From WOOD@stab.sr.se
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 14:05:21 +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,
scdx@get.pp.se
Subject: scdx2213.asc
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2213--Dec. 6, 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 SCDX2213
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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Welcome to another edition of MediaScan, and happy birthday to Swedish
Television's Channel 2, which is 25 years old. Ironically, the two public
service channels, 1 and 2, are the only Swedish channels not available to
Swedish viewers by satellite.
NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
RADIO SWEDEN--We are now using 7120 kHz instead of 9850 for English to North
America at 02:30 and 03:30 hrs.
SWEDISH RADIO AUCTION--Despite all its efforts, the new Swedish Social
Democrat government has unable to stop the planned auction of 23 private
radio licences on November 24th. The Social Democrats have objected to the
system of auctioning off radio channels to the highest bidders without regard
for programming format or quality.
Two parties from the previous government, which had put through the auction
system, the Conservatives and the Liberals, used a parliamentary loophole to
block the government efforts.
So the auction was held, and the big winner was the French-owned Radio
Energy, which from the beginning has been the most popular private radio
station in Stockholm. Energy managed to win licences in 11 of the 12 towns
getting commercial radio for the first time. That brings to 16 the number of
local stations in the Energy network.
The only community available in the auction where Energy failed to win a
licence was Oestersund and Aare in the northern mountains. There, the rival
Kinnevik media empire's Z-Radio grabbed both franchises.
Energy has also just bought a station in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, from a
Christian fundamentalist group.
Energy had appeared to be expandings its influence even farther, as it had
reached agreement with the rival Radio Rix network to work together, in what
looked like a merger. But on November 30th, Sweden's Bonniers print media
empire announced that its radio company Megapol had bought into 9 more
stations, 5 of which run by Radio Rix. The Rix stations involved include
those in Stockholm and Malmoe. Besides Stockholm, until now Megapol had
stations in 5 smaller towns, and picked up franchises in two towns in the
latest auction.
Megapol has also bought into Stockholm's English language rock station,
Bandit Radio.
The interesting thing about all this network-building is that it's forbidden
under the law approving commercial radio in this country.
CLASSIC HITS--Here in Stockholm, the 10th and final private radio channel has
finally come alive with regular broadcasts. The 106.7 MHz allocation was
bought by Ireland's Radio Hibernia, which for several months has played a
tape highlighting Enya, U2, Van Morrison, and other Irish groups. But on
November 17th, the station switched to a round-the-clock Beatles only format,
and announced that one week later it would begin regular broadcasts, under
the name Classic Hits.
TV1000--Sweden has a new satellite television channel on the way. The pay
film channel TV1000 which is part of the Kinnevik media empire, is already on
the Astra and Intelsat 702 satellites. Now they're launching another channel,
called TV1000 Cinema. In today's audio editionof MediaScan, Jens Haeger of
TV1000 explains how the new channel will differ from the current outlet. He
also confirms that the Kinnevik channels will be remaining on Astra for the
time being, and have no plans yet to leave.
The new channel will be free to regular TV1000 subscribers, and they're
calling it a Christmas present, as it will begin on Intelst 702 on December
24th.
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
BBC WORLD--The BBC has finally announced the premier date for the new 24 hour
news channel to Europe, which originally was supposed to start in the Fall,
and then by the end of the year. The actual start for BBC World, as it's
being called, will be January 26th, although we can probably expect tests on
Eutelsat II-F1, 11.617 GHz, before then. That channel is now carrying a feed
of the BBC Arabic TV service during the evening. Curiously, Eutelsat's TV13
promo package has returned to the frequency in the morning.
Apparently the other BBC World Service Television news channels, to Asia and
Africa, are to change their name to BBC World as well.
Over on Intelsat 601, the current BBC World Service Television, which mixes
news and entertainment, is to be a pure entertainment channel, called BBC
Prime. It will remain a D2-MAC subscription channel, while BBC World will be
in clear PAL, and financed by advertising. (Eutelsat, Reuters, "Tele
Satellit", James Robinson)
ASTRA--Astra 1D is waiting at 18.9 degrees East just a little off its proper
position of 19.2 degrees, until December 29th. There have been reports of
people seeing various transponders testing.
The only 1D channel that has been announced is TV Asia, which is moving on
January 1, 1995 to transponder 54, 10.788 GHz.
