From WOOD@stab.sr.se
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 17:20:33 +0100
From: George Wood <WOOD@stab.sr.se>
To: thomas@acat.oden.tips.se, andy.sennitt@almac.co.uk, ab5sm@netcom.com,
hermod.pedersen@swedx.ct.se, kauto.huopio@lut.fi, kenta@sr.se,
ar416@freenet.buffalo.edu, bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk,
tstader@aol.com, satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk, 100121.655@compuserve.com,
71163.1735@compuserve.com, 70630.560@compuserve.com,
100113.1517@compuserve.com, 76703.407@compuserve.com,
3382983@mcimail.com, 2446376@mcimail.com, jpdonnio@dialup.francenet.fr
Subject: scdx2212.asc
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2212--Nov. 15, 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 SCDX2212
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
VISION 94--The Vision media shows are held every four years at the Stockholm
Fairs center, south of the city. The latest incarnation, Vision 94, was held
last week, and was a bit of a disappointment. True, all the halls were
filled, but that was because there were parallel shows on car stereo and
hobbies. And even in the main hall, I thought the exhibits were a lot less
crowded together than last time. And this time between a quarter and a third
of the hall was devoted to home computing, with stands where you could buy
the latest CD-ROMs, games, or hardware upgrades.
We've reported previously about the competition between the Swedish
satellites at 5 degrees East and the Norwegian satellites at 1 degree West,
and how the whole thing was resolved a few months ago when the Kinnevik media
empire installed a number of its channels at both positions, creating a a
dual Nordic satellite presence offering
no less than 17 channels.
Norway's Thor satellite offers a number of popular European channels, but
initially in an obscure standard called D-MAC, used no where outside of
Norway. Some months ago the Norwegians gave in and switched to the more
common D2-MAC standard. But they have continued to encode those channels in
an even more obscure scrambling system called Eurocrypt S, and not the
Eurocrypt M used by other European D2-MAC broadcasters.
Recently we were told by Kinnevik's subsidiary Viasat that they were taking
over the distribution of the Thor channels from the Norwegian company CTV,
and that Eurocrypt M would be introduced. Well, one of the exhibitors at
Vision 94 was CTV, and as we heard in today's program from their Marketing
Director, Jan Tengstroem, not only are they still in business, they are also
still insisting on the scrambling system virtually no one outside of Norway
has.
He also mentions Multichoice, which is also supposed to be taking care of
subscriptions outside of Britain for many of the Sky Multichannels programs.
Multichoice has maintained a very low profile here in Sweden. They exhibited
at Vision 94, but just two services: FilmNet for home dish owners, and a
variety of channels for small cable networks. Not a word about other Astra
channels for direct to home viewing.
ASTRA--The new Astra 1D satellite went into orbit the day before the show
opened. So far Astra has been unusually quiet about the programs on the new
satellite, and at the Astra stand at the show they didn't want to say
anything either.
We've had one report on an Astra 1D broadcaster. TV Asia will apparently be
moving to transponder 53, at 10.773 GHz. It currently broadcasts part of the
day on transponder 26, home of Sky Movies Gold, which means that British Sky
Broadcasting will be able to use the transponder 24 hours in the future. TV
Asia also broadcasts evenings and nights on Nickelodeon's transponder 46, so
something else can go there, possibly the long promised Nick at Nite service,
or the Science Fiction Channel. (James Robinson)
BBC WS TV--Eutelsat was another exhibitor at Vision 94. There have been
various reports about when BBC World Service Television's 24 hour news
channel would begin in Eutelsat II-F1. At the Eutelsat exhibit they
said programming wouldn't start until the new year.
The transponder in question, 11.617 GHz, is currently carrying the BBC's
Arabic service. According to one report, tests of the English news service
will take over on December 1st, with the official start of the channel on
January 1st. (James Robinson)
NORDSTRAND'S TV CHANNEL--Some months ago we interviewed the head of the
private terrestrial Swedish TV channel TV4, Bjoern Nordstrand, about a
satellite "scrap" channel he wanted to start after the Swedish elections,
offering programming from TV4's archives.
The election has come and gone, and Bjoern Nordstrand has also gone from TV4.
But he announced recently that we wants to help Sweden's Bonniers publishing
group start a new satellite channel. On the other hand, Bonniers say they
have no plans to start satellite broadcasting. (TV3 and "Dagens Nyheter")
SWEDISH PRIVATE RADIO--The victory of the Social Democrats in the elections
means Sweden has a new Minister of Culture, Margot Wallstroem, who wants to
immediately stop the system of auctioning off broadcast radio frequencies to
the highest bidder. The system, introduced by the previous Conservative-led
government, has resulted in many stations all playing the same pop music
formats, desparately fighting for market shares, and trying to raise enough
money to pay their very high licence fees.
