29th Dec to Dec 31st Away
28/12/02
Last update of the year, and just a small one to end the year on. But first I would like to thank all those involved in using the mailing list and who are reading my site and providing updates, screenshots, visiting the chatroom etc. There would be no website if it wasn't for your contributions. A special thanks to Jamie who generously hosts us on his server at no cost!
and now for the annual Apsattv.com 2003 Predictions!.
See last years here http://www.apsattv.com/articles/2002predictions.html
Apsattv.com Annual predictions for 2003 are Here
27/12/02
Yes the sites back after a short break, not a lot to report at this time of the year though. Good to see a lot of support for ImpacTV's plans if you feedback about them good or bad send me an email for my Emails section.
ImpacTV would like to thank you for all the emails you have sent and welcome more feedback email address is
Installers and dealers please put as much contact info in the Email as possible. If you're an installer please include which regions you cover.
From my Emails & ICQ
From Glenn
We now have a few new satellites in our region ,so I'm wondering if anyone is or has scanned them for any new channels.
NSS5 - @ 183E
Jsat2a - @154E (A 2nd copy of Byu tv spotted this month 4050V 26500 3/4)
Intelsat 702 - @157E
NSS6 - Has this reached its position yet @ 95east?
With all this movement in our region now and in the new year, hopefully there may be some new and interesting channels heading our way.
(as well as Impactv of course.)
Comments?
Glenn
From Siam Global (Thailand)
To all Apsatters in Asia Pacific who can receive a reasonable signal from Panamsat 10.
I have just had an expat friend over from West Africa who at my request brought his Multichoice smart card with him. I can confirm you will be able to watch all the available channels in the bouquet using a standard Irdeto 2 enabled cam or CI.
There are two film channels with many UK films (unlike our local Dtv service which has mainly US films.) It has the UK version of Sky News and the UK Bloomberg which differs from the Asia Pacific version. In addition it has two interesting channels of S.African tv programmes. All progs are in Englishand there are around thirty altogether.
The bad news, if you want your friend to subscribe for you ( you are not pemitted to do so yourself if you live outside Africa ) is the cost. It is exactly double that of our local UBC Dtv service which has many more channels…around US$60 a month. However if you have a subscribing friend in Africa due to pay you a visit and a receiver with an Irdeto 2 enabled cam , I would definitely recommend you request him to brings over his card with him, as I spent an interesting viewing fortnight being probably the only viewer of Multichoice in the whole of S.E.Asia.
PS This is NOT hacking and if your friend watches with you, probably not even a breach of copyright Anyway, as the lawyers say : de minimus non curat lex.
From the Dish
Nothing to report
NEWS
TVSN upbeat on $3bn issue
From http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/26/1040511131589.html
Direct sales group TVSN remains upbeat about its earnings growth in 2003 after raising $3 million through a share issue.
"The results for the six months to 31 December 2002 will be released in mid February 2003 and will illustrate the progress that is being made in profitably growing the business," chief executive Rob Hunt said. "We expect this growth to continue in 2003."
Mr Hunt said the $3 million share issue had attracted interest from Foster Stockbroking and Cameron Stockbrokers. Mr Hunt also subscribed for $1 million of shares.
The ordinary shares were issued at 22c each, with one option for every four shares issued. The options have an exercise price of 22c each and a term of 18 months.
"For TVSN this is the final chapter of a very successful year," Mr Hunt said. "The purpose of this capital raising was to retire aged trade debt and to enable the company to take advantage of early settlement discounts offered by suppliers.
"The board is confident in the prospects of the business and, more broadly, the future of direct retailing in Australia."
TVSN runs infomercials, home shopping and wholesale retail operations. In August, the TVSN Channel launched on the digital satellite platform of SKY Television in New Zealand, reaching an additional 330,000 subscription customers.
TVSN revealed last month that initial trading had exceeded its expectations.
Earlier this year, TVSN merged with the Danoz Group of Companies.
TVSN's shares closed 4.5c lower at 18c on Tuesday.
BBC World celebrates World cup with cricket week
From Indiant4elevision.com
MUMBAI: It is not just sports channels that are looking to derive mileage from next year's cricket World Cup. BBC World has announced a series of programmes under the band Cricket Week between 3 and 9 February at 10 pm.
Captains Call on 3 February sees former bastman Sanjay Manjrekar speak to the Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan captains about their chances of winning in unfamiliar conditions. Young Turks the next day profiles hotshots from the three countries. India Calling on 5 February will showcase the passion and fervour with which Indians follow the game. Africa Calling on 6 February scrutinises how the continent is gearing up to host one of its biggest sporting events ever.
On 7 February, Question time India Cricket Special airs while 8 February, there will be a Fact To Face Cricket Special. On 9 February, there will be a Business India Report on the business of cricket.
The channel will also have Cricket Results Boards from 8 February to 23 March. This will keep fans up to speed on the team standings, scores, news and results. Beyond the Boundary will air on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 10 pm from 10 January to 2 February. This showcases India's proudest cricketing moments along with all time great perfomances.
(Craigs comment, Times listed are Indian time perhaps via BBC Worlds Indian service on Pas 10. The programming should also be on the usual BBC World Channel.)
25-26/12/02
Christmas Break
24/12/02
First up next site update is on the 27th
Well what a fantastic turnout in the chatroom last night! over 30 people in their at one stage. What Chaos! but great fun and what a great announcement (see below for more details). A great Christmas present to end the year with. 2003 should be the year KU band gets humming with new services. For those wondering where this news popped up from, as I have been assisting ImpacTV for the past 2 years. They chose to release this information in my chatroom last night at my request. The info they have released in my chatroom and on my site today IS NOT their official launch Press Release. Its advanced information in preparation for more detailed announcements in the new year. Your Emails on this exciting development are welcome.
ImpacTV's Email is posted below the info, currently the www.impactv.co.nz website is down it should be repaired and back up in a few days
The main details for those that couldn't make it
ImpacTV (Auckland NZ, Also Asia)
Will be Launching a 40 channel package of pay services.
1st Quarter 2003 (Tests possible late Feb)
Broadcast will cover NZ and Australia on 65cm-88cm size dishes using KU band
Satellite and Channel / programming to be Announced Later
New platform will include up to 10! New FTA Channels to promote growth of KU satellite services in the Australasia region.
ImpacTV new services Announcement Details
Further to the announcement last evening in Apsattv’s Chat room that ImpacTV Ltd a New Zealand registered satellite Pay Television Distribution Company plans to launch new multichannel Free to Air and Pay TV services to New Zealand during the first quarter of 2003.
ImpacTV has been active in satellite and cable TV since 1995 and has over this time built up very strong allegiances with Industry Satellite operators, channel providers and International programmers.
ImpacTV will provide its multichannel service on a footprint that covers both New Zealand and Australia. Reception will be on 76 to 88cm antennas within the primary footprint. The conditional access system will be Irdeto 2 with all the Free To Air broadcasts complying with DVB standards for Satellite broadcasts.
The platform will consist of up to forty separate broadcast channels using two full transponders. One transponder will be uplinked from Auckland New Zealand and will provide locally commissioned channels and channels, which are easily sourced from New Zealand.
The second uplink will be from Asia and will feature channels, which are not readily available to Australia and New Zealand. A third uplink will provide a direct link to the US at a later date. Thus providing niche American FTA and Pay channels to the platform.
It is hoped that the ImpacTV satellite platform will entice independent programmers and channel compilers that want to reach populations numbering eighteen million. It is also hoped that since ImpacTV will make available up to ten channels for free to air or pay television to independent channel providers at a very low cost so that the platform will provide a very diverse channel line up which will have great appeal to its target audiences.
Further announcements will be made as the project progresses to its launch date.
ImpacTV Ltd
[email protected]
From my Emails & ICQ
From Schippy
Star Gold is Currently FTA
Channel Name 'CH-9-06E4'
Asiasat 3 3780V 28100 3/4
From the Dish
Pas 2 169E 4040 V "FOX mux moved here" same Sr and Fec as before
Palapa C2 113E 3926 H "Bali TV" has left (unconfirmed).
PAS 10 68.5E 4125 V Occasional ESPN feeds , SR 7441, FEC 7/8.
NEWS
CNN, JCTV to launch exclusive CNNj in Japan
From indiantelevision.com
TOKYO : Japanese television viewers will be able to see their own exclusive CNN channel with the launch of CNNj in March 2003. CNN and Japan Cable television (JCTV) have teamed up to provide this unique new service tailored specifically for Japanese viewers, with hours of CNN programming never previously seen by international audiences.
An official release states that CNNj combines content from three of CNN's award-winning networks: CNN/US, CNNfn and CNN International. This new channel, made possible because of JCTV's longstanding partnership with CNN for nearly 20 years, also comprises increased Japanese languaging of news and feature programmes.
President, CNN International Networks Chris Cramer said, "Thanks to the strong support of our long-time partner, JCTV we have been able to take this important initiative in Japan, the largest market for CNN in Asia. By making this strategic investment to create a unique CNN channel we are proving our commitment to cater to the specific viewing preferences of Japanese audiences."
JCTV continues to be the exclusive distribution partner of CNN in Japan and will increase its hours of Japanese translation by seven hours a week, to a total of 126 hours per week. During times of major breaking news JCTV will further increase its bilingual service to translate the breaking news as it happens.
The release states that CNNj is CNN International's seventh regionalised feed and offers a new schedule exclusively created for Japanese audiences based on audience feedback and market research.
The new channel will be a combination of popular US news programmes including American Morning with Paula Zahn and Connie Chung plus international and regional news, business and feature programming.
JCTV and CNN have had a strong business partnership since CNN became available in Japan in 1982, the first country outside the U.S to distribute CNN. CNN is currently available via Sky PerfecTV!, Sky PerfecTV!2 and cable to four million households and 100,000 hotel rooms, the release says.
JCTV is an affiliate of Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi. In 1971 it stared as the first English language cable TV station in Japan.
All Channels Will Go Free To Air: Sushma
From http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=24448
New Delhi: All pay television channels are likely to gradually turn into free-to-air broadcasters once conditional access system (CAS) is implemented, according to Information & Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj. And, when pay channels become free-to-air, there won’t be any need for CAS any longer, the minister told eFE. Significantly, this is for the first time that the minister is on record on the transition of channels, from pay to free-to-air regime.
On whether there were any plans to make the Indian TV broadcasting market either subscription-based or advertising-based, Ms Swaraj said so far there was no such move. There are some countries, which follow one-source revenue model, though.
The fact that Star India recently cut its cable subscription rates for its bouquet of channels, is an indicator that gradually pay channels will opt for only ad-based revenue model, the minister said. Although Star’s rate cuts had riders attached (rates will be cut proportionate to the increase in subscriber number declaration), it sent out a signal to the industry.
Ultimately, broadcasters will want credibility, viewership and revenues, which will be possible only if pay channels turn free-to-air under CAS, the minister said. Under CAS, viewers will have access to pay channels only through set-top box, and will be able to watch the channels of their choice and pay for only them. For free-to-air channels, however, viewers don’t need set-top box. Also, a monthly fee will be fixed by the government, most likely at a sub-Rs 100 level, for around 25 to 30 free-to-air channels.
As CAS is likely to restrict pay channels’ entry into cable homes, it might make sense for broadcasters to opt for only ad revenues. So far, the ratio between ad revenues and subscription revenues in the industry is at around 80:20. Overall, revenues in the Indian television industry stand at around Rs 5,000 crore.
But, as a recent research points out, even if all channels go free-to-air, there will still be a limitation on how many one can watch. For, under CAS, there will be a cap on the number of free-to-air channels.
(Craigs comment, more FTA Indians? but don't get to excited a new generation of satellites are up there with KU spot beams fixed on India many may have to shift off Cband to to copyright issues and satellite footprint coverage area issues)
Prasar Bharati for KU band transmission in NE India
From indiantelevision.com
NEW DELHI: The Prasar Bharati Corp, overseeing the functioning of India's pubcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio, has sought the government's approval to start KU-band transmission for remote areas, starting with the north-eastern part of the country.
If this proposal is given the go-ahead, DD may well be the first one to start a DTH service in the country; though with a difference: the service will not be as costly as normal DTH services are round the globe.
According to officials in India's information and broadcasting ministry, Prasar Bharati wants to start Ku-band transmission in N-E India to bring on to the television map remote areas of the country where normal terrestrial or cable TV services are unable to penetrate.
The officials pointed out that Prasar Bharati-government talks are on to see the feasibility of such a project as a major part of the funding is likely to come from the government.
Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati has started C-band cable transmissions in certain parts of N-E India in a bid to take DD and other private satellite channels to places where its terrestrial services are not available as also to counter cross-border propaganda by some neighbouring countries. Certain states and cities in N-E India are open to TV propaganda material from countries like China, Myanmar and Bhutan.
But the official was quick to point out that such a KU-band service should not be construed as a full-fledged DTH service.
At one time, Prasar Bharati was also in talks with the partly government owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and state-controlled Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, running telecom networks in Delhi and Mumbai, to jointly put together a proper DTH platform. But the talks did not make much headway owing to the huge investment that is needed for a DTH service and related infrastructure to man it.
DD to telecast live 16 World Cup matches
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/07231806.htm
New Delhi, Dec. 23. (PTI): Sixteen matches including those involving India at the February-March cricket World Cup will be telecast live on Doordarshan's National Channel.
Following a three-way agreement signed between the worldwide rights holder Global Cricket Corporation, Prasar Bharati and Nimbus Communications Limited, Doordarshan will telecast all the matches involving India in the pool and super six stage (maximum nine).
Besides, the channel will telecast live the tournament opener between South Africa and West Indies, on February 9, Pakistan vs England tie on February 22, two super six stage matches as also both the semifinals and the final.
The channel will telecast everyday a one-hour higlights package throughout the 43-day tournament, according to a media release issued by Nimbus here today.
BIS yet to provide tech specs for DTH
From indiantelevision.com
NEW DELHI: It's a classic case of so near, yet so far.
The debate over open architecture set top boxes continues even as broadcasters twiddle their thumbs. KU-band direct-to-home (DTH) television service in India is likely take some more time before taking off. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which has been mandated to come up with technical specifications for the set-top-boxes (STBs) for DTH, may complete its work only by the end of February 2003.
