22/08/03

Sorry no update nothing to report!

21/08/03

Seems to be a lot in the news lately about SKY NZ, their shares are still over valued. I notice today they dropped another 12 cents. You would think they would of gone up after announcing an on paper "profit". A few interesting things in the reports, there will be 3 new channels by the end of the year. One I assume to be Southland/Mercury TV. I would hope the other 2 are REAL channels, not PPV or advert channels. The other interesting bit they mention Optus B1 "life" has been extended to Dec 2006 so they had extended the contract with Optus until Dec 2006.

Sorry about the lack of Australia news items.

After a few emails with Southland/Mercury tv its looking like they won't be FTA at all on Optus B1 (Sky NZ)

First I got this email

Hi Craig
Yes as far as I'm aware we are on Optus B1 , free to air.
Have a nice day.

Sheree Mortimer

Then After I explained FREE TO AIR meaning non encrypted I got this back.

Hi Craig

We are free to all Sky subscribers who purchase the minimum package. When I say "Free" I mean, no extra charge on top of their monthly account like Sky movie channels etc.

Hope this is cleared up

From my Emails & ICQ

From Simon

2 new ch on nss6
just did a scan on nss6 12729 27500 2 new chanels load

1. ARM1
2.sic internacional

simon

From Steve Hume

Bali TV is up and alive.

Palapa C2

3926H SR4208 VPid:33 APid:36 PCR:33

NEWS 24x7
Steve Hume

From the Dish

Apstar 1A 134E 3800 H The CCTV mux has left .

AsiaSat 3 105.5E 3706 H Radio Singapore International has started , Fta, APID 1122.

(Feric Lie)

NSS 6 95E 12729 V "SIC Internacional" has started, Fta, SID 40, PIDs 1026/1027.

NEWS

Southland TV Launches Nationwide

From http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3762-2603504,00.html

Southland's regional TV station is relaunching to a national audience.

Mercury TV will become Southland TV when it begins broadcasting on Sky Digital's Channel 90 from September 1.

The channel has been in operation in the South Island for seven years, broadcasting to around 75,000 viewers.

That figure is now more like a million, the number of people estimated to be capable of watching the satellite broadcasts.

Southland TV will be a 24-hour channel, and promises to provide a diverse array of programming embracing a wide spectrum of the Southland community including farming, lifestyle, tourism and sport.

Education will also be a key component in the schedule as part of a joint venture with the Southern Institute of Technology into a distance learning programming.

Other regional stations from around the country have also been offered the opportunity to broadcast on Southland TV to increase their viewership and marketing prospects.

(Craigs comment, you can email them at [email protected] )

Sky TV back in the black and talking about dividends

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2633742a13,00.html

What once looked like a blue-sky investment was distinctly in the pink yesterday, as Sky Television said an announcement on dividends could soon follow its first profit since 1999.

Sky TV announced yesterday that it had moved back into the black with a $671,000 net profit after tax for the year to June, compared with a $30.2 million loss the previous year.

Dividend prospects aside, analysts applauded the strength of the company's results, which were slightly better than expectations.

The company is also forecasting a full-year profit of up to $35 million for the coming year.

Chief executive John Fellet said Sky TV was a "shareholder-driven company" and was thinking about the most effective way to return cash.

"Over the next year the company will make an announcement – but that's all I can say at the moment."

Analysts were divided over the significance of such an announcement.

"They should definitely be paying a dividend in 2005 and there's an outside chance they could do it in the second half of 2004," UBS New Zealand analyst David Lane said.

Another analyst said he did not believe investors should expect a dividend so soon after the company had become profitable, till it had strengthened shareholder funds.

Mr Fellet said the company was forecasting an after-tax profit of between $28 million and $35 million in the present year.

Analysts were forecasting net profit after tax of between $29 million and $47 million, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and the amortisation of goodwill of between $175 million and $199 million.

The company was forecasting ebitda of between $175 million and $180 million, and capital spending of $65 million to $70 million. That was also at the low end of analysts' forecasts, which ranged between $70 million and $106 million.

Mr Lane said the company's guidance was slightly lower than market expectations. "But I'm very comfortable with the reasons for that: it is to do with their currency hedging assumption."

The company said its transactions went through at an average rate of US44.8 cents in the 2003 financial year but it was 97 per cent hedged at US50 cents for the next year.

In the year under review, Sky TV improved its position without the full benefit of the appreciation of the New Zealand dollar. That was due to its hedging policy, by negotiating better programming arrangements and driving average revenue per unit on its satellite operations 4.9 per cent higher.

Total revenue rose by nearly 14 per cent, to $391.3 million, and ebitda was up nearly 40 per cent to $150.8 million. Advertising revenue rose almost 19 per cent and Mr Fellet said there was room for it to grow further as the company planned to launch three new channels this year.

Subscriber numbers grew nearly 8 per cent to reach a new high of 542,891 and subscriber revenue rose nearly 16 per cent. Net churn – a measure of subscribers who disconnect – continued to decline, falling seven percentage points to 10.8 per cent.

Sky shares fell 1c to close at $4.62.

Sky chalks up second profit in 13 years

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/

While Sky Television announced it had inched into the black yesterday, investors are yet to learn how much of the company's long-awaited profits will be returned to them in the form of dividend cheques.

The question is academic at the moment - the $671,000 profit for the just-reported June year equated to earnings of just 0.17c a share.

But it will become pertinent in 12 months when Sky predicts it will announce an annual profit of between $28 million and $35 million.

Chief executive John Fellett said yesterday that Sky - 66 per cent owned by INL and 12 per cent by Telecom - was a "shareholder driven" company.

It had a strong shareholder representation on its board, which would develop a dividend policy over the coming year, he said.

Sky's past year's profit was only the company's second since it began operating in 1990.

The first profit of $4.5 million was in the 1998-99 year, before Sky launched its digital satellite network.

A heavy investment in increasing its digital subscriber base saw the company chalk up cumulative losses of $99.5 million in the three years between mid-1999 and mid-2002. Since it began in 1990 it has had cumulative losses of $237 million.

That spend has enabled it to get a strong monopoly grip on the national pay television market.

By June this year the company had more than 542,000 customers, 421,000 of them on the more lucrative digital platform.

Subscriber numbers had risen 40,000, or almost 8 per cent, over the year and by June 39.1 per cent of households within reach of the company's service were subscribers.

Fellett said yesterday that penetration figure had risen to 39.5 per cent and he believed it could rise to 70 per cent in 10 years. In the US market penetration was at about 80 per cent.

This year's profit was achieved on total revenue of $391.3 million, up 13.6 per cent on the previous year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) increased by 39.4 per cent to $150.8 million.

The company, which buys most of its programmes in US dollars, has a comprehensive hedging policy so has not benefited from the recent strengthening of the New Zealand dollar.

But Fellett said Sky had been able to negotiate better programming arrangements with movie distributors and had increased average revenue from its satellite customers by 4.9 per cent.

Subscriber revenue grew 15.9 per cent to $338.2 million, and a more buoyant advertising market resulted in an 18.8 per cent increase in advertising revenue to $19.6 million.

Fellett said the company expected its ebitda for the current year to be between $175 million and $180 million and net profit to come in between $28 million and $35 million.

Sky will launch a new sport news service, Sport 365, on September 1, and Fellett said that by the end of the year it would launch three more channels.

He would not give details but said the channels would provide content not now offered by free-to-air providers.

Majority shareholder INL is yet to reveal what it will do with the $1.2 billion it received from the sale of its New Zealand newspaper publishing operations to Australia's John Fairfax Holdings.

One possibility is an off-market bid for the Sky stake it does not own, although there has been speculation that an independent valuation of Sky, which has not been made public, values the business at well below the current market price.

New-look C4 gets ready to roll

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz

Before settling on music, CanWest considered turning loss-making TV4 into a shopping network or a "retro" channel showing shows from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

But the broadcaster opted to go with a youth music format because of the low start-up costs involved and the flexibility to change tack if the concept does not work.

Yesterday, CanWest unveiled the name and logo for the revamped channel. It will be called C4 and will begin pumping out music aimed at 15- to 29-year-olds on October 3.

CanWest has managed to steer sister network TV3 into profitability over the past year, but 4's losses have worsened.

Last month, it reported an operating loss of $5.2 million for the nine months to May, compared with a $4.7 million loss for the same period a year earlier.

