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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------