The new Cultural Minister has called off the auction planned for this month
in 11 towns. There were 159 applications for the 22 licences. Referring to
the highest bidder arrangement as selling freedom of speech, she has proposed
changing the system to take into account proposals for station formats.
("Pressens Tidning")
Even though the commercial radio law forbids networking, a number of
interests won franchises in several cities. Now two of the largest,
the French-owned Radio Energy, and Radio Rix, are working together, creating
Sweden's largest private radio network, with 19 stations, although a number
are in the same towns. Energy, which has 6 stations, is most popular in large
cities, while Rix has most of its listeners in smaller communities.
("Pressens Tidning")
DENMARK--The Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio says ut ubtebds ti
launch a satellite channel by mid-1996. ("What Satellite TV") Denmark is the
only Nordic country refusing to take part in a proposed Nordic satellite
channel.
FINLAND--The Kinnevik media empire is reportedly buying into the commercial
radio market in Finland. Kinnevik already has radio interests in Sweden,
Denmark, and Norway. According to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Kinnek
owns 49 percent of the local Finnish station Radio Syke, which
is one of the four applicants for Finland's first national commercial radio
network. (NORD and Kauto Huopio)
NORWAY--Norway's public broadcaster NRK is adding a second TV channel. But,
NRK 2 is intended to broadcast on satellite and cable only, which means that
initially only 40 percent of Norwegians will be able to watch. NRK is hoping
for an explosion in satellite viewing, to cover 98 percent of the Norwegian
population. The rival commercial channel TV2, is objecting to the plan to put
NRK 2 on satellite only. ("Arbeiderbladet" and NTB)
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
ASTRA--The Astra 1D satellite will be testing for a while at 14.5 degees
East, before moving to its final location at 19 degrees East in mid-December.
(James Robinson)
DISNEY--Following reports that Walt Disney will be starting a German joint
venture family channel to Europe next year (on the Eutelsat Hot Bird
satellite), comes a story that Disney may actually also be starting an
English language subscription channel, possibly as early as next Spring.
"We've been talking to several program packagers, including Sky, about the
possiblity of launching a joint venture Disney channel in the UK," says a
Disney spokesman, who adds "We're a long way down the road."
Disney pulled out of a similar venture with Sky 5 years ago because of over-
optimistic viewership predictions. ("What Satellite TV") (What about English-
speakers in the rest of Europe?)
DIRECTV--Hughes Communications, operator of the American DBS service DirecTV,
has revealed that it may launch a European digital DBS service in 1995,
possibly in the Summer. It would be targeted at countries thought to be badly
served by existing pay-TV operators, primarily Spain, Italy, and in Eastern
Europe. Around 20 or 30 digitally compressed channels would be offered at
firszt, mostly showing films on a video-nearly-on-demand basis. It seems that
agreements with all the top Hollywood studios (except Murdoch's Fox) have
already been reached. ("What Satellite TV")
SHOWTIME--Viacom has indicated it wishes to launch a European version of its
classic film channel Showtime, possibly in 1995. ("What Satellite TV")
This could also replace the planned Sci-Fi Channel on Eutelsat II-F1, if
talks with Sky are successful and the Sci-Fi Channel goes to Astra 1D.
("Tele-Satellit" via Curt Swinehart)
GERMANY--The European Commission has blocked a German pay-TV joint venture
between three major companies, on the grounds that it would harm competition
in the European Union. At stake was a venture called the Media Service GmbH
(MSG) in which media giant Bertelsmann AG, Bavarian media mogul Leo Kirch,
and the state telephone company Deutsche Bundesport Telekom pooled efforts on
the making of decoders and administrative services such as customer billing.
The Commission heard a total of 12 competitors on the issue, 7 of which were
German. They included the Luxembourh media giant CLT, the French pay-TV
operator Canal Plus, the French private channel TF1, and the American
television giant Time Warner. (Reuters)
MURDOCH REVEALED--The editor of Britain's best selling upmarket Sunday
newspaper says he is to quit Rupert Murdoch's media empire and write a book
about his years working for the Australian-born tycoon.
