From WOOD@stab.sr.seTue Jan 17 18:12:48 1995
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:05:42 +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, tp6@evansville.edu, martyn@euro.demon.co.uk
Subject: scdx2216
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2216--Jan. 17, 1995 ::
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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 SCDX2217
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
COMMUNITY RADIO--Swedish community radio was set up nearly 20 years ago to
give clubs and organizations access to the radio medium. The previous
Conservative-led Swedish government, in introducing private commercial radio
here in 1993, also legalized advertising on community radio. Now, the new
Radio and Television Board says only half the time on the 182 community radio
transmitters is being used as intended. The rest is largely a copy of
commercial radio. The agency wants to change the law to outlaw advertising.
(Dagens Nyheter)
PUBLIC BROADCASTING--That idea will probably find favor in the new Swedish
Social Democratic government. Last week Finance Minister Goeran Persson
presented the new government's first budget. Somewhat suprisingly, it
included cut-backs in public broadcasting.
Public Broadcasting in Sweden is financed by cumpulsory viewer licence fees,
and not directly by the government. So it came as quite a surprise when the
new budget was introduced that it included an 11 percent cut in the budgets
of Swedish Television and Swedish Radio, corresponding to the general budget
cuts.
Over the next three years, the two companies must reduce spending by around
64 million dollars.
Licence fees here are paid into something called the Broadcast Fund. Just
over half of the cut-back is because the government has decided to divert the
33 million dollar fee paid annually by the private broadcaster TV4, from the
Broadcast Fund into the Treasury. The government is permitting a small
increase in the licence fee, to forestall even deeper cuts.
Swedish Television is using the move to implement a long-desired co-
ordination of its two channels, and their hithertoo competing news
departments. The former Conservative-led government refused to permit this,
presumeably because of an ideological desire to keep public broadcasting weak
compared to private broadcasters.
The head of Swedish Radio, Ove Joanson, has publicly criticised
the government's intervention, calling it a completely new ether media
policy, treating public broadcasting as if it were a state agency. Joanson
says the budget reduction corresponds to closing the entire radio news
department and the P3 popular music channel.
Speaking for the government, Minister of Culture Margot Wallstroem says when
everyone has to save, public broadcasting has to save too. Radio Sweden has
tried to interview the Cultural Minister, but she has been unavailable.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has repeated its earlier proposal to
privatize Swedish Televisions TV2, along with Swedish Radio's pop channel P3
and the local radio network P4. The party found little support for the idea
when it was the largest party in the previous government coalition. It will
find no more in opposition.
NSD--Swedish Minister of Culture Margot Wallstroem met with her Norwegian and
Danish colleagues in Olso Monday. The three Social Democrats were discussing
media concentration, and especially Nordic Satellite Distribution, NSD, set
up by the Swedish Kinnevik media empire, together with the Telecoms of Norway
and Denmark.
The company distributes programming on the Sirius and Intelsat 702
satellites, and there's concern about allowing Kinnevik to be the gatekeeper
for rival channels, and the desire for the public service broadcasters of the
three countries will be included in the system.
KINNEVIK--Kinnevik's new TV1000 Cinema on Intelsat 702, due to start on
Christmas Eve, has been delayed "for technical reasons" until February. The
transponder seems to be carrying the ordinary TV1000 output.
CABLE--Swedish Telecom's cable network, the largest in the country, is
expanding, with Europe's first video-on-demand service. And along with other
cable operators here and around Europe, they're replacing one channel with
two new ones. Starting January 26th, the current BBC World Service Television
channel to Europe is splitting into two.
Remaining in the old position on the Intelsat 601 satellite will be BBC
Prime, a general entertainment channel, still available to dish-owners by
subscription. And appearing on Eutelsat II-F1 will be BBC World, a 24 hour
news channel in the clear and funded by advertising.
We called up Claes Gustavsson, Head of Information for Swedish Telecom Cable,
and asked how they were integrating the new channels. You can hear the
interview in today's program (also available on the Internet, via Internet
Multicasting, and from ftp.funet.fi/pub/Sounds/RadioSweden/mediascan).
He told us that BBC Prime would replace the current BBC World Service
Television as part of the extended service option. Negotiations continue
concerning BBC World, but it will be a pay channel, and not part of the basic
service.
Video-on-demand service will begin in February to 500 households in the
Stockholm suburb of Jarlsberg, Europe's first VOD service. In the beginning
the choice will be limited to around 20 films, but the system can and will
expand to 50, and later 100 films. Future services will include home
shopping, bank transactions, games, real estate services, and connection with
the Internet. The system is expected to reach the entire country within 5
years.
