From wood@stab.sr.seSun Mar 3 01:24:35 1996
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 15:43:48 +0100
From: George Wood <wood@stab.sr.se>
To: wood@rs.sr.se
Subject: MediaScan/Sweden Calling DXers 2241
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2241--Feb. 6, 1996 ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio
Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2241
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
P6--Swedish Radio has won its legal battle with the Kinnevik media
empire over the right to the name P6. That's been confirmed as the
official name for Radio Sweden's Stockholm International FM
transmitter. Kinnevik's former Z-Radio is no longer allowed to market
itself as P6, and has changed its name to Radio Rix, the name of the
national network that Kinnevik merged its radio stations with some
months ago. Curiously, the station is still allowed to call itself P6
on the air. (TT)
Kinnevik's own daily newspaper, "Metro", as well as the station's RDS,
now identify it as "Radio Rix".
RADIO SISU--Swedish Radio's board has approved plans for a Finnish-
language DAB channel, scheduled to start on January 1, 1998. The new
channel, Radio Sisu, will be headquartered in the provincial city of
Vaesteraas, and will reach the 300,000 to 400,000 Finnish-speaking
community in Sweden. While Swedish Radio currently carries 12 hours a
week in Finnish on its P2 (and Stockholm International) channels,
Radio Sisu will carry 10 to 14 hours a day.
SWEDISH TELEVISION--Television channels in Sweden are notorious for
not starting programs on time, a bad habit initiated by the public
service broadcaster Swedish Television. Better late than never,
Swedish Television is planning to introduce a system that would start
new VCRs recording when programs actually start, rather than the
current system of recording several minutes of junk. (Experienced
tapers routinely set their VCRs a couple of minutes late, but it's
usually difficult to estimate how late the programs will start, and
how late they will end.)
The new system is called PDC (Program Delivery Control), and is
already in use in Finalnd, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Britain.
Germany and Switzerland use a different but similar system. (Nils
Sundstroem, "Aftonbladet")
ANOTHER NAME CHANGE--The TV station that started out as Nordic
Channel, turned into TV 5 Nordic, and then lost a very strange court
case to the French and had to call itself "Femman", which means "The
Five" in Swedish, has changed names again. On Sunday it turned into
Kanal Fem, or Channel 5, and it replaced its award-winning station IDs
with a new package.
SBS--Channel 5 is owned by the Scandinavian Broadcasting System, which
in turn is owned by ABC Capitol Cities, now bought by Disney. But SBS
has just sold a third of its Norwegian satellite station, TV Norge, to
Norway's largest media concern, Schibsted, which already owns a
satellite station called TV Plus. The new head of TV Norge is Jan
Steinmann, who built up Kinnevik's TV3, and more recently has been in
charge of SBS's Scandinavian channels. ("Dagens Nyheter")
SBS is also reported to be working with Kinnevik's arch-rival Nethold.
And while Channel 5 promises it has no plans to encode its signals on
the Tele-X satellite, like Nethold it reportedly does have plans to
begin digital broadcasts. (Frank Oestergren, "Aftonbladet")
NETHOLD--Nethold's FilmNet 1 and FilmNet 2 movie channels are to be
transmitted digitally, along with the existing digital outlet
SuperSports, which, since digital receivers are not yet available
here, can only be viewed by 16,000 subscribers to small Swedish cable
networks. Nethold is still negotiating with the major Swedish cable
networks. It may have to drop its demand that they also include the
new Hallmark channel. Nethold may also have to abandon plans for
SuperSport to be a pay channel, in order to compete better with
Kinnevik's upcoming commercially-financed Sports Channel. It's also
possible the SuperSports may be sent analog as well, to reach
satellite viewers, since digital decoders are still unavailable.
According to reports, Nethold's digital receivers, when they arrive,
may not be compatible with other MPEG-2 transmissions. (Frank
Oestergren, "Aftonbladet")
NOKIA--Finland's Nokia plans to start selling a digital satellite
package in April or May, manufactured at the Luxor plant in Motala,
Sweden. The price will be between USD 1000 and 1300, for a new dish,
LNB, and receiver. (Nils Sundstroem, "Aftobladet")
KINNEVIK--Over on the Kinnevik front, there are problems. Their
comprehensive TV guide, "Paa TV", which had schedules for around 80
satellite stations, has closed down.