A senior official of India's information and broadcasting ministry told indiantelevision.com today that BIS generally takes about 60 days for such issues under a procedure and the final process is yet to start.
"The BIS was asked by the government earlier this year to look into the various technical aspects of STBs for DTH, including the fact whether an open architecture is possible or not. We think that BIS will take 60 days to finalise the issue and the specifications may be conveyed to the government only towards the end of February," the official pointed out.
Though government officials in the ministry are of the opinion that open architecture STBs is a possibility, some people in the BIS feel to the contrary. A senior BIS official told indiantelevision.com reluctantly, quite content to be vague, that the issue of open architecture is a contentious one and needs to be looked into thoroughly.
Certain circles feel that the BIS probably wants to say that for DTH there cannot be an open architecture, but still is unable to articulate it properly.
From the time the DTH guidelines were announced by the government in November 2000, policymakers and broadcasters, interested in starting a DTH service in India, have been at loggerheads over the open architecture issue. Government's stand has been that such a thing is possible; whereas broadcasters' have held the view that nowhere in the world does open architecture prevail for DTH.
When confronted with this information, the ministry official, however, admitted that "BIS has also not indicated to us that open architecture is not possible."
The official further pointed out: "BIS may have some reservation on the issue, but during our talks it has indicated in a limited way that it may be made possible through technology."
As BIS finally gets down to grapple with the situation, a small hitch has cropped up in the meanwhile which, the ministry official said, may have also contributed to the delay. Until now BIS, which is again part of the Indian government, had been playing the advisory role in various technical aspects relating to broadcasting free of cost. But now the board of the BIS feels that such services should be paid for. "So, we have asked the BIS that it should go ahead with finalising the specifications regarding DTH boxes and the issue of payment for the advisory service can be settled also as part of an intra-governmental affair," the official explained.
In two years' time since the DTH guidelines had been announced, only two companies have applied for a DTH licence. This includes Star's affiliate Space TV and Subhash Chandra's ASC Enterprises Ltd.
23/12/02
Live chat is tonight rather than Tuesday, please all show up for the final chat of the year. A special announcement about FTA satellite will be made, hopefully my guest will show up. Starts usual time 9pm NZ and 8.30pm Syd time onwards announcement will wait untill a reasonable amount of people are in and there should be a follow up item about it tommorow on here.
The Sky installer came and I now have a 2nd Sky decoder run into my bedroom that should mean I no longer have to steal the main decoder from the lounge when I want to watch the cricket. The guy did a very good job and was quite interested in the other services I could recieve. He also agreed the $200 for 2nd decoder was a scam fee and that the figure didn't compute but like he said there is no competition so Sky gets away with it. He said he could of plugged into my existing dish (the one i use for Tv1/2 feeds etc on b1 with Nokia) he said either way he still had to charge $200. So I got him to wire it to the other Sky dish on the roof. I got the latest Motrolla decoder which is much better than the Zeniths and pace units. I also got a full set of leads Scart to scart, Scart to rca, RF and Svideo leads as well!
Satfacts section has been updated
From my Emails & ICQ
From Nick Sat
Hello Craig,
In response to Peter's question on 17-12-02 regarding reception of Mac TV up on the N coast of NT,I tuned into it here in Brisbane using a 2.3mt solid dish at 4.45pm on Sun.22-12-02 signal approx 60% on Hyundai and Nokia. Palapa C2 113*E,3916H, SR 2900, 3/4, Vpid 33, Apid 34. I have not tried a Humax at this stage. I hope this info. helps Peter.
Best wishes to you and all your readers,
Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year,
Nick.
From the Dish
Intelsat 701 180E 10975 H "Star Academy" has left , replaced by an info card.
Palapa C2 113E 4080 H "Kantor Berita Radio" has replaced MTV on Sky 101.6 FM on , Fta,APID 662.
Palapa C2 113E 11132 V "CTV has replaced TTV" Fta, PIDs 74/75.
Palapa C2 113E 11152 V New PIDs for MAC TV on : 33/34.
Koreasat 2 113E 12370 H "Quizup Interactive TV" has started , Fta, PIDs 1060/1020.
Koreasat 2 113E 12706 H "Dizzo TV" has started on , Fta, SR 3000, FEC 3/4, PIDs 4194/4195.
Koreasat 2 113E 12370 H "MCN Drama has replaced KCN", Fta, PIDs 1860/1820.It's MCN Movie on PIDs 502/550.
AAP 1 108.2E 12471 H The SkyLife mux has left again.
NEWS
Austar unveils new local backer
From http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/22/1040510964889.html
In a boost to the pay TV industry, the loss-making regional operator Austar United Communications has moved to cut itself free of its troubled US parent company, UnitedGlobalCom.
Austar yesterday introduced a new Australian investor to buy out holders of junk bonds issued by UnitedGlobalCom (UGC), a US cable television operator.
A successful deal would be a further fillip for Australia's pay TV industry after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved a Foxtel/Optus programming deal last month.
The Sydney-based development capitalist Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners (CHAMP) plans to pay out bond holders in an upstream company owned by UGC, Austar's 80.7 per cent shareholder, in return for some of the Austar equity. In all, CHAMP could invest up to $130 million in Austar, according to CHAMP's chairman Bill Ferris, and finish with an effective interest of 40 per cent or more in the regional pay TV operator.
"The ACCC's deliberations create a chance for the sector to be profitable and have the strong penetration rate it enjoys elsewhere in the world," Mr Ferris said.
CHAMP is best known for its private equity funding role in management buyouts of some old-economy companies, including former ANI engineering subsidiary Bradken. Asked if Austar was one of the riskier deals CHAMP had been involved in, Mr Ferris said: "It's up there with the best of them. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
In a complex deal, CHAMP has offered the bond holders in UGC's subsidiary United Australia Pacific $US34.5 million ($A61 million) by sponsoring a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganisation filed in the New York Bankruptcy Court over the weekend.
While the offer to bond-holder creditors is a mere 7 per cent of the face value of the bonds (that is, almost $US500 million), Mr Ferris said they had recommended the plan. Under the court's timetable, it will take until the end of February to finalise the deal.
To satisfy the ACCC that Austar is looking after the minority shareholders, they will be offered 17 cents a share in a "follow-on" offer in which UGC may also buy shares. This is effectively the same figure being offered to the bond holders, who indirectly control Austar shares as security for the bonds, and the same as the last traded price on the Australian Stock Exchange.
CHAMP and UGC will also jointly underwrite a $63.5 million rights issue if the follow-on offer is not taken up (that is, if Austar is not privatised), with the proceeds earmarked as working capital. Mr Ferris said Austar could be floated again in the future to enable CHAMP to exit, but "we will worry about that down the track".
"If the company's successful, you never have to worry about how you get out," Mr Ferris said. "If it's unsuccessful, somebody usually works it out for you."
Austar has 408,000 pay television subscribers of a total of about 1.5 million in Australia, 25,000 mobile telephony subscribers and 55,000 Internet customers.
Austar's chief executive John Porter was reluctant to say when Austar would turn a profit, but, based on recent trends, the company was "pretty close".
Last month, Austar, which restructured its lending arrangements earlier this year after breaching lending covenants, disclosed a third-quarter operating loss of $21.1 million, a 58 per cent rise on the previous quarter. But Austar saw an improvement in quarterly earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation to $6.4 million, although drought and price rises had reduced subscriber numbers.
Austar reaches endgame
From http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5725345%255E643,00.html
AUSTRALIA'S second-biggest pay-TV company, rural and regional operator Austar, will be taken back into private ownership under a restructuring that will pay investors just 17c a share a crushing 96 per cent below the float price three years ago.
Sydney private equity firm Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners (CHAMP) half-owned by Wall Street investment giant Castle Harlan revealed at the weekend it had pounced on the collapse of Austar parent United Australia Pacific.
CHAMP is offering UAP bondholders $US34.5 million ($62.7 million) about 7c in the dollar to relinquish their loans to the company, currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings in the US.
If the complicated offer is accepted, the private equity group would share control of an 80.7 per cent stake in Austar with UnitedGlobalCom, a company controlled by billionaire US cable mogul John Malone.
CHAMP director David Jones told The Australian yesterday that the private equity group would have the biggest single shareholding in Austar "but that may be less than 50 per cent".
"That's why we're putting in place an arrangement with UGC where we will jointly appoint the same number of directors to the Austar board."
Under Australian law, however, they will be forced to make an offer for the balance of Austar shares, which are held by investors who have bought into the company since its float in July 1999.
Under the terms of the bond restructuring, Austar shareholders will be offered 17c a share in line with the last closing price of the stock on the Australian Stock Exchange on Friday.
That is a bitter blow for many Austar shareholders who bought into the company at $4.70 a share when it listed after a heavily oversubscribed float in July 1999.
The float raised $463 million for the company after costs, and the shares quickly climbed to a peak of $9.65 in March 2000, the height of the tech boom. At its zenith, the loss-making company was worth about $4.6 billion the same as Brambles or Lend Lease today. On Friday Austar was worth just $121 million.
The offer is expected in March 2003. If it was not fully taken up, CHAMP and UGC said, they would back a rights issue to raise $63.5 million in working capital for the group.
As well as a loss of confidence caused by the US bonds collapse, Austar has been burdened by the costs of digitalising its regional network and the uncertainty surrounding the program-sharing deal between Optus and Foxtel.
Austar has about 400,000 subscribers spread across Hobart, Darwin and country Australia. Foxtel, which serves the cities, has about 800,000, with Optus in third place with 250,000.
But Austar is carrying debts of $400 million and has only just become cash-flow positive, reporting earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation of $6.4 million for the nine months to June 30.
Yesterday Austar was putting a brave face on the news of the effective takeover.
Chief executive officer John Porter, who will remain in the role after the deal is complete, said he was "delighted" to have CHAMP on board.
"We welcome the support of our business by both UGC and a new group of highly motivated and astute investors," he said. Mr Jones says the major problems for Austar are behind it now and the company will benefit from local input.
CHAMP manages or advises more than $800 million in private equity in Australia, where it specialises in leveraged and management buyouts.
iPSTAR in 2003: Reaching for the Stars Will Deploy 18 Gateways in Asia-Pacific after its First year Service
Thai satellite company Shin Satellite pcl (ShinSat) said it would deploy 18 gateways for its iPSTAR-1 broadband Internet satellite to be launched in late 2003.
The gateways will be located in 14 Asian countries, including Thailand, said ShinSat. These countries include Vietnam, Myanmar, India, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Cambodia. ShinSat also announced that its first generation iPSTAR satellite-based broadband services, using the new iPSTAR ground system technology with existing satellites, marked the first year of service deployment in Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, India and a number of other Asian countries.
ShinSat claims that iPSTAR technology is considered the world's most efficient and cost effective because of its low cost, high bandwidth user terminal, and bandwidth improvement over other current technologies. iPSTAR-1 will have a massive bandwidth capacity of 45 Gbps, almost equivalent to all satellites serving Asia today. ShinSat said iPSTAR-1 will offer lower costs for both user terminals and bandwidth, and a larger bandwidth capacity allowing it to serve mass broadband markets with competitive products.
ShinSat Executive Chairman Dr. Dumrong Kasemset said the company is now the world's pioneer in creating a truly integrated solution for satellite broadband. “These allow us to create technical and commercial synergy from the integration of gateways, terminals, satellite bandwidth and applications, which is a tremendous step forward for our industry in commercializing new advanced technology and providing end-to-end service to benefit customers. Moreover, iPSTAR is the only broadband satellite program in such advanced stage of development in technology, financing, and commercialization. We see great potentials in satellite-based broadband services made possible by iPSTAR technology and satellite.”
iPSTAR-1 is expected to be the main source of company's revenues and will become the fourth ShinSat bird in orbit. ShinSat claims to have already booked over a quarter of iPSTAR's capacity with partners in Malaysia, China and India. Just recently, ShinSat secured US$390.2 million in loans from U.S. and European creditors to finance iPSTAR. The U.S. Export-Import Bank will guarantee a US$184.5 million, eight-year loan while Coface (Compagnie Francaise d'Assurance pour le Commerce Extrieur), the French export-credit guarantee company, will stand behind a US$80.7 million loan, also for eight-years. Eight commercial syndicated lenders led by Citibank and BNP Paribas S.A. will guarantee the remaining US$125 million four-year loan.
The Eximbank loan will pay for the cost of satellite construction by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L). SS/L is an affiliate of Loral Space & Communications, the world's second largest manufacturer of commercial satellites and related technologies. The funds from Coface follow ShinSat's selection of France's Arianespace to launch iPSTAR. In April, ShinSat announced that Coface had agreed to cover up to 85 percent of the US$90 million launch service fee for its iPSTAR-1. Analysts said the interest rates on the loans rates are almost similar to those offered by commercial banks to governments.
iPSTAR-1 will have a capacity of 40 gigabytes per second to gateways in the Asia-Pacific covering China, Japan, India and Australia. It will provide telecommunications and multimedia services to households, business and public organizations. Individual households will have access to a wide variety of pay TV and VOD services, IP voice telephony and high-speed Internet connections. ShinSat earlier said iPSTAR-1 would focus on business and high-end Internet customers. It said the satellite would benefit clients who want fast Internet access and who live in remote areas. An installation package will cost US$700-900 with a monthly service charge ranging from US$30-60.
Govt Mulls Opening Ku Band For Broadcast
From http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=24391
New Delhi: After lifting the ban on Ku band for direct-to-home (DTH) television, the government is examining the proposal to allow Ku band uplinking for all TV broadcasting, according to information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj. This is in response to representations made by a group of teleport owners and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the minister said.
So far, broadcasters, other than for DTH, can uplink only through C-band in India. This is in direct conflict with the government policy of promoting India as an uplinking hub. Ever since India liberalised its uplinking norms, allowing companies with up to 49 per cent of foreign equity to set up teleports, companies have been queuing up for the same. These companies are eyeing lucrative business, through leasing out of their teleports to interested parties. But, because many of the satellite companies such as Eutelsat offer only Ku band facility, uplinking through only C band is seen as a major hindrance in the teleport business.
As Ku band broadcasting was considered a security threat, which is the main reason for imposing the ban on it for several years, the government is consulting other ministries such as Home Affairs, before taking a decision on the issue.