Andrew Neil, has been editor of the "Sunday Times" for 11 years. He recently
signed on to work as executive editor for a planned weekly news show on
Murdoch's US-based Fox Television Network. When Fox changed it to a nightly
format, Neil decided to leave. (Reuters)
RUSSIA--A small London-based company called International Network Television
(INT) says it is launching a new national TV channel in Russia on december
31. To be called TV3 Russia, it will be a 15 hour a day entertainment
channel, including films, chat shows, morning programs, and children's
television modelled on Western TV. It will broadcast initially to 100
mimllion Russians via satellite and terrestrially. By the end of 1995 INT
hopes to reach the entire Russian population of 150 million. (Reuters)
ASIAN/PACIFIC MEDIA NEWS:
PACIFIC CENTURY--Richard Li, younger son of Hong Kong billionarie Li Ka-
shing, has challenged traditional telecom providers by announcing ambitious
plans to link companies doing business in Asia via satellite. Li's Singapore-
based Pacific Century Group plans to link Asian branches of companies,
providing phone, fax, data, and even video communications through satellite
links.
He also plans to tackle corporate markets in North Africa, Eastern Europe,
and Australasia from next year.
Li's service will use satellite operated by Asiasat, which is equally owned
by Hutchison Whampoa, which is controlled by his father, and Britain's Cable
and Wireless. Among the companies who have signed up are Sweden's IKEA
furniture company. (Reuters)
AUSTRALIA--Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and the state-owned
telecommunications giant Telstra Corp have formed an Australian pay TV joint
venture. Due to start in 1995, they hope it will reach 4 million homes by
1999 with movies, news, sports, music, games, children's entertainment, and
ethnic community programs. The venture is to take programs from News Corp's
American film studio Twentieth Century Fox and from British Sky Broadcasting
in Europe and Star-TV in Asia. (Reuters)
APSTAR--Sony is to lease a channel on Apstar-2, due to be launched next year,
to deliver movies and music to cable operators in Asia. ("What Satellite TV")
JAPAN--In a concession to competing systems being developed in the United
States and Europe, Japan has decided to convert its high definition
television broadacsts to digital by 1999. This means abandoning Japan's Hi-
Vision analog HDTV system several years earlier than planned. (AP)
GLOBAL MEDIA NEWS:
MPEG--Meeting in Singapore, the International Standards Orgznization and the
International Electrotechnical Commission have approved the MPEG-2 digital
video system as a standard. Broadcasters are already using the MPEG-1 system
(for example several Spanish stations use it on the Intelsat-K satellite, and
it's also found in many recent computer multimedia applications). One version
of MPEG-2 was approved by the 100 electronics companies and broadcasters
making up Europe's Digital Video Broadcasting Group for satellite
broadcasting in December, 1993. Another variation was approved for cable in
January, 1994. The DVB committee expects to agree on an MPEG-2 standard for
terrestrial broadcasting before the end of this year.
While MPEG-1, which requires transmission rates of 3 to 6 Mbit/s, is used for
movie compact disks, MPEG-2 is a popular standard for the consumer
electronics market. "MPEG-2 is definately lowbrow, for the mass market. We
want it on your desk tops, in your homes, everywhere," says Craig Lim of
Singapore's National Computer Board. (AP and "What Satellite TV")
LAUNCH NEWS:
ARIANE--The next Ariane launch is scheduled for November 30th, which is to
carry PAS-3 into orbit. It's to be placed over the Atlantic at 43
degrees West, to relay programs between Europe and the Americas. The final
Ariane of the year, in late December, is to carry Europe's Hot
Bird-1 into orbit, along with Brazilsat B2.
WEATHER SATELLITES:
GOES--The news American weather satellite, GOES-8, has completed tests, and
is reported to be providing more and better information to forecasters.
Launched on April 13, engineering tests were completed November 7. GOES-8
will be positioned to observe the eastern part of the United States and the
Atlantic Ocean. The older GOES-7 satellite will be shifted farther to the
west. Anoterh satellite to be launched next spring will be placed in the
west, with GOES-7 becoming a backup. (AP)
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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:
17:15 hrs 1179 and 6065 kHz
18:30 1179, 6065, 9655, and 13690 kHz (also Africa/Middle East)
21:30 1179, 6065, and 9655 kHz (also Africa/Middle East)
22:30 1179 and 6065 kHz
23:30 1179 kHz
Asia/Pacific:
12:30 hrs 13775, 15120, and 15240 kHz
23:30 11910 kHz
01:30 9895 and 11695 kHz
North America:
13:30 and 14:30 hrs on 11650 and 15240 kHz
02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 6200 and 9850 kHz
Latin America:
00:30 hrs on 6065 and 6200 kHz
The broadcasts at 17:15 and 18:30 hrs 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 (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 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.
Sound files of Mediascan are archived at:
ftp.funet.fi:pub/sounds/RadioSweden/mediascan.
If you access to the WorldWide Web, you can also find the programs among the
offerings of Internet Talk Radio at:
ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Sweden
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283,
via the Internet to wood@stab.sr.se, from MCI Mail or CompuServe to the
CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516, 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!