357 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
357 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
bbcid MORGAA01 @ BBC-BH
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Skyguide Issue 034
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---------------------------------- SKYGUIDE ----------------------------------
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| Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV |
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--------------------- Week Ending Sun March 6th 1994 -------------------------
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* HELLO, HELLO, IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK..
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A new issue of Skyguide at last! Apologies for the long delay, but hopefully
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it was worth waiting for!
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* QVC SETS SIGHTS ON EUROPE
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Home shopping channel QVC, currently broadcasting to the UK and Ireland as
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part of the Sky Multi-Channels package, is said to be planning to expand into
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European markets.
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Clarification of the legal situation would, however, be required from the
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European Community. The current position is that teleshopping channels are
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prohibited unless they broadcast to one member state only.
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Meanwhile, German catalogue company Quelle has plans to launch its own home
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shopping channel on Astra, with a view to capturing the East European market.
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* SPORTS ON ONE, NOT TWO
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Sky has temporarily shelved plans for Sky Sports Two (again) by transferring
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football matches which clash with the current West Indies cricket coverage to
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Sky One.
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The move is partially for technical reasons, namely the difficulty in getting
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viewers to re-tune their receivers, but primarily for marketing reasons. The
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football matches on Sky One are achieving very respectable ratings, and is
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likely to bring an increased number of new subscribers to Sky Sports.
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While the football is screened on Sky One, all the Sky Multi-channels
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broadcast in soft videocrypt mode, so a viewing card is not required. Again,
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this is partially for technical reasons (there are some Sky Sports
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subscribers who do not take multichannels), but also with the marketing
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intention of capturing the die-hard viewers who have not taken up a
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subscription to multichannels.
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The first clear match, Wimbledon v Man United pulled in just under 1.5
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million viewers - the second highest number of viewers ever achieved on Sky
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One.
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* NO NICK
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Unconfirmed reports suggest that Sky and Viacom have dropped plans to launch
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Nick At Nite, advertised as part of the Sky Multi-channels package.
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Earlier reports suggested that the channel had been delayed due to problems
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with programme rights and acquisitions.
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In the event that the channel is dropped, at least for 1994, it is likely
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that the Travel Channel, already broadcasting on Intelsat 601 (27.5'W) will
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be offered time on Astra and will join the multi-channels package to replace
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Nick at Nite.
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In this event, the only apparent spare time is the 6am-7pm time on Transponder
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24, or the currently vacant (and Sky-owned) Transponder 47, which could be a
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more likely option.
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The Travel Channel currently broadcasts midday to midnight on Intelsat, so
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while there is enough time available on Transponder 24 to carry the channel
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in its entirety, the time-shift could be a problem for the channel.
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* AH, I SEE THE PROBLEM..
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The failure of the Ariane 63 launch, carrying the Turksat 1 and Eutelsat 2F5
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satellites, was due to cooling problems and a faulty bearing.
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Alterations to equipment are now underway to prevent the re-occurence of such
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a problem, but this will mean that this year's launch schedule will not
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resume until the beginning of June.
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This means that, much more importantly..
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* ASTRA 1D DELAYED
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Astra 1D will not launch until December this year as a result of the Airane
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problems.
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The satellite was originally set for a September launch, but this will now
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not happen, putting a spanner in the works of a number of broadcasters who
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were counting on a successful launch on-time.
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It is reported that all available transponders on Astra 1D have already been
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booked, although further details are yet to emerge.
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* THE 'LE' EFFECT
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NBC Superchannel viewers will already be used to the nightly screenings of
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editions of the "Tonight with Jay Leno" show, under 24 hours after they are
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broadcast in the USA.
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Sky viewers will soon be able to enjoy the CBS equivalent "Late Night with
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David Letterman", which will broadcast five nights a week on Sky One, again
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less than 24 hours after their USA screening.
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The deal between CBS and Sky is understood to be worth some 650,000 pounds.
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Meanwhile, the German channel Premiere, which has been screening the series
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for the past few months, has decided to end its broadcasts of the programme.
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* AWAY WITH THE FROST
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Sky News does not intend to continue broadcasting repeats of "Frost On
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Sunday", it has been revealed. The channel currently has an option to
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broadcast the programme shortly after its screening on the BBC, under an
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agreement which allows Sir David Frost to sell the programme to another
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channel and keep the money from the repeats.
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The director of Sky news, Ian Frykberg, said that there was a conflict with
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the transmission of the same programme on BBC World Service Television.
