Newsgroups: alt.satellite.tv.europe From: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk (Antony Purvis) Subject: Skyguide 21 Reply-To: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1993 17:22:04 +0000 ========================== skyguide/skyguide #60, from bignoise, 2781 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93 -------------------------- Skyguide Issue 021 Page 1 -------------------------------- SKYGUIDE UK --------------------------------- | | | Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV | | | ------------------------- Week Ending Sat August 14th ------------------------ * WELCOME TO SKYGUIDE It's our 21st birthday! * DOUBLE THE SPORTS Transponder 47 on Astra has been undergoing tests recently, thought to be in preparation for a new service. So far, a number of broadcasters have been rumoured for the channel, including HBO, Cinemax, ARTE, and now.. Sky. While this report is *unconfirmed*, rumour has it that Sky is planning to lessen the impact of the increase in Sky Sports subscriptions by launching a second sports channel, understood to be free to Sports subscribers. Sky certainly has enough sports material to run a second channel, and with the prospect of a number of viewers cancelling due to the price increase this would appear to be a smart move for Sky. The second channel would also provide a suitable platform for Sky to trial pay-per-view sports events. Nonetheless, SES remained as enigmatically silent as ever regarding the ownership of Transponder 47, and Sky weren't saying anything either. If it goes ahead, an announcement is likely to be made very shortly, with the channel possibly broadcasting as early as September. * ALL RIGHT! Country Music Television has now confirmed that it will launch its service on Astra transponder 41 on September 1st. In our report last week, CMT seemed very much the weakest of a number of Sky Multichannels whose launch seemed under threat - Happily that situation would appear to have been resolved, and for the present time, CMT is back on track. Clear test transmissions are expected in the next two weeks. QVC is also apparently no longer under threat, and has signed a lease for Transponder 38 with SES. * SATELLITE SHUFFLES If you're a viewer of the clear channels on the Intelsat satellite at 27.5 degrees West, your viewing may just be curtailed shortly. The Intelsat feeds of Discovery and Bravo are destined to be switched off once the Astra feed is permanently up and running. Bravo is likely to disappear from the end of September, and Discovery in October. "The Learning Channel" that currently sits on Discovery's transponder will move across to the Wire TV transponder, and change broadcasting hours to 9am-midday. From December, it will also be scrambled using the same SAVE encryption as is currently used on Bravo. Wire TV itself will also be SAVE encrypted at the same time. ========================== skyguide/skyguide #61, from bignoise, 2621 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93 -------------------------- Skyguide Issue 021 Page 2 * EUROCARD With Videocrypt decoders now becoming more easily available in Europe, it seems likely that a consortium of British broadcasters may work together to provide a Sky-style "Multi Channels" smart card for European viewers. The Adult Channel and TV Asia are both currently selling Videocrypt smartcards for European viewers, and a number of the Sky Multichannels broadcasters, particularly MTV and Discovery are keen to maintain their European audience once they scramble. It seems that some channels, if not Sky themselves, can appreciate the folly of broadcasting on a European satellite just for UK viewers. * WAITING FOR THE COMEBACK Red Hot Television have issued a statement indicating that they have sorted out their financial problems and should be back on air on Monday August 16th. The channel intends to continue broadcasting with SAVE scrambling to ensure that all its subscribers can continue to see the channel. * INSTANT HITS In its first three days on Astra, The Discovery Channel blasted into the UK satellite ratings with an impressive 200,000 viewers for its Loch Ness update programme. Sister channel Bravo did less well, although still pulled a respectable 60,000 viewers for a Frankie Howerd film. Sky's channels still dominate the highest positions in the charts, with over a million viewers for the premiere of "Problem Child 2" on the Movie Channel. Sky One's repeat screenings of The Simpsons still managed to pull in over 880,000, with the Games World "Fight Night Final" gaining a full quarter of a million viewers. Meanwhile, BARB