Already, 16 teleports have come up in India ever since the uplinking policy was liberalised in 2000.
But even as ban on Ku band was lifted to allow DTH broadcasting two years ago, the prohibition on the band continues for uplinking of TV channels (other than for DTH).
According to the uplinking guidelines, teleport licensees can uplink to both Indian and foreign satellites. However, the norms clearly state that uplinking will be allowed only through C-band.
The eligibility criteria for a broadcaster setting up earth station for uplinking its own TV channel are different. Any TV channel, irrespective of its ownership, equity structure or management control aimed at Indian viewership can uplink from the country.
Sahara to air news channels in 2 mths
From http://www.business-standard.com/today/story.asp?Menu=2&story=4425
Sahara Television, a part of the Subroto Roy-promoted Sahara group, is set to roll out the first of its 30-odd news channels within the next two months.
The company has already finalised a phased launch of its channels over the next few months but its flagship national news channel and a regional channel catering to the Uttar Pradesh region will be launched first.
This will be followed by the immediate launch of the channels catering to the national capital region (NCR), Mumbai and the channels dedicated to Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
The national news channels will have the brand name Sahara Samay, while the regional channels will also include the regional name along with the main brand.
*ll the proposed news channels as well as the general entertainment channel of Sahara TV will be free-to-air but we would leverage on the vast untapped regional advertising market which will be the mainstay of our business model,” said Prriya Raj, vice-president, Sahara Television.
?We would be leveraging our vast network of over 1600 V-SATs deployed all over the country to be the best in the business of providing news and information with a strong flavour of local news. This V-SAT network could probably be the biggest for any broadcasting company in Asia,” Raj added.
The company has already deployed more than 1300 V-SATs all over the country and the rest are set to be deployed shortly.
The company has already started conducting trial runs for its two channels to and the rollout is expected to be after all preliminary glitches are ironed out.
The company has already tapped cable operators and provided them with the necessary reception equipment required to access the digital news channels that would be beamed from Asiasat 3S satellite.
The equipment which is essentially set top boxes have been provided to the operators through various financial schemes.
Sahara Television had announced its plan to launch its news channel way back in 2000 has reworked its plans over the past couple of years owing to the drastic changes that the media and broadcasting industry underwent.
T S I C H A N N E L N E W S - Number 51/2002 22 December 2002 -
A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by TELE-satellite International
Editor: Branislav Pekic
Edited Apsattv.com Edition
A S I A
ASTRO TO ADD THREE NEW CHANNELS
Subscribers to satellite broadcaster Astro can look forward to three new
24-hour channels showcasing Asian productions from January 1. Prima
(available on Channel 8), which is part of the Astro Favourites package,
offers drama series from the region in addition to eight films and, with
the exception of Indonesian titles, all other productions screened on Astro
Prima will carry Bahasa Malaysia subtitles. Besides plans to introduce the
increasingly popular telenovellas from the Spanish-speaking world, Astro
Prima will also screen a variety of classic Malay favourites - sitcoms,
lifestyle and religious documentaries, travelogues, TV magazines, musicals
or variety shows and local English news. Fans of Chinese dramas will be
interested in Shuang Xing, or the "Twin Stars" channels (37 and 38) that
will showcase the best serials from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong China
and Singapore. These two channels will broadcast an average of four new
titles offering about 100 viewing hours (or 100 episodes) a month. All
non-Mandarin titles on the Shuang Xing channels will carry Mandarin
subtitles, and where available, with the dual language track facility that
gives viewers the option of either viewing the serial in its original
language or switching to a Mandarin-dubbed version. However, these two
channels will come under Astro's Dynasty Package, with subscribers offered
a Chinese New Year rate of RM15 from now until February 28, 2003, following
which it will be RM20.
AFGHANISTAN
CABLE BAN PROVOKES PROTESTS
The Supreme Court in a decree has ordered the authorities of Nangarhar
Province to immediately stop cable TV network, which shows Indian films in
addition to news and entertainment programmes. The Supreme Court decree
says: "The programmes and channels containing dances and nudity are
prohibited in Kabul. Similarly they should be banned in Nangarhar Province
too. Indian and other films containing dances are run in Nangarhar, which
is a key province of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. People
of Nangarhar should also abstain from such things since they are against
Islam and jihad. Nangarhar Radio and Television should broadcast such
programmes, which should not harm people's ethics and should be according
to the culture and traditions of the people" The decree also says that:
"The cable should immediately be banned in Nangarhar Province". A cable
network named "Afghan Cable Centre" in Jalalabad City was providing foreign
channels to the residents of the city. The head of that cable network Eng
Mohammad Homayun has declared that they charged 1,000 Pakistani rupees for
initial membership and their members had to pay 200 Pakistani rupees for
the monthly line rental. The cable network provided 20 entertainment, news
and film channels and had over 600 subscribers.
AUSTRALIA
PAY-TV PROBLEMS DISCUSSED
The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) on December 20 released a
discussion paper on pay-TV content rules, with a focus on the industry's
issues with the regulations. The pay-TV sector has lodged a series of
complaints that it is unable to comply with the rules, set down in 1999,
which require operators to spend at least 10 per cent of their total
programming budgets on new Australian drama. Pay-TV operators are more than
$8 million behind the required amount of expenditure despite increasing
their locally produced film and television drama. Authority chairman David
Flint said the review would look at the impact of content regulations on
the operators and any problems they encountered in meeting them. The
authority said since the content regulations were brought in, more than
$45.7 million had been injected into the domestic production industry.
Submissions to the discussion paper must be with the ABA by February 7.
CANWEST TO RECEIVE DIVIDEND FROM NETWORK TEN
CanWest Global Communications announced on December 20 that its Australian
TV operation, Network TEN, has declared an interim dividend from earnings
during the period from September 1, 2002 to December 20, 2002. The
distribution to CanWest, to be paid December 27, 2002, will be
approximately Cdn. $30 million. CanWest, owner of the Global Television
Network, and now Canada's largest publisher of daily newspapers, owns,
operates and/or holds substantial interests in newspapers, conventional
television, out-of-home advertising, specialty cable channels, radio
networks and Internet portals in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland
and the United Kingdom.
CHINA HONG KONG
NEWS CORP SIGNS TV DEAL WITH HUNAN BROADCASTING
Rupert Murdoch's The News Corporation is to sign a cooperative agreement
with a state-owned Chinese provincial broadcaster to make television
programs, according to state press reports. The deal between The News
Corporation's Star Group and the Hunan Broadcasting Corp has been signed in
Beijing and the two companies would jointly produce and exchange
programming and develop other areas of cooperation.
ONE BILLION TV VIEWERS IN CHINA
China has 1.1 billion TV viewers according to a new survey carried of by
public broadcaster Chinese Central Television (CCTV). The survey revealed
that 96 per cent of all Chinese homes have colour television sets. Overall
in China there are 343 million colour sets and 195 million black and white.
Most urban viewers can choose up to 24 channels.
INDIA
REALITY TV SIGNS CARRIAGE DEAL
Zone Vision's docusoap and factual channel Reality TV is to launch in
India, after a carriage deal with channel distribution conglomerate
Zee-Turner. This new deal increases the channel’s reach by 10 million
subscribers, making a current total of 27 million subscribers across five
continents. Launching across the massive territory in February, the deal
could pave the way for the roll-out of Zone Vision channels across Asia.
HARMONIC HELPS SUN TV DOUBLE CHANNEL CAPACITY
Indian-based broadcaster Sun TV has deployed Harmonic's industry leading
MPEG-2 video encoders and statistical multiplexers for an extensive headend
upgrade. Harmonic's DVB compliant systems enabled Sun TV's satellite
network to carry twice as many digital channels with bandwidth available
for future channel expansion. Sun TV uses its own satellite transponder to
distribute channels from its headend facility in Chennai to regional cable
headends throughout Southern India. As a result, an estimated 1.5 million
cable subscribers are able to receive Sun TV programming. Sun TV is the
flagship company of Sun Network. It was the first regional channel from
India to be distributed globally for the Tamil speaking population.
Internet - www.sunnetwork.org
www.harmonicinc.com
CARTOON AND TCM TO LAUNCH ON CABLE
Local viewers will have the chance to see cartoons and classic movies from
the Cartoon Network and TCM (Turner Classic Movies), both from the Turner
Broadcasting System, Inc., on cable starting on January 1 next year. CSTV
Inc., which has been broadcasting AOL Time Warner's news channel CNN here,
will be the local distributor. Launched in the Asia-Pacific region in 1994,
the Cartoon Network has provided a range of animated entertainment,
including the world's largest cartoon library with Warner Bros., MGM and
Hanna-Barbera titles. TCM is the classic film network that celebrates some
of the finest moments in Hollywood's Golden Age.
http://www.aoltimewarner.com
GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS REGULATORY AGENCY
In a bid to regulate the content doled out by various television channels,
the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) is considering setting up
an independent Broadcasting Regulatory Authority (BRA). This proposal was
put forward by the I&B Minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj, at a meeting of the
Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament attached to the I&B
Ministry. The members of the committee supported the setting up of a
regulatory authority. They felt that this was necessary to address the
concerns of public order and decency, preservation of cultural diversity,
prevention of excessive depiction of sex and violence, national security,
integrity and sovereignty of the country and protection of children from
undesirable programmes and advertisements.
CABLE OPERATORS TO BOYCOTT ZEE-TURNER CHANNELS
Cable operators in Tamil Nadu have decided to boycott transmission of all
channels in Zee-Turner bouquet in the next two weeks. This follows an
announcement by these channels of a tariff hike in urban and semi-urban
markets, from 1 January 2003. Tamil Nadu Cable Operators General Welfare
Association, which has 20,000 members, accounts for 90 per cent of the
cable operators in the State. Zee-Turner combine had hiked price by Rs8 to
Rs42 per subscriber. The bouquet includes Zee, Zee News, Zee Cinema, Zee
English, Zee MGM, Cartoon Network, CNN, Nickelodeon and Alpha channels.
DOORDARSHAN PLANS TO LAUNCH DTT IN JANUARY
Doordarshan (DD) is planning a market roll-out of DTT in metro markets
around January. Viewers will have to shell out anything from Rs 6,000-7,000
for a DTT set-top box, but will only receive 5 DD channels. Although DD had
earlier planned to include private channels in DTT, now it is planning to
go on its own.
JAPAN
TV ASAHI TAKES OVER TELETEXT BROADCASTER
Asahi National Broadcasting Co (TV Asahi) said on December 12 it will
convert Asahi Lettervision, a teletext broadcasting company, into a wholly
owned subsidiary by the end of this year. TV Asahi currently holds a 35 per
cent equity stake in Asahi Lettervision and will buy the remainder of
issued shares from other stockholders, such as Asahi Shimbun Publishing Co
and Toei Co. The move is intended to streamline operations within the TV
Asahi group to prepare for a complete shift in Japan's terrestrial
broadcasting from analogue to digital in 2011.
NEW ZEALAND
GOVERNMENT DENIES SALE OF TVNZ TRANSMISSION ARM
The Government gave an assurance on December 19 it would not sell the
transmission arm of TVNZ when it is split from the company. Broadcasting
Minister Steve Maharey announced that TVNZ would become a crown company and
Transmission Holdings would be turned into a separate state-owned
enterprise under legislation now before Parliament. To do that it will have
the change the legislation, because as it was originally drafted the two
arms would be separate but report to a single parent board. The Government
said the main reason was to ensure transparency and accountability, but
critics of the change have suggested it might be setting up the
transmission arm for a sale. Mr Maharey said today that was not the case.
22/12/02
No update Sundays
21/12/02
Hamara TV is starting , Yes this Indian service mentioned a few months ago will be via Optus B3, Adhoc channel in the Globecast mux.The service will be running 15 minutes per day Monday to Saturday and 45 minutes on Sunday.
The Broadcast time is Monday to Saturday is 9:30 PM to 9:45 PM..And Sundays 7 PM to 7:45 PM
Telcast are after installers for HRT Croatia on Optus B3 Globecast platform, they will have to provide the full kit, including a set-top box suitable for Globecast B3 platform with Irdeto.
They are also able to provide the smartcard only for those people who already have a satellite installed or who would like to be third party sellers of their product...
The number to call is 1300 13 10 12.
Website is www.telcast.com.au
From my Emails & ICQ
Nothing to report
From the Dish
Intelsat 701 180E 10975 H "Canal + Jaune" has started , Mediaguard, PIDs 164/96.
Apstar 2R 76.5E 3848 H "TVB Xing He Channel" is encrypted again.
Palapa C2 113E All channels in the Trueworld mux on 11132 V are now in clear.CCTV 1 has left this mux. TTV has replaced HotSat TV on PIDs 74/75.
AAP 1 108.2E A SkyLife mux has started on 12471 H, clear, SR 27500, FEC 3/4,
PIDs 1808/1809-1984/1985, NE Asian beam, line-up: Ghem TV, EBS Plus 1,Real Estate TV Network, Movie Plus, PBC TV, Dong Ah TV, Food Channel, Home CGV, KTV, Arirang TV Korea, Star Sports and Disney Channel Asia.
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3551 H "ATV (Turkey)" has started, Fta, PIDs 1281/1282.
PAS 10 68.5E 3808 V "Ten Sports Middle East" has started, Irdeto 2, PIDs 50/52.
NEWS
The Republic of Korea Selects Alcatel Space as a Successful Bidder to Build Koreasat 5 Satellite
From Press Release
Paris, December 19, 2002 Alcatel Space announced today that it has won the international request for proposals issued by KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom) and the Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) to build South Korea's Koreasat 5 civil and military communications satellite. Alcatel Space will supply both the multimission satellite and its ground control system.
Based on the new-generation Spacebus 4000 platform, Koreasat 5 will feature a state-of-the-art broadband payload, including new technologies developed within the scope of the Syracuse III program.
Announcing this selection, Alcatel Space's Chairman and CEO Pascale Sourisse said, "I am extremely proud that Alcatel Space has been chosen by KT Corporation and the Agency for Defense Development for the Koreasat 5 program. This contract also marks another success for our export sales & marketing teams. In addition, it confirms Alcatel Space's leading role as a supplier of both civil and military spaceborne communications systems."
