textfiles/magazines/SKYGUIDE/skyguide.38

Skyguide Issue 038

--------------------------------- SKYGUIDE ---------------------------------
|                                                                          |
|    Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV   |
|                                                                          |
--------------------- Week Ending Sat July 23rd 1994 -----------------------

* I THINK YOU SHOULD SEE THIS...

Sky Sports 2 will launch on Friday August 19th. The channel will be encrypted
with Videocrypt, and will be free to existing Sky Sports Subscribers.

The channel will broadcast every weekend from Friday evening to early Monday
morning. While Sky Sports 2 is not broadcasting, the existing Sky Preview
Channel will transmit.

New programming, hosted mostly by famous Radio personalities such as Russ
Williams, Neil Fox and Mick Brown, will be a hallmark of the channel, giving
more in-depth coverage and analysis of sporting events.

Schedule outlines for Sky Sports 2 are included later in this edition of
Skyguide.

* I THINK YOU SHOULD SEE THIS, TOO..

In addition to Sky Sports 2, Sky plan on using the spare time on Astra
Transponder 47 for even more sport.. but home viewers will not be permitted
to watch!

Live and exclusive coverage of the Ibrox International Challenge Trophy will
be aired from next month, but only pubs, clubs, and other establishments with
a Public Viewing Agreement for Sky will be eligible to receive the broadcasts.

The clubs which pay the one-off fee of 75 pounds for the coverage will have
their existing videocrypt smartcards upgraded over-the-air via Transponder 47.

Sky estimate that there will be a potential audience of five million viewers
for the event, and that it will benefit licencees by bringing large numbers
of people into their establishments to watch the games.

* EVEN MORE NEW CHANNELS

The latest edition of Sky Plus magazine states that Sky will introduce "even
more new channels" in September - an unexpected announcement that has provoked
much speculation.

VH-1 is already slated for a September 30th launch, and the possibility of The
Sci-Fi Channel and The Travel Channel making a move to Astra as part of
Multichannels cannot be discounted.

* PIRATES FOILED

Following warnings from the Motion Picture Association of America that it
would have to take action against Sky if it failed to properly protect the
interests of film companies by ensuring that the encryption system in use on
the movie channels was secure, Sky has foiled the recent batch of experimental
pirate Issue 9 cards.

Details are scarce, but it is understood that lynchpin pirate card
manufacturers paid 120,000 pounds for the codetables of the series 9
smartcards at a London Hotel.

Shortly after the sale of the codes, they were rendered inactive by Sky. It
is said that Sky actively participated in the sale of the codes, with the
intent of changing them, purely to frustrate the pirates, hopefully to put
them out of business.

Meanwhile, news is circulating of a new Issue 9 hack known as "Phoenix", a PC-
based program which (with some appropriate hardware) can activate all channels
on any Issue 9 smartcard. No further details are known.

* IRISH CABLE PIRATES SCORE OWN GOAL

In a classic anti-piracy sting, Irish cable operator Cork Communications took
advantage of World Cup fever to catch the viewers who were watching its cable
service through pirate cable decoders.

Pirate viewers saw a commercial inviting them to call a freephone 1-800 number
to receive a free World Cup T-Shirt, just by leaving their names and addresses
on an answerphone.

The sting, tried and tested by cable operators across the United States,
involved using a scrambling code that legal decoders would not receive - since
the pirate decoders would unscramble any signal, the commercial would only be
seen by pirate viewers.

Cork Communications said that the illegal use of cable decoders was costing
them around half a million pounds a year.

A police spokesman, doubtless delighted at having hundreds of lawbreakers
offering their names and addresses on a plate, said "We've never seen so many
own goals scored at the same time."

* MISSING IN ACTION

Four Astra channels went off the air last Wednesday morning as a contractor
accidentally cut through cables linking the BT Tower in London to the
Winchester-based NTL Astra uplink station.

Bravo, The Children's Channel, CMT and The Cartoon Network were affected by
the problem, although pictures were swiftly restored by temporarily rerouting
the signals.