is understood to be looking into the possibility that satellite radio is artifically inflating the viewing figures of some satellite TV stations. BARB's rating equipment currently registers someone as viewing a channel even if the audio is tuned to an ancillary radio service. BARB's latest figures on satellite installations suggest that 24,000 dishes were installed in the UK last month. * TCC 2 The Chinese Channel has been granted an ITC licence to uplink programming from the UK. The channel is thought to be planning to launch a European service in time for the Chinese New Year next February. Backed by one of the world's largest producers of chinese programming, it could broadcast overnight on Astra 1C until a full transponder becomes available. Subscriptions for the channel would be around 30 pounds a month. The high subscription rates, on a par with JSTV's, are partially due to the low potential audience of under 100,000 across Europe. ========================== skyguide/skyguide #62, from bignoise, 2203 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93 -------------------------- Skyguide Issue 021 Page 3 * THE SECRET TESTCARD There's a new testcard on Astra 1C that you might not have seen yet - RTL5 is now broadcasting on its slightly out-of-band transponder on 10.935 Ghz Vertical. If your receiver won't let you tune lower than 10.950, a handy hint is to adjust your LNB offset (sometimes known as 'Skew') to as low as you can go - most receivers will go as far as -0.015 Ghz. This should enable you to pick up RTL5 on 10.950 Ghz. Remember to reset the skew to normal once you've finished, however, or you may find lots of Astra channels have suddenly disappeared! Unfortunately this little trick won't help you when Astra 1D launches next year - it will broadcast in the 10.700 - 10.950 Ghz band. To receive it, you'll probably need a new LNB and receiver. * ANOTHER CHANNEL RETURNING Music fans across Europe were up in arms when popular French music channel MCM disappeared from the TDF satellite last month. The channel is expected to return on Monday August 16th - co-incidentally the same date as like Red Hot Television. * BSKYBBC Sky has sold 13 episodes of NBC's situation comedy "Seinfeld" to BBC2. The programme was screened both on Sky's defunct Comedy Channel as well as Sky One, but received poor ratings. They hope that a screening of the old episodes on terrestrial television may increase its ratings when Sky begin showing new episodes. * OLE! Galavision has started test transmissions on Astra Transponder 44. MDR3, ZDF, SW3 and ARD should all launch their services on Astra on August 27th. * MTV IN COURT MTV Europe went to the High Court this week to issue seven writs against various record industry bodies in an attempt to save itself some money. MTV's long-running bun-fight with several record companies, and most notably Video Performance Limited, centres around the fees that the broadcaster is asked to pay for screening pop videos. MTV asserts that the current arrangement, where they must pay VPL a set fee for each video, is against European law, and anti-competitive. The writ also seems to imply that MTV feels it should not have to pay at all for screening videos. ========================== skyguide/skyguide #63, from bignoise, 1412 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93 -------------------------- Skyguide Issue 021 Page 4 * MEANWHILE ... MTV's teletext service ("MTV text") appears to have changed hands. The service has been run by London-based company Intelfax Ltd since its launch, but has now suddenly been taken over by another London-based company named Teleworld. * SKYGUIDE DIRECT If you'd like Skyguide posted direct to your internet mailbox, mail to bignoise@compulink.co.uk to be added to the Skyguide mailing list - free of charge! This offer is now open to anyone in the world! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Skyguide Issue 21 You can find Skyguide every week on London's CIX conferencing system, in the Skyguide conference, the Fidonet Satellite TV echo, and the Packet Radio Network. Skyguide is published weekly and is copyright. Not to be redistributed in any form without consent. Errors and Omissions expected. (c) 1993 by Ant Purvis Comments, suggestions, stories and monetary donations are always appreciated! No-one reads this anyway. You can contact Skyguide in the following ways: CIX : mail to bignoise, or use the Skyguide/comments conference. Fidonet : Netmail to ANTONY PURVIS at 2:251/22, or leave a message in the Satellite TV echo. Internet: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------