258 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
258 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: alt.satellite.tv.europe
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From: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk (Antony Purvis)
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Subject: Skyguide 21
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Reply-To: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk
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Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1993 17:22:04 +0000
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==========================
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skyguide/skyguide #60, from bignoise, 2781 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93
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Skyguide Issue 021 Page 1
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-------------------------------- SKYGUIDE UK ---------------------------------
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| Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV |
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------------------------- Week Ending Sat August 14th ------------------------
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* WELCOME TO SKYGUIDE
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It's our 21st birthday!
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* DOUBLE THE SPORTS
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Transponder 47 on Astra has been undergoing tests recently, thought to be in
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preparation for a new service. So far, a number of broadcasters have been
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rumoured for the channel, including HBO, Cinemax, ARTE, and now.. Sky.
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While this report is *unconfirmed*, rumour has it that Sky is planning to
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lessen the impact of the increase in Sky Sports subscriptions by launching a
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second sports channel, understood to be free to Sports subscribers.
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Sky certainly has enough sports material to run a second channel, and with the
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prospect of a number of viewers cancelling due to the price increase this
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would appear to be a smart move for Sky. The second channel would also provide
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a suitable platform for Sky to trial pay-per-view sports events.
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Nonetheless, SES remained as enigmatically silent as ever regarding the
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ownership of Transponder 47, and Sky weren't saying anything either.
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If it goes ahead, an announcement is likely to be made very shortly, with the
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channel possibly broadcasting as early as September.
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* ALL RIGHT!
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Country Music Television has now confirmed that it will launch its service on
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Astra transponder 41 on September 1st.
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In our report last week, CMT seemed very much the weakest of a number of Sky
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Multichannels whose launch seemed under threat - Happily that situation would
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appear to have been resolved, and for the present time, CMT is back on track.
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Clear test transmissions are expected in the next two weeks.
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QVC is also apparently no longer under threat, and has signed a lease for
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Transponder 38 with SES.
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* SATELLITE SHUFFLES
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If you're a viewer of the clear channels on the Intelsat satellite at 27.5
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degrees West, your viewing may just be curtailed shortly.
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The Intelsat feeds of Discovery and Bravo are destined to be switched off once
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the Astra feed is permanently up and running. Bravo is likely to disappear
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from the end of September, and Discovery in October.
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"The Learning Channel" that currently sits on Discovery's transponder will
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move across to the Wire TV transponder, and change broadcasting hours to
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9am-midday.
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From December, it will also be scrambled using the same SAVE encryption as is
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currently used on Bravo. Wire TV itself will also be SAVE encrypted at the
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same time.
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==========================
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skyguide/skyguide #61, from bignoise, 2621 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93
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Skyguide Issue 021 Page 2
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* EUROCARD
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With Videocrypt decoders now becoming more easily available in Europe, it
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seems likely that a consortium of British broadcasters may work together to
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provide a Sky-style "Multi Channels" smart card for European viewers.
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The Adult Channel and TV Asia are both currently selling Videocrypt smartcards
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for European viewers, and a number of the Sky Multichannels broadcasters,
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particularly MTV and Discovery are keen to maintain their European audience
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once they scramble.
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It seems that some channels, if not Sky themselves, can appreciate the folly
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of broadcasting on a European satellite just for UK viewers.
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* WAITING FOR THE COMEBACK
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Red Hot Television have issued a statement indicating that they have sorted
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out their financial problems and should be back on air on Monday August 16th.
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The channel intends to continue broadcasting with SAVE scrambling to ensure
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that all its subscribers can continue to see the channel.
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* INSTANT HITS
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In its first three days on Astra, The Discovery Channel blasted into the UK
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satellite ratings with an impressive 200,000 viewers for its Loch Ness update
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programme.
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Sister channel Bravo did less well, although still pulled a respectable 60,000
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viewers for a Frankie Howerd film.
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Sky's channels still dominate the highest positions in the charts, with over a
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million viewers for the premiere of "Problem Child 2" on the Movie Channel.
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Sky One's repeat screenings of The Simpsons still managed to pull in over
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880,000, with the Games World "Fight Night Final" gaining a full quarter of a
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million viewers.
