textfiles/magazines/SKYGUIDE/skyguide.39

Skyguide Issue 039

--------------------------------- SKYGUIDE ---------------------------------
|                                                                          |
|    Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV   |
|                                                                          |
--------------------- Week Ending Sat August 20th 94 -----------------------


* GOTCHA!

Kelvin MacKenzie, ex-editor of downmarket UK tabloid "The Sun" has resigned
his position as Managing Director of BSkyB after what has been termed a
"personality clash", understood to have been with Chief Executive Sam
Chisholm. Apparently Sky staff could often witness the two arguing in the
corridors of Sky's headquarters at Osterley.

MacKenzie ruffled most feathers at Sky News, which led to the resignation of
Ian Frykeberg, head of News, after MacKenzie's attempts to drag the news
station downmarket. A point of particular contention was a series of
'features' in the form of a Jack the Ripper documentary and an exclusive
interview with Lady Bienvenida Buck. Frykeberg said that such low-grade
material would air on Sky News "over his dead body", and eventually the shows
appeared on Sky One.

In addition, MacKenzie attempted to install Sun columnist Richard Littlejohn
in a talk show on Sky News, set to air at 6pm nightly - which would have been
the first time since its launch five years ago that Sky News had not had a
news bulletin on the hour.

One Sky source pointed out that "On the hour, every hour, except when Richard
Littlejohn is on" was not an acceptable mission statement for the channel.

MacKenzie subsequently cut Sky News's budget by 2 million pounds, which would
have posed a serious threat to its International coverage.

Reports indicate that there was jubilation at Sky (and Sky News in particular)
upon hearing of MacKenzie's resignation. Robin Corbett, The Labour party's
broadcasting spokesman, said: "This may turn out to be Mr MacKenzie's best
contribution to satellite
television."

Meanwhile, former TV-AM chairman Bruce Gyngell is denying reports that he is
to step into the Managing Director job. Since the closure of TV-AM in 1993,
Gyngell went to Australia, where he is now chief executive of the Nine
network.

It is thought that the MD post will be filled from within Sky's ranks, with
the deputy managing director and head of programming apparently being strong
candidates.


* MORE ON LITTLEJOHN

Kelvin MacKenzie's departure has sparked rumours that Richard Littlejohn's
show (claimed by London's Evening Standard newspaper to have been 'the last
straw' which caused MacKenzie's resignation) will never see the light of day.

Littlejohn wrote, in a letter to the Standard, that his show will begin as
scheduled on September 19th, and that there was no possibility of it being
cancelled, although Sky News staff are reported to be secretly hoping that the
show will now not appear, at least not on their channel, and definitely not
in place of a news bulletin.


* AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE SEEN

Terrestrial broadcaster Channel 4 will begin screening Widescreen programme
material in PALPlus from October, with an estimated 500 hours to be broadcast
over the following three months.

Nokia will begin selling PALPlus widescreen sets in the UK from the same date,
although they estimate that the majority of their market will be to rental
customers - possibly not surprising since their 28-inch widescreen model will
retail for #1,300.

ITV regional broadcaster Granada Television will also begin making and
broadcasting PALPlus material soon.


* SKY FI

Rumours are circulating that the launch of The Sci-Fi Channel in Europe is
back on. A nighttime service is currently planned in the 7pm-7am downtime on
Nickelodeon's transponder [currently occupied by TV Asia], with a full 24 hour
service for cable operators on Eutelsat 2F1, specifically at 11.678 Ghz.

In the event of the launch, the channel is almost certain to be part of Sky
Multichannels.

News also suggests that Sky is planning on launching its own SciFi channel.
Sky already has a good supply of US Science Fiction material (including the
flagship Star Trek shows), and recent acquisitions suggest that it intends on
buying more.

In what may be an unconnected move, Sky has purchased the rights to "Quantum
Leap", which it intends to begin screening in January next year, probably in
the 10pm slot on Sky One once the current run of Star Trek:The Next Generation
has finished.