Meanwhile Swedish Telecom Cable's 1 million households around the country
have access to the pay-per-view system pioneered last year. Users can choose
from a schedule of films offered.
NORWAY--The Norwegian Supreme Court has ruled that the manufacturing and sale
of pirate TV decoders are legal. A decoder manufacturer won the case against
Kinnevik's TV1000, which had sued him. (Usenet News via Kauto Huopio)
RADIO IN CUBERSPACE:
WRN--Last time we reported on the World Radio Network's plans to go live on
the Net. Well, it happened a lot faster than anyone could believe. For the
past week, WRN programming, including Radio Sweden, has been available live
via Internet Multicasting.
If you have access to the World Wide Web, set your browser program for the
following address:
http://town.hall.org/radio/wrn.html
That will take you to the new WRN section of the Internet. There you can read
an information sheet about WRN, look at the North American schedule over the
Galaxy 5 satellite, or click on the place to access the live feed, which is
the same as the Galaxy 5 service.
To do that you'll some pretty fancy equipment however, a UNIX workstation
running a program called VAT. It doesn't exist yet for Windows PCs, but
that's probably just a matter of time.
OTHER STATIONS--if you have access to the World Wide Web, here are some other
addresses that might be of interest.
National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org
BBC: http://www.bbcnc.org.uk
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation http://radioworks.cbc.ca
Voice of America: gopher://gopher.voa.gov
And those places should also link you to other online radio stations.
SUNERGY--The "Roadmap to the Information Superhighway" is the title of a
Sunergy 12 panel discussion to be broadcast over Internet Multicasting and
the Multicasting BackBONE (MBONE) and via satellite on January 24, 1995
between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM EST. The program will include a live
demonstration of the latest and greatest on the Internet by the founder of
Internet Talk Radio, Carl Malamud. Europeans can tune to Intelsat-K on 11.499
GHz in PAL, sound 6.60/7.40 MHz. Viewers in the Americas and Africa can
obtain satellite information for their part of the word by sending an e-mail
request to:
sunergy@sun.com
INTERNET RADIO--A second American college station is now broadcasting 24
hours a day via the Internet. KJHK in Kansas has the WWW homepage:
http://www.bvis.uic.edu/museum
The KJHK live broadcast reflector is at 129.237.117.95 (NBC Text)
TELETEXT--Turning to cyberspace news by satellite, the Teletext service on
NBC Super Channel, in addition to the satellite news from Tele-Satellit on
page 171, now has sevral pages of Internet news, starting on page 180.
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
ASTRA--Here's an update on the Astra 1D satellite. There have been a few
changes since our last program.
Only one new station has appeared, and contrary to our last report, but in
keeping with some rumors, it's the Swiss pay film channel Teleclub, which is
now on Astra transponder 55 in parallel with transponder 9, which apparently
in a couple of months will be the home of the German entertainment channel
Kabel 1.
The Swiss radio stations, including Swiss Radio International, are remaining
on transponder 9. (Tele-Satellit)
An Astra promo has appeared on transponders 57 and 58.
There's been much speculation over why NBC Super Channel has not appeared on
transponder 50, after Astra's announcement it would be coming there. So, we
called up Super Channel and talked to information officer Janet Ramsey, who
told us that they have yet to sign a contract with Astra's owner SES, who
apparently made the announcement a bit too early.
EUTELSAT--Super Channel is supposed to continue as well on the upcoming
Eutelsat Hot Bird satellite. And Eutelsat has now announced that the Science
Fiction Channel will also be on Hot Bird. Eurosport is moving from Eutelsat
II-F1 at the same position, to broaden its reach using the new Super-Widebeam
coverage. (Eutelsat)
Eutelsat has selcted Arianespace to launch the Hot Bird 3 satellite in early
1997. (Eutelsat)
INTELSAT--Dow Jones European Business News was due to begin broadcasts on Hot
Bird on February 27. Since the satellite is unlikely to be in orbit, let
alone operation, by then, EBN has booked a transponder on Intelsat 601.
("What Satellite TV")
UNITED KINGDOM--While British viewers are not allowed to watch the new BBC
outlets, BBC World and BBC Prime, which are strictly for foreign audiences,
there are reports of new BBC channels coming. A UK version of BBC World will
reportedly begin broadcasts on Astra by the end of the year. The BBC has not
denied the report, commenting merely that the plans are still at a very early
stage. (Sunday Times via Tele-Satellit)
Other British newspapers report at least seven new channels may be coming to
British viewers, using upcoming terrestrial digital services. These might be
pay-per-view services such as movies or sports events, and would compete with
British Sky Broadcasting's plans to launch an extra 150 digital channels
(most presumeably used for video-nearly-on-demand major films) on the
upcoming Astra satellites between 1996 and 1999.
