207 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
207 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
bbcid MORGAA01 @ BBC-BH
|
|
|
|
Skyguide Issue 033
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------- SKYGUIDE ----------------------------------
|
|
| |
|
|
| Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV |
|
|
| |
|
|
--------------------- Week Ending Sun February 6th 1994 ----------------------
|
|
|
|
* WELCOME!
|
|
|
|
Welcome to our new readers joining us on the Minitel service.
|
|
|
|
Skyguide is now translated into the French language and made available on
|
|
Minitel in 3615 SURPIN thanks to the efforts of Joel Wirsztel. Our thanks
|
|
to him.
|
|
|
|
* MORE WIDESCREEN
|
|
|
|
Broadcasters covering the Winter Olympics this year will have access to
|
|
widescreen pictures if they want them.
|
|
|
|
Widescreen and digital broadcasts from the Winter Olympics will be co-ordinated
|
|
by HD Thames, a facilities house owned by Thames Television in London.
|
|
|
|
A number of channels have expressed interest in the broadcasts, inclding
|
|
the German broadcaster ARD, Dutch MAC channel TV Plus, and France
|
|
Supervision.
|
|
|
|
* MORE GOLD
|
|
|
|
UK Gold, currently receiving impressive ratings with its repeats of 1970s
|
|
editions of "Top Of The Pops" has purchased another 30 shows from the BBC.
|
|
|
|
* SKY SHUFFLE
|
|
|
|
Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of the UK's downmarket tabloid newspaper "The Sun"
|
|
has left the paper after 12 years to become Managing Director of Sky
|
|
Television.
|
|
|
|
David Chance has been made Deputy Manging Director, and was previously head
|
|
of marketing.
|
|
|
|
David Hill, Sky's head of Sport, moves to America to oversee News
|
|
Corporation's Sports coverage via the American Fox Network.
|
|
|
|
* MUCH MORE MUSIC
|
|
|
|
Thorn EMI is currently in negotiation with Sony and other music companies
|
|
with a view to setting up another music television channel on satellite.
|
|
|
|
This follows the successful launch of "Viva", a music service which is
|
|
currently taking on MTV in Germany, its most profitable area of Europe.
|
|
|
|
Viva can be found on the Eutelsat 2F1 satellite at 13 degrees East on
|
|
11.006H, where MTV Europe also recently took a transponder (11.658V) in
|
|
what appeared to be an attempt to minimise the potential threat of the
|
|
channel.
|
|
|
|
* THE SEARCH CONTINUES
|
|
|
|
The search goes on for an owner for the 6am - 7pm (GMT) downtime on Astra
|
|
Transponder 24, home of JSTV in the evening hours.
|
|
|
|
One possible occupant for the time has been rumoured as Chinese News and
|
|
Entertainment, currently broadcasting in the small hours of the morning on
|
|
Astra Transponder 35 when The Family Channel closes down for the night.
|
|
|
|
A spokesman for the channel denied the rumours, and said that they were
|
|
"second in line" for the space.
|
|
|
|
Still a strong possibility for being first in line would appear to be The
|
|
Travel Channel, which has successfully launched on Intelsat 601 at 27.5W,
|
|
11.175 H.
|
|
|
|
Meanwhile, reports of another Chinese channel have reached us. Named "The
|
|
Chinese Channel", it intends to launch on February 13th - Chinese New Year.
|
|
|
|
In the reports, the channel claim it will launch on "one of Sky's
|
|
transponders" and broadcast from midnight until 6am in the clear. Details
|
|
of which transponder would be used were not available, although the only
|
|
potential candidate would be Sky Movies Gold.
|
|
|
|
While TV Asia currently occupies the time in question, during that time the
|
|
channel is also broadcast on the Nickelodeon Transponder, leaving the door
|
|
open for TV Asia to relinquish the space without loss of transmission hours.
|
|
|
|
* FREE MOVIES DELAYED
|
|
|
|
Sky's three movie channels were to have a free weekend this weekend in a
|
|
bid to encourage people to subscribe to the movie channels.
|
|
|
|
The free weekend, touted as a "clear" weekend in some reports, was likely
|
|
to be broadcast to existing Sky Multichannel subscribers only - some
|
|
400,000 homes.
|
|
|
|
The weekend was, however, postponed. It is thought that several major movie
|
|
companies objected to their blockbuster movies being screened in such a
|
|
fashion. This is not the first time that movie company objections have
|
|
caused trouble for Sky's free weekends - several major movies had to be
|
|
dropped from the schedules during the last free weekend due to similar
|
|
disputes.
|
|
|
|
It is understood that Sky will attempt another free weekend in April.