TV3/TV4 managing director Rick Friesen said C4 would cost $5 million to $6 million a year compared with the $7 million to $8 million in annual programming costs being incurred by TV4.

Friesen said shopping networks were extremely profitable in many markets, but the high start-up costs were a drawback.

A "retro" format had been attractive because the programmes were cheap to buy, but it involved a long-term buy-up of programming, which could prove expensive if the concept did not work.

Music offered low operational costs without the long-term commitments if the format did not take off.

Because music channels typically attract a 1 to 2 per cent audience share, CanWest was not worried that the channel would eat into TV3's viewership.

Friesen said C4 would be profitable if it achieved a 2 per cent rating, although start-up costs would eat up profit in the first year.

Free-to-air TV music formats have come and gone in the past. TVNZ bought out Max TV's frequency in December 1997 to remove Auckland competition for MTV, then later dumped MTV.

Friesen said the high programming costs associated with MTV had been part of that channel's problem.

C4's production costs would be much lower.

20/08/03

Nothing to say up here today

From my Emails & ICQ

From John Martin

Hi,

Thank you for our inclusion in your links page under Channel Subscriptions

Just to mention that we now also are distributors for Scientific Atlanta
PowerVu receivers for Australia and New Zealand, which may be relevant under
hardware.

Relevant link for that part of our site is

http://www.tvoceania.com/english/equipment.htm

With thanks and best wishes,
John Martin,

Television Oceania,
Level 2, 645 Harris Street, Ultimo, NSW 2007 Australia
Telephone: +61 2 9281 4481
Facsimile: +61 2 9212 4464
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.tvoceania.com

From Telsat

Subject: NEW Ku Dual LNBF Holder

Hi All,

We are pleased to advise of a new product to the domestic Satellite TV market.
A Kiwi developed Dual KU LNBF holder, receive both Optus B1 and C1 together on a
single 80cm offset antenna. More details at:

www.telsat.com/lnbfdual.htm

Cheers

From MR Humax 19/08/03

B1, 12367 V Sr 6667 3/4 "variety club bash cross"
B1, 12397 H Sr 7200 3/4 "HSV SNG trailer, at queenscliff? looks like the scenary channel"

From Satellite Info

PAS 8 feeds

3940H 27690 7/8

Adhoc 16 - Tennis
Adhoc 20 - Gymnastics

From the Dish

NSS 5 177W 3745 R "Pacific IP" has started, SR 44995, FEC 3/4, West hemi beam. (Craigs comment, the Symbol rate from hell by the look of it!)

Optus C1 156E Disney Channel Australia has moved from 12398 H to 12558 H, enc.,PIDs 523/651. Sky News Australia has left 12558 H.

AsiaSat 4 122E 12174 V "RAI International 4" has left .( I don't think it was there to begin with!)

Palapa C2 113E 4160 H "TVE Internacional Asia-Africa" has left , replaced by a Satelindo test card.

Insat 3A 93.5E 3960 V New PIDs for DD Sahayadri : 257/258.

Yamal 102 90E 3719 LNew VPID for Rambler TeleSet (+2h) on : 308.

Thaicom 3 78.5E 3695 H "Sky Racing 1-2" are Fta.
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3671 H "Fashion TV" has started , Fta, PIDs 4129/4130.TCT World and Daystar TV have left this mux.

Insat 3C 74E DD Kerala has left 3901 V (PAL).

NEWS

Sky TV reports first profit

From http://onebusiness.nzoom.com/onebusiness_detail/0,1245,214598-3-166,00.html

Pay television operator Sky TV made the first profit in its 13 year history, thanks partly to the high New Zealand dollar.

The pay TV provider made a net profit of $700,000, compared with a loss of $30 million a year ago.

Total revenues of $391.3 million, were up by 13.6% over the previous year.

Sky TV chief executive John Fellet said even without the benefit of the appreciation of the dollar, Sky has continued to improve its position by negotiating better programming arrangements with movie distributors.

Subscriber revenue grew by 15.9%, advertising revenue rose by 18.8% to $19.6 million and commercial revenues grew 13.8% to $22.3 million.

Total operating expenses, excluding unrealised foreign exchange, increased by a modest 4.2% with programming costs as a percentage of revenue falling from 48.3% to 43%.

Sky's subscriber base reached a new high of 542,891, a gain of 39,642 subscribers over the previous year. This breaks down to 421,473 digital subscribers (77.6%), 119,321 UHF subscribers (22%) and 2,097 other commercial subscribers.

Churn, the way subscribers who disconnect their service are measured, remained low. Gross churn fell from 19.9% to 17.6% and net churn, calculated by removing subscribers who reconnect, fell from 11.7% to 10.8%.

On the programming front, a new sport news service, Sport 365, will launch on September 1 this year, with several other channels scheduled to launch later in 2003.

Sky shares, two-thirds owned by the Rupert Murdoch controlled Independent Newspapers (INL), last traded up a cent at $4.64, against a 14-month high of $4.75 recorded last week and a year low of $3.11.

(Craigs comment, they should enjoy it while they can, while they have no competition to worry about. No surprise they got this info out rather quick after yesterdays news item that Sky's shares had been "overvalued". The Sport 365 mentioned is not a new channel just a new half hour show.)

Sky TV finally moves back into profit

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2633557a13,00.html

Sky Network TV, controlled by Rupert Murdoch's Independent Newspapers Ltd, has finally reported a profit - the first time since it launched its digital network five years ago.

The company posted a June year net profit of $671,000 compared with a $30.2 million loss a year ago.

Still, no dividend was posted.

Total revenues rose 13.6 per cent to $391.3 million.

The number of subscribers reached 542,891 at June 30, a gain of 39,642 over the previous year. This breaks down into 421,473 digital subscribers (77.6 percent), 119,321 UHF subscribers (22.0 per cent) and 2097 other commercial subscribers.

Churn, the way subscribers who disconnect their service, fell from 19.9 per cent to 17.6 per cent and net churn, calculated by removing subscribers who reconnect, fell from 11.7 percent to 10.8 per cent.

Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased by 39.4 per cent to $150.8 million.

The increased earnings, signalled in a May guidance notice was achieved by continuing improvements across several areas of the business, chief executive John Fellet said.

"Even without the full benefit of the recent appreciation of the New Zealand dollar, Sky has continued to improve its position by negotiating better programming arrangements with movie distributors."

A rise in the New Zealand dollar, particularly against the US dollar, lowers Sky's cost of buying programmes.

"These improved arrangements, together with a 4.9 per cent increase in satellite Arpu (average revenue per unit) have contributed to the improved result, Mr Fellet said.

Subscriber revenue grew by 15.9 per cent, advertising revenue rose by 18.8 per cent to $19.6 million and commercial revenues grew 13.8 per cent to $22.3 million.

Total operating expenses, excluding unrealised foreign exchange, increased by 4.2 per cent with programming costs as a percentage of revenue falling from 48.3 percent to 43 per cent.

Sky told analysts it expected the current year result to be at the lower end of market forecasts.

There is strong speculation Independent Newspapers, which owns two thirds of Sky, will engineer a merger with Sky that would entail new shares issued to existing shareholders of both companies.

Since selling its New Zealand publishing business to John Fairfax Holdings at the end of June for $1.2 billion, INL has been mulling its future.

INL, which is 45 per cent owned by Mr Murdoch's News Corp, requested the independent valuation by Bancorp which reportedly valued the company at between $4 and $4.30 a share.

INL has a cash kitty of $754 million. Its only asset other than Sky and its cash is the Geelong Advertiser, estimated to be worth $60 million.

Telecom Corp owns 12 percent of Sky.

Sky shares were initially down today but were up 1 cent to $4.64 shortly after the result announcement.

INTERVIEW: NZ Sky TV Subscriber Growth To Lift Earnings

From http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030820/15/3dixe.html

AUCKLAND (Dow Jones)--New Zealand's Sky Network Television Ltd. (A.SNT) expects its digital satellite service to sustain the current rate of subscriber growth and help boost earnings this financial year, the company's chief executive said Wednesday.

"The strength in subscriber growth is still there and I don't see any reason for it to slow down in a big way," John Fellet told Dow Jones Newswires.

Fellet expects subscriber numbers to continue growing at the current annual rate of 38,000 to 43,000. Subscriber numbers in July and August have so far exceeded that of the same period last year, he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Sky, New Zealand's monopoly pay TV operator, reported a net profit of NZ$671,000 for the year ended June 30, surpassing analysts median expectations of a loss of NZ$800,000 and much better than last year's NZ$30 million loss. It was the first full-year profit since 1998 when Sky launched its digital satellite network.