About Alcatel Space
Alcatel Space is worldwide number 3 and European leader in satellites. With civil and military application know-how, Alcatel Space develops satellite solutions for telecommunications, navigation, radar and optical observation, meteorology, and sciences. The company is also the leading European prime contractor of earth observation, meteorology and navigation segments, and for operating space systems. A 100% subsidiary of Alcatel, Alcatel Space had a turnover of 1.4 billion euros in 2001. For further information: http://www.alcatel.com/space.
About Alcatel
Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) designs, develops and builds innovative, competitive communications networks used by operators, service providers and companies to provide all content (voice, data or multimedia) to all customers throughout the world. Using the complete portfolio of solutions ranging from optical infrastructures to fixed and mobile networks and broadband access, Alcatel customers can devote themselves to optimizing their service offers and sources of revenue. With a turnover of 25 billion euros in 2001, Alcatel is present in more than 130 countries.
Contact [email protected]
2 Sahara news channels on course for Feb launch
From indiantelevision.com
The Subroto Roy-promoted diversified Sahara group has targeted the launch of the first two of its proposed 30-odd region-specific news channels - a national and one for Uttar Pradesh - for February 2003.
Subsequently, between February and June 2003, some of the other proposed news channels too are slated to be launched in a phased manner . This is Sahara's bid to tap the "vast non-urban advertising market."
The news channels will be launched under the brand name Sahara Samay and each channel will carry the tag of the region it is targeting.
"The work on the first two channels is progressing very well and is at an advanced stage. So much so that dry runs and other trials started recently," Sumit Roy, deputy director in Sahara and head of the group's media & entertainment business told indiantelevision.com in an exclusive interview.
While steadfastly refusing to divulge any financial details or the investments made in the news channels project, Roy also brushed aside accusations that this project has got mired in delays and controversies.
"The delays are all perceived delays. We made a definitive announcement only earlier this year and are launching the news channels in 2003. If you say a few months is a big delay for a project of this big scale, then we don't have much to say. Because not everything was in our hands and despite the best efforts from our side, other factors contributed to what the media is perceiving as delays," Roy explained.
Still, it is true that Sahara's earlier plan to launch just one news channel underwent several changes since 2000 when Subroto Roy first held a press conference in Delhi to announce the group's big plans in the broadcasting sector.
Points out Sumit Roy, "This is a dynamic market and our plans did undergo some change, thanks to the vision of our managing worker (Subroto Roy). I'd say, it is better to be slightly late rather than put up a bad show in a hurry."
According to him, after the first two launches, the other region-specific channels which have been lined up for debut include Sahara Samay Mumbai (which will also include part of Gujarat), Sahara Samay meant for the National Capital Region (NCR-comprising Delhi and surrounding areas) and the ones meant for Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Roy also points out that the process of seeding the market with set-top boxes, which would be needed by cable operators to access the digital news channels that would be beamed from Asiasat 3S satellite, has started.
"For the news channel meant for Uttar Pradesh we'll be having some 1000-odd STBs, while for the national news channel about 5,000 boxes will be distributed in the first phase," Roy said, adding, " We are not giving the boxes free, but various schemes are being worked out so that the STBs don't add to the existing financial burden of the cable operators."
Dwelling on the positioning and branding of the news channels, Roy said that the USP of the news channels would be content and high-speed newsgathering, courtesy the vast V-SATS network, probably the "biggest network of news bureaus in the country", coupled with state-of-the-art technology.
"Our aim is very clear that we will give news of local flavour (depending on the various regions of the country) at international standards, standards which will compare with the likes of CNN and BBC," Roy said.
On the tech front, the group plans to utilise six Silicon Graphics (SGI) Onyx2 high-performance visualisation systems with SGI InfiniteReality3 graphics engines and Graphics-to-Video-Output and SGI XT-DIVO digital video options. Translated, this implies that the combined Onyx2 and Vizrt solutions will enable Sahara to deliver visually exciting broadcast graphics and virtual set technology for news, weather and sports.
According to Roy, all the proposed news channels, as also the existing general entertainment channel Sahara TV, will be digital, but free-to-air so as to remain part of the basic tier of service in a post-conditional access regime.
Speaking on the media speculation that the arrival of Vinod Dua has curtailed the powers of the other channel heads, Roy, who has worked with the Sahara group for 16 years now, said, "I don't think that there is any conflict of interest with Vinod Dua's arrival or association with the news project. Dua has had a long association with the group and he is acting as an advisor to the news channel project. I would say there is great team spirit amongst all."
Arup Ghosh, former anchor at Prannoy Roy's NDTV, who left in September 2000 to start Network One, will head Sahara Samay, the national news channel. Rajiv Bajaj (president of the Hinduja Group's IN TV till February 2002) will be in charge of Sahara Samay Mumbai, veteran Doordarshan journalist Prabhat Dabral is going to head the news channels meant for the Hindi heartland, while Shireen, another star anchor at NDTV till 2000 will be heading the NCR channel.
20/12/02
Sorry no update today no time have to get my shopping done
19/12/02
Not much to say a busy time of the year, there may be a few evenings when I don't have time to do a site update I will publish dates of when I plan to take a break over Christmas. Heck I have to do my Christmas shopping eventually.
From my Emails & ICQ
From Bill Hyman. U.S Samoa
Re: NSS 5
Hi Craig:
I am getting the C-Band marker at about 15 db sig/noise on a solid 5 metre
dish and another carrier at about 3790 at 16 db sig/noise, but no Ku and no
video. There appears to be another peak which varies eratically from 4 to 10
db sig/noise around 3700. I am trying to get Newskies interested in giving
the English speakers in the islands a DTH service, similar to LBF without
the porn.
Am I the only one in the South Pacific picking up these signals?
Best regards,
Bill
From the Dish
PAS 8 166E 12366 H All channels in the Les amis mux are now encrypted in Viaccess 2. The Les amis test cards are back on SIDs 5-8.
Intelsat 702 157E Intelsat 702 has arrived at 157 East.Reception reports are very welcome.
Optus B3 156E 12336 V SID updates in the GlobeCast Australia mux.
Koreasat 2 113E 12290 H "Zenis Shopping" has left , replaced by a test card.Occasional Samsung feeds on PIDs 600/601.
Koreasat 2 113E 12530 H "CNGO TV" is now encrypted.
Koreasat 2 113E 12617 H The test card has left .
Koreasat 2 113E 12692 H Occasional Digital Chosun feeds on , SR 2963, Fec3/4.
Koreasat 2 113E 12697 H "Digital Chosun Open University" has left .
NEWS
New satellite to offer increased choice
From Afr.com
Broadcasters, telcos and government agencies wanting satellite communications in Australia will be able to choose from more providers after the launch yesterday of a satellite covering 60 per cent of the world's population.
Dutch company New Skies Satellites' sixth satellite, NSS-6, was launched from Kourou, French Guiana. It was sent into orbit aboard an Ariane 4 rocket, a more reliable craft than the Ariane 5 which exploded there last week, delaying Optus's plans to launch its C1 satellite.
The latest satellite will have six beams covering Australia, South-East Asia, North-East Asia, China, India and the Middle East and Africa. It joins another New Skies satellite, NSS-5, which on Monday was moved from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
New Skies Satellites' Australian subsidiary, New Skies Networks, formerly AAPT Sat-Tel, will now begin talking to broadcasters, telcos and government agencies here about purchasing capacity from the two satellites.
It costs about $US250 million ($441 million) to build and launch a satellite.
New Skies Networks chief executive Maureen Murphy said NSS-6 would provide organisations in Australia with an alternative supplier for cost-effective broadband and pay-TV applications.
In the past, New Skies has purchased capacity for the Pacific region from other satellite companies, including PanAmSat and Intelsat.
Ms Murphy said New Skies would either sell capacity on NSS-6 directly, or offer businesses the ability to outsource their full satellite communications requirements. Because NSS-6 was quite high powered and could broadcast to small satellite dishes, Ms Murphy said New Skies could, if it wanted, offer a Chinese broadcaster, for example, the ability to provide services direct to the homes of Chinese residents in Australia. But she said New Skies wanted to deal with channel partners, not individuals.
To date, New Skies has signed one client to NSS-6, Indian internet service provider Data Access. That deal is worth $US100 million over 10 years. Ms Murphy said NSS-6 could service Foxtel and "would be delighted to". However, Foxtel has already agreed to use Optus's C1 satellite.
There was also some debate yesterday over who was New Skies' alliance partner in Australia. A small, listed technology company, Multiemedia, announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary Australasian Broadband Services had a strategic alliance with New Skies for the supply of products and services.
But Ms Murphy said that was not the case. "We're aware of them and happy to sell capacity to them but there's no alliance," she said.
But a Multiemedia spokesman disagreed, claiming they did have an alliance agreement.
(Craigs comemnt, more Chinese channels?, OH great just what we need!)
Explosion rocks pay-TV plans
From Afr.com
Next year's long-awaited launch of digital pay-TV in Australia could be delayed after a rocket failure forced Optus to review the timing of the launch its new C1 satellite into orbit.
The C1 satellite is integral to the rollout of digital pay-TV in the wake of the Foxtel-Optus program sharing deal, which gives Foxtel increased satellite transponder capacity to provide more than 120 digital pay-TV channels.
The satellite will also provide 200,000 more homes - many in the most remote areas - with access to regional pay-TV provider Austar's digital services.
However, the satellite launch planned for next March is being rescheduled after the Ariane 5 rocket which was to carry C1 into space exploded last week three minutes after taking off from Kourou, French Guiana.
It is not the first time the Ariane 5 rocket has failed.
Last year it sent two satellites into the wrong orbit and was taken out of service for several months.
Optus is understood to be negotiating with the owner of the rocket, Arianespace, to shift the satellite to an alternative launch vehicle to ensure the telco meets the commitments it has made on providing transponder space to Foxtel and Austar.
Optus is believed to be hopeful of finalising a new launch date early in the new year, and confident of delivering the satellite within the planned March-April time frame.
Foxtel is pursuing an estimated $1 billion rollout of digital technology, scheduled to begin in October next year, that will give pay-TV subscribers access to more channels and interactive services such as video-on-demand.
The C1 satellite will have 24 transponders and Foxtel has agreed to a 15-year, $900 million leasing deal for 12 of them and has an option over two others. Each transponder can carry 10 channels.
Most of the remaining capacity has been assigned to the Department of Defence.
The Optus B3 satellite, in orbit since 1994, has only 15 transponders. Seven are used for pay-TV.
Meanwhile, Kerry Packer's Nine Network is continuing negotiations with Foxtel for the re-transmission of its signal when the pay-TV network converts to digital.
The two groups are believed to be discussing a deal under which Nine's signal would be carried free of charge on Foxtel's cable service, but Nine would pay a fee to have the signal carried on satellite.
The deal would also involve guarantees covering any future interactive services offered by Nine, including access to expensive back-end infrastructure such as call centres that allow direct interaction with viewers.
Foxtel is understood to be preparing a comprehensive retransmission proposal to put to Seven, Ten and the other free-to-air networks.
Optus slips behind New Skies
From http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,5702279%5E15321%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html
OPTUS executives have watched competitor New Skies Satellites launch its Asia-Pacific satellite, NSS-6, amid tension following the failure of a mission last week.
NSS-6 will provide corporate, media and direct-to-home services for customers from Australia to the Middle East through six high-powered ku-band antenna beams.
New Skies which counts the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade among its clients hopes to sign significant additional business in the wake of the launch.
Directly competing with Optus/Singapore Telecommunications' C1, to be launched in the first quarter of next year, the satellite was launched from the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, yesterday by Arianespace.
It is estimated the satellite and launch cost $440 million, with insurance costs of up to $40 million.
"Once in orbit invariably the contracts will come," said Australian subsidiary New Skies Networks' managing director, Maureen Murphy.
"Customers want to see it up there, and especially after last week there's a reluctance to sign on the dotted line before it is up there."
There was a noticeable tension among staff, alert to the possibility of problems following an explosion that terminated last week's Arianespace mission to launch a satellite for European carrier Eutelsat and French space agency CNES.
Unlike the previous mission, which was carried aboard a 10-tonnne Ariane 5 rocket, NSS-6 left aboard the more stable Ariane 4.
The NSS-6 is a Lockheed Martin A2100 satellite with ku-band beams suitable for direct-to-home services such as broadband internet, as well as traditional corporate telecommunications applications.
The second Lockheed Martin satellite purchased by New Skies, NSS-6 carries more than 60 36 MHz-equivalent kuband transponders that can be reassigned to any of the six beams to cater for changes in demand.
"We have been buying third-party capacity from Asiasat and PanAmSat," Ms Murphy said. "We will be more competitive with our own capacity."
New Skies also moved one of its other satellites to serve the Asia-Pacific region this week, almost doubling capacity to Australia.
The New Skies launch came as Arianespace opened an enquiry into the explosion that aborted last week's launch.
Mission 157 ended after the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the satellites exploded three minutes after take-off. Arianespace executives revealed the rocket did not explode by accident, but was destroyed by mission control following engine problems.
Early indications were of problems with the cooling circuit in the Vulcain 2 engine.
Arianespace chief executive Jean-Yves Le Gall said the board of inquiry into the so-called 10-tonne Ariane 5 which was carrying a heavier than normal load was unlikely to affect subsequent missions, including the January launch of Europe's Rosetta scientific spacecraft.
Rosetta to rendezvous with comet Wirtanen will be carried by a standard Ariane 5.
"We are confident about the future," Mr Le Gall said.
Sun TV to double digital channels via Harmonic headends
From indiantelevision.com
SUNNYVALE, California: Sun TV has deployed Harmonic's industry leading MPEG-2 video encoders and statistical multiplexers for an extensive headend upgrade. Harmonic's DVB compliant systems will enable Sun TV's satellite network to carry twice as many digital channels with more bandwidth available for future channel expansion.
A Harmonic official release states that the move will help the Sun Network to improve its service as well as revenue potential without increasing the operating costs. Sun TV is the first regional channel from India to be distributed globally for the Tamil speaking population, says the release. The network also has an entire bouquet of channels such as Udaya TV (Kannada), Surya TV (Malayalam), Gemini TV (Telugu) and others catering to different niche audiences.
