industry giant
to make satellite radio a reality.
Worldspace is a small company. Founded in 1990, it has only fifteen staff
members, all of whom work from a compact suite of offices in downtown
Washington. Though Worldspace is small, its ambitions are truly global. The
company's goal is to place three satellites in orbit, which would broadcast
radio programs directly to listeners in Africa, Asia and South America.
The Worldspace plan, while technically feasible, represents a huge endeavor.
To develop this new system, the company must work for the creation of both
new satellites and a new kind of radio receiver, but Worldspace is not alone
in this project. Over the past year it has enjoyed the assistance of a
leading manufacturer of electronics and communications devices, Motorola.
Patrick Jeffers is a senior systems engineer at Motorola. In designing the
Worldspace system -- especially the new type of radio receiver, he says it's
essential to concentrate on cost and simplicity "It's important from VOA's
standpoint and all international broadcasters that when you deploy a new
system, you want your listeners to be able to listen to it. So we need to
architect [design] the system to have a viable, low-cost radio product for
the consumer. The other thing -- more from a business standpoint -- is you
need to be first to the market and that says that you need to use existing
technology that is currently off-the-shelf".
Specifically, the goal is to design satellite radio receivers which would
cost around one hundred dollars and furthermore, these receivers -- not to
mention the satellites themselves -- would be fashioned from
currently-available, so-called "off-the-shelf technology." Is this really
possible?
"Most definitely. We have been quite heavily looking at the radio cost --
that's the number one priority for the system and we've [designed] and made
changes to the system to insure that we can deliver a viable, low-cost radio
product to the market. The technology has been available for years in terms
of the digital broadcast. A lot of CD quality -- for instance, CD discs,
disc-players and so forth -- use the same basic technology and all that we're
doing new is being able to broadcast that directly from a geostationary
satellite."
That satellite in geostationary orbit -- thirty-five thousand, eight hundred
eighty kilometers above the equator -- would broadcast signals to be received
by a flat antenna about the same size as a standard audio cassette box, how
is this possible? After all, not so long ago it took huge dish antennas to
receive satellite transmissions but Motorola senior systems engineer Patrick
Jeffers says satellite technology has come a long way since its early days:
"The early satellites that were deployed had very limited size, weight and
power aboard the space craft, and as technology has evolved, you're able to
use more power, transmit more power aboard the spacecraft, than what was
feasible in the early days."
Mr Jeffers says the Worldspace system will employ satellites powerful enough
to transmit radio programs to the new portable receivers. Of course, right
now the entire Worldspace system of direct satellite audio broadcasting --
known in the industry as DAB -- exists only on the drawing board. but
Motorola's Patrick Jeffers says he has no doubt this system will work:
"Complete confidence. The technology is there. It's already been developed.
All we have to do is to configure it and implement in the DAB system to
support Worldspace."
Worldspace calls its new receiver the "Starman."
"In a sense, this new receiver is going to be all of what we know about
radio, but a bit more."
Noah Samara is the founder and chief executive officer of Worldspace:
"First of all, it would be like all of radio in that it would receive all
kinds of audio programming as do your normal radio receivers... except that
this radio would receive audio signals with a much better clarity, primarily
because of the transmission mode."
To broadcast its signals, the Worldspace system will use digital modulation,
a technique which is much less prone to noise, distortion and interference
than current broadcasting methods and this digital technology will enable the
new radio to receive more than just sound. The "Starman," will contain a
display window for text messages. This display, for instance, could tell
listeners the title of the song being broadcast as well as the artist
performing it but Mr Samara says the starman's display has even more
capabilities:
"Additionally, the radio will also be able to receive individual messaging
types of signals. So each radio is going to be individually addressable --
much like a telephone or paging device, we can send a signal to our radio,
and not to any other radios, or to several radios, but not to all the radios
that exist."
Noah Samara is the founder and chief executive officer of Worldspace. He and
the officers of Motorola are confident that direct satellite radio is
technically feasible. Whether this system becomes a reality, they say, has
more to do with business and market factors than technology. In any event, Mr
Samara says, Worldspace hopes to overcome these hurdles and launch its first
satellite over Africa in 1997.
PUBLICATIONS:
SATNEWS--The listserv to subscribe to "Satnews" has changed. Those interested
in subscribing should send E-mail to:
satnews-request@mrrl.lut.ac.uk
with the word "subscribe" (no quotes) in the mail body text. ("Satnews")
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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:
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 6155 and 9850 kHz
South America:
00:30 hrs on 6065 and 9810 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) at
11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.74 MHz,
Tele-X and Sirius (5 degrees East) via TV5 Nordic at 12.475 GHz and TV4 on
11.938 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 Galaxy-5,
on WTBS's transponder 6, audio 6.8 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 the
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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