The number of subscribers grew 7.9% to 542,900, led by its digital services, whose subscriber base rose 20% to 340,300.

"The (digital) service is ever so popular as it was from the time we launched it...I think now that we've come up with a good result, we can expect further improvement from here on," Fellet said.

Sky hopes to build on its services by adding new channels, and possibly new products and services such as video-on-demand services in partnership with Telecom Corp. (NZT). Both Sky and Telecom recently signed two five-year deals for the resale and retransmission of Sky's pay TV services to Telecom customers.

"We think its a great opportunity for us and at the end of the day it's technology-driven, so Telecom has to let us know when they feel comfortable about laying the technology."

Talks are underway with Telecom, but Sky doesn't expect anything substantial to materialize in the short term. Telecom previously said it is exploring a deal with Sky on content and interactive services delivered to televisions via its broadband network.

Fellet said the number of subscribers to its UHF services will continue to decline, but doesn't expect that market to disappear altogether.

"It's a good business for us, we love using assets that have been fully depreciated to generate revenue for us."

Fellet said that the churn rate, a measure of subscribers who disconnect their service, continued to fall and there may be room for a further drop. In the last financial year, gross churn fell from 19.9% to 17.6% and net churn, calculated by removing subscribers who reconnect, fell from 11.7% to 10.8%.

"I've been wrong about the churn rate for the past three years thinking that's as low as it can get and it keeps fooling me, so there could be more room for it to drop," he said.

19/08/03

Livechat tonight 9pm NZ and 8.30pm Syd time onwards in the chatroom.

A few changes in the mux on NSS6 at 95E.

From my Emails & ICQ

From Zapara

NSS 6 95deg E
12729V Sr 27500 Fec7/8 update

8 chs load currently FTA MPEG
"NTD TV" Vpid 257 Apid 258 PCR 257 SID 10 PMT 256
"FASHION TV" Vpid 513 Apid 514 PCR 533 SID 20 PMT 512
"TGRT" Vpid 769 Apid 770 PCR 769 SID 30 PMT 768
"TELEPACE" Vpid 785 Apid 786 PCR 785 SID 31 PMT 784
"VIDEO Italia" Vpid 801 Apid 802 TXT 803 PCR 801 SID 32 PMT 800
"RADIO MAKEDONIA"Vpid 818 Apid 817 PCR 818 SID 33 PMT 816
"ATV" Vpid 833 Apid 835 TXT 836 PCR 833 SID 34 PMT 834
"ISRALAEL HISTORY CH" Vpid 1281 Apid 1282 PCR 128 SID 50 PMT 1280

(Craigs comment, it looks like all the Tarb's stuff that was previously on Pas 10 or Thaicom 3. Except for Israel History channel which I am told is not for Tarb's)

From Bill Richards

Optus C1 Screenshots

Dai Ai TV, TBN, TRT Int and Optus Aurora Tuning Channel

From John Harrison 18/08/03

Pas 8

3880 V Sr 28700 Fec 5/6 Knowledge Channel currently fta

From Ranime 18/08/03

Optus B1 12358 V 6666 3/4 "Australian Idol Feed" seen

From the Dish

No lyngsat in yet

NEWS

Sky TV shares dive after valuation report

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2631485a13,00.html

Shares in Sky TV Network fell 12 cents to $4.62 today after a report in the Sunday Star-Times suggested the company was worth less than the current share price valuation.

The Sunday paper said an off-market bid for the one third of Sky that Independent Newspapers Ltd does not already own was less likely now after an independent valuation by Bancorp valued Sky at $4-$4.30 per share.

The valuation has not been published but may have been leaked to the Star-Times. In response to a query, the Stock Exchange said it was checking to see if the market sensitive information had been improperly released.

INL shares rose 12 cents to $4.32 and Telecom, which owns 10 per cent of INL and 12 per cent of Sky, rose 6c to 512 today.

Some brokers have valued Sky north of $5/share.

Since INL sold its New Zealand publishing business to John Fairfax Holdings at the end of June, INL has been mulling its future. It requested the independent valuation by Bancorp.

Instead of making a bid for Sky below the current price, the two companies could be merged with new shares issued to existing shareholders. That would effectively delist INL, whose only other asset is the Geelong Advertiser, worth an estimated $60 million.

INL has a cash kitty of $754 million.

Three years ago Bancorp valued Sky for INL at between $3.58 and $4.14 per share. Since then the New Zealand dollar has risen steeply, lowering Sky's cost of buying programmes. As well, TelstraSaturn, now TelstraClear, has dropped out of the television market. However, also since then the dot.com bubble has burst, severely denting the share price of companies such as Sky.

Indian satellite hitch dogs Ariane launch

From http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030818144517.0ay5xutp.html

The upcoming launch of a European Ariane rocket with three satellites onboard has been delayed for the second time because of a last-minute hitch with its Indian payload, the launch operators Arianespace said Monday.

The launch had initially been scheduled for August 28 but was ordered postponed last week until September 3 to let engineers make final checks on INSAT-3E, a satellite to be launched for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

An official at Arianespace said ISRO had now requested additional time to carry out these checks.

"A new launch date will be provided later," Arianespace said in a statement.

The Ariane 5 rocket will also carry a Eutelsat telecommunications satellite, e-BIRD, and a lunar probe, SMART-1, for the European Space Agency (ESA).

Arianespace markets ESA's Ariane rocket, which is launched from a base in Kourou, French Guiana.

Suspect components delay Insat 3E launch

From http://www.hinduonnet.com/bline/stories/2003081902090400.htm

A BATCH containing `faulty' units of critical imported components used in Insat-3E has forced ISRO to postpone its launch barely 18 days from D-day.

The communications satellite has been in the French Guianese spaceport since July 16, undergoing tests and awaiting launch on September 4 (according to IST) by the European service provider Arianespace. It now stands delayed by at least 3-4 weeks until the components are re-tested and Arianespace decides a new date, the national space agency said without giving details.

The suspect components, solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs), are the heart of a satellite transponder. As Business Line learns, were sourced from Japanese major Mitsubishi Electric Corporation at least two years ago, as is customary for satellite assembly.

The vendor alerted ISRO last week. Now, some of the readily available SSPA replacements will be sent to Kourou and others will be brought back to the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad for thermal coating and assembly. Mitsubishi, a global major in the component, is said to be sending a team of engineers to Ahmedabad in the next couple of weeks for detailed testing and re-engineering.

In all, 36 SSPAs were used on 3E's transponders and some of them would be replaced and some repaired, an official source said.

ISRO's official statement said the satellite "is now delayed because of the need to retest a few components of the communication payload. The retests have become necessary in view of a quality alert received from the manufacturer of these components. INSAT-3E will be ready in three to four weeks."

Both the failed SSPAs are said to be of the same batch and design of which 200 units are said to have been supplied to various agencies. ISRO alone has sourced over a hundred SSPAs for its various Insats. A pre-launch satellite undergoes several thermal cycles and apparently nothing was found amiss.

The satellite is meant for a life of 12 years. The ISRO spokesman, Mr S. Krishnamurthy, said such scares and delays are not new to the satellite industry. Only in April this year, the previous launch, Insat 3A, went through a day's delay on the launch-pad as the signal from the transmitter was not adequate, he recalled. "We now know the problem. If the satellite had failed in orbit later, it would have been very difficult to trace the real culprit," he said.

Satellites like 3E that weigh 2700 kg cost around Rs 200 crore, often Rs 100 crore lower than a procured launch.

3E has two co-passengers - SMART-1 of European Space Agency and e-Bird of EUTELSAT.

Ahimsaa will launch on 2 October, ATN tells NSE

From http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k3/aug/aug133.htm

MUMBAI: ATN International is poised to launch its new channel Ahimsaa on 2 October, 2003. This was conveyed to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in official announcement by the company today.

The announcement stated that ATN's board of directors (BOD) reviewed the preparations of the launch in a meeting today.

Presently, the application for uplinking Ahimsaa from India is pending for approval with the information and broadcasting ministry, according to the announcement.

The 24-hour predominantly Hindi global satellite television channel was originally reported to kick-off on 30 January, it's content comprising social, environmental and women empowerment issues. Its official announcement was made at the 'Converging World 2002' held in Bangalore between 3 and 5 December, 2002.

Later on, indiantelevision.com had reported that Ahimsaa will commence from 15 August 2003. ATN had stated to NSE that the channel will be uplinked from India on a global platform tentatively from 15 August and would cover more than 50 countries of the world. However, the company is still waiting for I&B's consent.

Ahimsaa is promoted by Kolkata-based Santosh Kumar Jain, who besides being a partner in Aastha Television and CMM Music has also launched ATN World and ATN Bangla in West Bengal. It is being backed by The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, headquartered in Mount Abu, India.

The channel will telecast talks on Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and other religions. For women, there would be special shows like the gourmet special Aah Kya Swad , Ghar Beethe on self-employment opportunities and Haq on legal issues.

Thai UBC: profit increase

From http://www.advanced-television.com/pages/pagesb/newsdaily.html

Thailand's largest pay TV operation, United Broadcasting Corporartion (UBC) has reported a net profit of E1.59 million for the first half of 2003 - a massive 520 per cent increase in operating income from the same period in 2002.

The figures also showed that net profit for the April to June quarter were E1.43 million - which was also an improvement on the same period 12 months earlier.

However, susbcriber numbers fell by nearly 17,000 from March 31 of this year to finish at 420,643 at the end of June, although UBC said that it was earning more revenue per subscriber following a price rise earlier on this year. UBC deputy chief financial officer Vasili Sgourdos said he was pleased with the results, but warned that the second half of the year was generally when the platform experienced cost increases and that he wanted to boost subscriber numbers to remain on the path of achieving quarterly profits.

UBC CEO Sompan Charumilinda used the announcement of the latest financial figures to reiterate the need for a new regulatory environment that recognised the realities of building a pay TV platform in Thailand. UBC has been lobbying for five years to be allowed to carry advertising and it is also supporting the idea of a single regulatory body for the industry, rather than being regulated by a series of overlapping bodies.

"It will become increasingly difficult to continue to develop the market unless regulations are adequately updated to reflect the economic realities of building a pay TV platform in Thailand and ensuring that laws are enforced consistently on all operators particularly those relating to copyright protection and advertising," he said.

18/08/03

A few NZ news items today, on the TV3 news last night Mercury/Southland tv was mentioned as coming to Sky TV. I did get a fax about this several months ago. There isn't any indication as yet as to if they will be a true "FTA" signal on Sky. I have not been able to find a website or email address for them either. Perhaps someone down South may have better luck?

From my Emails & ICQ

From Steve Hume

Pinoy Central TV has left the building!
PAS 8 166E Pinoy Central TV on 3718 V

Pinoy Central TV is either gone or encrypted.

NEWS 24x7

From the Dish

JCSAT 3 128E 4050 V Both Da Ai TV and the test cards have left .

Palapa C2 113E 10970 V The Satelindo mux has left .
Palapa C2 113E 4160 H "TVE Internacional Asia-Africa" has started, Fta, SR 5632,FEC 3/4, PIDs 308/256.
Palapa C2 113E 3604 H "Smart FM has replaced Kantor Berita Radio" on , Fta, APID 1213.

AsiaSat 3 105.5E 4115 V "Indus Plus has replaced Indus News", Fta, SR 3331, FEC 3/4, PIDs 308/256.

PAS 10 68.5E 3864 H The ARY Digital promo is now encrypted.

NEWS

Foxtel turns up heat

From http://finance.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6987451%255E462,00.html

DEBATE on the retransmission of free-to-air TV channels on the new digital Foxtel system has escalated, with Foxtel applying to the competition regulator for clearance under its third-line forcing provisions.

Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams said Foxtel made the application last week due to the concerns of networks Seven and Ten who have yet to agree to be shown on Foxtel Digital when it launches next year.

Third-line forcing is the potentially anti-competitive situation where one service is offered only if the user agrees another condition.

Companies seeking to third-line force can gain clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission if they can prove it is in the public's benefit.

Seven and Ten argue Foxtel is third-line forcing by demanding they buy satellite capacity from Optus before being retransmitted on Foxtel's satellite service, and instead want Foxtel to pay the estimated $5 million annual cost.

But Mr Williams said: "That is like buying a toaster and saying it's third-line forcing to also buy electricity."

He argued the issue instead centred on Foxtel's desire to tie retransmission of the channels on its satellite service with retransmission on cable so its packages were identical.

SBS and the Nine Network have already agreed to be on Foxtel Digital after buying satellite space from Optus.

But for the satellite retransmission to occur, Foxtel told the ACCC that Seven and Ten must buy the satellite space as it was "unreasonable and inconsistent with international practice for it (Foxtel) to be required to acquire and pay for the satellite capacity".

But Foxtel is offering them free access to its electronic program guide, free cable capacity, free access to its conditional access system and its cable and satellite set-top boxes, it said.

In contrast, British broadcaster ITV pays pay-TV group BSkyB pound stg. 17 million ($41.2 million) a year to use its conditional access system.

As for the public benefit in having the same cable and satellite pay-TV packages, Foxtel said they included boosting uptake of free-to-air digital TV, helping TV viewers who now have poor TV reception and eliminating the price difference between Foxtel's cable and satellite systems.

Foxtel's notification to the ACCC was lodged on Tuesday and if the commission does not intervene within 14 days, the the notification succeeds.

Mr Williams said that if the ACCC objected, "there are a number of remedies available to Foxtel in that instance, but I'm not willing to talk about that". He said Seven and Ten were not compelled to retransmit their channels.

In its submission, Foxtel said the networks must decide the issue by August 31 if they want to be included in the Foxtel Digital launch in March.

And it said there was the chance Optus could sell the satellite space to others if Seven and Ten don't agree.

INL tipped to merge with Sky

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2629984a13,00.html

An off-market bid by INL for all the shares it does not own in sharemarket darling Sky TV is less likely in the wake of an independent valuation of the pay television operator.

That valuation is currently under wraps, but indications are it puts Sky TV's shares at between $4-$4.30, a long way behind the current market price of $4.73.

It is also a long way behind some broker valuations on Sky of more than $5.

In those circumstances INL, which owns 66 per cent of Sky, is not expected to spend money buying more shares in a company it already effectively controls, and at a price inflated by market activity.

Instead, Sky TV and INL are more likely to merge in a new pay TV company, with new shares issued to existing shareholders in the two former companies, say analysts.

This would effectively remove a major company from the market at a time when the New Zealand Exchange is desperate to encourage new sharemarket listings.

Investors who have been snapping up Sky TV shares in the belief INL would use money from the sale of its publishing interests to Australian publisher John Fairfax Holdings to buy out Sky TV at a premium may be disappointed. But it raises the likelihood that INL shareholders will get a healthy cash payout.

INL called for an independent valuation of Sky TV after it closed its doors on its publishing businesses, selling them to Fairfax for $1.18 billion in July, a deal that saw the Sunday Star-Times and other major titles move to the Australian-based publisher's stable.

The sale focused INL's attention squarely on the pay TV operator. Besides its Sky TV holding, INL had a cash kitty of $754 million from the sale, which could grow to $820m if it sells the Geelong Advertiser in Australia.

INL chairman Ken Cowley told shareholders last month the board was reviewing options with regard to the future of Sky TV, but he was playing his cards close to his chest. INL does not want to pay too high a price to capture Sky, and commissioned Bancorp to value the pay TV operator.

That valuation is now with the board but under wraps.

Three years ago, Bancorp valued Sky TV for INL at between $3.58-$4.14 a share, but several factors have lifted that valuation. The New Zealand dollar has appreciated from US42c three years ago to US58c to the huge benefit of Sky TV, whose major costs are programming which is paid for in US dollars.

A one cent rise in the Kiwi dollar can add $2.5m to Sky TV's bottom line.

The other big change in Sky TV's favour has been a change in the competitive landscape.

First, TelstraSaturn signalled it wasn't going to compete with Sky TV, and then its reincarnation TelstraClear signed a deal to take Sky content. That left Sky TV as the only significant pay television operator in the country.

Analysts are also discounting any impact on Sky TV of TVNZ's testing of free-to-air digital decoders in around 6000 homes. But even those factors will not boost the Bancorp valuation to current market levels, dissuading INL to seek control of Sky TV by buying more shares. The more likely scenario is for INL and Sky TV to merge under a scheme of arrangement, analysts now believe.

In such a company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp would have a 30 per cent stake, Telecom 18.1 per cent, Todd 9.7 per cent and minority interests 42.2 per cent.

What's The Ball Game?

From http://xtramsn.co.nz/business/0,,5189-2582432,00.html

TVNZ's decision to run a free-to-air Rugby World Cup satellite channel, to broadcast exactly the same live matches screening on TV1 as well as lots of replays, has observers asking: "What is the point?"

The network claims it will add value for advertisers, with all ads repeating in the replays. But with just 6,000 free-to-air satellite set-top boxes in the country (by TVNZ's estimate), advertising agencies struggle to see the added value. If anything, they see dilution.

The move has awoken the conspiracy theorists, some suggesting TVNZ is using the Rugby World Cup to try to build a free-to-air satellite television viewer base, as a precursor to adding some sort of satellite-delivered third channel to its stable.

Closest to the truth may be the theory that during its fumbling foray into digital television back in 2001, TVNZ locked itself into a long-term deal for a stack of expensive satellite transponder capacity and has no idea what to do with it.

The official line from TVNZ's spin doctors is "we are just testing capability".

TVNZ watcher National MP Murray McCully describes the proposed cup rugby channel as even less popular than the Maori television channel.

"Having missed out at every attempt on the digital front, they are now seizing fourth prize."

The state broadcaster paid $US10 million in 1996 for exclusive rights to the 1999 and 2003 Rugby World Cup events and failed to come to any deal with Sky TV to run some lesser games and replays on its pay-TV operation. Then, last year TVNZ wiped more than $5 million off its books when New Zealand lost hosting rights to this year's event, dishing up a hard-luck story claiming the loss of New Zealand hosted games meant losing income it would have received as a host broadcaster.

NZ Poised To Take Digital Leap

From http://xtramsn.co.nz/business/0,,5232-2582711,00.html

Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey is on the brink of allowing digital television services throughout New Zealand.

Issues troubling introduction of the new technology have been canvassed in a report discussed by the Cabinet and the go-ahead is expected soon.

The report, prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development with input from television broadcasters, examined digital spectrum allocation to broadcasters, technical standards and continuing government funding for the present analogue transmission into uneconomic areas (mainly small isolated communities).

It's believed the report finalised some options, paving the way for broadcasters to go digital.

But the transition to digital television is already well under way.

Consumers have been investing heavily in digital DVD players and digital television sets.

And Broadcast Communications Ltd (BCL), which moves most television signals around New Zealand for broadcasters, has almost completed converting its television distribution network backbone to digital.

While signals are still broadcast in analogue at transmission sites, it would be a fairly simple step for BCL to add digital transmitters to these sites.

Broadcasting insiders now quietly argue the time is ripe for the government to play catch-up and allocate spectrum for terrestrial digital transmission and let the broadcasting companies get on with it.

Former Broadcasting Minister Maurice Williamson was on the brink of allocating spectrum for terrestrial digital television leading into the 1999 election.

With the change of government, the project appeared to be put aside as the new Broadcasting Minister Marian Hobbs focused on other issues such as the TVNZ charter.

That caused frustration among senior broadcasting staffers who had worked hard through the 1990s to resolve digital television issues.

Consumer Pressure

The strong consumer uptake of digital technologies is now creating pressure for a terrestrial digital service carrying the national free-to-air channels: TV1, TV2, TV3, TV4, Prime and, presumably, the looming Maori channel.

However, many consumers are confused about digital TV.

True digital TV is available from DVD players plugged into digital TV sets.

And true digital TV can be watched via Sky Television's satellite digital service if connected to a digital TV set.

The terrestrial signals from the free-to-air channels remain analogue (delivering distinctly inferior picture quality stunningly apparent to viewers who switch from a DVD movie to a terrestrial-transmitted, free-to-air analogue channel).

Consumers who have bought a digital TV set and think they are ready for terrestrial digital broadcasts will be in for a shock when they discover they must also buy a set-top box to get digital TV signals into their brand new digital TV sets.

These set-top boxes will range in price from around $300 for a basic signal receiver, to more than $1,000 for set-top boxes with a full suite of interactive features.

In Europe, Integrated Digital Television (IDTV sets) with built-in digital receivers are now hitting the stores. When New Zealand's broadcasters eventually announce a start date, domestic retail chains can be expected to stock IDTV sets, as well as set-top boxes, almost immediately.

The path towards achieving digital TV in New Zealand been long, but relatively well managed by the country's broadcasters.

A non-partisan industry group has met regularly since 1990 working on digital television engineering standards and developing an engineering code of practice.

The pressure for decisions mounted in the mid-90s when Sky TV announced its intention to launch its satellite digital TV service.

A choice had to made between the two available digital systems developed overseas: the American system, Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC), and the European system, Digital Video Broadcast (DVB).

The committee decided the DVB was the best platform for New Zealand for all three potential delivery methods - DVB-S (satellite delivery) DVB-T (terrestrial delivery) and DVB-C (cable delivery).

In 1998, Standards New Zealand was advised of the DVB preference, as was Williamson, who wanted to know whether the decision needed to be mandated.

This was considered unnecessary, as the industry had agreed unanimously on the DVB format. At that point, New Zealand became the first country outside Europe to adopt DVB.

A key factor in the choice was reception mobility. DVB-T terrestrial transmission, unlike the American ATSC, can be received by moving receivers, enabling digital TV reception on buses, trains and boats, for example.

The committee felt mobile television reception could take on a significant role in civil and military defence.

Today, Sky TV broadcasts its digital service in the DVB-S format. However, DVB-S from satellite requires a fixed satellite dish and unlike DVB-T is not suited to mobile reception.

Terrestrial digital broadcast spectrum is available nationally with ample capacity to carry all free-to-air channels.

Each UHF frequency expected to be used for the service can carry four standard DVB-T channels, or one high definition (HDTV) channel. There are no indications yet that any of the free-to-air broadcasters will adopt the HDTV format.

Allocating Spectrum

The industry argues that as incumbent broadcasters, they should be allocated digital spectrum at no charge, pointing out they must meet the additional cost of broadcasting in two formats (analogue and digital) for many years, until the transition to digital is complete. They would then pay the government spectrum fees for a single spectrum, as they do today.

Current licences for analogue spectrum all run through to 2015, suggesting this would be a logical target date for the transition to digital to be completed.

Then, the spectrum currently used for analogue could be released for other applications such as mobile phones.

Broadcasters argue they do not need to cover the whole country immediately and suggest DVB-T can be rolled out in much the same way as television was first rolled out in the early days, starting in the big cities and steadily moving out into the countryside.

One issue facing the government will be whether to allocate surplus digital spectrum.

The narrow band-width requirements of digital TV means there would be plenty of channel frequency capacity available for the establishment of many more national channels.

Existing television broadcasters don't want the extra capacity dished out willy-nilly (unless, of course, it's to them).

The government might put additional national channel capacity out to tender or allocate some for establishing narrow niche-market television channels of national benefit, such as an education broadcasting to schools and universities and people studying at home.

The need for some sort of trial of terrestrial digital television technology appears to be fading.

DVB-T has now been extensively tested and is widely in use in Europe.

And during the America's Cup, TVNZ used DVB-T transmission technologies to provide live digital race telecasts to boats and ferries out on the water.

During the months preceding the event, a group of broadcasting interests secretly planned a digital television trial channel in Auckland but the success of the America's Cup operation is believed to have influenced a decision to scrap it.

The America's Cup transmitter is still up and running, sending the TV1 signal in DVB-T format over most of Auckland. But as set-top boxes are not readily available, few homes are believed to be receiving it.

TVNZ has also been testing a free-to-air satellite channel transmitting from the same satellite as Sky TV and receivable through Sky TV dishes, but not through Sky decoders. Viewers would need to invest in a separate set-top box ($400-$600).

Now, it's up to Maharey to make his move and allocate spectrum. Broadcasters say it should then be up to them and market forces to get the establishment
of a national DVB-T transmission system under way.

(Craigs comment, "However, many consumers are confused about digital TV.True digital TV is available from DVD players plugged into digital TV sets.And true digital TV can be watched via Sky Television's satellite digital service if connected to a digital TV set." Ahahaha the many consumers should also include the idiot who wrote that nonsense. As for digital tv's you won't find any in NZ what he might of been referring to is widescreen models.)

Care TV to debut in September

From http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=135001

MUMBAI: Tanu Healthcare, a listed company that specialises in the trading of pharmaceutical products and analytical laboratory services, is launching a health and beauty care satellite channel called Care TV.

Uplinked via VSNL’s Mumbai gateway, the channel will be on a Thaicom transponder and will begin test broadcasting from September 3. The niche channel will focus on health-related areas ranging from fitness and beauty concerns to specialist medical as well as ayurvedic and other alternative cures.

“The size of the different branches of the health industry is around Rs 45,000 crore. The current slots in the news and entertainment cannot do justice to a number of health-related products and services vying for the attention of TV viewers, Ajay Gupta, MD of Care TV told ET. The promoters of Tanu Healthcare — GK Aggarwal and OP Aggarwal — have invested Rs 5 crore and will be raising Rs 10 crore more through a IPO later this year. The revenue model will be advertising-driven with both direct advertising as well as specific shows built around products and services, Mr Gupta said.

Care TV will launch as a free-to-air channel using six hours of original programming initially repeated through the day, and will use a hybrid ’Hinglish’ language to gain maximum viewer penetration in the shortest possible time.

Programming slots will be fixed based on the age group and target audience, and the channel intends to give substantial airtime to Unicef and government-run programmes as well as sex-related issues.

The channel will be guided by a panel of 30 senior doctors and will use an interactive style where phone-ins will allow viewers to link with anchors even as they are watching the shows.

Tanu Healthcare, launched in 1994, generated a turnover of Rs 35 crore in the first quarter this fiscal and recorded a net profit of Rs 1.3 crore in Q1.

Star, ESPN won’t use Zee HITS platform

From http://www.business-standard.com/today/story.asp?Menu=2&story=20948

Zee’s ambitious Headend in the Sky (HITS) programme seems to have run into trouble with Star and ESPN-Star Sports refusing to join the distribution platform. Sony is also yet to decide on a tie-up with Zee for the Rs 400-crore HITS platform.

Zee’s distribution subsidiary Siti Cable, which is marketing HITS under the Galaxzee brand name, has been talking to the other broadcasters on this project for some time now.

However, it was clear at the last meeting of the implementation committee meeting for the conditional access system (CAS) held on July 14 that there were still wide differences on this issue.

When Zee’s Jawahar Goel announced that the broadcaster was offering the popular pay channels, including Star Plus, for Rs 128, his claim was refuted by Star CEO Peter Mukherjea, who said his company had not entered into any agreement with Siti Cable to provide its signals on the HITS platform.

“The issue of broadcast rights is very important to us. If our signals end up being beamed in places where we are not allowed to, then we will be in the dock for piracy,” Mukerjea said.

A spokesman for ESPN-Star Sports also confirmed that it would not provide its signals to Zee’s HITS platform. Sony, on the other hand, is yet to take a decision.

“We are right now in negotiations with Zee. If we strike the right deal we will go ahead with it,” Sony CEO Kunal Dasgupta told Business Standard.

When asked what Zee’s strategy would be if the other broadcasters refused to join its HITS programme, Jawahar Goel said, “We are talking to them. They will join the platform in due course.”

The prime concern of most broadcasters over the HITS platform is related to security aspects.

The HITS programme involves the setting up of a back office company that downloads all channels in a single location.

These channels are then encrypted and beamed up to a satellite. The satellite then acts as the headend i.e., the location of the CAS and the subscriber management system that keeps track of the billings and other related information.

The signals are then received by cable operators who have to ‘trans-modulate’ them and then distribute it among their subscribers. The subscribers can then receive the channels through a digital set-top box.

Most broadcasters are apprehensive of the fact that they will not have any control over where the CAS-encrypted signals are downlinked.

Since, a footprint of a satellite covers a huge geographical area, the signals can be downloaded in certain areas without the knowledge of the broadcaster.

The refusal of Star and ESPN-Star to send their signals for Zee’s HITS system may mean that houses covered by Siti Cable in the CAS-notified areas may not receive these channels from September 1.

“If Star does not send its signals to us, cable homes covered by Siti Cable will not receive its channels,” Siti Cable head Rajiv Khattar said.

According to Khattar, Zee is at present using the HITS platform to beam its own channels, besides channels like Ten Sports and Nickelodeon, in south Delhi and certain areas in Kolkata.

T S I C H A N N E L N E W S - Number 33/2003 17 August 2003 -

A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by TELE-satellite International

Editor: Branislav Pekic

Edited Apsattv.com Edition

A S I A

AXN TOP OF THE PACK

Sony Pictures Television International's AXN channel has ranked in at number one among cable channels in several key Asian markets. According to results by Nielsen Media Research, AXN was the most watched international ad-supported cable channel in Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines for the first six months of 2003, based on average weekly reach. The success of the channel, whose core viewers, according to its Viewer Lifestyle Study, are affluent, tech-savvy professionals and students, has been credited to the premiere of new action-adventure series, such as CSI, CSI: Miami, Alias, 24 and Boomtown. AXN's Viewer Lifestyle Study 2003 was conducted in seven major Asian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei.

CHINA - HONG KONG

HK CITY TELECOM LAUNCHES PAY-TV SERVICE

City Telecom (Hong Kong) said August 14 it has launched a pay-television service in Hong Kong, delivering 11 channels, but with the capacity for 200. In the initial stages, the service will be aimed at Hong Kong's New Territories area, starting with the Kwai Tsing district, the telecom operator said. The company said it will invest, at the most, HK$15 million on the service in its first year of operation. The basic package, priced at HK$98 a month, is cheaper than that of the city's dominant cable operator, i-Cable Communications Ltd., which charges HK$ 298 a month for its service. Two smaller operators - Yes TV and TV Plus - are also operating in the market, and there are many more to come. Those slated to start offering their services before the year is out are fixed-line giant PCCW Ltd. and media firm Television Broadcasts's Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting.

NEW DIGITAL TV AND PPV SERVICES IN SEPTEMBER

Chinese television stations are scheduled to launch a batch of new channels in September, featuring digital broadcasting and pay-per-view service. This will mark the start of China's ambitious digitization plan. According to a recent scheme formulated by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), China will soon promulgate its own high resolution digital TV standards, sign up one million cable digital TV subscribers and kick off 10 commercial broadcasting channels nationwide by the end of this year. The plan is for China to stop sending analogue signals by 2015, and the State Administration also plans to transmit high-definition digital programs of the Beijing Olympics to the world in 2008. China, with a population of 1.3 billion, boasts 370 million TV sets and 1.2 billion TV viewers, the largest number in the world. But the present cable network in major cities is only capable of transmitting 40 to 50 channels simultaneously at most, leaving no room for further development, while digital TV provides a better solution by allowing for 400 to 500 channels, said Wang Xiaojie, a senior official with SARFT.

FALUN GONG JAMMING CONDEMNED

China on August 15 condemned the Falun Gong cult for hijacking again the satellite signals of government-run Sino Satellite, which violated the basic principles of relevant civilian communications. The TV satellite, belonging to the Sino-Satellite Communications Co, was taken over by illegal TV signals transmitted by Falun Gong cult followers twice, on August 12 and 13. The illegal signals hindered the Chinese audience from watching routine programmes of China Central Television, China Education TV Station and 10 provincial TV stations. This week's hijackings were not the first time Falun Gong cult activists had broadcast illegal TV signals to cut into transmission using Sino Satellite. The satellite was taken over on September 21 last year, during the Middle Autumn Festival when people should have been enjoying entertainment programmes on TV with their families. Their attacks in late June last year also disrupted people in many remote villages in China from being able to watch the World Cup finals.

INDIA

NEW PLAYERS TO LAUNCH DTH SERVICES

Three years after the Indian Government legalised the beaming of television programmes via satellite, directly to viewers' homes, without the help of a cable operator, the option has finally become reality. As of this week there are two possibly three players geared to exploit the DTH market. One of them a member of the Zee TV group has promised to launch the service by September 1, if some procedural hurdles are cleared. One satellite TV player who has always promised to bring DTH services to India is the Star TV group, but it is currently trying to sort out with the Government, issues linked to how much Indian equity it has put into the company it has started for the purpose, Space TV. The other private sector player to leap into the DTH sector is the Zee TV group which also owns the SitiCable cable network. The group has said it is all set to offer DTH services having lined up four transponders (to deliver 48 channels) and booked others to offer about 144 channels in all. Its service is expected to cost Rs. 150 a month for starters, with the dish and the decoder/smart card box costing around Rs. 3,000. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry cleared the DTH plans of Doordarshan. DD has asked the Indian Space Research Organisation to provide the required transponder on one of its INSAT satellite platforms. The attraction for the Government channels is that the `footprint' of the satellite based DTH transmission will reach most parts of the subcontinent at one go including neighbouring nations.

HUMAX WINS CAS DEAL

Korea’s digital set-top box manufacturer Humax said on August 13 it has won an additional $6 million order to export the satellite broadcasting converters to India. The South Korean firm was awarded a $6 million order in May to sell its products to Heathway Cable & Datacom, an Indian firm which holds about 80 channels for three million viewers in nine major Indian cities. The Indian company is owned 30 per cent by Hong Kong's Star TV. Humax's products are equipped with a conditional access system (CAS) developed by NDS.

STAR OPEN TO 51% STAKE FOR PARTNER

Star India has indicated to the government that it is open to restructuring the equity of Media Content and Communication Services (MCCS), the company that has applied for a licence to uplink the Star News channel, so that an Indian shareholder becomes a dominant partner with 51 per cent stake. According to a source close to the development, this will be done to prevent the government rejecting MCCS’s application for uplinking. Star India set up MCCS in June to meet regulations that stipulate a 74 per cent Indian shareholding in a news channel uplinking from India. The present Indian shareholders of MCCS are advertising professional Suhel Seth, with a 30 per cent stake, Merrill Lynch Vice-Chairman Hemendra Kothari (25 per cent), Hindustan Times Editor Vir Sanghvi (5 per cent), lawyer Raian Karanjiwala (4 per cent), television personality Maya Alagh (5 per cent) and actor Jeetendra Kapoor (5 per cent). Star has also indicated to the government that it should give the company enough time to comply with rules if there are any changes.

LITTLE DEMAND FOR SET-TOP BOXES

Cable TV subscribers are fighting shy of buying set-top boxes, which is necessary for viewing pay channels after the conditional access system (CAS) is implemented from September 1 in the four metros. With a little over 15 days left for the CAS rollout, the inadequate deployment of set-top boxes would mean that the government would not be able to deliver on its promise of a smooth CAS rollout. While multi-service operator (MSO) Siti Cable said it had sold 4,000 set-top boxes all over the country, INCable, another MSO, said it was yet to launch its set-top boxes in the market. It is clear that the number of set-top boxes deployed till now was woefully short of the 2 million that was being projected for covering a majority of the cable and satellite TV homes in the CAS-notified areas of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and the whole of Chennai.

PAKISTAN

INDIAN TV CHANNELS BAN HITS CABLE OPERATORS

Despite the present good relations between Pakistan and India, Islamabad has imposed fresh curbs on Indian TV channels causing much problems for local cable operators. According to the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan (COAP), the official regulatory body Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has banned the showing of Indian channels throughout the country despite its recent promises to remove curbs on them. The fresh directive by PEMRA has come a surprise to COAP as the official body had earlier agreed to the pleas of COAP to allow them to show Indian entertainment channels, while continuing the ban on Indian news channels.

A F R I C A

PAN-AFRICAN TV ARRIVES VIA SATELLITE

Africans have long had access to foreign TV or local programs, but not to TV from their neighbours. In the early 1990s, the South African partnership of M-Net and MultiChoice began the first home-grown satellite broadcasts to reach all of English-speaking Africa. With its path eased by falling state barriers to private broadcasters, the partnership now operates in 50 African and adjacent island countries, and has spawned at least two rivals, TV Africa and a new network launched by the venerable South African Broadcasting Corporation. The networks say their audience is growing 10 percent a year and has an increasing thirst for African stars and themes. M-Net and its rivals have been screening more and more African-made shows. But only 4 percent of Africa’s 900 million people own televisions, although many more have access to TV in private homes, and very few can pay for a satellite dish (which starts at $200) or a monthly subscription. So the networks also rely on ad revenue and broadcast free to an audience they say is greatly increased by those who watch a communal TV. SABC launched Africa-2-Africa in 1998 as the first satellite network produced “for Africa, about Africa or by Africa.” Five-year-old TV Africa reaches as many as 100 million viewers in 20 countries with its “proudly African” prime-time slots featuring African movies and shows. M-Net is the largest of the new networks, with 1.3 million pay-TV subscribers.

KENYA

NEW LAW COULD HURT TV STATIONS

Beginning January, 20 per cent of the content broadcast on Kenyan television and 30 per cent on radio will have to be locally produced. Information minister Rafael Tuju told reporters the new rules were aimed at creating jobs for Kenyans as well as protecting the culture of the East African nation. In addition to the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corp., whose television and radio operations are the only ones with a nationwide reach, there are five private television and more than a dozen private radio stations operating out of the capital, Nairobi. All the TV stations, including KBC, rely heavily on a cocktail of foreign programming, ranging from U.S., Australian and Latin American soap operas to sit-coms and series from the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. It was not immediately clear how the requirement would affect Kenyan-licensed broadcasters who transmit foreign satellite programming terrestrially. Program directors at the leading private TV stations have frequently said the abundance of foreign programming is due to their limited budgets; African broadcasters tend to pay relatively little for the rights to mainline U.S. series that have already recouped costs in major foreign markets in Europe and Asia. Currently, most TV and radio stations run 24 hours a day except for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation which closes down at midnight. The chairman of the Media Owners Association, Wilfred Kiboro, said the move to dedicate a percentage of broadcasting time to local content could force many TV stations to only operate for a few hours or close down altogether.

SOUTH AFRICA

NEW TEEN CHANNEL LAUNCHED

South African satellite broadcaster MNet has launched new teen channel GO! to beef up its younger-skewing kids bouquet of KTV and Kworld. On air between 18.00 and 22.00, GO! broadcasts a mix of drama, comedy, music and animation, usually with a strong US accent. US imports in the GO! line-up include Evolution, Gilmore Girls, Clone High and Jackass. Head of KTV, Kworld and GO!,

17/08/03

Sunday no update

16/08/03

Big rugby match tonight Live on Star Sports? My pick the All Blacks by 12

New Satfacts issue is out , "RWC Channel, Optus C1 reception reports, scanning searching receivers, Impactv Status, Co-Ship Fiasco, B3 @ 152E, 2.4GHZ video linking, new state of the art tuner hardware," just a few of the items mentioned.

From my Emails & ICQ

From Chris Pickstock

3.20 SA Time

B1, 12420V, sr 6110, Vpid 519, Apid 647

V8's from Oran Park on now.

Chris

From Bill Richards

MAC TV Optus C1

From the Dish

No Lyngsat report as yet

NEWS

Sky offers Maori TV one of its channels

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3518405&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

Sky Television has offered the Maori Television Service one of its channels in a new deal designed to eliminate potentially major interference problems for hundreds of thousands of viewers.

The deal was put before the Government last week, but it has yet to reach a decision.

Aside from resolving the interference problems - which could see viewers tuning in to watch Coronation Street getting MTS instead - it is believed the deal could result in significant cost-savings for MTS.

It would be able to use the transmission facilities Sky already has in place, saving it from importing and setting up new transmitters.

The plan would also enable MTS to simply flick a switch when it is ready to go on air, saving it and the Government from potentially embarrassing delays.

Sky and MTS confirmed yesterday that a new proposal had been put to the Government but said details were confidential.

State-owned Broadcast Communications Ltd (BCL) refused to comment, saying negotiations were "delicate". But it is believed BCL would consider it a major blow if the Government backed the proposal.

The Government said in January that MTS would be on-air by the end of the year, using a combination of BCL's UHF transmission platform and Sky's digital service.

But while negotiations have been on-going, those plans have not been properly advanced, creating mounting speculation that MTS's start-up date would once again be delayed.

MTS has also been dogged with problems securing the $12 million-$13 million loan it needed to pay for building its studios and buying the equipment needed to kit them out.

A bank loan was finally arranged several weeks ago and MTS chief executive Derek Fox said this week that he was now preparing to sign a range of contracts.

The interference problems have delayed the transmission plans.

It was revealed late last year that Sky had been "squatting" on the four frequencies reserved for Maori television since 1989.

But Sky warned the Government then that hundreds of thousands of other households with PlayStations and televisions tuned in through VCRs could also suffer interference problems if MTS went to air on those frequencies.

Sky has said it would move off the frequencies and retune its customers' decoders if necessary, but argued that this would not solve the other interference problems.

Householders might respond negatively if they were forced to pay the cost of retuning their televisions to get MTS on air, the Government was warned.

Sky spokesman Tony O'Brien said yesterday that Sky, BCL, MTS and the Ministry of Economic Development had spent months going through the regions, working out how to juggle the use of a much wider range of frequencies to tackle the interference problems.

They were making progress, but the proposal put to MTS, now before the Government, "would eliminate the interference completely", he said.

Part of the reason the Government favoured MTS working with BCL instead of CanWest - which MTS originally wanted to do a deal with - was that it was keen to keep MTS within the "public broadcasting family".

Sources said yesterday that the Government now had to balance this preference against the cost-savings and the eradication of the interference problems the new deal offered.

U.S. Intelsat sets up Asian base in Singapore-paper

From http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/newswire/2003/08/15/rtr1059533.html

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - U.S. satellite operator Intelsat Ltd has set up its Asian headquarters in Singapore and plans a listing on Wall Street in the second quarter of next year, its chief executive told The Business Times.

"Singapore is a very good place to be to serve all of Asia," Conny Kullman told the paper in an interview published on Saturday.

The city state is facing intense competition from China and India for investments and a slowing economy has raised much debate about local jobs going to foreign workers.

Intelsat, which provides satellite services to telephone, media and government customers and has annual revenues of US$1 billion, employs 850 people worldwide.

Kullman, who was in Singapore this week, said the Asia-Pacific region was important to Intelsat and contributes 18 percent to global annual revenue. Its operations for Asia used to be run from Washington D.C.

The satellite operator was set up by the U.S. government in the 1960s and was supported by scores of other countries. It was privatised in July 2001 and its largest shareholder is Lockheed Martin Corp (nyse: LMT - news - people).

Kullman said the company planned an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2004.

"The key driver is business. There's also a legislative push from the U.S. government that requires us to go for an IPO before end-2004," he said.

Intelsat is required by law to begin publicly trading its stocks in order to dilute its existing shareholders' stakes, but it has put off a listing due to poor market conditions.

TV station hijacked by Falun Gong

From http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/Weekly2003/08.12.2003/China3.htm

Falun Gong followers have commandeered the country's major television satellite station twice this week, the central government said yesterday.

Sino Satellite, known commonly as SinoSat, was "taken over by illegal TV signals" transmitted by Falun Gong at 9.05pm on Tuesday and at 8.23pm on Wednesday, the Ministry of Information Industry said.

It added that the action prevented audiences from watching programmes on China Central Television, China Education Television and 10 provincial stations.

Although Xinhua did not provide details of the material aired during the disruptions, Falun Gong - in hacking activities that began early last year - typically replaces regular fare with messages about its movement and the abuses it claims it endures.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan condemned the sabotage.

"This attack is a new crime committed by the Falun Gong cult, who violated the basic principles of civil-use communication, interfered with normal broadcasting and infringed on public interests," he said.

Representatives of the Falun Gong in the United States acknowledge the group's hacking activities and say it is the only way they can circulate their message on the mainland.

"[Falun Gong] practitioners in China have discovered a non-violent means - one that harms neither people nor equipment - to break through the information blockade and let the people see programmes that openly show the human rights violations happening in their own country," a Falun Gong spokesman said in a release that was posted on the group's website.

Dozens of Falun Gong practitioners have been jailed for hacking into television networks.

15/08/03

Not much going on today

From my Emails & ICQ

From Superfly

Indus News has changed to Indus Plus on Asiasat 3.

4115V 3331SR 3/4 FEC.

From Henry Titchen

Hi,

I tried Channel News Asia last night (14/8/03). I have a 1.8m solid. I'm in NSW, Australia.

There was a PAL and an NTSC channel. I couldn't get any audio for the vision however.
I played with settings and got a radio station instead, it sounded like Singapore International...although an Indonesian address was mentioned.

Later in the evening vision was gone...they must be testing this transponder.

Best Regards From,
Henry.

From Satellite Info

NSS6
New Channels

ESC 1 Vpid 833 Apid 835
ESC 2 Vpid 849 Apid 850
Thai TV 5 Vpid 865 Apid 866
TV Moda Vpid 881 Apid 882
Promo Vpid 897 Apid 898
MBC Europe Vpid 913 Apid 914

From Moose

NSS 6

promo has 36 pic in pic screens
educ 1 - 7
univ 1,2
horus
neteris
mostalkiller
bcw
psc
disney
stoon
set
art
art
art
art blank
n drama blank
art
art
tanweer
mtvi
adsc
e
sc
tv5
andcilus
ch5
future
dbus

(Craigs comment, these appear to be mostly Arabic perhaps for Tarb's?)

From the Dish

Optus B3 152E Aurora Tuning Info (clear), Optus Business TV 3, CentreLink and Sky Racing have started on 12407 V, Irdeto 1, SR 30000, FEC 2/3, SIDs 3301-3307,PIDs 53/54, 34/33, 37/36 and 41/38.

Palapa C2 113E 4080 H "FeMale Radio has replaced Delta FM 99.5" , Fta, APID 660.

AsiaSat 3 105.5E 3980 V "Viva Cinema" has left .

NSS 6 95E 12729 V ESC 1, ESC 2, Thai TV Global Network, TV Moda, a promo and MBC Europe have started on , Fta, PIDs 833/835, 849/850, 865/866, 881/882,897/898 and 913/914.

ST 1 88E 12642 H TTV, CTV, CTS, FTV Entertainment and PTS have left .
ST 1 88E 3582 H 16 radio channels have started, enc., SIDs 23-38, APIDs 46-79.
ST 1 88E 3582 H "TVBS" has started, enc., PIDs 38/39, time sharing with TVBS Golden.

NEWS

Foxtel and SBS Reach Digital Carriage Agreement -- FOXTEL


From Press Release

FOXTEL and SBS reach digital carriage agreement
14 August 2003

FOXTEL and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) today announced
that they have reached an agreement for the carriage of SBS's
digital television services on the planned new FOXTEL digital
platform in 2004.

The retransmission agreement will lead to the inclusion of the
primary digital SBS television service, and the digital World News
Channel, in the planned digital FOXTEL cable and satellite service.

As part of the arrangements to allow FOXTEL to retransmit SBS
services, SBS has-secured satellite capacity from Optus.

FOXTEL's Chief Executive, Mr Kim Williams, said: "SBS provides a
unique and important national public broadcasting service to
Australia and FOXTEL looks forward to helping to expand the reach
of SBS in a way that will make watching SBS and FOXTEL channels
seamless and convenient for viewers.

"SBS and its managing director, Nigel Milan, have worked openly
and constructively with FOXTEL to achieve this very positive
outcome for viewers."

SBS Managing Director, Mr Nigel Milan, said: "As a national public
broadcaster it is important that SBS's distinctive and quality
programs and services are available to as many Australians as
possible. To do this, we need to be accessible on all delivery
platforms. This agreement with FOXTEL makes it possible to do that."

"The retransmission agreement with FOXTEL will complement our
extensive analogue and digital terrestrial distribution networks
and the existing retransmission arrangements we have with other
subscription television providers Austar, Optus and TransACT."

FOXTEL is seeking to include all the open broadcasters in its
digital service and has made similar cable and satellite
retransmission offers to the ABC, the Seven Network and the Ten
Network. FOXTEL already has a digital cable and satellite
retransmission agreement with the Nine Network, and a cable-only
agreement with the ABC.

Mr Williams said: "As with SBS and the Nine Network, FOXTEL is not
seeking to recover any of its very considerable digital costs from
the open broadcasters. They need only acquire satellite capacity
from a satellite provider."

FOXTEL will retransmit the SBS primary services, which consists of
an Eastern seaboard feed and a Western Australian feed which
contains the same content as the Eastern seaboard but is broadcast
two hours later to take into account time differences. FOXTEL will
also retransmit the SBS World News Channel. SBS is committed to
working with the satellite provider to ensure that over time FOXTEL
satellite viewers have access to as much of SBS's digital
terrestrial service as possible.

FOXTEL will retransmit the SBS standard definition digital service
on both cable and satellite together with enhancements and
Interactive applications which are also available to SBS digital
terrestrial viewers, within defined bandwidth and technical
parameters.

Further information:

SBS
Keith Dalton
Corporate Communications Manager
SBS Corporation
[email protected]
(02) 9430 3899

FOXTEL
Mark Furness
Director Corporate Affairs
FOXTEL
[email protected]
(02) 9200 1733

PRESS RELEASE

Date Released: Sunday, August 10, 2003

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