Sun TV uses its own satellite transponder to distribute the channels from its headend facility in Chennai to regional cable headends throughout southern India. As a result, an estimated 1.5 million cable subscribers are able to receive Sun TV programming, the release adds.
The efficiency of Harmonic DiviCom MPEG-2 encoders and statistical multiplexing systems maximises transponder bandwidth, while improving picture quality, the release says.
Sun TV technology vice president S Kannan has been quoted as saying:"Harmonic's excellent support services and guidance produced a solution that allows us to substantially increase service today while preserving bandwidth for future growth."
Harmonic is a provider of digital video, broadband optical networking and IP delivery systems to cable, satellite, telecom and broadcast network operators. Harmonic's open standards-based solutions for the headend through the last mile enable customers to develop new revenue sources and a competitive advantage by offering powerful interactive video, voice and data services such as video-on-demand, high definition digital television, telephony and Internet access.
18/12/02
Thanks to all that showed up in the chatroom it was very quiet as expected at this time of the year. The last chat for the year may be next Monday night. With next Tuesday night being Christmas Eve many may not have time on the usual night. To those that asked yes I will be doing my annual predictions some time after Christmas and reviewing last years ones.
Some good news NSS6 seems to have been launched with no problems! Hopefully to be tested over the Christmas Holiday period.
From my Emails & ICQ
From Siam Global
REPLY RE JCSAT 8 QUERY
Further to Apsatter's query, we checked out JCSat 8 (known to Lyngsat as JCSat 2A ) at around 15.00hr GMT. Hyundai showed a very strong 95% signal strength and quality on both channels / frequencies but no picture forthcoming so either both not transmitting a standard DVB picture OR both encrypted at the time we tested.,
Sincerely, Siamglobal Bkk
From Mayadass Brijmohun
Hi Craig
The CAS bill which was just unanimously passed in the indian parliament seems to benefit everyone
particularly beneficial to people who watch FTA channels.
Hopefully,we in australasia will benefit from the mandatory numbers of FTA channels that will have to be
allowed. Already Star Plus has reduced their rates.
Also the idea as to force operators to broadcast DD channels.
Maybe the indian CAS bill could be the blueprint for others in the world to adopt.
We should congratulate Srimati Sushma Swaraj for all their efforts.
Regards.
(Craigs comment, What it means to FTA satellite viewers remains to be seen. Zee has allready announced that none of its channels will be changing to FTA mode. I guess it will all depend on the first official channel rateings once the CAS system is in place)
From the Dish
PAS 8 166E 12686 H All channels in the Jadeworld mux on are encrypted again,except SBN - Shanghai Broadcasting Network.
Palapa C2 113E 3727 H New SR for TBN is: 2667.
NEWS
New Skies satellite launched
From http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,5699222%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
OPTUS executives have watched competitor New Skies Satellites successfully launch its Asia Pacific satellite NSS-6, amid tension following the failure of a mission last week.
NSS-6 will provide corporate, media and direct-to-home services for customers from Australia to the Middle East through six high-powered ku-band beams.
New Skies - which counts the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade among its clients - hopes to sign significant additional business in the wake of the launch.
Directly competing with Optus/Singapore Telecommunications' C1, due to be launched in the first quarter of 2003, the satellite was launched from the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana this morning by Arianespace.
It is estimated the satellite and launch would have cost about $US250 million, with insurance costs of up to $40 million.
"Once in orbit invariably the contracts will come," said Australian subsidiary New Skies Networks managing director Maureen Murphy. "Customers want to see it up there, especially after last week there's a reluctance to sign on the dotted line before it is up there."
There was a noticeable tension among staff, alert to the possibility of problems following an explosion that terminated last week's Arianespace mission to launch a satellite for European carrier Eutelsat and French space agency CNES three minutes after launch.
Unlike the previous mission, which was carried aboard a 10-ton Ariane 5 rocket, NSS-6 left aboard the more stable Ariane 4.
The NSS-6 is a Lockheed Martin A2100 satellite with ku-band beams suitable for direct-to-home services like broadband internet, as well as traditional corporate telecommunications applications.
Launched to sit at 95 degrees east, NSS-6 covers Australia to the Mediterranean.
The second Lockheed Martin satellite purchased by New Skies, NSS-6 carries more than 60 36 MHz-equivalent Ku-band transponders that can be reassigned to any of the six beams to cater for changes in demand.
"We have been buying third-party capacity from Asiasat and PanAmSat," said Ms Murphy. "We will be more competitive with our own capacity."
New Skies also moved one of its other satellites to serve the Asia Pacific region this week, doubling capacity to Australia.
The New Skies launch came as Arianespace opened an enquiry into the explosion that aborted last week's launch.
Mission 157 abruptly terminated after the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the satellites exploded three minutes after takeoff.
Arianespace executives revealed the rocket did not explode by accident, but was destroyed by mission control following engine problems.
Early indications were controllers had difficulties with the cooling circuit in the Vulcain 2 engine, which powers the rocket's main cryogenic stage.
Arianespace chief executive Jean-Yves Le Gall said the board of enquiry into the so-called 10-tonne Ariane 5 - which was carrying a heavier load than normal - was unlikely to affect subsequent missions, including the January launch of Europe's Rosetta scientific spacecraft.
Rosetta - due to rendezvous with a comet - will be carried by a standard Ariane 5.
"The flight 157 failure has not affected Arianespace's determination to move ahead and to overcome our difficulties," Mr Le Gall said. "We will not change our overall strategy, and we are confident about the future."
Ariane rocket launches satellite for New Skies
From http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/12/17/space.ariane.reut/
KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) -- A European Ariane-4 rocket placed into orbit a communications satellite for global satellite operator New Skies Satellite after a textbook launch from French Guiana late on Tuesday.
The launch from the European Space Agency launch centre in Kourou, French Guiana, on South America's northeast coast came less than a week after a new generation Ariane-5 rocket exploded minutes after take-off.
The Ariane 44L rocket, equipped with four liquid strap-on boosters -- the most powerful in the Ariane-4 series blasted off at 8.04 p.m. (2304 GMT).
The rocket flew through a deck of low altitude clouds and then reemerged in the equatorial night sky, visible from the ground for over two minutes.
Twenty-one minutes after lift-off, the NSS-6 satellite separated from the rocket.
This satellite will provide telecommunications to Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South Africa.
"NSS-6 will serve the Asia region, a region where we are already present but capacity constrained," Dan Goldberg, New Skies chief executive told Reuters after the launch.
"It will give incremental capacity that will contribute to fairly substantial revenue growth that we are forecasting for 2003 and beyond," he said.
Goldberg said the cost of NSS-6, satellite, launch and insurance was over $250 million.
NSS-6 weighed 4.6 metric tons (10,150 lbs) at launch and was built in California by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems.
It is the second satellite designed, procured and launched by New Skies, formed in 1998 through the privatization of global satellite provider Intelsat.
Murdoch's News Corp to ink China tie-up - source
From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2141782a6026,00.html
HONG KONG: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, in its latest bid to crack China's restrictive media market, will unveil a tie-up tomorrow with a state-run broadcaster in Hunan province, an industry source said.
The partnership between News Corp's Star Group unit and Hunan Broadcasting Group, the parent of Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Industry Co Ltd, will involve joint production and other cooperation, the source said today. No financial terms were available.
Hunan Broadcast Group is affiliated with the province's state-run broadcast authority.
Australia-based News Corp has long sought to grow its presence in China, where foreign TV channels are mostly limited to luxury hotels and other special venues.
Last year News Corp won rights to carry its Mandarin-language Xingkong Weishi channel on cable TV in Cantonese-speaking Guangdong province, one of a small handful of foreign broadcasters to win such rights.
Xingkong Weishi is the Star channel that will be involved in the Hunan province deal, the source said.
News Corp also holds a 37.6 per cent stake in Hong Kong-based Mandarin-language Phoenix Satellite Television, which also has Guangdong broadcast rights.
Government decides to split TVNZ operations
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3047786&thesection=business&thesubsection=latest
The Government has decided to split the broadcasting and transmission arms of TVNZ, Finance Minister Michael Cullen said today.
That means it will have to change the TVNZ legislation which is going through Parliament.
Dr Cullen said the change would mean the broadcasting arm -- TV One, TV2 and Satellite Services -- would be established as a crown company under its own legislation.
The transmission business -- Transmission Holdings and TVNZ Australia Ltd -- would be established as a state-owned enterprise.
Under the original proposal, two separate boards were to look after the twin arms and report to an over-arching parent board. Together, they were to have formed a crown-owned company.
Dr Cullen said that given the different natures and objectives of the two parts of TVNZ's business, it was more appropriate that they operated completely separately and not within the same company structure.
"The split will result in increased transparency and accountability and allow the two parts to each focus on their core business," he said.
The bill will be amended when it comes before Parliament again next year.
17/12/02
Live satellite related chat tonight 9pm NZ and 8.30pm Syd time onwards.
Seems to be a few signals that need checking out from todays emails!
KBS Korean is Fta at the moment on Globecast B3.
From my Emails & ICQ
From Bill Hyman
I am receiving two strong carriers (Cband) here in American Samoa. Pretty sure its
NSS-5 one carrier is 15db sig/noise and the other 18. Can anyone tell me the
tuning information?
Bill
From Jundong Wu
Hi, Craig and All Apsatters
Yesterday, I scanned the Jcsat 8, found 3915V was
still there and a new signal was appeared. It is
4050V, SR26500, weaker than 3915V, it couldn't be
loaded by my IRD using 1.65M dish in Melbourne. Could
anyone who has a large dish try to load it?
Cheers,
Jundong Wu
From Peter
Mac TV, 3916H, SR 2900, FEC 3/4, Palapa C2 113E.
This new channel won't load on either Humax or Emtech. Am located on N Coast of
NT. Beam id is Aust & NZ, so theoretically there should be no problems. Has anybody else tried it?
From the Dish
PAS 8 166E 3769 V "Discovery Networks Asia" mux has started on , PowerVu, SR 13240, FEC 3/4, PIDs 110/100-310/300, line-up: Discovery Channel Taiwan, Animal Planet Taiwan and Discovery Travel & Adventure Taiwan.
Optus B3 156E 12336 V "KBS Korea" is Fta.
ST 1 88E 3582 H "TVB 8, Super TV, Star Sports and TVBS" are still, Sr 12860, Fec3/4.
Sinosat 1 110.5E 3918 V "Games feed? "Sr 5500 Fec 3/4
Eutelsat II f1 70.5E Eutelsat II f1 has arrived at 70.5 East. Reception reports are very welcome. This one should get into northern and Western Australia. Ku remember!
NEWS
Arianespace's 2nd NSS flight lifts off tomorrow
From indiantelevision.com
Kourou: Undaunted by the failure of flight 157, Araianespace has announced that it has secured the go-ahead for the launch of its second flight for New Skies Satellites. This followed the launch readiness review held at the Spaceport in French Guiana.
The review cleared Flight 156's Ariane 4 for the 17 December liftoff, and confirmed the readiness of its NSS-6 telecom satellite payload. Launch infrastructure at the Spaceport was declared ready for the mission, as were the downrange tracking stations.
This flight will be the second-to-last mission for the Ariane 4 launcher family. It is the 115th launch of an Ariane 4, and the 39th in the 44L version - which is equipped with four large liquid strap-on boosters for augmented thrust at liftoff and initial ascent.
The NSS-6 satellite was built by Lockheed Martin and carries a payload with high-performance Ku-band beams. To be positioned at 95 deg. East, the platform will reach markets from the Mediterranean Sea to Japan - covering Asia, Australia, Southern Africa and the Middle East.
Arianespace's previous launch for the Netherlands-based New Skies Satellites was last April, when Flight 150 placed the NSS-7 satellite into a highly accurate geostationary transfer orbit.
(Craigs comment fingers crossed for this one)
Sahara commissions domestic uplinking earth station
From indiantelevision.com
MUMBAI: Even as Star India's licence for uplinking Star News from Indian shores gets short shrift, Hindi entertainment channel Sahara TV looks to have stolen a march over it. The Subrata Roy-owned Sahara group successfully launched its own earth station in the country at Noida, near New Delhi, according to an official release.
The release adds that Sahara TV has already started to uplink using the station, earning it the distinction of being the first Hindi entertainment satellite channel to do so directly from India.
The first-of-its-kind earth station will enable the channel to concurrently uplink stream of 8-plus satellite channels directly from India, the release stated. This will go a great way in facilitating Sahara's news channels plan when it gets operational. Recently, NDTV - which is expected to split with its partner Star and launch its own branded news channels - got a clearance for FII investment and also for its uplinking plans.
The Indian government had liberalised the uplinking policy to allow the country to develop as a centre for broadcasting in 1999. Following that shift in policy, eight Indian companies had been permitted to set up their uplinking hubs in India and 36 television channels were permitted to uplink their programmes from India using VSNL's and DD's facilities. Earth stations cost a packet and hence not too many of them have come up as yet.
To attract companies to invest in earth stations, the finance minister had reduced basic custom duty rates on import of certain specified equipments for setting up of an earth station for broadcasting, from 35 percent to 25 percent with effect from 1March 2002.
Among the companies, which have set up earth stations, figure Sun TV, Eenadu and Zee TV. The last has been uplinking its language channels using its earth station close to Noida.
"We had promised the government of India that we shall set-up our own earth station. Today, we are happy that we have a unique earth station in India one which we can be truly proud of," the head of Sahara TV Sumit Roy was quoted as saying in the release.
The release also stated that the state-of-the-art earth station, had the most modern teleport and playout facilities assigned to any Hindi satellite entertainment channel. It consists of a huge 9.3 metre antenna system with computerized auto-tracking to transmit signals to Asian hot bird AsiaSat 3S.
Sahara TV's captive earth station is equipped with high-end encoding devices from Tandberg incorporating statistical multiplexing to deliver a concurrent stream of 8-plus channels, according to the release. With this Multiple Channel per Carrier (MCPC) capability, the earth station has scope for quick upgradation to accommodate additional channels, as and when required.
The release also mentioned that the earth station has high power amplifiers of 2.2 kw capacity from leading manufacturer CPI. The system has a 100 percent back up and is serviced by uninterrupted power supply systems with extra capacity.
The release added that Sahara TV's earth station has the most-modern playout facility with equipment controlled through user-friendly software incorporating the latest digital technology.