The planned start of their new Sports Channel has been delayed
somewhat. It was to have begun March 1st, but now test broadcasts are
to start on that date, with regular broadcasts beginning three weeks
later. Look for it on Sirius. (Frank Oestergren, "Aftonbladet")
The switch of Kinnevik's channels on the Sirius satellite from PAL to
D2-MAC, has also been delayed. TV6 has already made the switch. The
switch to new D2-MAC channels for TV3 Sweden and Z-TV, and the
introduction of encoding, are now set for later this month, and in
March.
TV3's plans to leave Astra seem to have been put on hold again.
(Bert Dahlstroem)
Meanwhile, with Kinnevik coming in for much criticism for promoting
"Swedish Packet" PAL-only TVRO set-ups for Sirius, and then announcing
the switch to D2-MAC, there's a major hold-up in delivery of the
required decoders. 16,000 decoders are being manufactured at a plant
in Estonia, but the after running up huge private debts, the Estonian
joint partners have attempted to close off the factory with what is
described as a "private army". ("Dagens Nyheter")
TV4--The private terrestrial channel TV4 may not begin its
long-planned satellite channel, which would carry reruns and old
series, using one of Nethold's digital channels. It all depends on
TV4's negotiations with the government for the renewal of its licence.
There's been much criticism of TV4 for continual violations of its
licence agreement, and the satellite channel would require a rewriting
of the agreement, which the government may not approve. (FRank
Oestergren, "Aftonbladet")
The Swedish government will reportedly give official notice soon on
the TV4 agreement, which runs until February 28, 1998. Under the
agreement, notice of cancellation must be given two years in advance.
It's still unclear if the government wants to renegotiate with TV4, or
is interested in opening the third terrestrial channel to new
interests. ("Svenska Dagbladet")
CABLE RADIO--In December we reported that Swedish Cable TV, this
country's largest cable operator, had suddenly removed BBC World
Service Radio from their Stockholm network. Last week the BBC just as
suddenly reappeared. I called up Claes Tellman, the company's
Information Director, and asked him what was going on? You can hear
his answer in today's program, or on our Web page:
http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/scdx.htm
At the beginning of December, when BBC World Service radio disappeared
from the Super Channel transponder and was replaced by Vatican Radio,
it took several days for Swedish Cable TV to react, and when they did
retune it was to the wrong channel, one that lurches into Czech and
other languages every now and then. Unfortunately, now that the
service is back on cable, it's still on that wrong channel.
NRK--The launch of NRK 2, reported last time, has been delayed and
will not be on the air before August 31, 1996. (Asbjorn Leirvag and
Knut Bjoerkmann)
EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:
OLYMPICS--The International Olympic Committee has rejected a 2 billion
dollar bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for exclusive European
rights to the first 5 Olympics of the 21st Century. Instead the IOC
accepted a smaller offer of 1.4 billion dollars from the European
Broadcasting Union, guaranteeing that Europe's public broadcasters
will continue to carry the Games through 2008. The EBU represents more
than 40 public service broadcasters, and has televised every Olympics
since the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. The IOC decision marks another
set-back for Murdoch, who's Fox Network was shut out of the U.S.
market by NBC, which has locked up six of the next seven Olympics
through 2008. Murdoch's bid for the European rights to the Olympics
caused a political uproar in Britain, with MPs proposing a law to bar
the Games from being shown on satellite or cable TV (Reuters, AP)
CMT--Country Music Television is planning to encode its (weak)
transmissions on Intelsat 601. (Frank Oestergren, "Aftonbladet")
HOT--The German shopping channel Home Order Television on Astra
transponder 62 now has its own uplink from Munich, so it no longer
needs to feed via DFS 1 Kopernikus to Luxembourg. DSF and Pro 7 are
also expected to end their feeds via Kopenikus soon. (Bert Dahlstroem
in "Paa TV")
Home Order TV will be starting a teletext service during February.
