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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2221--Apr. 4, 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 SCDX2221
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
APRIL FOOLS--April 1st is April Fool's Day in much of the world. Here in
Sweden, the newspapers love to run improbable articles, that are just weird
enough to trick a few people. And there are usually a few April Fool's
advertisements as well. This year, the Kinnevik media empire was behind some
of the best.
There were full page ads in several newspapers for Kinnevik's GSM cellular
telephone operator, Comviq. They advertised a wonderful new system called the
Tolkman, or "Translator-man", where Swedes could talk to their foreign
business contacts in Swedish, and the signals would be relayed via the non-
existant Lingua satellite where they would be translated into any of a
variety of languages.
Kinnevik was also responsible for a subtler April Fool's ad, offering
Internet access via television teletext. It was Kinnevik's long distance
telephone and data network operator Tele2 that claimed anyone who tuned into
Kinnevik's TV3 satellite television channel could surf the Internet, just by
accessing page 885 on teletext.
It would have been a good trick...TV3 is accesible all over Western Europe on
the Astra satellite, and even if people outside of Scandinavia aren't
supposed to have subscription cards, the teletext on the D2-MAC signal is
available to all.
Unfortunately, all you see when you access that page is a message that
someday it will be possible to offer the Internet over television, but in the
meantime advertising Tele2's ordinary Internet package.
INTERNET BY SATELLITE TV--Actually there is some access to the Internet via
teletext, but not on TV3. If you tune in NBC Super Channel, on either Astra
or Eutelsat II-F1, teletext page 180 is the first of several with news from
the Internet.
Then again, a British company called Wildfire says it will soon offer
reception of Usenet newsgroups from Astra. The idea is that in the middle of
the night the satellite downlink would carry all the contents of the
newsgroups. Subscribers would need satellite receivers and PCs equipped with
a decoder card. Obviously the system is one-way, read-only. Wildfire has a
site on the World Wide Web, and the URL address is
http://www.tecc.co.uk/wildfire/index.html
Remember, the mailing list for the Electronic Edition is now open to general
subscription. If you can send e-mail over the Internet, send a message to:
wood@stab.sr.se
In the SUBJECT (not the text) field write "subscribe mediascan"
If you'd like the new Radio Sweden schedule that went into effect last week,
include the words "English schedule" in the SUBJECT field.
CORRECTION--Last time we said Denmark's TV2 is owned by the Scandinavian
Broadcasting System. The ever-alert Hermod Pedersen points out that Denmark's
TV2 is a public service channel. We should have said Kanal 2, a local TV
station in Copenhagen. Oops.
TELE-X--Swedish Television is testing a digital MPEG-2 service on Tele-X on
12.322 GHz. Five TV channels are expected to join the package, including SVT
Kanal 1 and TV2, TV4 and TV 6. ("Tele-Satellit")
TV-SAT--The former German TV-Sat DBS satellite is now in position at 1 degree
West, alongside Thor and Intelsat 702. On March 20th TV Plus began broadcasts
on 11.823 GHz. Other channels on this satellite include Z-TV in Danish, and
TV6 in Danish is expected as well. All are in uncoded D2-MAC. Swedish
Television's two channels are due to move to this satellite as well, in coded
D-MAC, with SVT Kanal 1 on 11.977 GHz and SVT TV2 on 12.054 GHz. (Bertil
Sundberg in "Paa TV" and "Elektronikvaerlden")
NORDIC SATELLITE DISTRIBUTION--The European Commission has been investigating
Nordic Satellite Distribution, a company set up by Sweden's Kinnevik media
empire, together with the public telecoms of Norway and Denmark. NSD is
distributing channels on the Tele-X, Sirius, and Intelsat 702 satellites.
Almost all of those channels belong to Kinnevik.
After a 30 day study into whether Kinnevik's dominance is preventing
competition, the Commission says it will have to spend another 3 to 4 months
investigating.
However, the main competition, South Africa's Nethold, which owns the rival
channel FilmNet, has withdrawn its lawsuit against NSD. The two sides have
now signed an agreement in which Nethold has an option for more channel
capacity at 1 degree West, where FilmNet operates from the Thor satellite,
and where NSD is distributing channels on Intelsat 702. ("Dagens Nyheter")
MEDIA CONCENTRATION--The Swedish government has set up a commission to
investigate media ownership, and Kinnevik, with its involvement in satellite
channels, cable networks, radio stations, NSD, and both long distance and
cellular telephone operators, will certainly be examined closely. In today's
program the Media correspondent for the Stockholm newspaper "Dagens Nyheter",
Per Luthander, told our reporter Mark Cummins about this Scandianvian media
giant.