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* THAT WORLD SERVICE TV CONFLICT IN FULL
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Rupert Murdoch said at a recent press conference in Delhi that he may drop BBC
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World Service TV on the Asian Star TV satellite service, and replace it with
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an international version of Sky News.
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Murdoch was speaking about allegations of bias that had been made against
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WSTV by China and India.
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WSTV recently caused controversy in India when it screened footage of a local
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race-related incident that the state networks did not consider suitable for
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broadcast. It is claimed that rioting broke out in the country as a result.
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China recently banned the sale of satellite dishes, since it does not relish
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the possibility of its residents having access to any version of the truth
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other than that which is written by the state and broadcast on state-owned
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television.
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Sadly it seems that Rupert Murdoch, keen to forge links into the lucrative
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markets that India and China have to offer, intends to take sides against the
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BBC, and unless they address the allegations of bias (i.e. truth), that WSTV
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will be replaced.
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A BBC spokesman said that allegations of bias were "unsubstantiated and
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nebulous", and added that the corporation had not recorded any complaints
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from the Chinese or Indian governments.
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* KISS AND MAKE UP
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The BBC and Sky are, however, expected to join forces next year to bid for the
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rights to cover the Five Nations Rugby Tournament next year.
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Commercial broadcaster ITV is also said to be very interested obtaining
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exclusive coverage of the event, viewing it as a high priority for
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acquisition.
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* THE CLARY EXPERIENCE
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UK performer Julian Clary is to join TNT from April to host its new Sunday
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evening "Movie Experience" slot.
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* MORE CABLE
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Cable had its best rate of installations ever in the last quarter of 1993,
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with 91,000 new people hooked up to the service.
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In the same period, some 220,000 satellite dishes were sold.
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It brings the total number of cabled homes to just over 610,000, and the
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total number of dished homes to still well over three million.
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* MORE MURDOCH
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The offices of American television stations KSBW and KSBY in California had a
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visit from Rupert Murdoch recently. Apparently he is considering buying the
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stations for his daughter, Elizabeth.
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* MORE VIEWERS
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Satellite viewing jumped dramatically in February, up some 5% on the previous
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month.
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Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and The Children's Channel all saw a healthy
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increase, largely due to the half-term break. Sky Sports also saw a large
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rise, picking up over 5% of the audience compared to under 3% previously.
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* LESS TO SEE
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United Artists, provider of a number of television channels for the cable
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television industry in the UK, has announced that it will cease its
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conventional PAL broadcasts of Wire TV and The Parliamentary Channel in May,
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in favour of a digitally compressed service.
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The channels will share just one transponder on Intelsat 601, thus saving UA
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some 1.2 million pounds a year in transponder and uplink rental. While cable
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operators will have no trouble obtaining suitable digital decompression
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equipment, (UA would be able to afford to give it away since it is saving so
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much money on transponder rental) home viewers are likely to be very much
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left out in the cold.
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* AN AMAZING DISCOVERY
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Viewers in Singapore are to get their first taste of "Commercial
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Presentation" features soon.
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The Singapore Broadcasting Corporation has signed a deal with Quantum
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Marketing International to broadcast selected Quantum informercials daily on
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Channel 5.
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* AND SPEAKING OF CHANNEL 5... (I don't just throw this together, you know!)
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A consortium hoping to run a new terrestrial network in the UK, Channel 5,
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have revealed that they have had informal talks with Sky Television. Sky is
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apparently interested in making inroads into terrestrial broadcasting, and
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would be interested in taking a stake in the new consortium.
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The consortium is backed by Pearson [itself part-owners of Sky], Time Warner,
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and Media Acquisitions International (MAI), owner of the current terrestrial
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ITV contractors Meridian and Anglia.
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* LIVE SKY
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Viewers who don't have access to the current cricket coverage on Sky Sports
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could console themselves by getting down to Cromwell Road in London, where
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Sky has converted an advertising hoarding into an electronic scoreboard to
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continually read out the latest score.
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The board is operated by a cricket enthusiast, recently recruited by Sky, who
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will watch the matches on Sky Sports and update the scores when they change.
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While he said that he would have done the job for free just to watch the
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cricket, he is being paid an impressive 500 pounds per week for his duties.
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* T C C
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The Chinese Channel has announced that it will launch its European service on
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Astra on March 18, although it helpfully refuses to tell anyone which
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transponder it will launch on.
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* THE ASTRA DEMO IS BACK!
