From wood@stab.sr.seTue Jan 2 21:06:16 1996
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 15:14:31 +0100
From: George Wood <wood@stab.sr.se>
To: wood@rs.sr.se
Subject: MediaScan/SCDX 2238
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2238--Dec. 19, 1995 ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio
Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2238
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
RADIO SWEDEN--Don't miss Radio Sweden's great holiday program line-up:
Dec. 23 "Spectrum" our Arts magazine with a retrospective look at
1995.
Dec. 24 "Christmas Eve Special" looking at how the Swedes spend
Christmas -- a festivity based ironically on ancient Nordic pagan
rites. We reveal the secrets of gloegg, Advent candles, Lucia, straw
goats, and the Christmas gnome.
Dec. 25 "In Touch With Stockholm" special Christmas edition of our
listener program, including famous Swedish sports and music
personalities on how they spend Christmas, and their impressions of
1995.
Dec. 26 "Boxing Day" -- a special bumper edition of "SportScan"
reviewing all the highlights of 1995.
Dec. 27 "Money Matters" -- a full-length edition of our regular
financial, business, and labor market magazine, also reviewing 1995.
Dec. 28 "Horizon" -- a full-length edition our Science magazine,
including a long interview with famed British natural history film-
maker David Attenborough about "The Private Life of Plants".
Dec. 29 "Sixty Degrees North", looking as usual on a Friday at the
Nordic newsweek.
Dec. 30 "Review of 1995"
Dec. 31 "Sounds Nordic" -- our music and chat show with plenty of
sparkle on New Years Eve.
Jan. 1 Another chance to hear our review of the 1995 news year here
in Sweden
Jan. 2 Back to normal...."MediaScan" will be featuring an interview
with Swedish Minister of Culture Margot Wallstroem about the future of
broadcast media in this country.
BOSNIA--American soldiers have begun to arrive in Bosnia, and in
another demonstration of life copying art, when they opened their new
radio station in Tuzla, they copied the film "Good Morning Vietnam".
(Swedish Radio News)
Meanwhile, the Swedish soldiers in Bosnia have asked Radio Sweden for
more programs. Radio Sweden has written to the Minister of Defence
saying we're prepared to do so, if the Ministry pays Swedish Telecom
for the transmitter time. With our budget being cut by 11 percent,
there's no way we can afford to pay for more megawatts.
SWEDISH TELEVISION--Over at Swedish Television, budget cutbacks have
resulted in a re-organization, including the revival of old plans for
a pay-TV cable channel. The channel is to be called "Dacapo", and
programming would be classics from Swedish Television's extensive
archives. "Dacapo" would begin operation in September next year, on
the 40th anniversary of the first regular TV broadcasts in this
country.
The head of Swedish Television, Sam Nilsson, has also revealed that
they have been talking with the private TV 4, about a joint satellite
project, to better compete with the international media empires.
("Dagens Nyheter")
Swedish Television's 2 channels are now broadcasting in digital MPEG-2
on the Tele-X satellite, at 12.322 GHz. MPEG receivers are scheduled
to go on sale here next February. (Bertil Sundberg)
Swedish Telecom plans to introduce terrestrial digital broadcasts in
this country at the earliest in 1998. It's expected there will be
15-20 digital channels at the start, with better sound and image
quality than today, as well as multimedia services, and easier
reception with smaller antennas. To receive the digital broadcasts a
special set-top box will be needed, expected to cost about USD 600
(the price of an expensive VCR in Sweden today). HDTV is expected to
be introduced after the year 2000. (Nils Sundstroem, "Aftonbladet")
KINNEVIK--Sweden's own Kinnevik media empire is about to encode its
signals on the Sirius satellite. TV6 is encoding in D2-MAC Eurocrypt M
on January 1st, while TV3 and Z-TV will be starting on January 31st.
There are still varying reports about when Kinnevik will be closing
its TV3 and TV1000 transponders on Astra. (Nils Sundstroem,
"Aftonbladet")
Kinnevik will be starting its new Sports Channel on March 1st, from
Intelsat 702 at 1 degree West. While the intention is that cable
companies will include the channel in their basic tier, it will be
encoded on the satellite, to keep viewers from outside the Nordic
region from watching. (Frank Oestergren, "Aftonbladet")
After the recent report that there was advertising for pirate decoders
on Tele-Text page 822 on Kinnevik's TV 3, the page was removed, but
has returned, in modified form. The ad has also been reprinted in the
middle pages of Kinnevik's TV guide "Paa TV". (Bertil Sundberg)
FILMNET--Kinnevik's rival, FilmNet Nethold, has launched its
SuperSports Channel, but the digital transmissions from the new Astra
1E satellite won't be operative until the middle of January.
("Aftonbladet") I've been told by cable operators here that the
service is already available analog, apparently from Intelsat 601, but
I haven't seen it there.