The rest of the actual Astra 1D line-up, which has been kept unusually
secret, is to be formally announced on December 14th. one way to hear it as
soon as possible is on a new radio show called "Satellite Surgery", from the
TESUG hobbyist group in Britain. It will be on every Wednesday at 20:00-22:00
hrs UTC on the new Country Music Radio channel, which is about to launch on
JSTV's Astra transponder 24, audio 7.56 MHz. Country Music Radio, by the way,
will only be on the air evenings, when JSTV is on. (James Robinson)
ORION--On November 29th an Atlas rocket put Orion 1 into orbit. It will be
placed above the Atlantic at 37.5 degrees West, and will relay communications
between the Americas and Europe. It carries 36 Ku-band transponders. (AP,
Reuters, and James Robinson)
PAS--Rival PAS-3, however, also planned for Atlantic relays, crashed with an
Ariane rocket on December 1st. The satellite was insured, and PanAmSat says
it plans to launch a replacement within a year. (AP, Reuters)
EUTELSAT--Worse news is that this may put back the Ariane program by 3 to 6
months, including the next scheduled launch of Eutelsat's Hot Bird satellite.
Eutelsat is now likely to buy Germany's TV-Sat and position it at 13 degrees
East, to make up for the loss of Hot Bird. ("Tele Satellit")
This Friday Canal Plus Poland starts on Eutelsat II-F3, on 11.617 GHz. HBB,
which used to be there, has moved to Eutelsat II-F2, 11.596 GHz. (James
Robinson)
A new erotic channel, Satisfaction TV from Italy is supposed to be appearing
on Eutelsat II-F3, on 11.163 GHz. It is supposed to encode in Digicrypt.
(James Robinson)
When Eurosport moves to the upcoming Hot Bird satellite, a new channel from
Viva, Viva 2, will take Eurosport's transponder on Eutelsat II-F1. (James
Robinson)
TURKSAT--Turksat has apparently begun broadcasts on European beam, with
Show-TV at 11.142 GHz. (James Robinson) Nothing can be seen here in
Stockholm.
RADIO--VOA Europe will not be dropping its analog radio service on Eutelsat
II-F2, as previously announced. VOA Affiliate Affairs head John Stevens says
"VOA Europe will continue to offer a stereo signal via Eutelsat II-F1 until
the summer of 1995 at least." This is available on 11.163 GHz, 7.38/7.56 MHz.
Digital audio from VOA Europe is on Eutelsat II-F4 on 12.564 GHz. ("Tele
Satellit")
The religious radio broadcaster TWR Europe is to begin regular broadcasts on
QVC's Astra transponder 38, 7.38 MHz. Tests have already begun. (BBC
Monitoring and James Robinson)
DAB--The BBC will launch up to 7 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) services
when the new service is introduced in 1995. Radios 1-4 would be available in
stereo, Radio 5 Live in mono, and there would be two new services, a
Parliamentary channel and a Sports channel. ("Radio Magazine")
ASIAN MEDIA NEWS:
JAPAN--Japan's public broadcaster NHK has announced in April it plans to
begin broadcasting over the PAS-2 satellite to an area stretching from the
Russian Far East in the north to New Zealand in the south. (AP)
CHINA--On November 30, China successfully launched the Dongfanghong (The East
is Red) 3 satellite. It carries 24 C-band transponders, and will be placed at
125 degrees East. (BBC Monitoring, Reuters and AP)
STAR--Rupert Murdoch's Star-TV plans to launch Star Radio to Asia. The Hong
Kong government has given permission for seven radio channels on the Asiasat-
1 satellite. Star Radio would begin with one uncoded channel. Eventually
services could be offered in languages including Hindi, Indonesian and Malay,
Chinese, and English. (Radio Netherlands "Media Network" via BBC Monitoring)
NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
USA--Reuters television business news will appear on personal computes at
large companies as part of a new service to begin in January. The DirecPC
service from GM Hughes Electronics will also deliver material from the
Internet to corporate customers, using Hughes' DirecTV system on the DBS-1
and DBS-2 satellites. Reuters NewMedia plans to provide a video news summary
of up to five minutes each weekday morning and additional reports during the
day. (Reuters)
LATIN AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
USA--TeleNoticias, a 24 hour TV news channel for the Spanish-speaking world,
has launched its first broadcast to Latin America and Spain. The main owners
of the new station are Telmundo and Reuters Television.
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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 7120 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!