BSKYB/REUTERS--British Sky Broadcasting and Reuters and thought to be close
to announcing a partnership, to help reduce the operating budget of Sky News.
(Usenet News) This follows failed negotiations between Sky and Independent
Television News. A number of Sky News presenters have recently left the
station, including veteran Selina Scott, who is now presenting the ITN news
on Sky's rival NBC Super Channel.
ZEE TV--Rupert Murdoch is to compete with TV Asia by bringing Zee TV from his
Asian Star-TV package to Europe. It is go to on the air before the end of
March, presumeably via Astra 1D. ("What Satellite TV")
HUNGARY/ISRAEL--Hungary's state-owned broadcast facility owner and an Israeli
firm will jointly launch a satellite to serve central Europe, Hungarian
officials sayt. Antenna Hungaria Rt and Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd plan
to launch Magyarsat in 1997. It will carrry 16 TV transponders. (Reuters)
ASIAN MEDIA NEWS:
INTELSAT--A Martin Marietta Atlas 2 put Intelsat 704 into orbit on January
10. It's being positioned at 66 degrees East. The Italian-based Orbit
Communications has signed a lease for four transponders on the new satellite.
The company will take its digital TV packet currently on Arabsat 1D and relay
it as well on Intelsat's four 112 MHz wide transponders.
A premium package of 28 TV channels will be transmitted through Orbit to the
Middle East and North Africa, including BBC World Service in Arabic, Orbit
News (with contributions from ABC, CBS, and NBC), Orbit-ESPN Sports,
Discovery, CNN International, and movies, children's, music, and
entertainment programming. The TV offerings will be supplemented with 12
digital radio channels. (Reuters and Tele-Satellit)
Curiously, Intelsat is hailing the deal as establishing an Intelsat "Hot
Bird" for European broadcasting. It's a bit unclear how anyone can think a
satellite at 66 degrees East can broadcast to Europe at all. It's over the
horizon for almost all of us.
INDIA--India's Doordarshan is reportedly planning to use the upcoming PAS-4
satellite to reach Europe and North America from June. Since PAS-4 is to be
placed at 74 degrees East, no one in Europe or North America will be able to
access it directly. Presumeably, other satellites will be used as wel.
Doordarshan is also planning to use Asiasat (presumeably the upcoming
Asiasat-2) to broadcast to Asia, striking back against the Western
programming that's been using the Clarke Belt to circumvent Doordarshan's
rather staid monopoly. (Tele-Satellit)
ASIASAT--Some of Doordarshan's plans may be delayed, however, by the decision
of the Hong King-based Asiasat to postpone the launch of Asiasat-2, for three
months until June. This follows the September 8 loss of Telstar 402. The
Ariane launch went perfectly, but the satellite inexplicably failed, and
possibly exploded.
The two satellites are from the Martin Mariette MM7000 series, with identical
propulsion systems. Asiasat has waited for a report on the Telstar failure
before deciding whether its new satellite has to be modified. Asiasat-2 will
be launched on a Chinese Long March 2E rocket. It will carry 24 C-band and 9
Ku-band transponders. Rupert Murdoch's Star-TV has already leased eight of
the C-band transponders.
Some of that new programming will be in Cantonese, the dialect used in
southern China, Hong Kong, and some other areas in Asia. In mid-December, the
Hong Kong government opened the door to increased rivalry between Star-TV and
the local broadcaster TVB. Star was allowed to begin broadcasts in Cantonese,
while TVB was given permission to broadcast across the region. It's new
Galaxy service will carry drama, sports, and general entertainment channels.
(Reuters)
STAR-TV--The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In Europe, four of the world's
major record companies, BMG, Sony Music, EMI, and Warner, are behind MTV's
German competitor Viva, on Eutelsat II-F1. Now the four have bought 50% of
"V", the Asian music video channel Rupert Murdoch started when he dumped MTV
off his Star-TV service. (Reuters and Tele-Satellit)
CHINA--A Chinese communications satellite failed in early January. The
Dongfanghong (East is Red) 3 satellite was launched by a Long March rocket on
November 30. On January 9 the Chinese authorities admitted that because of a
fuel leak, the satellite could not go into operation. It carries 6 TV
transponders. (Reuters)
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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 various sites, including:
ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Mirrors/RadioSweden/MediaScan
The World Radio Network is also available live via the Internet MBONE. Check:
http://town.hall.org/radio/wrn.html
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!