FilmNet has also been talking with TV 4 about a strategic alliance. It
would include buying programming together, joint production, and
possibly TV 4's switching to FilmNet's digital transponder on Astra.
("Dagens Nyheter" and "Svenska Dagbladet")
THOR--Hughes Space and Communications International has contracted
with McDonnell Douglas to launch Norway's Thor 2A satellite. It will
launch aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral in early 1997.
Thor 2A will be a high-power version of Hughes's HS 376 satellite,
delivering direct-to-home television to the Nordic countries in the
Ku-band. (Curt Swinehart)
DENMARK--Danmarks Radio is planning to send its terrestrial TV 1
channel via satellite from May 1996, using MPEG-2 from 1 degree West
(Intelsat 702, Thor or TV-Sat). (Nils Sundstroem, "Aftonbladet")
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
ASTRA--There are two new German channels on Astra: Home Order TV on
transponder 62 began on December 17 at 18:00 hrs UTC, and the
following day the German version of Nickelodeon began sharing
transponder 49 with Arte at 06:00-16:00 hrs. Arte now begins on Astra
at 16:00 hrs, but the Eutelsat service still starts at 18:00 hrs.
There's an MPEG-2 service now on transponder 68.
There's now Christmas music in the digital DMX package on UK Living's
transponder at 6.84 MHz and on QVC's transponder at 8.46 MHz. (James
Robinson)
NBC SUPER CHANNEL--Last week NBC Super Channel held a press conference
here to present the upcoming split between a more entertainment-
oriented Super Channel on Eutelsat II-F1 and the business channel CNBC
on Astra 1D. It was hosted by Director of Network Tim Heath, who
explained in today's program how the two channels will differ, and he
discussed future plans. There are no immediate plans to encode either
signal, but the CNBC transponder may turn digital in 1997, and carry
new channels, such as a German computer channel.
We reported last time that Rupert Murdoch wants to take on CNN. That
was immediately followed by ABC also announcing a planned 24 hour news
channel. (See under North America.)
Both projects will have a problem finding empty cable capacity. But
that shouldn't be a problem for NBC, which last week announced it was
getting together with Microsoft to launch yet another 24 hour news
channel, as well as a computer online service. NBC will be turning its
existing America Talking outlet into the new MSNBC channel. (Reuters)
The press conference, complete with Microsoft's Bill Gates over a
video link, was carried live on NBC's existing Internet relay, which
uses the Streamworks system. (We played a bit in today's program, and
you can also find it in the Web version of today's program.)
Actually, a couple of days before the US press conference, here in
Stockholm Tim Heath was also talking about working with Microsoft, and
NBC's online services, which could also be heard in today's program.
In fact, Microsoft already has a weekly program on Super Channel,
Saturday mornings.
MICROSOFT--On December 7, the Microsoft Internet Strategy Workshop,
featuring Bill Gates and some of his minions, was carried to North
America on SBS-6 (11.872 GHz) and to Europe on Intelsat-K (11.532
GHz), from 18:00 hrs UTC.
CBS--The American network CBS has launched, together with broadcasters
in 12 European countries and Japan, what it calls "the world's largest
satellite newsgathering service" on Eutelsat II-F4 transponder 5.
(Curt Swinehart)
BBC/WRN--On December 8th, BBC World Service radio left Super Channel's
7.38 MHz audio channel on Eutelsat II-F1 (it continues via BBC World
and EBN on Eutelsat II-F1 as well on UK Gold's transponder on Astra).
The frequency was taken over a few hours later by the World Radio
Network for its WRN2 European service, relaying Vatican Radio. (The
previous relay on the MBC transponder ends on December 31.)
Since Swedish Telecom's cable engineers apparently hadn't been paying
attention, they ran Vatican Radio in many languages on their Stockholm
network for about four days, and when they finally did try to tune it
to the proper BBC channel, they did it live, so customers could listen
while they tuned around, and eventually found the wrong BBC outlet.
Unfortunately, last Friday Swedish Telecom just took the whole BBC
radio relay off the cable, and they tell us now that, even though
there have been many complaints, they have no plans to restore it.