(Nils Sundstroem, "Aftonbladet")
KOPERNIKUS--DFS 3 Kopernikus has been found after wandering away from
33.5 degrees East. Since there wasn't enough fuel to return it to its
proper position, the satellite has been moved out of the way and taken
out of service. (Bert Dahlstroem in "Paa TV")
SAUDI ARABIA--Saudi Arabian Channel 1 is reported to be broadcasting
on "Gorizont 26", Statsionar 11 at 11 degrees West, on the transponder
formerly used by Apna TV on 11.525 GHz. Sound is on 7.0 and 7.5 MHz.
("Tele-Satellit" via Kauto Huopio)
RUSSIA--Gals 2 is now broadcasting alongside Gals 1 at 71 degrees
East. TV 6 Moscow has been seen on 11.920 GHz, and there is a strong
signal on 12.208 GHz. There are also digital transmissions on a number
of frequencies. (Bert Dahlstroem in "Paa TV")
Russia launched a new Gorizont on January 25, completing a program
which began in 1978. The last in a series of 43 satellites, the new
Gorizont will improve TV coverage in parts of Russia. (Reuters)
CORRECTION--In edition 2238 we misspelled the last name of German
media magnate Leo Kirch. Many apologies, and thanks to Andre Schmidt
for pointing out the error, which can only be attributed to my non-
existent skills in the German language.
AFRICAN MEDIA NEWS:
PAS--PanAmSat Corp. has announced plans for the launch in late 1997 of
its PAS-7 Indian Ocean Region satellite, which will vastly expand
PanAmSat's ability to provide satellite services for South Africa and
the African continent. It will be placed at 68.5 degrees East, the
same location as the current PAS-4 satellite, after launch on an
Ariane 5 rocket. PAS-7 will extend Ku-band coverage, complementing the
16 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders on PAS-4. ("Tele-satellit" and
Curt Swinehart)
NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:
USA--The biggest recent international media story has been the
approval by the American Congress of the new Telecommunications Bill,
which President Clinton has said he will sign into law.
Its many provisions increase the number of television stations media
companies can own (reaching 35 percent of the country, instead of the
current limit of 25 percent), and allows companies to own more radio
stations locally than they can now. It removes rate controls on cable
television, and makes it harder for cable customers to contest rates.
It allows telephone companies to sell television over their lines or
via satellite, and allows long distance and cable companies to offer
local telephone services.
The new law will require TV manufactuers to include something called a
V-chip in new sets, to block programs that cable networks and
broadcasters consider violent. This won't really be a chip, rather a
circuit, and doesn't exist yet. But the most controversial provision
of the new Act regulates the Internet, more than any other medium, by
making it a crime to transmit over computer networks what is called
indecent material to minors.
The Internet magazine "Hot Wired" says the new law will criminalize
free speech on the Internet, and concern has been expressed that the
vague term indecent might be stretched to include discussions of
abortion or even breast cancer. The American Civil Liberties Union
says it will challenge the indecency provision, and even Time Warner
has published a strong condemnation of the Act on its website.
The bill had been stalled by a disagreement over who pays for the
spectrum for digital and high defination TV. The FCC had wanted to
allocate digital channels to existing broadcasters, to encourage them
to simulcast and start new services. Republicans wanted to auction off
the frequencies. The roadblock was cleared when Senate Majority Leader
Bob Dole received assurances from the FCC that it would not issue new
digital TV licences until Congress decides whether broadcasters should
pay for them. (AP, Reuters, "Hot Wired", "Pathfinder", Curt Swinehart)
For the complete (and quite lengthy) text of the act, see:
ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/c104/s652.enr.txt
(Curt Swinehart)
MURDOCH--Rupert Murdoch has also been in the news lately. On January
30th he announced (for the third time) plans to start a 24 hour global
news channel. It will be led by former CNBC chief Roger Ailes,
executive producer of "Rush Limbaugh: The Television Show". The new
channel will be based in New York, and will be aligned with Murdoch's
Fox Network. It will be distributed by cable and satellite, and will
compete with CNN, and all-news cahnnels planned by ABC and an NBC-
Microsoft partnership. Murdoch gave no firm start-up date for the new
channel. (AP)
DBS--On January 25th, Murdoch's partner MCI won the rights to the
final American Direct Broadcast Satellite licence. The two companies
announced they would begin beaming up to 400 channels (actually 28 or
more transponders, carrying digital channels) of television, home
shopping, and data services such as sports scores and stock quotes. At
a news conference, Murdoch said his News Corp. will provide consumer
programming corresponding to "anything currently available on cable",
plys extensive pay-per-view, educational and public service offerings.
