bbcid MORGAA01 @ BBC-BH Skyguide Issue 024 Page 1 -------------------------------- SKYGUIDE UK --------------------------------- | | | Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV | | | ---------------------- Week Ending Sun September 12th ------------------------ * MULTICHANNELS EUROPE Rupert Murdoch unveiled his "Global Vision" at a lengthy dinner in London recently. Amongst other things, it now seems likely that he will form an alliance with "Pro 7", a channel owned by German media magnate Leo Kirch, to launch a package of subscription satellite channels throughout Europe. The agreement, made at International Funkaustellung '93, is understood to pave the way for the marketing of six English language channels, initially in Germany, and eventually throughout Western Europe. The European package is likely to be similar to the Sky Multi-Channels package in the UK. It is almost certain that some channels in Sky's UK package will also join the European package. While the actual channels included in the package are not yet known, likely candidates include MTV, VH-1, Discovery, CMT Europe, and possibly even Eurosport. Eurosport, currently free to dish owners, could be a distinct possibility to join a subscription package that guarantees availability in the UK and Europe. Eurosport's French service, TV Sport, is already part of a subscription package on France's Telecom satellites. Once the package is up and running, there is no reason why other channels (not necessarily in English) could not join the package, which itself could differ from county to country. * THE SPORTING LIFE As part of his "Global Vision", Mr Murdoch also put an end to speculation by confirming his intent to launch a second sports channel on Astra. As previously predicted in Skyguide, the second channel is very likely to become a testing ground for pay-per-view events, and is likely to be up and running in time for the next Premier League football season. All that remains now is what the channel will be called - "Sky Sports 2" and "Sky Sports UK" have been mentioned, although most likely at the moment is "Sky: The Sports Channel". * DIGITAL NEWS Also announced at the same time is News International's intent to form a group developing a digitally compressed TV system for satellite viewers. UK company NTL, already pioneers of digital compression with their "System 2000" system, has been contacted to join the group. Like News International's previous baby, Videocrypt, the technology will eventually be mass-produced by licensed manufactuers in the UK and Europe. * OLD PIRATES NEVER DIE New company "Active Logic" has been very active in the UK recently, placing adverts in satellite magazines and conducting extensive bulk-mailing to satellite dish owners. Active Logic's press advertising claims that they can offer a pirate Filmnet smartcard for just 55 pounds, or Filmnet and four other channels (helpfully labelled TV?, TV?, TV? and TV? in their advertising) for 75 pounds. Their direct-mailing also offers a "Perfectly Legal" device for Videocrypt decoders called a UVSD (Universal Videocrypt Signal Detector) Processor. The unit will, it is claimed, allow you to identify whether a signal is clear, Videocrypt soft-encoded, or Videocrypt hard-encoded. The UVSD processor apparently also has an unfortunate side-effect of decoding any Videocrypt signal - their literature is keen to point out this side effect, advising that purchasers of this unit should continue to pay their subscriptions as normal, as not to do so would be illegal. Despite these devices being "perfectly legal" according to the advertising, Active Logic is keen to point out that orders for such devices should be placed through their Munich office in Germany, which is outside the jurisdiction of the UK Government. Needless to say, Active Logic's products - of which no examples have yet been seen - are sailing very close to the wind indeed with respect to UK law. The Videocrypt processor would fall foul of the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 which makes it an offence to sell, buy or use a device designed to receive a scrambled UK-originated satellite service without due payment. When the act was originally brought into force in 1988, another of its targets was devices designed to copy computer programs - these devices came back on sale, however, when it was discovered that as long as a product had a "legitimate use", the sale or use of the item could not be proscribed by the act. Active Logic is clearly going for the "legitimate use" angle for their UVSD, although it would seem that the "unexpected" de-scrambling of Videocrypt channels, of which the majority are uplinked from the UK, is ancillary to the legitimate use - and is therefore illegal. The pirate D2-MAC Eurocrypt cards said to descramble the four "TV?" channels can only refer to the three TV3 channels and TV1000. Although TV1000's subscriptions are restricted to Scandanavia, it is uplinked from the UK, and it is therefore covered by the CDP act - thus, any reception of this channel in the UK by use of a pirate card is, once again, illegal. The sale of