AMERICA ONE--Also on the WRN front, on January 1st their partners
National Public Radio and Public Radio International launch their
America One service, on Astra transponder 22, audio 7.74 MHz. Here is
part of the tentative schedule (in CET):
Monday to Friday:
06:00-08:30 "All Things Considered" (repeat) (weekends too)
08:30-09:00 "Dialogue" (Mondays), "Marketplace" ( repeat Tuesday to
Saturday) 09:00-10:00 "The World" (repeat Tuesday to Saturday)
10:00-11:00 "Fresh Air" (repeat Tuesday to Saturday) 11:00-12:00
"Monitor Early Edition" 12:00-15:00 "Morning Edition" 16:00-18:00
"Diane Rehm" 19:00-20:00 "Le Show" (Mondays), "To the Best of Our
Knowledge" (Tuesday to Thursday), ""City Arts of San Francisco"
(Fridays) 20:00-21:00 "Talk of the Nation" 22:00-24:00 "All Things
Considered" 01:00-01:30 "Marketplace" 01:30-02:30 "Fresh Air"
02:30-03:30 "Monitor Radio" (delayed) 03:30-04:00 "Marketplace"
04:00-06:00 "Talk of the Nation" (delayed)
Weekend highlights:
13:00-14:00 "Weekly Edition" (Saturdays), "Living on Earth" (Sundays)
14:00-16:00 "Weekend Edition" 17:00-18:00 "All Things Considered"
FRANCE--December 7 saw this year's final launch of the Ariane rocket,
carrying France's Telecom 2C satellite, which will replace Telecom 1C
at 3 degrees East (as well as India's Insat 2C -- see below). Telecom
2C carries 10 C-band trnasponders, 11 Ku-band transponders, and 5 X-
band transponders. (Reuters, Bertil Sundberg, and "Tele-satellit")
TV EROTICA--Despite the British ban on the hardcore pornography
channel TV Erotica, the service is being uplinked by Britain's BT on
Eutelsat II-F3 on 11.163 GHz. This is not the official channel for the
public, which is on Hot Bird, 11.534 GHz. (James Robinson)
This American-owned channel is uplinked to Hot Bird from Sweden (which
has caused the British government to protest to the Swedes). It would
seem that it is actually uplinked to Sweden from Britain.
ROMANIA--Romanian Televison has launched a new international satellite
channel on Eutelsat II-F3. There's a daily program at 19:30-23:00 hrs
UTC. ("Tele-satellit")
BSKYB--British Sky Broadcasting and the Granda Group announced on
December 13 plans to launch a joint eight-channel subscription
television service to Britain next year. The joint venture, Granada
Sky Broadcasting, will supply the new channels as part of Sky's multi-
channel cable and satellite network. The centerpiece will be the
"Granada Gold Plus" channel which will show repeats of popular shows
such as "Coronation Street". Other channels will focus on lifestyle
themes, with such names as "Health and Beauty", "Food and Wine", and
"Granada Men and Motoring". (Reuters)
MTV--MTV Europe announced on December 13 that it is widening and fine-
tuning its pan-European advertising reach by using new digital
satellite feeds. Digital compression allows a programmer to squeeze
several channels or feeds onto one satellite transponder. MTV will be
providing the same programming on several regional feeds, allowing
each to carry separate regional advertising. There is now some local
advertising in Germany and Central Europe, MTV is just starting local
ads to Italy, and will be the same in the Benelux and Scandinavia.
(Reuters)
GERMANY--Germany's two public serice broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, will
begin digital transmissions from Astra 1E next year. The broadcasts
will be in parallel with the two stations existing analog programming
on Astra 1B and 1C. ("Tele-satellit")
The Kirsch Group says it will join the alliance for a digital TV
decoder standard in Germany, removing a major obstacle to broadband
television in Europe. Kirsch is joining the Multi Media Beteiligungs
Gesellschaft (MMBG), which also includes Bertelsmann and France's
Canal Plus. However, British Sky Broadcasting may still introduce a
rival technology. (Curt Swinehart)
NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
ABC--On Dece,ber 5 the ABC broadcasting network announced that it
plans to launch a 24 hour news channel early in 1997. One key
difference from CNN would be participation by ABC's 200 plus affiliate
stations, which will help in the news gathering, and share in the
channel's earnings.
The service will also draw on the resources of the ABC-owned Worldwide
Television News, a syndicator of international news. (AP)
GALAXY--The Galaxy 3-R satellite will be launched soon on a Delta-II
rocket from Cape Canaveral. Launch coverage will be on NASA Select TV
on Spacenet 2 transponder 5. (Curt Swinehart)
CANADA--Radio Canada International is in big trouble. Facing major
budget cuts, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation says it will end
the service on March 31st. That would make Canada the only member of
the G7 major industrialized countries without a shortwave radio
service. It is ironic that in its 50th anniversary year, RCI faces the
worst threat in its history.