MCI will oversee such business services as medical imaging, corporate
training, and high-speed data services. But the project would take at
least two years to get going.
Murdoch also says the companies haven't decided whether to have
customers buy the 18 inch (46 cm) receiving dishes they need to get
the service from retail stores, or whether MCI and News Corp. would
supply them for a fee.
EchoStar Communciations Corp. won the second of US DBS slots auctioned
off, beating out MCI and TCI for the orbital slots at 148 degrees
West. EchoStar successfully launched its first DBS satellite from
China in December, and the company hopes to begin service to consumers
in March. A second satellite is expected in July. EchoStar already has
a licence for those positions. (Curt Swinehart)
This leaves TCI with two almost completed high-power satellites, but
without an orbital slot. However TCI intends to continue to go ahead
with its Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) project. Last year TCI secured 12
transponders that will allow it to broadcast 75 digital channels. (AP,
Reuters, Curt Swinehart)
RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL--Following a cabinet reorganization, the
new Canadian Heritage Minister and deputy Prime Minister, Sheila
Copps, said "our first priority is to restore funding to Radio Canada
International", when she met reporters for the first time. No details
as to the government's exact plans have been given. The Coalition to
Restore Full RCI Funding says this is encouraging news, but is calling
for a separate protected budget for RCI. The coalition continues to
call for letters and faxes of support for RCI to be sent to Prime
Minister Jean Chretien and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy.
An e-mail address for the Prime Minister is listed by the coalition
as:
remote-printer.Jean_Chretien@0.0.9.6.1.4.9.3.1.6.1./tpc.int
CANADIAN CABLE--A slew of new channels proposed for cable television
in Canada may hasten the digital world, and put an end to the
country's cohesive national market, which is dmoniated by a few
broadcasters. Canada is the most cabled nation on Earth, with about 90
percent of homes wired. Officials for the Canadian Radio-Television
and Telecommunications Commission say they received 44 applications
for new channels. Hearings will be held in May on the channel
proposals, and they are expected to last a few weeks. When the
licences will be awarded and how many will be allowed is open to
conjecture. (Reuters)
POWER DIRECTV--The Canadian DBS project PowerDIRECTV has announced
that after careful consideration of the CRTC decision regarding its
DTC licences, it will not proceed with the implementation of the
licences. (Canada NewsWire)
ASIAN MEDIA NEWS:
MTV--MTV launched a 24 hour service to India on January 25, using PAS-
4. The company, which will feature Indian bands and announcers, hopes
to reach 15 million Indians. Until now the music channel has been
available for four hours a day on India's state-owned Doordarshan.
(AP)
MORE MURDOCH--Facing steep loses in its Asian satellite TV business,
"Newsweek" and the "Wall Street Journal" report that Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp. is trying to forge an alliance with the Chinese leadership.
According to reports, Murdoch's Star-TV is in early negotiations to
create a joint-venture company with Chinese state-backed companies,
including the country's sole national broadcaster, China Central
Television.
The new company would probably beam CCTV programming though Star's
network on the new Asiasat-2 satellite, and will supply Star
programming to CCTV, which recently launched a satellite network of
its own. The joint venture would allow CCTV to put four more pay
channels onthe satellite, raising the total to eight.