* DELAY FOR CHISHOLM

Ex-Sky Newsreader Scott Chisholm will have to wait until September for his
High Court case against Sky to be heard.

The hearing was delayed last week when it was revealed that two key witnesses
would not be available.

Chisholm is claiming 300,000 for unfair dismissal after an alleged bout of
fisticuffs with fellow newsreader Chris Mann, who was also dismissed. Chisholm
claims that the dismissal ended his career as a broadcaster.

* MORE NEWS NEWS

Following the departure of Ian Frykberg after a reported difference of ideals
between himself and recently installed Sky News MD Kelvin MacKenzie, MacKenzie
has slashed Sky News's budget by 2 million pounds in a move that many Sky
insiders have seen as a bad sign for the future of the service.

As a result, from September 1st, freelance presenters such as Lisa Aziz will
make less regular appearances on the channel.

The budget cut is also a sign that the proposed International service of Sky
News may now not proceed.

Following the announcement, one Sky insider told Skyguide that there was a
possibility that the cut may have been over-ruled by previous Sky Managing
Director Sam Chisholm, apparently unhappy at MacKenzie's handling of Sky's
flagship news service.

* SUBS UP?

Rumours of a possible rise in the cost of Sky Subscriptions are unlikely to
disappear following a statement by Sky MD David Chance. He said that Sky were
"still looking at the Multi Channels fee" and that there had been no firm
agreement on cost.

Some industry sources have speculated that the cost for Multichannels could
rise by as much as five pounds a month, although this seems highly unlikely.

Apart from the introduction of Multichannels, the last increase in
subscriptions was in October 1991, when the subscriptions for the movie
channels rose from 9.99 and 14.99 to 11.99 and 16.99 respectively.

Any subscription increases are likely to be modest, and it seems very unlikely
that the current all-channels fee of 19.99 a month will raise.

If any increases do occur, Skyguide predicts the following price structure:

Multichannels 7.99
One Premium Channel + Multichannels 12.99
Two Premium Channels + Multichannels 17.99
Three Premium Channels + Multichannels 19.99

* BAKER ON VH-1

Danny Baker will be seen presenting repackaged editions of The Old Grey
Whistle Test on the satellite channel VH-1 following its launch.

The BBC is currently compiling ten half-hour shows, which will initially be
screened on BBC2 before being made available to VH-1.

* SKY OPRAH

Sky One could soon be playing host to top US talk show "The Oprah Winfrey
Show", following negotiations with distributor King World.

The show is currently screened by Channel 4 in the UK, but King World has
recently demanded more money for the show, and that Channel 4 give the show
a full five days a week slot, rather than the current cherry-picking of shows
which C4 believes will be relevant to UK audiences.

Channel 4 said they did not want to lose the show, but that they did not have
an unlimited budget.

* INTERACTIVE

The US-based Interactive Network is making inroads into the UK, initially with
a test service for terrestrial viewers in the Central Television region. Up
to 30 hours of programming a week will benefit from the new system, overlaying
supplementary colour  graphics and text geared towards allowing viewers to
interact with the programme.

An additional set-top box will be required, which is likely to be rented to
subscribers at around 6 pounds per month.

* TERRESTRIAL TV GOES DIGITAL

Plans for the launch of a fifth analogue TV channels are back on today
following a Government decision that the channel should go ahead. The channel
will reach only around 60% of the population, a figure which will not increase
until digital transmission becomes available.

The Independent Television Commission is now to decide whether to advertise
the licence again following its abortive attempts last year. Since Channel 5
is still planned to broadcast in the channel 35-37 area currently occupied by
thousands of satellite receivers and video recorders, extensive retuning will
be required - the cost of which will be paid for by the successful applicant.

The Department of National Heritage also gave the go-ahead for the use of
digital technology to treble the number of channels available terrestrially.

Twelve digital channels will be made available - the existing four (or five)
terrestrial channels, and another seven new services which will be franchised
and licenced by the ITC.

* IN BRIEF

Gerry Anderson's puppet series Thunderbirds will appear on UK Gold from August
1st. Strangely, the series will air every weekday at 11:10pm.

