Subject: Skyguide 21
From: [email-masked] (Antony Purvis)
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1993 17:22:04 +0000
Newsgroups: alt.satellite.tv.europe

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
[email-masked] to be added to the Skyguide mailing list - free of
charge!

This offer is now open to anyone in the world!

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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: [email-masked]
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