It comprises of two injest stations with multiformat injest possibilities using Sony IMX VTRs, Leitch noise reduction and colour correction devices, Orban audio processors, Bow's 10 channel disk based logging recorders, Oxtel system for channel branding, Tektronix test and measuring equipment, and Leitch video servers (with 80 hours of storage at 12 Mbps), Louth device controllers and a host of latest Sony monitors. The software, which runs the injest, playlist and the adschedule, is supplied by Harris/Louth Automation.
16/12/02
A few minor changes in the B3 Globecast mux, TV Korea now named properly, I suggested that they also lower the volume on HRT to match the other Fta's listed in the mux.
LyngSat Network is a launching a new website today - LyngSat Space.
LyngSat Space consists of two parts:
* Marketing available satellite capacity. The capacity is shown with details at LyngSat Space, and links from LyngSat and UplinkStation.
* Consultancy for companies that want help and advice to find suitable satellite capacity according to their needs.
For more info, see http://www.lyngsat-space.com/ and/or contact [email protected]
If you want to (banner) advertise at LyngSat Space, you are very welcome to contact [email protected]
From my Emails & ICQ
From Siam Global
Dear Mr Sutton,
May I put forward a suggestion which if successful will increase Apsatter’s sat viewing enormously and is only possible if Apsatters co-operate and contribute ? I think you already do this with regard to sporting events but may I request you consider it for entertainment and films also ?
There are literally hundreds of FTA sat progs and channels available in Asia Pacific . The problem is that 95% or higher are in Chinese, Indian, Indonesian etc which makes them useless to English speaking Apsatters.
Well hidden among the foreign language output, many channels have English language progs and films as well on a regular basis. Without spending hundreds of hours monitoring, we cannot know when or where these progs come on. For example I have discovered that Sony TV in the Taiwan bouquet on Pas 8 has Ripleys Believe It or Not every Sunday at 1600GMT and the uncensored version (unavailable in Thailand) of the highly popular American series Sex in the City on Thursday at around the same time.
It occurred to me there must be dozens of such English language progs on the various channels if only we know when and where to look. If Apsatters were to email such info to you it would benefit all of us. Of course schedules and times change but nevertheless we have a good chance to see the prog or film concerned.
Would it be possible to encourage Apsatters to post such info on your excellent website ?
Sincerely, Siamglobal, Bangkok
(Craigs comment, Great idea start sending in any sightings of english programs , movies especially.)
From Chris Pickstock 15/12/02
B1, 12430 V, sr 6660. Labelled that old favourite, "Nunyar FB". Good strong signal, but comes up as "Service not available" I assume encrypted. Any ideas as to what is there. Cricket perhaps?
Chris
From the Dish
Asiasat 2 100.5E 3946 H Occasional SatLink feeds, Sr 6111, Fec 3/4.
Yamal 102 90E 3564 R The Netservice mux has left again.
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3551 H "Radio Catania" has left .
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3554 V "Channel Guide India" has left .
NSS 703 57E 3980 R "Gemini TV" is now encrypted.
NEWS
Scientists make first contact with Australian satellite
From http://abc.net.au/news/scitech/2002/12/item20021215135212_1.htm
A team of South Australian researchers has successfully made contact with the $20 million micro-satellite that was launched into orbit from Japan yesterday.
Professor William Cowley from the University of South Australia says the ground control team made contact with FedSat during its first pass over Adelaide at about 11:00pm ACDT yesterday.
During that first contact, data from the launch, including battery voltages and temperatures, were downloaded.
Professor Cowley says today the team's main task will be to stop the satellite from tumbling.
"Last night we turned on the attitude control system computer and this morning we hope to be turning on the instruments which will actually stabilise its attitude."
Successful spin doctoring tames FedSat
From http://abc.net.au/news/australia/sa/metsa-16dec2002-7.htm
Members of a South Australian control team in charge of Australia's new satellite say they are bringing its spin under control.
FedSat project manager Merik Vesley says they have been able to slow it down to a spin of about a degree a second.
Mr Vesley says the satellite passes over the ground station every 12 hours and they have now had six successful passes.
He says the last one was around midday.
"We downloaded some housekeeping data, which showed (the satellite) in good condition, and we initiated some commands that allowed us to slow the rotation down, getting it ready for pointing and doing the research experiments," he said.
Japan's H-2A rocket launches four satellites
From http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/techscience/story/0,4386,160821,00.html
Bid for slice of launch market gets a boost
TOKYO - Japan's state-of-the-art H-2A rocket, carrying one Australian and three Japanese satellites, blasted off successfully yesterday as it made another step forward in its bid for a slice of the satellite-launch market dominated by Europe and the United States.
The black and orange rocket lifted off as scheduled from the national space centre on the southern Japan islet of Tanegashima.
The National Space Development Agency (Nasda) declared the mission a success after the rocket launched all four satellites into orbit.
The rocket accomplished its duties almost perfectly,' Nasda chief Shuichiro Yamanouchi said.
Minister for Science and Technology Atsuko Toyama hailed the fourth consecutive successful H-2A launch since its maiden flight in August last year.
This shows that the H-2A rocket is taking a solid step towards establishing the world's highest credibility,' she said.
Yesterday's launch was a credibility test for the H-2A, especially after the Ariane 5-ESCA, Europe's super-rocket rival to American launchers, failed badly on its maiden flight on Wednesday.
Australia is the first country to entrust Japan with launching a satellite into space, and officials hope it will give a major boost to Japan's efforts to join the commercial satellite launching business.
Japan offered last year to put the Australian satellite into space as a gift to mark the centennial anniversary of Australia's commonwealth government.
The 58-kg FedSat has high-tech communication, space science, navigation and computing equipment and is intended to help bring broadband Internet services to remote parts of Australia.
Data from its three-year mission is to be shared between the two nations.
The three Japanese satellites launched included the Whale Ecology Observation Satellite and another to observe global warming and environmental change.
Yesterday's success was the first time that the H-2A series took a satellite commissioned by another country into orbit.
The payload was also the largest carried by a Japanese rocket in history. --
Optus Satellite Faces Launch Delay After Ariane 5 Failure
From satnewsasia.com
Europe’s most powerful rocket, failed for the second time in two launches, has raised concerns at Singtel-Optus about its suitability as launch vehicle for the Optus C1 satellite in early 2003.
Ariane 5 Flight 157 was destroyed some 456 seconds after launch from Kourou, French Guiana after an “anomaly,” probably a combustion problem, forced it off course. Flight 157 was terminated by ground control at an altitude of about 69 kilometers and a distance of 800 kilometers off the coast of French Guiana. Its multi-million dollar payload consisting of Eutelsat's Hot Bird 7 broadcast satellite and the Stentor telecom demonstrator satellite owned by the French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the second failed attempt by Ariane 5 to put a twin payload into orbit. The rocket suffered an embarrassing failure in July 2001 when it placed a Japanese and European satellite into faulty orbits and was grounded for seven months as a result. Flight 157 was seen as a test for Arianespace (commercial arm of the European Space Consortium), which wants to prove it can significantly cut operating costs by placing two heavy satellites into geostationary orbit at a time.
Sources in Australia said the launch of Optus C1, which will carry civilian and military traffic, could be postponed or shifted to another family of rockets including the more reliable Ariane 4. An Optus spokesman said the company had many options 𠇊nd we are talking to Arianespace at the moment”. In 1992, Optus lost its B2 satellite in the explosion of a Chinese Long March carrier rocket. World attention will now focus on the launch of the NSS-6 satellite operated by New Skies Satellite N.V. on December 17. NSS-6 will piggyback on the more reliable Ariane 4 rocket and observers expect the launch to succeed.
Optus C1's communications payload operates in Ku-band for commercial services, and in UHF, X- and Ka-bands for the Australian Department of Defense. Optus C1 is an advanced communications satellite that will carry a total of 16 antennas providing 18 beams across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific. Its global beams will cover an area stretching from India to Hawaii.
Optus has four in-orbit satellites covering Australia: two A series and two B series. The launch of Optus C1 in 2003 marks the start of the next generation of Optus satellites. The latest in-orbit Optus satellite, Optus B3, became operational in August 1995. Optus B1 and A3 are used mainly for TV broadcasting and trunking as well as catering for the needs of governmental departments, though all four also perform telecoms roles. Together the Optus satellites have a footprint covering Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.
The Ku-band communications payload on Optus B1 and B3 consists of fifteen 50-watt linearized transponders, each with a bandwidth of 54 MHz. The transmit coverage includes two national beams to all of Australia and the offshore region; spot beams to the western, central, northeast, and southeast regions of the Australian continent; a national beam to New Zealand; and a high performance beam to major cities.
ISRO hopes Ariane failure won't affect 3A launch
From http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/businessline/2002/12/15/stories/2002121500700500.htm
ISRO is keeping fingers crossed that the European Ariane 5 rocket mishap of Wednesday will not affect the launch schedule of Insat 3A.
The telecom-cum-weather satellite 3A has been slated for take-off by around February 12, 2003, on an Ariane 5 rocket. This satellite has already seen several delays and revisions and has made way for the simpler birds, 3B and 3C.
Given the demand for transponder space from private industries, ISRO officials said they "cannot relax until after 3A is off their chest and up in orbit". A total of 100-plus transponders on five orbiting satellites have been leased out to public and private broadcasters and VSATs.
On Wednesday, Paris-based European launch major Arianespace had a major failure with its new generation rocket Ariane 5, when its Flight 157 exploded. It had two satellites on board Eutelsat's Hotbird 7 and French agency CNES's experimental satellite Stentor. The company is beginning its failure analysis on December 16, but its CEO said its major comet flight coming up on January 12 would remain intact.
Arianespace has scheduled the launch of Insat 3A after that, with Panamsat's Galaxy 12 as co-passenger. "There is probably no delay for 3A as we are flying the generic Ariane 5 and not the improvised version that was used in Flight 157," senior ISRO officials told Business Line. They expect to hear a formal confirmation of this hope or otherwise only in the coming days. "The setback seems to be more for Arianespace than for us (our schedule). We are trying to assess what happened there," another official said.
With a thumbs-up from Paris, Insat 3A, made at ISRO's satellite centre ISAC in Bangalore, will be shipped out to the South Amercian launchpad at Kourou in the first week of January for about six weeks' lead time and tests. The 2.4-tonne Insat 3A has 24 transponders including six in the Ku band.
"The last launch, 3C, (of January 2002) eased the situation a lot. Once 3A gets launched, things will definitely be better for the users and a lot safer for us," they said.
Yet to come around June 2003 is 3E, which scientists at ISAC are assembling. This has been moved ahead of the bigger weather sat, 3D, which ISRO expects to fly as an operational passenger of GSLV by end of 2004.
Telekom Fails In Bid To Buy Indosat Stake
From http://www.bernama.com.my/B2002/news.shtml?general/ge1512_12
Telekom Malaysia Berhad failed in its bid to buy a 41.94 per cent stake in PT Indosat, Indonesia's leading satellite telecommunication firm, when it lost to its sole competitor, Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT).
Telekom Malaysia, which some market analysts had tipped as the favourite to win the bid, was edged by STT which offered Rp12,950 (RM5.95) per share with a total value of Rp5.62 trillion (RM2.55 billion).
Deputy Minister of State Entreprise Machmuddin Yasin told a news conference that STT had offered a 50 per cent premium on the current market price of Indosat share.
Indosat closed last Friday at Rp8,600 (RM4.20) and the Indonesian government had hoped that bidders would offer more than Rp12,000 (RM5.80) per unit for the equity.
In May this year, the government sold a 8.1 per cent stake in Indosat at Rp12,000, raising Rp1.1 trillion (RM500 million).
Machmuddin said STT would make full payment of the deal by Dec 23 to the government which now had only 15 per cent stake left in Indosat.
The privatisation of Indonesia's leading overseas call operator is the biggest ever conducted in Indonesia, which is selling stakes in state-owned companies to cover its budget shortfall this year.
The deal was seen as a key to accelerating Indonesia's lethargic privatisation efforts and a boost in facing the severe effect of the Oct 12 bomb blast in Bali.
However, the privatisation programme has been criticised by some quarters, including the People's Consultative Council (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais, who was concerned that government assets would fall into the hands of foreigners.
Employees of state enterprises had also objected, fearing massive job cuts following the restructuring. STT president and chief executive officer Lee Theng Kiat gave an assurance that there would be no changes in Indosat's management. -- BERNAMA
People on the go to get satellite TV
From http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021215a2.htm
Firm to link broadcasts to mobile phones, car monitors
A Tokyo venture company is preparing to launch a digital satellite broadcasting service that can be received on mobile phones and monitors aboard moving vehicles, the first service of its kind in the world.
Mobile Broadcasting Corp. will begin a trial service next November and hopes to attract 2 million subscribers within three years of launching full services in spring 2004.
The company plans to transmit music, images and data to users nationwide through various types of receiver terminals, including those in cars, trains, ships and cellular phones.
In a recent experiment using a moving vehicle in Tokyo, Mobile Broadcasting received on a monitor images and sound that were far clearer than those on conventional television sets in cars.
Industry analysts say the new service could give people the chance to watch satellite-broadcast programs while commuting to work or school, and it could help to reduce stress on children during a long journey by giving them something to do.
Tetsuo Machii, president of Mobile Broadcasting, told Kyodo News that vehicles are the company's primary target.
Machii said there are several tens of millions of cars in Japan and that his company "can expect orders of at least 10 million units for terminals in cars."
Machii, formerly a vice president of Toshiba Corp., said commuters are the company's next target, given the more that 70 million mobile phones in circulation in Japan.
Toshiba, which has a stake in the venture along with Toyota Motor Corp. and 61 other firms, plans to link up with a number of other firms to sell portable televisions that are able to receive the service, according to Mobile Broadcasting officials.
Initially, mobile TVs about the size of a pocket book are expected to be priced at around 50,000 yen, with units for cars between 20,000 yen and 30,000 yen, they said.
Machii, 67, said that since the late 1990s, Toshiba has been studying ways to let the public watch TV on the go, an effort to meet the growing demand for such a service.
Most of the employees at Mobile Broadcasting are on loan from Toshiba.