Also coming to UK Gold in August is The Chinese Detective, starring David Yip.

Eurosport are to launch a spanish soundtrack during peak time events following
its move to Astra 1C, which has brought it improved coverage in the region.

The ITC has announced two new cable franchises in South East Anglia and
Derbyshire. The franchises will cover around 250,000 and 160,000 homes
respectively.

London Radio Station Jazz FM, recently renamed "JFM", has been warned by the
Radio Authority that it is not playing enough Jazz.

Sky is reported to be launching a travel agency for its subscribers.
Apparently Karen Gee of Airtours has been recruited as manager for the
service, which is set to be available 24 hours a day, possibly through Sky's
existing Livingston subscriber centre.

The Family Channel has bought the rights to all 20 of Ruth Rendell's Inspector
Wexford Murder Mysteries, previously made by TVS for the ITV Network. TFC has
also commissioned a second series of Trivial Pursuit and a new gameshow hosted
by Andrew O'Connor named Second Guessing. Programme Director J. Nigel Pickard
said that he was also seeking to commission a live children's show along the
lines of a typical Saturday Morning Children's Show.

The BBC has said it is exploring the possibility of acquiring programming from
ITV and Channel 4 to set up a series of domestic and international satellite
television channels.

Terrestrial ITV viewers were treated to two minutes of a dodgy movie from RTL
Plus instead of a weekend talk show recently owing to a "switching error".

* SKY SPORTS 2 : SCHEDULES

Times are UK Time.

Friday August 19 - Launch Day

 18.00  THIS IS SKY SPORTS TOO
 18.30  TENNIS SPECIAL - NICK BOLLETTIERIE
        Documentary
 19.30  US PGA GOLF - LIVE
 22.00  EUROPEAN PGA GOLF
 01.00  CLOSE

Saturday August 20

 07.00  SOCCER AM
        Russ Williams hosts football chat and phone-ins
 11.00  TENNIS SPECIAL - NICK BOLLETIERI
        Dcoumentary
 12.00  EUROPEAN PGA GOLF
 16.30  MOTORSPORT SPECIAL
 18.30  GOLF NIGHT
        Murphy's English Open from Warwickshire
 21.00  US PGA GOLF
 23.00  MOTORSPORT SPECIAL
 01.00  CLOSE

Sunday August 21

 07.00  THE SPORTS EXTRA
        Mick Brown hosts competitions, highlights and action from
        the world of sports.
 11.00  MOTORSPORT
 12.00  EUROPEAN PGA GOLF - LIVE
 16.30  WORLD SUPERBIKES CHAMPIONSHIP
 18.30  GOLF NIGHT
 20.00  US PGA GOLF
 23.00  NASCAR 400
 01.00  CLOSE

Then the following week...

Friday August 26

 18.00  GILLETTE WORLD SPORT SPECIAL
        Cheap/free bought-in programming. :-)
 18.30  RINGSIDE SPECIAL
        A preview to Saturday's Eubank fight
 20.00  US PGA GOLF - LIVE
 23.00  GET YOUR HANDICAP DOWN
        Golfing instruction programme
 23.30  RINGSIDE SPECIAL
 01.00  CLOSE

Saturday August 27

 07.00  SOCCER AM
 11.00  US PGA GOLF
 14.00  US OPEN TENNIS
 17.00  MOTORSPORT SPECIAL
 19.00  POWERBOAT WORLD
 20.00  US PGA GOLF
 23.00  US OPEN TENNIS
 02.00  CLOSE

Sunday August 28

 07.00  THE SPORTS EXTRA
 11.00  US PGA GOLF
 14.00  NASCAR 500
 17.00  WORLD SUPERBIKES CHAMPIONSHIP
 19.00  LADIES GOLF (To Be Confirmed)
 20.00  US PGA GOLF - LIVE
 23.00  WORLD SUPERBIKES CHAMPIONSHIP
 01.00  CLOSE

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Skyguide Issue 38                                         Edited by Ant Purvis

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