such devices would also be illegal. Some reports have alleged that Active Logic have already had their credit card facilities revoked, although we have been unable to confirm this. Further unconfirmed reports strongly suggest that the people behind Active Logic are the same people who were behind pirate decoder manufacturer "PR Technology", who eventually ceased trading after having found themselves in the unfortuante position of having cashed cheques and debited credit cards of people ordering their new Filmnet digital audio decoders, but then being unable to supply the decoders as their computer had been stolen, upon which were the designs for the decoder, and also details of the customer orders - which made them unable to give any refunds. An explanation which many did not believe. * RHTV IS BACK! Red Hot Television returned to the satellite airwaves last week, but not where they were expected. It is understood that RHTV were unable to secure their previous transponder on Eutelsat 2F1, (lending weight to the claims of "TV69" that this is where they will broadcast from - see Skyguide 23) and the channel is now broadcasting on a completely different satellite - Eutelsat 2F3, at 16 degrees East. RHTV viewers who have purchased a second LNB to receieve RHTV from Eutelsat 2F1 at 13 degrees east may be less than happy at this news. The new satellite is much close to Astra, and may prove difficult to receive with a second LNB. The good news is that Eutelsat 2F3 is a stronger satellite than 2F1, so UK viewers at least should be able to get away with 60cm dishes for reception. The channel is alternating between its existing SAVE encryption system, and new Videocrypt-compatible system "Enigma". The UK Government's attitude is that RHTV is still illegal, and the proscription order still stands, even if it is only smartcards as opposed to actual 'decoders' that are sold. They maintain it is illegal to buy, sell, or use these smartcards in the UK. RHTV can be found on Eutelsat 2F3, 16 degrees East, Transponder 20. (10.986 H) * MTV DIGITAL MTV Europe can now be found in MAC on Norway's "Thor" satellite. The channel is currently broadcasting in the clear, with digital sound. MTV has also appeared on Eutelsat 2F1 at 13 degrees east - programming is currently identical to the Astra version, although in the future it is understood that this outlet will be used to offer specific programming (and advertising) to Germany. It is thought that MTV's appearance on Eutelsat could also be to counter the future opposition of German youth channel "Viva", also set for the same satellite. * MCM TO SCRAMBLE Just weeks after MCM returned to TDF1, and viewers across Europe welcomed its return, comes the news that MCM will scramble its transmissions from October 15th. Subscriptions will be made available to European viewers, although pricing details are not known at this time. * ORBITAL Superchannel's Teletext satellite news service, "In Orbit", is now available to Astra viewers via UK Gold's teletext service. While UK Gold is scrambled, even viewers without a subscription can view the teletext. Weekly satellite news, updated every Tuesday, is available on page 333, with a letters section on 334. The content of the services vary slightly - Superchannel's version is consistently more critical of Astra and Sky, while the UK Gold version appears (at the moment) to be much more neutral. * READY FOR LAUNCH The Cartoon Channel and TNT are now broadcasting Test Transmissions on Astra 1C, transponder 37, ready for their September 17th launch. The channels will broadcast in English, French, Norwegian and Swedish, with a Spanish language service to follow by the end of 1994, possibly in line with a Spanish audio service for CNN International. French authorities are apparently unhappy at the prospect of these new channels broadcasting in the French language, apparently viewing the prospect as an invasion of French territory. The authorities and broadcasters have been lobbying to get the channel to drop the French audio, apparently unsuccessfully so far. * AND FINALLY We apologise for the lack of Skyguide last week! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Skyguide Issue 24 Edited by Ant Purvis Skyguide is published every week. You can find it on London's CIX conferencing system in the Skyguide conference, the Fidonet Satelite TV echo, the Packet Radio Network, and on internet in the alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup. Skyguide is not a commercial publication, nor is it a cut-down version of a printed journal. Nonetheless, it is copyright, and is not to be redistributed in any form without consent. Errors and Omissions expected. Back issues can be mailed to internet mailboxes on request. Comments, suggestions, stories and monetary donations are always appreciated! You can contact Skyguide in the following ways: CIX : mail to bignoise, or use the Skyguide/comments conference. Fidonet : Netmail to ANTONY PURVIS at 2:251/203, or leave a message in the Satellite TV echo. Please note the new netmail address! Internet: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------