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
TV QUOTAS--The European Commission has unexpectedly approved the
controversial French demand for quotas on European television. But France,
the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, removed the proposal from
the agenda of a meeting of EU Minister of Culture this week when it was
obvious that there was overwhelming opposition to the plan. Most Ministers
agreed with Swedish Culture Minister Margot Wallstroem "Quotas are for cod,
not culture."
Radio Sweden's EU correspondent Joe Kirwin reports from Brussels in today's
program.
ASTRA--Super RTL is running promo videos on RTL-4's former transponder 13 on
Astra. The channel is due to begin regular broadcasts (including Disny
material in German) on April 28th.
The Playboy Channel plans a summer launch on Astra transponder 42, currenly
used by Bravo until they close at midnight. "Tele-satellit")
EUTELSAT--Competing with the new VH-1 German on Astra, the German language
Viva II music video channel began on March 21 on Eutelsat II-F1, on 11.146
GHz. (Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV")
HOT BIRD--Ariane is back on track, with the successful, and much delayed,
launching of Eutelsat's Hot Bird-1 and Brazil's Brasilsat B-2 on March 28th.
Brasilsat will be positioned at 65 degrees West, replacing Brasilsat-A2.
(BBC Monitoring)
Hot Bird is to be positioned alongside the existing Eutelsat II-F1 satellite
at 13 degrees East, and carries 16 TV transponders. It is dedicated entirely
to television and radio channels for reception by cable systems and direct-
to-home TVRO systems.
The most exciting arrival coming to Hot Bird is the Science
Fiction Channel, which unfortunately isn't scheduled to appear until
the Fall.
Dow Jones' European Business News was scheduled to launch on Hot
Bird on February 27. Since the satellite was still on the ground on
that date, EBN started on Intelsat 601, but it should be moving.
A few broadcasters are switching to Hot Bird from Eutelsat II-F1:
MTV, Emirates Dubai Television, and Spain's TVE Internacional. Two Italian
channels and a Polish channel are coming from other Eutelsat positions, and
there are new channels planned in German and Polish.
Together with the offerings on Eutelsat II-F1, it's not a line-up to cause
Astra's owners to lose much sleep at night. But it will probably all be
uncoded (unlike Astra), will reach into Eastern Europe (where Astra doesn't
reach), and each transponder can carry a digital signal alongside the analog
one (Astra is testing digital signals on 4 transponders on the new 1D
satellite, and 1E, scheduled for launch later this year, will carry all
digital transponders. But nowhere can Astra offer users a digital channel
alongside their analog channel, as Eutelsat can).
Eutelsat says that Hot Bird will be operational during the second half of
this month (which is very quick). Hot Bird-2 will be located at the same
position in mid-1996, followed a few months later by Hot Bird-3.
EKPRESS--The following stations are using the new Ekspress satellite at 14
degrees West:
Muslim TV Ahmadiyya (a Moslem channel based in London) on 3725 MHz
Apna TV (a Hindi channel based in London) on 3725 MHz
Vatican TV also sharing 3725 MHz
Radiotelevisao Portuguesa Internacional on 4025 MHz
TV3 (a Russian channel from St. Petersburg) on 4075 MHz
Ostankino TV on 3925 MHz (in parallel with 3675 MHz on the co-located
Gorizont satellite)
(BBC Monitoring)
ASIAN/PACIFIC MEDIA NEWS:
APSTAR--The Disney's Channel's Asian service began via the Apstar-1 satellite
on March 29th. Mandarin is first, aimed at Taiwan, with English following
next month. Disney hopes to launch 10 more channels by the year 2000 to cover
the Philippines, Thailand, China, India, Britain, and Germany (AP, "Tele-
Satellit" and Reuters)
ASIASAT--Asia Satellite Telecommunciations has signed an agreement to lease a
transponder on the upcoming AsiaSat-2 to a Portugal-based company called
Marconi Global Communications for Portuguese-language broadcasts. (AP)
SINGAPORE--Singapore's cable television company has signed a deal with Rupert
Murdoch's Star-TV to rebroadcast at least 6 channels of news, sports, and
entertainment, beginning June 1. The channels are BBC World, Channel V, Prime
Sports, Star Plus, Zee TV, and Star Movies. The cable company, SVC, is owned
by CableVision, the third largest cable operator in the United States, and
three state-controlled Singapore companies. (AP and Reuters)
AUSTRALIA--Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Australia's government-owned
telephone carrier have teamed up with pay TV operator Australis Media to
boost their fledgling cable television venture in Australia. The News
Corp/Telstra pay TV consortium FOXTEL has reached an exclusive agreement to
deliver the Australis Galaxy channels on cable in Australia. Galaxy is at
present delivered on satellite and by microwave. (Reuters)
INDIA--A US satellite company is planning direct-to-home television service
for India in 1996. PanAmSat will launch its PAS-4 satellite over South Asia
around July, and will use it to line up major international and Indian
production houses for DTH transmissions to India. Eighty percent of PAS-4 is
to be dedicated to the Indian market, according to PAS president Fred
Landman. (Reuters)
AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
MORSE--The US Coast Guard turned off its Morse code equipment on March 31,
after nearly a century of monitoring telegraphy distress calls. New
technology has replace telegraphy. The Coast Guard received only 2 Morse SOS
calls at all of its centers during 1994, and none so far in this year. That
compares to up to 10,000 MOrse code messages a month at one station alone
just five years ago. (AP)
US AM BAND--There's a new signal on the air in expanded US medium wave band.