* A BRAND NEW SKY

Sky is apparently set to launch other new channels soon, around one year since
the launch of its original Multichannels package brought nine new channels to
Astra.

Rumours of a second general entertainment channel, 'Sky Two' are gaining
currency, and following job advertisements seeking staff to work exclusively
on travel programming, it seems likely that Sky is planning to launch its own
Travel channel, independently of the existing "Travel channel" currently on
Intelsat 601.

The travel channel is likely to have strong links with Sky's new travel
agency, "Sky Travel Services", as reported in the last edition of Skyguide.

It is understood that a Sky Travel service is likely to share the voluminous
downtime on Astra Tp47 (Sky Sports 2).


* ELVIS MANIA! [STANDING ROOM ONLY]

QVC's national search for Elvis lookalikes on the anniversary of the King's
death (August 16th) promised to see thousands of Elvis fans on the doorstep
of QVC's plush Marcopolo House Headquarters in Battersea.

The channel had clearly severely underestimated the extent of Elvis mania,
since on the day the amazing quantity of five people turned up.


* RADIO RADIO

Two Astra radio services are moving transponders in order to free up space for
the new digital music services planned by Digital Music Express.

Chiltern Supergold and Asda FM have moved from their existing transponders on
Sky News and Sky Movies to occupy the 7.38 and 7.56 Mhz subcarriers of
Transponder 47 (Sky Sports 2).

The move leaves the 7.74 and 7.92 subcarriers (Stereo C) vacant, and it is
understood that these frequencies will be used to carry part of the digitally-
compressed near-CD quality service planned by Digital Music Express.

Meanwhile, Country Music Radio, which went permanently off-air as a result of
what management euphemistically termed "a technical problem" is rumoured to
be making a comeback, possibly in stereo on the 7.38 and 7.56 subcarriers of
Nickelodeon.

Two more religious stations are also set to appear on Astra, in the form of
Evangelic Radio and Trans World Radio. The stations will broadcast from the
7.38 and 7.56 Mhz subcarriers on Astra Tp 38 (QVC). Apparently the stations
had hoped for the 7.74 and 7.92 carriers on Sky Sports, which would have
placed them alongside United Christian Broadcasting, but these subcarriers
were also reserved for Digital Music Express.


* HOSPITAL HIJINKS

St Charles's Hospital in London is currently in a battle with The Adult
Channel over a soft porn film made in the hospital's empty wards.

HVC Limited, parent company of The Adult Channel, paid 200 pounds to hire the
ward for filming, allegedly telling Hospital management that it was for a
comedy sketch. The Hospital's director of Communications claimed that HVC
Limited had breached the agreement with the hospital, adding that they would
not permit filming which could bring the NHS into disrepute.


* HOT AIR, NOT ON AIR

The launch of 'Erotic TV 69' has once again been announced and postponed. Gorm
Oldorf, owner of the channel, blamed "technical problems" between Phillips and
Danish Telecom.

The launch was scheduled for midnight on August 5th. Oldorf gave many
interviews to the press stressing that they were absolutely uninterested in
the UK market, and that (in a very self-regulatory vein) they regarded
themselves as banned in the UK. He did, however, take the time to point out
that he would be powerless to stop UK residents buying cards from abroad.

Regrettably, the PR was all that could be seen from TV69 that night - the
scheduled transmissions did not take place. On August 8th he said that they
would try again that evening, and again no transmissions took place. Further
attempts on August 9th saw nothing. The launch was then promised for August
15th, and yet again there was nothing.

At one point it had been claimed that TV69 would launch on Astra, a claim
which SES dismissed as "rubbish".

TV69 also claim to be considering launching two more adult channels,
specialising in Gay and Sadomasochistic material.


* NOT THE EUROPEAN

German media conglomerate Bertelsmann went to the EC earlier this year when
MTV Europe refused to play any music videos from BMG artists.