The deal would mark a fresh chapter in Murdoch's sometimes difficult
relations with the Chinese government. China has banned indiviudal
ownership of satellite dishes, severely restricting Murdoch's access
to the massive Chinese market. (Reuters) Murdoch removed BBC World
Television from Star's northern beam after protests from the Chinese
authorities.
ASIASAT--Asiasat-2, launched from China in November, has entered
service. One of the first broadcasts from the new satellite was from
Portugal's RTP. Launching the venture, Portuguese Prime Minister
Antonio Guterres pledged to support East Timor in its fight for self-
rule. Lisbon is still regarded by the United Nations as the
administering power in East Timor, despite Indonesia's 1975 invasion
of the territory. Portuguese language broadcasts by RTP Inernational,
already available by satellite to Europe, Africa, and the America, can
now been seen in Asia.
In response, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas questioned
Portugal's motive in launching the service. (Reuters)
Asiasat has announced that it has signed an agreement with Pakistan to
lease a C-band transponder on Asiasat-2. Asiasat also says it will
begin constructing Asiasat-3, to be launched in late 1997. One source
says Hughes is the likely manufacturer. (Reuters and Curt Swinehart)
INDONESIA--Indonesia's Palapa C1 satellite was successfully launched
on an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral on January 31. It carries 30 C-
band and 4 Ku-band transponders. It will be placed at 113 degrees
East. Besides Indonesia, the coverage area includes parts of China,
India, Japan, and Australia.
JAPAN--On February 5, Ariane successfully placed into orbit Japan's N-
Star B satellite. To be located at 136 degrees East, it complements N-
Star A, launched by Ariane last September. The new satellite carries
transponders in the Ku, Ka, S, and C-bands, and will provide fixed and
mobile telephone and ISDN services through-out Japan. (Reuters, AP and
Curt Swinehart)
Japan Satellite Systems says it will launch at the end of next January
a new communications satellite capable of providing multichannel
digital broadcasting services. The new JCSAT-4 will complement the
JCSAT-3, which was launched in August, and which will start providing
its 50 channel services from June. The new satellite will carry voice,
data, and television signals to Japan, and will have multiple-beam
coverage from India to Hawaii and New Zealand. It will be placed at
124 degrees East, and will carry 8 Ku-band transponders with 36 MHz
bandwidth and 16 Ku-band transponders with 27 MHz bandwidth. (Curt
Swinehart)
APSTAR--APT Satellite, operators of the yet-to-be-launched Apstar-2R
satellite, have announced they have leased six transponders to four US
programmers: HBO, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting,
and ESPN. The satellite is scheduled for launch in early 1997, and
will replace the craft destroyed in a Chinese rocket explosion a year
ago.
Apstar-1A, a complement to the existing Apstar 1, is scheduled to be
launched on March 15th. ("Tele-satellit" and Curt Swinehart)
CYBERSPACE:
MCI/MURDOCH/MICROSOFT--When MCI announced last month it has formed an
alliance with Microsoft, including close co-operation in the Microsoft
Network, "Hot Wired" reported serious problems in the joint venture
between MCI and Rupert Murdoch to launch an online service. Microsoft
will be putting an MCI icon on its Windows 95 desktop, and MCI will
adopt Microsoft's Internet Explorer program as its preferred software
for Web browsing. By clicking on the MCI symbol Windows 95 users will
be able to purchase MCI services like conferencing and ISDN lines.
News Corp.'s on-line service Delphi, is being re-organized as a
separate entity in which MCI will hold a minority, non-controlling
interest.
Amazingly, despite owning Delphi, it took until late January before
Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting finally showed up on the World Wide
Web:
http://www.sky.co.uk
(AP, "Hot Wired", Robin Clark)
SCPC--For news of a new low cost SCPC receiver, check out:
http://satscan.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
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The broadcasts at 17:15 and 18:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe
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Radio Sweden is also relayed to Europe via the World Radio Network on
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Galaxy-5, on WTBS's transponder 6, audio 6.8 MHz, daily at 21:30 and
00:00 hrs Eastern time.
Our new World Wide Web page is at:
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A multimedia version of this bulletin can be found at:
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Sweden
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
************************