USA Digital set up a test transmitter to demonstrate their digital system
during the NAB convention in Las Vegas. The signal consists of a standard AM
broadcast signal superimposed over the digital transmission. Last year USA
Digital used laboratory equipment for a low power experiment. This year they
used a 10,000 watt transmitter connected to a 200 foot tower. The call
letters are KUSA and the frequency 1660 kHz. (Lou Schneider via Richard Hunt)
ATLAS--An Atlas rocket launched Intelsat 705 on March 22nd. The satellite is
to be placed over the Western Atlantic at 50 degrees West to relay domestic
and regional services to Latin America, as well as the US. It is expected to
become operational in May. (BBC Monitoring and Reuters)
GLOBAL NEWS:
TV JAPAN--NHK's TV-Japan launched its special 5 hour block of Japanese news,
features, and business programs on April 2nd. The new service, called NHK
International TV Broadcasting, is distributed via satellite to Europe and
Asia. ("Tele-Satellit")
The North American service is via Primestar, which uses Ku-band on the K1
satellite (85 degrees West). Asian broadcasts seem to be on Japan's BS-1
satellite. Apparently the European relays are via JSTV on Astra, which is
reportedly carrying more unscrambled broadcasts from NHK. Radio Japan says
the service will be on Astra 1B, the home of JSTV. (BBC Monitoring)
LAUNCH FAILURE--A Russian rocket failed to launch one Israeli and two Russian
satellite on March 29th. Apparently, the fifth stage of the ricket failed to
detach, and the satellites have crashed into the Sea of Okhotsk. Israel's
Gurwin-1 satellite, built by Russian immigrants to Israel, who returned to
their homeland to help with the launch, was supposed to improve relations
between the two countries. Instead, the failure seems to have increased ill-
will. The satellite was built as a test platform for 12 Israeli high tech
firms. It would also have been used by radio amateurs. (AP and Reuters)
SEA LAUNCH--Boeing, along with companies from Norway, Russia, and Ukraine
have formed a satellite launching operation to compete with the European
Space Agency's Ariane program. The Boeing plan is to launch satellite from a
mobile platform at sea that is similar to an oil rig.
Within the next two weeks, a port on the West Coast of North America will be
chosen as the base for the company, Sea Launch. The most liekly candidates
are Puget Sound near Boeing's home in Seattle, San Francisco Bay, and Los
Angeles. The first launch could be within two years. (AP)
CYBERSPACE:
PUBLICATIONS--The German language news service from "Tele-Satellit",
otherwise found on Sat 1's teletext service is now available over the World
Wide Web:
http://odin.csn.tu-chemnitz.de:9999/SAT/513/1
"Tele-Satellit" in English can be found at:
http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html
The Italian satellite magazine *satellite* has debuted on the Internet at:
http://www.videomusic.com/sathome.html
Dutch speakers can get satellite news from:
http://www.veronica.nl/Veronica/Blad/SatNieuws/
("Tele-Satellit")
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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:
To Europe:
16:15 hrs UTC on 1179 and 6065 kHz
17:30 on 1179, 6065, 13690, and 15600 kHz (also Africa and the Middle East)
20:30 and 21:30 on 1179, 6065, and 9665 kHz (also heard in Africa)
21:30 on 1179 kHz and 6065 kHz
22:30 hrs on 1179 kHz
Asia and the Pacific:
11:30 hrs on 13740, 15120, and 15240 kHz
01:30 hrs on 9695 kHz
North America:
12:30 and 13:30 hrs on 11650 and 15240 kHz
02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 7120 and 9850 kHz
Latin America:
OO:30 hrs on 6065 and 9810 kHz
The broadcasts at 16:15 and 17:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe
by satellite:
Astra 1B on Sky Movies Gold's transponder 26 at 11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier
at 7.74 MHz
Tele-X via TV5 Nordic/Femman's transponder 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 22:00 hrs CET. 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 16:00 and 20:30 hrs Eastern time.
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
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Reports can also be sent to:
Radio Sweden
S-105 10 Stockholm
Sweden
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