The envisioned service would not require a parabolic antenna, currently a prerequisite for receiving satellite broadcasts. Instead, it would involve a so-called S-Band frequency able to transmit high-powered broadcasts from satellites.
Mobile Broadcasting plans to launch a satellite for broadcasting the new service next October.
The company is presently experimenting with ways to let users receive broadcasts via other communications satellites at such locations as between high-rise buildings in Tokyo and inside tunnels.
Machii said Mobile Broadcasting plans to propose that it and Toyota Motor work more closely to develop next-generation information service systems using terminals aboard cars.
Other shareholders include Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Nippon Television Network Corp. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc.
T S I C H A N N E L N E W S - Number 50/2002 15 December 2002 -
A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by TELE-satellite International
Editor: Branislav Pekic
Edited Apsattv.com Edition
AUSTRALIA
PIRACY IS BECOMING A PROBLEM IN AUSTRALIA
More Australians are illegally accessing pay-TV, at an enormous cost to the
industry. According to the Australian Subscription Television & Radio
Association (ASTRA), piracy accounts for around 5-10 per cent of pay-TV
connections. This is costing the industry about $A50 million. Piracy ranges
from illegal connections to genuine subscribers using bogus smart cards to
access channels that are not part of their subscription package. The
industry is responding to piracy with tough action. Astra's executive
director, Debra Richards, says pirates could face fines of more than
$A60,000 and a five-year prison term.
CHINA
PROBLEMS WITH DIGITAL TV BOXES REPORTED
Beijing officials have warned that large numbers of digital television
reception set top boxes (STBs) currently on the market cannot receive
digital television signals. A senior official in the Beijing Broadcasting
Group's technology department said that STBs being sold in shops in the
capital would be of no use for digital television reception either in the
capital or elsewhere in China. The official explained that due to the
current lack of agreed digital television standards, different digital
television operators are using different signals in different areas so that
only STBs from the official supplier would work. In addition to this,
digital television is still in the trial stages of broadcasting which means
there are no guarantees of future reception either. There have been growing
concerns that can China comes up with its own standard on digital TV at the
end of 2003, because it will determines if China's digital TV industry can
be started. With the standard, China's digital TV industry will be moving
fast forward. From January 1 of last year, some coastal cities like
Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao, Shenzhen and Hangzhou have been broadcasting
digital programme for trial. In addition, CCTV 1 (China Central Television)
will not broadcast analog signal programme until 2005. By that time, all
major cities of China will full of prevailing digital high-definition
programme.
INDIA
GREEN LIGHT FOR CABLE DEAL
The Indian Parliament's Upper House (Rajya Sabha) has unanimously approved
the Cable Television Network Amendment Bill 2002 that will introduce
Conditional Access System in the country. CAS, or the addressability
system, will make set-top boxes mandatory for viewing pay channels and
gives consumers the choice to only pay for channels they want to view. This
amendment bill was earlier passed in Parliament's Lower House (Lok Sabha)
in May. Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters
CAS would provide protection to the consumers. "They would be required to
pay for only those channels that they want to view and not for the
arbitrarily prepared bouquet by the broadcasters," she added. The amendment
has given the industry six months to implement the CAS system. According to
the amendments, the Government would decide the maximum fee that could be
charged for free-to-air channels but the subscription fee of pay channels
would be left to the broadcasters. Though no particular technology had been
mandated for use of this system, both analogue and digital could be used.
The Bureau for Indian Standards (BIS) has specified standards for both
these types of technologies.
STAR TV SEEKS UPLINKING FACILITY
Star TV is the first completely foreign-owned news channel to apply for
uplinking permission in anticipation of the end of its contract with NDTV
in the first quarter of next year. All the other foreign-owned channels
which have been given uplinking permission primarily deal in entertainment
programmes. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has decided to seek
the Cabinet's view on Star TV's application for the facility. Closed to
private players till June 1998, satellite uplinking was first partially
opened through the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited to Indian companies with at
least 80 per cent Indian equity and Indian management control. In March
1999, all Indian broadcasting companies were permitted to uplink through
their own earth stations. This policy was further liberalised in July 2000
to allow foreign-owned companies.
STAR TV CUTS SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Star TV on December 10 announced a 25 per cent cut in subscription rates,
reducing the monthly subscription rate to Rs. 30 for its network, effective
January 1. "Our focus is to provide even better value to our viewers and
cable operators across the country. By reducing our price, we believe that
cable operators and ourselves can work closer together for the long-term
benefit of the households that view our channels every day," the Chief
Executive Officer of Star India, Peter Mukherjee, said in a statement here.
The STAR network operates STAR Plus, STAR Gold, STAR World, STAR Movies,
STAR News, Channel V and National Geographic channels in India.
JAPAN
NHK AND WOWOW TO CONTINUE IN FOR FOUR MORE YEARS
NHK and Wowow have been told by the government that they will be able to
continue offering their analogue satellite TV services until end-2011, or
four years after the terrestrial analogue switch-off, according to reports
in the Japanese press. The government's decision was influenced by the slow
adoption of digital BS-110 satellite services and reasonably strong sales
of analogue TVs and BS decoders. There were only 3.36 million homes
receiving BS-110 digital services at end-October 2002. NHK and Wowow had an
estimated 11 million and 2.5 million analogue satellite subscribers,
respectively, at end-September 2002.
SINGAPORE
PAY-TV MARKET SET TO GROW
Singapore will grant a second pay-TV license by the middle of next year to
spur competition in the media industry. The move will break StarHub's
multimillion-dollar monopoly and is a further step in the government's plan
to liberalize the industry that started in June 2000 with the entry of a
second free-to-air television station. David Lim, acting minister for
information and the arts, said: "We will leave it up to the market to
decide what is feasible. But competition in the pay TV market will
certainly add buzz to the media industry and open up new opportunities for
collaborations and partnerships." The decision has fuelled speculation that
the authorities might lift the ban on privately owned satellite dishes.
"These are issues we'll announce when we call for tenders early next year,"
Lim said. In a related development, PCCW has denied newspaper reports that
it plans to bid for a second pay-TV licence in Singapore which will be
offered for sale in 2003. The company claims that there is no truth in
reports that it has been invited to bid for the licence by the Singapore
government.
TAIWAN
GOVERNMENT OWNED TV CHANNELS TO BE REFORMED
The government, political parties and officials from political parties
would be prohibited from operating and investing in local broadcast media,
if the amendment to the Broadcasting and Television Law, which passed its
first reading on December 11, becomes law. According to the amendment, the
government would be required to release or sell their broadcast media
shares six months after the amendment becomes law. Political parties
investing in or operating broadcast media would be required to sell their
shares of the media organizations within three years. Officials from
political parties operating broadcast media would be required to either
resign from political posts or quit their positions at the media
organizations within three years. Currently, 24.36 per cent of Taiwan
Television shares and 36.25 per cent of Chinese Television System shares
are held by the government. The KMT owns 35.59 per cent of CTV’s shares,
while Formosa TV’s board is chaired by DPP Central Standing Committee
member Trong Tsai and Global TV’s board is chaired by DPP Central Standing
Committee member Chang Chun-hung. The Legislative Yuan’s Education,
Info-tech and Judiciary committees and the Government Information Office
(GIO) reached an agreement over the reform of two government-owned
terrestrial TV stations - one station will become public and the other will
be privatized. Which station would be privatized or made public has yet to
be decided. The final decision will be made in the Legislative Yuan.
15/12/02
No update Sundays
14/12/02
Not much to end the week with.
Crickets all over NZ have beaten India by 10 wickets in just 2 and half days. Also last night Australia easily demolished England as expected.
Does anyone know about the subject of Scpc reception? It involves hooking up a radio scanner to the output of the dish and tuning into various services. Please send details if you are doing this off any local satellites it would be interesting to know what sort of services are up there.
From my Emails & ICQ
From Tacnal
B1 feed 12430 V 6667 3/4 11:50 AEST "NBN telethon"
From the Dish
Koreasat 3 116E 12550 V "Arirang TV Korea has replaced ABC Asia Pacific", PowerVu, PIDs 1660/1620.
Palapa C2 113E 11132 V "Phoenix Chinese" has replaced Star Sports , Viaccess 2, PIDs 68/69.
Yamal 102 90E 3725 L "Radio GTRK Dalnevostochnaya" has started , Fta, APID 4195.It's SET on PIDs 4194/4195.
ST 1: 88E 3582 H "TVB 8, Super TV, Star Sports and TVBS" have left .
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3672 H "ATV, Kanal D and Show TV" have left , replaced by test cards.
NEWS
Aussie satellite launched
From http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5677764%255E1702,00.html
AUSTRALIA'S first satellite in 30 years launched successfully from a remote Japanese island today on a mission to bring broadband internet to the bush.
Australia hopes the FedSat satellite will orbit around Earth for the next three years and improve the capacity of communications in the bush.
But it was to be 11 hours after today's (1230 AEDT) launch before engineers and scientists received the first signals from the $A20 million satellite, which weighs just 58kg.
The research pod was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre on a small, rocky isle off coastal southern Japan today.
Japan offered last year to put the Australian micro-satellite into space as a gift for the Australian Commonwealth's centenary.
It was the first time the Japanese developed H-2A rocket had been launched with an international payload and the first Australian built satellite to be launched since the late 1960s.
The rocket, which also carried a Japanese satellite designed to monitor the movement of whales, lifted off before a crowd including Federal Science Minister Peter McGauran.
"It was enormously exciting and a once in a lifetime event," Mr McGauran said after the launch.
"One of the major experiments is on telecommunications aimed at providing more reliable and widespread broadbands to rural and remote Australia.
"It does prove our technology to the world in regard to micro-satellites.
"Of course we will never be a space country like America or Japan or China but all of those countries have been interested and impressed by what has been achieved by Australia in this niche market.
"There is a trend towards micro-satellites and Australia has a key role to play."
While awaiting initial signals from the satellite, Mr McGauran was confident of its success.
"There was a degree of anxiety but because the first and major hurdle had been overcome, namely the launch of the rocket, we were quite confident," he said.
The FedSat has high-tech communication, space science, navigation and computing equipment.
Data from its three-year mission was to be shared between Australia and Japan.
Three other Japanese satellites were also launched on the same rocket today, including one designed by a university to monitor the movements and behaviour of whales over the next two years.
Another probe was to observe global warming and environmental change.
The 53 metre rocket used in the launch is the centrepiece of Japan's space program and the focus of its commercial satellite launching hopes.
Spectators over the moon after successful satellite launch
From http://abc.net.au/news/scitech/2002/12/item20021214131348_1.htm
There were cries of jubilation as Australia's first satellite for more than three decades successfully launched into space today.
It rocketed off at around 12:30pm AEDT from an island south of Tokyo in Japan.
In Brisbane, a group of 50 people who worked on the satellite watched the launch via a big screen at the Queensland University of Technology.
FedSat team member Scott Johnston says it will be about 11 hours before they can communicate with the satellite as it travels over their ground station in Adelaide.
"It's absolutely superb, we're over the moon, we're going in that general direction," he said.
"The launch went successfully on time as predicted, our colleagues at NASDAR have done us proud."
Internet services
The satellite could result in super-fast and affordable broadband Internet services for rural and remote areas.
FedSat will conduct the first in-space experiments into the reliability and efficiency of a high-frequency communication band.
Dr Brian Embleton from the Co-operative Research Centre for Satellite Systems says the research could mean improved communications for regional areas.
"It's very exciting indeed. The experiments are designed to investigate how we can deliver Internet services more efficiently using satellite technologies," he said.
"It will be the first micro-satellite carrying a very high-speed broadband communications frequency - the kinds of frequencies people in remote areas will be relying on in the future to deliver Internet-like services to them," he said.
Australian satellite launched
From http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/14/1039656255675.html
Australia's first satellite in 30 years was launched successfully from a remote Japanese island.
Australia hopes the FedSat satellite will orbit around Earth for the next three years and improve the capacity of communications in the bush.
But engineers and scientists are not due to receive the first signals from the $20 million satellite until 11 hours after the (1230 AEDT) launch.
The research pod was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre on a small, rocky isle off coastal southern Japan.
Japan offered last year to put the Australian satellite into space as a gift for the Australian Commonwealth's centenary.
It was the first time the Japanese developed H-2A rocket had been launched with an international payload.
The rocket, which also carried a satellite designed to monitor the movement of whales, lifted off before a crowd including Federal Science Minister Peter McGauran.
The 58 kilogram FedSat has high-tech communication, space science, navigation and computing equipment and was intended to help bring broadband internet services to remote parts of Australia.
Data from its three-year mission was to be shared between Australia and Japan.
Three other Japanese satellites were also launched on the same rocket, including one designed by a university to monitor the movements and behaviour of whales over the next two years.
13/12/02
End of the week and a few news items to end with.
From my Emails & ICQ
From TVK
Hi Craig,
Could you please post this urgent message on your noticeboard to all Sydney installers?
Attention all Sydney Installation companies:
tvKorea currently requires installations for customers in the Sydney Metro area prior to Christmas. You must be able to provide a set top unit with Irdeto Version 2 encryption capability, compatible for the Globecast platform on the Optus B3 satellite. The signal will be encrypted and the customers provided with a Smart card.
Please forward all applications and queries to:
Sohi Kang
[email protected]
Thank you,
Sohi Kang.
From Victor (NZ)
Hi Craig,
I intend to recieve all the Indian and English free to air signals from Asaisat 3.
Would a 1.8m solid do the trick or do I need to get a 3.1m mesh.
If you know of some one selling dishes at a cheap price let me know.
Secondly do I need to get a council permit to set up a dish. I live in South Auckland.
Regards
Victor
(Craigs comment, A 3M is the recommended size. As for the permitt well officially you should get one but really it depends where the dish is going if its in your backyard and neighbours have no problems with it then you should be ok.)
From the Dish
Intelsat 701 180E 3769 R "HRT TV 1" has started , Fta, PIDs 2160/2120.(this one been there a while the source feed for HRT on B3)
Palapa C2 113E 3916 H "MAC TV" has started, Fta, Sr 2900, Fec 3/4, PIDs 308/256.
Palapa C2 113E 4015 H "TVRI Banda Aceh" has started, Fta, Sr 6000, Fec 3/4, PIDs 308/256, 17:30-20:00 HKT.
Palapa C2 113E Occasional feeds on 3990 H and 4005, SR 6000, FEC 3/4.