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Meanwhile, BARB is understood to be looking into the possibility that
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satellite radio is artifically inflating the viewing figures of some satellite
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TV stations. BARB's rating equipment currently registers someone as viewing a
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channel even if the audio is tuned to an ancillary radio service.
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BARB's latest figures on satellite installations suggest that 24,000 dishes
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were installed in the UK last month.
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* TCC 2
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The Chinese Channel has been granted an ITC licence to uplink programming from
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the UK. The channel is thought to be planning to launch a European service in
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time for the Chinese New Year next February.
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Backed by one of the world's largest producers of chinese programming, it
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could broadcast overnight on Astra 1C until a full transponder becomes
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available.
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Subscriptions for the channel would be around 30 pounds a month. The high
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subscription rates, on a par with JSTV's, are partially due to the low
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potential audience of under 100,000 across Europe.
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==========================
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skyguide/skyguide #62, from bignoise, 2203 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93
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Skyguide Issue 021 Page 3
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* THE SECRET TESTCARD
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There's a new testcard on Astra 1C that you might not have seen yet - RTL5 is
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now broadcasting on its slightly out-of-band transponder on 10.935 Ghz
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Vertical.
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If your receiver won't let you tune lower than 10.950, a handy hint is to
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adjust your LNB offset (sometimes known as 'Skew') to as low as you can go -
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most receivers will go as far as -0.015 Ghz. This should enable you to pick up
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RTL5 on 10.950 Ghz.
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Remember to reset the skew to normal once you've finished, however, or you may
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find lots of Astra channels have suddenly disappeared!
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Unfortunately this little trick won't help you when Astra 1D launches next
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year - it will broadcast in the 10.700 - 10.950 Ghz band. To receive it,
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you'll probably need a new LNB and receiver.
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* ANOTHER CHANNEL RETURNING
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Music fans across Europe were up in arms when popular French music channel MCM
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disappeared from the TDF satellite last month.
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The channel is expected to return on Monday August 16th - co-incidentally the
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same date as like Red Hot Television.
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* BSKYBBC
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Sky has sold 13 episodes of NBC's situation comedy "Seinfeld" to BBC2.
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The programme was screened both on Sky's defunct Comedy Channel as well as Sky
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One, but received poor ratings.
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They hope that a screening of the old episodes on terrestrial television may
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increase its ratings when Sky begin showing new episodes.
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* OLE!
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Galavision has started test transmissions on Astra Transponder 44.
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MDR3, ZDF, SW3 and ARD should all launch their services on Astra on August
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27th.
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* MTV IN COURT
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MTV Europe went to the High Court this week to issue seven writs against
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various record industry bodies in an attempt to save itself some money.
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MTV's long-running bun-fight with several record companies, and most notably
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Video Performance Limited, centres around the fees that the broadcaster is
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asked to pay for screening pop videos.
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MTV asserts that the current arrangement, where they must pay VPL a set fee
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for each video, is against European law, and anti-competitive.
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The writ also seems to imply that MTV feels it should not have to pay at all
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for screening videos.
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==========================
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skyguide/skyguide #63, from bignoise, 1412 chars, Aug 14 20:00 93
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Skyguide Issue 021 Page 4
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* MEANWHILE ...
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MTV's teletext service ("MTV text") appears to have changed hands. The service
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has been run by London-based company Intelfax Ltd since its launch, but has
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now suddenly been taken over by another London-based company named Teleworld.
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* SKYGUIDE DIRECT
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If you'd like Skyguide posted direct to your internet mailbox, mail to
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bignoise@compulink.co.uk to be added to the Skyguide mailing list - free of
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charge!
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This offer is now open to anyone in the world!
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Skyguide Issue 21
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You can find Skyguide every week on London's CIX conferencing system, in the
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Skyguide conference, the Fidonet Satellite TV echo, and the Packet Radio
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Network.
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Skyguide is published weekly and is copyright. Not to be redistributed in any
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form without consent. Errors and Omissions expected. (c) 1993 by Ant Purvis
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Comments, suggestions, stories and monetary donations are always appreciated!
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No-one reads this anyway. You can contact Skyguide in the following ways:
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CIX : mail to bignoise, or use the Skyguide/comments conference.
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Fidonet : Netmail to ANTONY PURVIS at 2:251/22, or leave a message in the
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Satellite TV echo.
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Internet: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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