The two companies were in dispute over the South American service 'MTV
Latino'. Once this issue was resolved MTV began playing BMG's videos again.


* CMT SHIFTS TIMES AND CHANNELS

Country Music Television, currently broadcasting between midnight and 4pm on
Discovery's Astra 1C transponder has announced that it is moving home on
October 1st.

>From that date, CMT will transmit from 6am to 7pm using the spare capacity on
JSTV's Astra Transponder (24) which is currently occupied by an Astra
promotional video.

No announcements have been made for what, if anything, will fill the 00:00-
16:00 time on Discovery's channel, although there is a possibility that
Discovery's cable-exclusive sister service "The Learning Channel" may take
four hours every day from midday. In such an event, the channel is likely to
be part of Sky Multichannels, and possibly the European Multichoice package
too.


* TURN OVER

MTV is now urging viewers watching its broadcasts on Astra Transponder 22 to
re-tune to Transponder 15.

VH-1 launches on the Tp22 on September 30, and MTV is keen to give viewers as
much notice as possible.


* PIRATES IN THE SKY

Sky's solicitors have been busy recently sending letters to companies and
individuals who it suspects are involved in Videocrypt piracy. The letters ask
for an undertaking that the people involved will not participate in pirate
activities.

Uncooperative pirates look likely to be landed with Anton Pillar orders,
allowing Sky to seize pirate cards, paperwork, customer lists, and bank
accounts.

While the switch to Issue 9 smartcards has decimated the clone card market,
the current 'cause for concern' to Sky is the 'Phoenix' device.

The Phoenix consists of PC-based software and a card interface which mimics
the authorisation codes that a smartcard would receive were it in a videocrypt
decoder. This allows any real Issue 9 smartcard, be it an unused Quickstart
card, a blocked subscriber card, or even a legal card with just multichannels
activated to be authorised for all Sky channels.


To then avoid the resurrected card being turned off, an additional item of
hardware is then placed between the card and the decoder. This hardware
watches for a switch-off signal, and in the event that an attempt is made to
turn the card off (or to reassert a valid channel line-up for the card), the
signal is prevented from reaching the card.

As readers of John McCormac's "Hack Watch News" will be aware, the recent
pirate activity against Sky cards has compromised Videocrypt in two ways. The
original Issue 7 clone cards compromised the signal decoding, whereas the
Phoenix hack compromises the access control.

Since the hack requires authentic Sky smartcards to work, much attention has
now been focused on Sky's free 'Quickstart' cards, which are given away to
retailers and customers in order that new satellite viewers do not need to
wait for a fully authorised card to arrive in the post. In what may be a
significant move, Sky appear to have redesigned their Quickstart cards
recently.

Needless to say, widespread growth of the Phoenix device could cause a problem
for Sky, although for the moment actual devices are closely-guarded secrets.
Unfortunately that hasn't stopped hundreds of people descending on satellite
message bases on BBS systems and the Internet, all posting messages wanting
to know if anyone knows anything about it. :-(


* RATINGS TOO LOW TO PRINT

Shareholders of The Family Channel are thought to be in serious conflict over
the poor performance of the station.

Even the channels top-rated shows barely achieve an audience of 30,000
viewers, a figure that is easily out-performed by even Nickelodeon and The
Children's Channel. Only CMT Europe gets fewer viewers.

New programming acquisitions, however, hope to reverse the fortunes of the
channel. Heading the bill are repeats of ITV's top-rated surprise hit 'The
Darling Buds Of May', although Skyguide is less excited at the prospect of
seeing repeats of all 78 editions of "Through The Keyhole", with David Frost
and Lloyd Grossman.

The programming has been purchased from Yorkshire & Tyne Tees television, a
regional ITV contractor which has in the past sold some old and mouldy 70s
drama series to Bravo.


