Skyguide Issue 031 -------------------------------- SKYGUIDE UK --------------------------------- | | | Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV | | | ---------------------- Week Ending Sun January 9th 1994 ---------------------- * WELCOME BACK Happy New Year to all Skyguide readers! * VH-NONE Music channel VH-1 will now not launch until May, rather than February as had been previously expected. The revised launch date is likely to coincide with the scrambling of its sister channel MTV as part of the Sky Multi-Channels package. The possiblity of MTV also joining Filmnet's Multichoice Kaleidoscope package, along with Discovery, CMT Europe, The Children's Channel and now The Family Channel, has not been ruled out. VH-1 is likely to use Astra transponder 15, leaving MTV with transponder 22. * FURTHER DELAYS Sky Sports 2 has now been officially put back until September 1994. * IT'S BETTER TO TRAVEL The Travel Channel is set to launch on February 1st on the Intelsat 601 (27.5'W) satellite. The service will initially be for cable operators only, and will broadcast from noon to midnight. The service will broadcast in the clear. The channel has expressed a desire to broadcast on Astra 1D when it is launched in September, and it now seems unlikely that it will attempt to buy space on the existing Astra satellites. Currently the only time available is the 6am to 7pm time on Transponder 24, vacated in September by The Children's Channel. * CONFUCIUS PROBABLY SAID SOMETHING ABOUT KEEPING ONE'S BIG MOUTH SHUT... Gary Davey (deputy MD at Sky) has stepped in as Chairman of the now Murdoch-owned Star TV following the mystery departure of existing chairman Jim Griffiths. Part of the problem may have been due to Mr Murdoch saying that Star TV could encourage political change in the region. The Chinese Authorities were having none of that, and promptly banned satellite dishes and foreign broadcasters, thus denying Star the opportunity to cause any change at all in what was a potentially lucrative market. Star TV is now likely to concentrate its broadcasting towards India. In other news, Rupert Murdoch has just bought a stake in the Indian satellite broadcaster Zee TV. * UPLINKS FOR ALL Broadcasting to Europe could be cheaper than you think. The following message was broadcast on Intelsat 601 recently: (The # symbol denotes a UK Pound sign) Special New Year Satellite Rates From BT Intelsat West Spot Capacity 24 hr a day European Coverage #5 per minute. ADHOC EUTELSAT RATES 24:00-08:00 #5/Minute 08:00-10:00 & 22:00-24:00 #10/Minute 10:00-22:00 #15/Minute Minimum Transmission 15 minutes (Excluding 5 minutes Link Up Time) Call Us Now on +44 71 728 5522 * SORTED Chinese News and Entertainment is now back on Astra Transponder 35 having been off the air for a few days in December. The problem was due to a disagreement between SES and The Family Channel, now sorted out. A dispute is thought to have emerged over TFC sub-leasing the airtime without SES's involvement. A similar problem occured last year when Sky sub-leased evening downtime on Nickelodeon to TV Asia. * HA HA HA HA HA! The Family Channel has purchased 11 episodes of "Jeux Sans Frontieres", a popular European game show that has not been seen on British Television for twelve years. The BBC stopped screening the show in 1982. The show went on, however, with Welsh broadcaster S4C taking the BBC's place. Jeux Sans Frontieres, titled "It's a Knockout" for British Viewers, was presented by Stuart Hall, who will re-narrate the episodes for The Family Channel. The show will screen at 5pm UK Time on Sunday evenings. * NOT ON SKY Sky News presenter Stephen Cole has defected to CNN, to present "World News". He will join Sonya Ruseler and Riz Khan on screen from February. * EAGLES CIRCLING OVERHEAD... German Broadcaster VOX may close shortly unless ratings improve. The channel, originally intended to be Germany's third national channel has soaked up 300 million pounds of investment capital, but has achieved consistently poor ratings. The channel is now in a desperate struggle for survival, attemping to get viewers at any cost. Over the months Vox has been screening sports events and even adult movies in a last-ditch attempt to stay on air. If (although according to some reports it is more a case of when) the channel closes, it now seems certain that NBC Super Channel (apparently absolutely desperate to get on Astra, in marked contrast to its previous management) will take over the transponder. VOX itself took over the transponder when UK Women's channel "Lifestyle" closed down, one year ago this month. * AND SPEAKING OF WOMEN'S CHANNELS... Latest ratings show that UK Living is currently reaching around one third of the number of viewers that Lifestyle used to get. While some reports have suggested that the channel is in trouble, this is unlikely while it is receiving slightly under half a million pounds a month in subscription revenue (as part of the Multi-Channels package) irrespective of whether anyone is watching it or not. * ARD PLUS! ARD is currently transmitting PAL Plus testcards throughout the night, and on Wednesday (January 12) will broadcast a black and white PAL Plus test film at midnight CET. (11pm UK Time) * THE CLOSING HEADLINES Bravo has purchased all 136 episodes of cult series "The Avengers". Episodes will screen at 8pm on Mondays from February. Sky One has purchased all 255 episodes of "M*A*S*H". Episodes will screen daily at 7.30pm from January 14th. Deutsche Bundespost Telekom and SES have announced that they are to form a partnership to develop digital equipment for television reception. Trainer manufacturuer "Fila" will sponsor MTV Unplugged during 1994. Charles Andrew, Senior product manager at Warner Home Video has been appointed Marketing Manager of UK Gold. "Ren and Stimpy" begins its UK transmissions on BBC2 on Monday, in the DEF II 6.25pm slot. Episodes will air weekly, and will also be repeated on Friday nights. Skyguide received no messages at all about a Faxed version of Skyguide, so we can safely conclude there is no interest at all. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Skyguide Issue 31 Edited by Ant Purvis Skyguide is usually published fortnightly, but may occasionally publish weekly 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, 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. (Just ask!) 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, 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 : Leave a message in the Satellite TV echo Internet: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------