Veteran RCI announcer Ian McFarland says that concerned listeners can
send messages to Canada's Prime Minister or Foreign Minister:
The Right Honourable Jean Chretien
Prime Minister
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
Fax: +1-613-957-5556
The Honourable Andre Ouellet
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
Fax: +1-613-996-3546
There's more information on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.pics.com/trs
ASIAN MEDIA NEWS:
INDIA--The December 7 Ariane launch also carried India's Insat 2C
satellite into orbit. It will be co-located with Insat 2B at 93.5
degrees East. Insat 2C is equipped with 17 C-band transponders, as
well as 6 wide C-band, 3 Ku-band, and one in the S-band. It is
expected to be ready for operation by the middle of January. (Reuters,
Curt Swinehart, Bertil Sundberg, and "Tele-satellit")
TVBI--Hong Kong-based TVBI is increasing its use of the PAS-2
satellite. The broadcaster already uses PAS-2 for its service to
mainland China and will now begin using PAS-2 for regional and
international distribution of its television programming. ("Tele-
satellit")
BLOOMBERG--PanAmSat has added Bloomberg Information Television to the
line-up on the PAS-2 Pacific Ocean Region satellite. Bloomberg's
service consists of one digital channel on PAS-2's Pacific Rim Beam.
With the addition of Bloomberg, PAS-2 now transmits more than 40
analog and digital TV channels through-out the Asian-Pacific region.
("Tele- satellit")
AFRICAN MEDIA NEWS:
SOUTH AFRICA--BET International will launch "BET On Jazz: The Cable
Jazz Channel" as part of South Africa's Multichoice package
through-out southern Africa starting April 1, 1996, via the satellite
PAS-4. The channel launches in the US on January 15, 1996.
("Tele-satellit")
LAUNCHES:
ARIANE--The next Ariane launch is scheduled for January 9, 1996. It
will carry PAS-3R for PanAmSat and Measat-1, the first Malaysian
telecommunciations satellite. ("Tele-satellit")
CYBERSPACE:
BRITAIN--BT has started a Web site:
http://www.vbs.bt.co.uk
RFE/RL--Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are on the Web:
http://www.rferl.org/
VATICAN--WRN has put together a WWW site for Vatican Radio at:
http://www.wrn.org/vatican/
SATELLITE ENCYCLOPEDIA--A new version Jean-Philippe Donnio's "The
Satellite's Encyclopedia" was released on December 15th. It's
available as shareware, and can be downloaded from:
http://www.tele-satellit.com/tse/
HOBBY:
EDXC--We're sorry to note that Michael Murray is retiring as
Secretary- General of the European DX Council after 16 years in the
job. He's certainly paid his dues, and deserves some leisure time, but
we'll miss him.
WINTER SWL FESTIVAL--The 9th annual Winer SWL Festival will be held
near Philadelphia March 14-16, 1996. More information, a registration
form, and a roadmap are available at:
http://www.pics.com/trs/news_use.htm
Thanks to all our contributors this year, especially James Robinson,
Curt Swinehart, and Kauto Huopio!
FINALLY:
We're sorry to report that the former head of Radio Sweden, Lars
Hamberg, has died at the age 65, after a career spanning nearly 30
years at Swedish Radio.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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:
17:15 hrs 1179 and 6065 kHz
18:30 1179, 6065, 7240, and 9655 kHz (also Africa/Middle East)
21:30 1179, 6065, and 7230 kHz (also Africa/Middle East) 22:30
1179 and 6065 kHz (also Africa/Middle East) 23:30 1179
kHz
Asia/Pacific:
12:30 hrs 9835, 13740, and 15240 kHz
01:30 hrs 7120 kHz
North America:
13:30 hrs on 11650 and 15240 kHz
14:30 hrs on 11650 and 15245 kHz
02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 7120 kHz
Latin America:
00:30 hrs on 6065 and 9850 kHz
The broadcasts at 17:15 and 18:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe
by satellite:
Astra 1C on ZDF's transponder 33 at 10.964 GHz, audio subcarrier at
7.38 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 1C, 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 21:30 and
00:00 hrs Eastern time.
Our World Wide Web page is at:
http://www.sr.se/rs
A multimedia version of this bulletin can be found at:
http://www.sr.se/rs/english/scdx.htm
Sound recordings of interviews from previous programs can be found at:
http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media2.htm
Sound files of Mediascan are archived at:
ftp.funet.fi:pub/sounds/RadioSweden/Mediascan.
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
Radio Sweden news (recorded at 01:30 hrs UTC daily) as well recordings
of MediaScan are available in the Real Audio format via the World
Radio Network, at:
http://www.wrn.org
WRN programming is carried live over the Internet in the Streamworks
format. The WRN server is at Internet Multicasting at:
town.hall.org
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to
+468-667-6283 or by e-mail to: wood@rs.sr.se
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.
We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition,
Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general.
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:
subscribe@rs.sr.se
You ought to get a confirmation message in reply. To unsubscribe from
the list, send a message to
unsubscribe@rs.sr.se
To get a copy of Radio Sweden's English program schedule, write to:
english@rs.sr.se
And for general questions, comments, and reception reports, our e-mail
address is:
info@rs.sr.se
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to this week's contributors Good
Listening!
************************
George Wood wood@rs.sr.se
Radio Sweden http://www.sr.se/rs
S-105 10 Stockholm tel: +468-784-7239
Sweden fax: +468-667-6283
************************