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Astra viewers will doubtless remember with fond memories the entertaining
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promotional video that used to air continuously on the spare transponders of
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Astra 1A, and later Astra 1B. The promo was displaced a while ago when
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broadcasters began queuing up for space on the satellites.
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Now the video has returned, revised and updated, and airing from 6am to 7pm
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on the vacant time on Transponder 24.
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* SKY FOR FREE
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Sky's promised preview weekend for non-movie subscribers, delayed from its
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original date in February, has now been announced for the weekend of April 9
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and 10.
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The previous attempt had to be cancelled due to the objections of several
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major movie distributors. Presumably these difficulties have been ironed out,
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since Sky intends to "give away" a number of major movies in the April
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weekend, including Wayne's World, Cape Fear, Lethal Weapon 3, Alien 3, Edward
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Scissorhands and Star Trek 6.
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Sky Movies Gold will apparently not be included in the promotion.
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* PIRATE WATCH
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Canal Plus recently altered its coding system to knock out the recent batch
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of pirate cards circulating around Europe for its service. Sky also
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implemented a similar measure recently to again invalidate the pirate cards
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for its service.
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An interesting case of double standards arose recently on the pages of NBC
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Superchannel's teletext service, and specifically the satellite news pages
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'In Orbit', provided by the European Satellite User Group.
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In response to a viewers letter, it made a statement completely denouncing
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pirate cards, making the point that if everyone had such cards no
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broadcasters would be able to stay in business. For this reason, it said, it
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would not supply information on such pirate cards.
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The statement was particularly interesting in view of the fact that just four
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days ago it published an article giving some vital publicity to pirate card
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manufacturers 'Keycard' in Ireland.
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The statement is especially astonishing in view of the fact that for several
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months the only advertising pages that 'In Orbit' carried were for a company
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selling pirate cards and decoders for a large number of satellite channels.
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Curiously, the advertisment disappeared on the day that the anti-pirate
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rantings were broadcast.
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TESUG has never been particularly in favour of scrambling, citing it as a
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reason why everyone should turn their Astra dishes to point at the much more
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interesting Eutelsat birds, but this recent turnaround in opinion does seem
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to have occured with lightning speed. There may be two reasons, primarily
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that now that the 'In Orbit' pages are also carried on UK Gold's teletext
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service, that it would be seen as "incompatible" to promote pirate activity
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on a channel which is, itself, scrambled.
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It is also likely that NBC Superchannel would rather not have anything on
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their teletext service which could cause a potential problem with Sky, whose
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co-operation it is likely to need in the future now that it is desperate for
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an Astra transponder.
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* HARD TARGET
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Filmnet has recently announced that it has made an agreement with a number of
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major movie distributors to screen movies at the same time as they are
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released in the cinema.
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If this proves to be the case, it will make the channel an even hotter target
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for pirates than it is already.
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* AND SPEAKING OF MOVIES
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Cinevision, a new Swiss Channel, has announced that it will launch on one of
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the Eutelsat satellites, possibly the craft at 13 degrees East.
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The channel plans to show movies 24 hours a day, in English, French, Italian,
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Spanish and German. It is understood that the channel will be scrambled with
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Videocrypt 2.
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* TELE-ON
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British Telecom is testing its proposed Video On Demand system in the homes
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of 70 of its employees.
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The service, as reported in previous editions of Skyguide, would transmit TV
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programmes and films down the customer's existing telephone line. A key
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feature of the service is the interactivity it can offer.
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The UK cable industry is unhappy about the idea, viewing BT's plans as quite
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comprehensively treading on their toes.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Skyguide Issue 34 Edited by Ant Purvis
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Skyguide is usually published fortnightly, but can be erratic at times,
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depending on news availability. You can find it on London's CIX system in
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the Skyguide conference, Fidonet's Satelite TV echo, the Packet Radio
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Network, on internet in the alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup, and now in
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the French language on Minitel in the 3615 SURPIN area.
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Skyguide is not a commercial publication, nor is it a cut-down version of a
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printed journal. It may not be distributed for profit and is copyright.
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Nevertheless, free distribution (via BBSs, FTP sites, etc.) is encouraged,
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provided that permission is asked first.
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Errors and Omissions expected. If we get something wrong, let us know and
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we'll put it right!
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Back issues can be mailed to internet mailboxes on request.
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Comments, suggestions, and stories are always appreciated! You can contact
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Skyguide in the following ways:
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CIX : mail to bignoise, or use the Skyguide/comments conference.
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Fidonet : Leave a message in the Satellite TV echo
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Internet: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk
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