* WELCOME TO A BRAND NEW BRAVO

Bravo, of course, is one channel that is now dusting off its image as a
purveyor of ancient black and white American TV and films, and is slowly
moving more into the mould of showing recent productions.

The US Bravo, for example, screens old-but-popular shows such as 'Max
Headroom'. The UK Bravo is beginning with some repeats of 'It's Garry
Shandlings Show' and 'Thirtysomething', not to mention the existing screenings
of popular UK shows like 'The Avengers'.


* ASTRA 1D

Astra 1D now seems unlikely to launch before the middle of November.
Broadcasters currently interested in space on the satellite include TV Asia,
Arte, RTL 4 and RTL Club, music channels Viva, COM-TV and CMT Europe, German
cable channel Kabelkanal, the Spanish Canal Plus, NBC SuperChannel and The
Sega Channel.

Sky is also apparently still interested in securing large quantities of
transponders, possibly for a bunch of new channels and a 'Video Nearly On
Demand' service.

Interestingly, Astra is urging consumers NOT to upgrade to 1D compatible
equipment until programming begins - fuelling speculation that Sky have
purchased almost all the channels and that European viewers will find nothing
to see on the new satellite.


* NEW PROGRAMMES

Further to our report in Skyguide 38, Sky has now secured the UK rights to the
Oprah Winfrey show. It will air daily on Sky One from January 1995. Sky
offered Channel 4 the chance to screen repeats of the show after Sky's
transmission, but Channel 4's Chief Executive Michael Grade refused the offer.

Terrestrial viewers in the UK will be used to the continuity phrase "and
that's except for viewers in Scotland who have their own programmes". Sky has
now purchased just one of those programmes, a Scottish Television programme
named 'Funny Farm', a stand-up comedy show from the Edinburgh fringe. Sky has
commissioned 20 half-hour shows.

Sky has also commissioned twenty new half-hour shows from Thames Television
starring hypnotist Andrew Newton. The show, 'The Andrew Newton Hypnotic
Experience' will premiere on Sky One in October, and promises to be nothing
like 'The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna', a similar ITV show.

ITV broadcaster HTV is to produce fifty new editions of popular game show "Mr
and Mrs" for UK Living. Regrettably the new shows will not feature original
compere Derek Batey, but the producer will be the same.

UK Gold will begin repeating 1980s editions of 'Top Of The Pops' from
September 12th. From September 11th it will begin re-runs of the infamous BBC
soap opera 'Triangle', set on a North Sea ferry. Comedian Dave Allen will also
come to the channel every Friday night from September 16th.

UK living will begin screening US Sitcom 'Kate and Allie' daily from
September.


* MISCELLANEOUS

The number of cabled German households rose by 1.4 million last year, bringing
the total to an impressive 14.2 million.

This compares with a reach of 0.6 million in the UK.

Boxing champion Lennox Lewis has signed a deal with cable-exclusive channel
Wire TV, giving them exclusive coverage of his fights and thus ensuring that
almost no-one will be able to watch them live on TV. That should increase live
ticket sales somewhat. :-)

Wire TV has also gained exclusive rights to the 1996 cricket World cup, much
to the annoyance of Sky.

London's Westminster Cable is launching 'The Racing Channel', basically more
or less the same service that SIS currently supply to bookmakers.
Subscriptions will be a very reasonable 100 pounds a month.

Skytext has applied for the commercial teletext broadcast licence on Channel
4, giving it the opportunity to transmit commercial data terrestrially. The
ITC is considering Skytext's bid of #355,000, against the only other bid of
around #70,000.

German travel channel Reise TV now seems unlikely to launch in the small hours
on UK Gold's transponder following their inability to reach an agreement on
rental costs.


* SCARE STORY OF THE WEEK [DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ]

Sky is apparently talking to the Premier League about the possibility of
making some games pay-per-view. Horrific figures of up to ten pounds for a
game have been quoted.

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Skyguide Issue 39                                         Edited by Ant Purvis

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