|
|
|
|
* NICK DELAYED
|
|
|
|
Nick At Nite, the companion channel to Nickelodeon, has been delayed until
|
|
later this year. It is understood that the problem centres around the
|
|
availability of programming, since a number of series it intended to show
|
|
have been sold to other Multi-channel broadcasters and UK terrestrial
|
|
channels.
|
|
|
|
Sky have not officially confirmed the delay.
|
|
|
|
* SPLASHDOWN
|
|
|
|
Eutelsat 2F5 and Turksat 1 were destroyed on January 24th when the Ariane
|
|
rocket launching them crashed into the sea.
|
|
|
|
The problem could cause delays for subsequent satellite launches. Turksat
|
|
2 was scheduled for a June launch, and there is concern that the August
|
|
launch of Astra 1D could be delayed for as much as six months.
|
|
|
|
* SCI-FI IS BACK
|
|
|
|
The Sci-Fi Channel is currently talking to Sky, Eutelsat, and a number of
|
|
UK cable operators with an intention of launching in Britain later this
|
|
year.
|
|
|
|
The channel, which was set to join the Multi-Channel package last September
|
|
until it could not secure a suitable transponder rental agreement, could
|
|
now launch on Eutelsat for UK Cable viewers until suitable space becomes
|
|
available on Astra.
|
|
|
|
* RADIO RADIO
|
|
|
|
All six of the BBC's national radio networks are now available to Astra
|
|
listeners in Europe.
|
|
|
|
Radio 1, the pop and rock station, previously broadcast in Mono on UK Gold
|
|
(Tp23), has moved to UK Living (Tp34) on the higher-powered Astra 1C
|
|
satellite, and now broadcasts in stereo on the 7.38 and 7.56 Mhz
|
|
subcarriers.
|
|
|
|
Radio 3, the BBC's classical music station has commenced broadcasts, also
|
|
on the UK Living transponder on the 7.74 and 7.92 Mhz subcarriers.
|
|
|
|
Radio 2, a soft easy listening music channel for older people, will shortly
|
|
take up the mono subcarrier on UK Gold where Radio 1 had been. (7.74 Mhz)
|
|
|
|
Radio 4, 5, and BBC World Service are also available in Mono on the
|
|
existing UK Gold audio subcarriers. (7.56, 7.92 and 7.38 Mhz respectively)
|
|
|
|
* HOT PINK
|
|
|
|
Reports have been circulating which suggest that Red Hot Television,
|
|
currently broadcasting on the comparatively new Eutelsat 2F6 satellite at
|
|
16 degrees East (10.987 H) have shelved plans to launch a Gay service.
|
|
|
|
Expected to broadcast three days a week (probably on the days which RHTV
|
|
itself does not broacast), the channel is reported to have been dropped
|
|
because RHTV were concerned about "sadomasochistic and violent aspects of
|
|
gay culture".
|
|
|
|
The authenticity of these reports, however, cannot be confirmed. The
|
|
channel, if it had ever intended to launch at all, is unlikely to have
|
|
shelved such a potentially lucrative idea for such a bogus reason.
|
|
|
|
* NEW VIEWERS FOR NBC SUPER
|
|
|
|
Some lucky Astra viewers in the UK found themselves deprived of their normal
|
|
selection of channels as high winds blew their Astra dishes out of
|
|
alignment this week.
|
|
|
|
In some cases, the movement of the dish has been enough to enable affected
|
|
viewers to pick up the Eutelsat 2F3 satellite at 13 degrees East, enabling
|
|
them to at least be consoled by NBC Super Channel, Viva, and the occasional
|
|
feed for ITV Sport.
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Skyguide Issue 33 Edited by Ant Purvis
|
|
|
|
Skyguide is usually published fortnightly, but can be erratic at times,
|
|
depending on news availability. You can find it on London's CIX system in
|
|
the Skyguide conference, Fidonet's Satelite TV echo, the Packet Radio
|
|
Network, on internet in the alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup, and now in
|
|
the French language on Minitel in the 3615 SURPIN area.
|
|
|
|
Skyguide is not a commercial publication, nor is it a cut-down version of a
|
|
printed journal. It may not be distributed for profit and is copyright.
|
|
Nevertheless, free distribution (via BBSs, FTP sites, etc.) is encouraged,
|
|
provided that permission is asked first.
|
|
|
|
Errors and Omissions expected. If we get something wrong, let us know and
|
|
we'll put it right!
|
|
|
|
Back issues can be mailed to internet mailboxes on request.
|
|
|
|
Comments, suggestions, and stories are always appreciated! You can contact
|
|
Skyguide in the following ways:
|
|
|
|
CIX : mail to bignoise, or use the Skyguide/comments conference.
|
|
Fidonet : Leave a message in the Satellite TV echo
|
|
Internet: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |