Subject: Skyguide 22
From: [email-masked] (Antony Purvis)
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1993 17:22:05 +0000
Newsgroups: alt.satellite.tv.europe

bbcid MORGAA01 @ BBC-BH

Skyguide Issue 022

-------------------------------- SKYGUIDE UK ---------------------------------
|                                                                            |
|    Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV     |
|                                                                            |
------------------------- Week Ending Sun August 22nd ------------------------

* WELCOME NEW READERS!

Skyguide is now available on the internet in the alt.satellite.tv.europe
newsgroup - welcome to our new readers!

* UK LIVING READY TO LAUNCH

UK Living has secured Astra 1C transponder 34, ready for its September 1st
launch. There had previously been some doubt that the broadcaster could secure
a transponder in time, if at all, but it has now been announced that Thames
Television, partner in the channel, will take up its option on an Astra
transponder, and will transfer it to the channel.

Regular "Advertisement Features" will be a part of the schedule, although
unlike UK Living's predecessor channel "Lifestyle", the features will be made
by the channel and presented by Polly Perkins, star of axed BBC soap Eldorado.

While the BBC recently announced that it would not be extending its ventures
into satellite television beyond UK Gold, an agreement has been reached with
the BBC for the sale of a number of programmes, both old and new.

Omnibuses of "Good Morning With Anne and Nick" will be aired in the weekends
following their screening as part of BBC1's daytime schedules.

Also lined up are repeat screenings of morning talk show "Kilroy", in some
cases just one week after their original BBC screening.

The channel will make up to two and a half hours a day of its own programming
from the old Thames Television studios in Middlesex.

* STAY TOONED!

TNT and The Cartoon Network will begin their test transmissions on September
10th, one week before their launch.

* MAKING ANOTHER COMEBACK

Red Hot Television have issued a new press statement, claiming that they will
begin "test transmissions" on their old transponder on August 24th, and resume
full broadcasting on August 29th.

This follows last week's statement that they would return on August 14th,
although sightings of Dutch PTT colour bars have been reported on their
transponder in the midnight hours.

The channel will continue broadcasting in SAVE for the moment, with the
mysterious Enigma (Videocrypt) encryption set to arrive at a future date.

* MORE ADULT CHANNELS

Meanwhile, yet more new adult channels are announcing that they will start up
shortly. Some may proceed no further than "MTX", which offered a premium rate
telephone line selling "examples" of what their channel would show.

Some may proceed as far as the late "After 12", masterminded by David Henry
and his company, Phonovision. This channel got as far as test broadcasts,
taking people's money, and sending out Videocrypt cards, but never actually
made it as far as broadcasting any real programming. The channel eventually
disappeared amid claims from programming producers that they had not been
paid.

Strangely enough, After 12 has recently re-surfaced in advertisments in some
UK satellite magazines. "After 12 Europe", using the original logo of the old
"After 12" that disappeared, will "part exchange your old SAVE decoder for a
new phonocrypt decoder".

Quite what the mysterious "phonocrypt" encoding will consist of, other than
sounding very much like the original "phonovision" company behind After 12
originally, is unknown. The channel claims it will broadcast from the Eutelsat
bird at 13 degrees East.

Whether the original "After 12" and the new "After 12 Europe" are in any way
connected is open to question, but the new arrivals may well find themselves
on the receiving end of claims from disgruntled subscribers to the original.

Also claiming to be starting soon is "TV69", a channel said to be backed by
the former managing director of Red Hot Television, and backed by German
erotica producer VTO.

TV69 claim that they will broadcast from the same Eutelsat transponder as Red
Hot Television, which may be a little difficult if RHTV themselves do finally
make it back.

Subscriptions will be handled by Euroswap's Gibraltar branch, subscriptions
said to be 160 pounds a year, although a deposit of 25 pounds is necessary to
secure a smart card. The channel's advertising claims "Absolutely NO
connection with RHD!", and that they will be scrambling with Videocrypt.

Videocrypt cards will, it is reported, be obtained through VTO's connections
with "The Adult Channel".

In general, it all sounds very unlikely - for what it's worth, Skyguide's
advice is to believe it when you see it.

* THROW AWAY YOUR RTL-4 DECODERS!

Well, perhaps not, but for the moment, viewers without RTL-4 decoders will be
able to enjoy all RTL-4's programming on the RTL-5 transponder on Astra 1C.

* MONEY IN THE BANK

Expect to see a whole lot of advertising for the new channels in the Sky
Multichannels package. Not only is UK Living spending a large amount of money
on advertising itself to people, but kids channel Nickelodeon is throwing a
million pounds into advertising its launch in the UK.

The Family Channel will be topping that, with one and a half million pounds
for its launch, and Sky has an upcoming 15 million pounds advertising campaign
in the run-up to Christmas.

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Skyguide Issue 22                                         Edited by Ant Purvis

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