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3480 H "ATV and Show TV have replaced Thai TV Global Network and VTV 4" on, Fta, PIDs 512/640 and 513/641.
NEWS
Optus satellite under cloud
From http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,5668398%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
THE launch of the Optus-Department of Defence C1 satellite is under a cloud after the Ariane 5 rocket booked to carry it into space early next year exploded yesterday on take-off.
The launch of the satellite which will carry Australian telecommunications and military traffic could be postponed or shifted to another family of rockets.
Arianespace's Ariane 5 failed just three minutes after take-off, exploding and plunging two satellites into the Atlantic.
Described by the company as an "anomaly", the explosion will be the subject of an internal inquiry.
The failure followed several aborted launches of the payload, two communications satellites used by carrier Eutelsat and French space agency CNES.
"We have many options available to us and we are talking to Arianespace at the moment," an Optus spokesman said.
Yesterday's mishap was the second embarrassing failure for the Ariane 5, which was withdrawn from use for several months last year when it launched two satellites into the wrong orbit.
A board of inquiry into that flight found that a hydraulic problem in the upper stage of the Aestus engine caused poor thrust, shooting a European scientific satellite and a Japanese TV satellite into a lower than normal orbit and cutting the lifespan of the two, which had to use up fuel firing booster engines.
Satellite launch failures remain a sore spot for Optus, which lost its B2 satellite in 1992 when the Long March rocket carrying it from its launch site in China exploded.
All eyes at Optus will now be on the launch of competitor New Skies Satellite's NSS-6 satellite next week. But NSS-6 is likely to be successful, piggybacking on the more stable Ariane 4 rocket.
New Skies which acquired AAPT Sat-Tel in 1999 plans to provide telecommunications services in the Asia Pacific in competition with C1.
Arianespace is the commercial arm of the European Space Consortium, and is backed by 12 European countries headed by France.
It has launched hundreds of satellites from the European Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.
The failure comes as Japan's National Space Development Agency prepares to launch the Australian FedSat satellite from Tanegashima on Saturday.
FedSat the first Australian-built satellite since the 1967 launch of the Weapons Research Establishment satellite from Woomera will have a life of two to three years.
Satellite could beam fast net to bush
From http://abc.net.au/news/scitech/2002/12/item20021213150947_1.htm
The nation's first satellite in more than 30 years will be launched on the weekend and could result in super-fast and affordable broadband Internet services for rural and remote areas.
The research satellite FedSat will launch from Japan on Saturday and will conduct the first in-space experiments into the reliability and efficiency of a high-frequency communication band.
Dr Brian Embleton from the Co-operative Research Centre for Satellite Systems says the research could mean improved communications for regional areas.
"It's very exciting indeed. The experiments are designed to investigate how we can deliver Internet services more efficiently using satellite technologies," he said.
"It will be the first micro-satellite carrying a very high-speed broadband communications frequency - the kinds of frequencies people in remote areas will be relying on in the future to deliver Internet-like services to them," he said.
Minister backs Japan satellite launch
From http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5671403%255E15306,00.html
AUSTRALIA'S science minister says he's confident of a successful launch of a domestically produced satellite by Japan's space agency - despite recent failures.
Science Minister Peter McGauran says he has great faith in not just Japanese knowledge and ingenuity but also their capacity to learn from past experiences.
Australia is the first country ever to entrust Japan with launching a satellite into space.
Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, Mr McGauran says Japan offered last year to put the research pod, FedSat into space as a gift for the centenary of federation.
Japan will launch its H-2A rocket into space tomorrow, placing into orbit the first Australian-made satellite in 35 years.
The H-2A will also carry three Japanese-made satellites.
The FedSat has high-tech communication, space science, navigation and computing equipment and Canberra will share data from the satellite with Japan.
New satellite boosts Aust broadband
From http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000024993,20270667,00.htm
In a move which will boost broadband provision to Australia and throughout the southern hemisphere, New Skies Satellites is set to launch its first ever custom-built broadband satellite from the Arianespace launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.
The NSS-6 will be New Skies' sixth satellite in orbit, and extend the company's reach from Southern Africa, throughout the Middle East, and through the Asia -Pacific region, covering two thirds of the world's population.
According to Alan Marsden national marketing manager for New Skies Networks, the company's Australian division, the launch will significantly boost access to satellite services throughout Australia.
"The launch of this new satellite will enable us to provide two way services on antennas about half the size of those that are currently in use, and make us more capable of providing cost effective coverage," Marsden said. "Our number one competitor in the Australian market is Optus, in the sense that they have their own satellite and provide value added services, but the difference is that we can provide global rather than just domestic services."
Purpose built for broadband provision the NSS-6 will be located 95 degrees, just west of Singapore and provide coverage via six high-powered, Ku-band beams and up to 10 Ka-band uplink spot beams.
A licensed carrier in the Australian market New Skies Networks provides enterprise-level satellite connectivity for video broadcast, as well as voice and data networks.
New Skies Networks already operates three major city earth stations in Australia, where bandwidth from both New Skies and competitor's satellites provides the backbone for the company's national service.
The NSS-6 satellite is due to hit the skies on the 18th of December, subject to weather conditions, and final testing of the rockets. New Skies will be cautious not to repeat the ill-fated launch of the Ariane 5 rocket, which exploded soon after take off on December 13, taking with it a Hot Bird 7 satellite belonging to French-based carrier Eutelsat valued at US$250 million.
"The NSS-6 will be launched using Ariane 4 rockets, which have been much more stable than the Ariane 5s," Marsden said.
Arianespace Releases Initial Information On Flight 157
From http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/release_html_b1?release_id=49595
KOUROU, FRENCH GUIANA -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 12/12/2002 -- During a press conference today in Kourou, French Guiana, Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall provided initial information on the failure of Flight 157. He also announced the establishment of an independent inquiry board.
The flight
Initial data analysis performed last night showed that the countdown, engine ignition and initial phase of flight were normal. A first anomaly occurred 96 seconds into the mission, involving the cooling circuit for the Vulcain 2 engine that powers the main cryogenic stage. From T + 178 sec to T + 186 sec, the engine speed changed and a significant flight control perturbation occurred.
At T + 187 sec, the Ariane 5’s payload fairing was jettisoned as planned, but the launcher’s attitude was not correct. The launcher subsequently demonstrated erratic behavior. In compliance with range safety procedures, the launcher was destroyed at approximately 456 sec. into the mission. The Ariane 5 was at an altitude of about 69 kilometers and a distance of 800 kilometers off the coast of French Guiana.
Data analysis and inquiry board
Jean-Yves Le Gall announced that an independent inquiry board is being set up, with members to be named within a few days.
The board will have two main objectives:
1 Ensure that the Flight 157 anomaly will not affect upcoming
launches of the baseline version of Ariane 5.
2 Analyze, understand and correct the Flight 157 failure causes
so that the 10-ton-payload Ariane 5 version can resume launches with high reliability.
Next press conference
The date for the next press conference will be announced shortly following the submittal of initial conclusions by the inquiry board.
Arianespace next mission
The launch date for the next scheduled Arianespace mission, Flight 156 which will use an Ariane 4 to orbit the NSS-6 satellite has been confirmed for the evening of Tuesday, December 17.
About Arianespace
Arianespace is the commercial launch services leader, holding more than 50 percent of the international market for satellites launched to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). Created in 1980 as the world’s first commercial space transportation company, Arianespace has signed contracts for the launch of more than 250 satellite payloads. For further information, see the Arianespace Web site at www.arianespace.com.
iPSTAR launch still on schedule
From http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/13Dec2002_bus10.html
Ariane-5 blast won't delay plan
Shin Satellite says the launch of its iPSTAR satellite by the end of next year would not be affected by the failure and explosion of a new Arianespace rocket at the French company's site in French Guiana.
A spokesperson for the company said that Shin Satellite was a good customer that had used Arianespace's service for its first three satellites, and that failures were expected in the high-risk launch industry.
Shin Satellite would remain an Arianespace customer for the launch, the spokesperson said.
Shin Satellite Plc has secured $390.2 million in loans for iPSTAR, which will be the world's first broadband satellite. Of the total, $184.5 million was borrowed from the US Export-Import Bank, and $80.7 million from the French export-credit guarantee company Coface. The Coface loan will be used to defray the cost of the launch.
The first upgraded Ariane-5 rocket exploded soon after blast-off from French Guiana on Wednesday, sending two satellites plunging into the Atlantic Ocean in a $600-million space disaster.
The explosion, the fourth failure of an Ariane-5 rocket in its 14-mission history, was a major setback for the European space programme.
``About three minutes after lift-off an anomaly occurred,'' Arianespace chief executive Jean-Yves Le Gall said. ``It is impossible to say now what actually happened, just three minutes after launch the mission failed.''
Aboard the doomed rocket was the Hot Bird 7 satellite owned by the Paris-based operator Eutelsat. Eutelsat executives declined to give the cost of the satellite, its launch cost and the extent of insurance coverage.
Specialists estimated the cost of Hot Bird 7 at more than $250 million but were unable to estimate the scope of its insurance.
Wednesday's flight was the first attempt to launch an upgraded Ariane-5 rocket with a launch capacity of 10 tonnes. Previous versions of Ariane-5 had a maximum capacity of 6.8 tonnes.
Since the Ariane programme began in 1979, 11 of its 157 missions have failed. The extremely reliable Ariane-4 has failed only three times in over 100 launches, but is due to be taken out of service after two more flights.
Specialists said Wednesday's failure would make financing and insuring satellite ventures more expensive.
A total of 15 commercial satellites are expected to be ordered this year.
US firms have aggressively entered the launch sector with Boeing successfully launching its maiden Delta-4 rocket earlier this month and Lockheed Martin Corp introducing Atlas-5 in August.
Ariane space project in doubt after explosion
From http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,859111,00.html
Europe's troubled space programme was yesterday plunged into a new crisis after its most powerful rocket exploded shortly after take-off, sending more than $600m (£380m) worth of satellite equipment crashing into the ocean.
An unspecified "anomaly" was blamed after the Ariane 5 rocket disintegrated just three minutes after lift-off from the European Space Port on the coast of French Guyana on Wednesday night. Early reports suggest motor failure was to blame.
The explosion could be a fatal blow to the reputation of Ariane-5 rockets, which have a history of technical problems. It is also likely to hinder efforts by Arianespace, the European consortium, to return to profitability in the face of fierce competition from the US and Russia.
The space transport market is suffering from overcapacity due to a fall in demand from the financially stricken telecoms firms that form the bulk of its customer base.
The European Space Agency immediately launched an investigation into the failure, the second aborted attempt to get Ariane airborne in less than a fortnight.
Last month, Ariane and its business partners chartered an Air France jumbo to fly more than 100 dignitaries to the heart of the French Guyanan jungle to watch Ariane 5 take off. At the end of a dramatic countdown the rocket failed to ignite.
Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace's chief executive, apologised for the loss. "We've been through difficult times before and we will overcome this challenge," he insisted.
The launch was seen as a test of Arianespace's abilities to cut costs by placing two heavy satellites into geostationary orbit at a time. Satellite insurance premiums are likely to rise as a consequence of the explosion.
Last month, the largest communications satellite ever built was lost after failing to reach orbit after being launched on a Russian rocket.
The Ariane 5 launch programme was only restarted in March when it successfully launched a weather-monitoring satellite.
12/12/02
I have hooked up an old UHF video sender in my room so I can beam the cricket off Sky tv into the pc room. Its only through 1 wall so works okay. I just have to contact Sky and arrange for a 2nd Digital receiver for in my room during the cricket season and I will be all set.
Ariane 5 blew up on launch, lucky for us it didn't have Optus C1 or NSS6 onboard! see this link for some video clips. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2565387.stm
A late update on my Sky situation, Sky are wanting $200! to install a 2nd decoder ! what a ^%$^@ joke!! how big a joke? well Sky is doing installs for $99 at the moment! gee work it out Sky. Any SKY installer know the code or reference details for self installed dish or prewired house? the phone dummy had no idea. Basically all I need to do is pick up the decoder and card. Everything else is allready taken care of
From my Emails & ICQ
From Andrew Harrison
Arianne 5 Explodes
Arianne 5 just explodsd after takeoff from French Guyana sending 2 satellites plunging to their deaths into the Atlantic.
BBC said no on was hurt in the accident - bullshit.
Andrew Harrison
From the Dish
Koreasat 3 116E 12550 V KBS Korea and ABC Asia Pacific have replaced Dong Ah TV and Arirang TV Korea on , PowerVu, PIDs 1260/1220 and 1660/1620.
Yamal 102 90E Khabarovsk TV has moved from 3735 L to 3725 L, clear, SR 3200, FEC 3/4,PIDs 4194/4195.
Yamal 102 90E 3729 LN ew APID for Radio Rossii on : 257.
NEWS
Ariane-5 launch fails and rocket falls into ocean
From http://world.scmp.com/worldnews/ZZZDNGY2H9D.html
Europe's most powerful rocket lifted off early on Thursday (HK time) from its South American base, sailed into the heavens, then plummeted in pieces into the ocean.
It was the second botched attempt to put the souped up Ariane-5 rocket on its maiden voyage and a blow to the European consortium behind the Ariane program. Ariane is in heated competition with the United States for orders in the lucrative satellite launching market.
The unmanned rocket - carrying a 10-ton payload of two satellites - appeared to make a perfect lift off from the Kourou base in French Guiana, at 6.21am (HK time).
However, three minutes later, technical problems developed, according to Arianespace, the launcher's commercial arm, and the rocket fell into the Atlantic Ocean in pieces, along with its multimillion-dollar payload, according to Arianespace.
''Approximately three minutes after liftoff an anomaly occurred, thus ending the flight 157 mission,'' Arianespace said in a brief statement.
The nature of the anomaly was not immediately known. There was speculation of a combustion problem.
Experts immediately began deciphering the data, and Arianespace set a news conference for Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the space station was the object of a bomb threat that proved unfounded, officials said.
Ariane 5 Fails on Maiden Flight
From http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=646
Today's maiden flight of the updated version of the Ariane 5 failed shortly after takeoff. Flight 157 was to have placed two satellite payloads into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
The flight was to demonstrate the Ariane 5's capability to pair up all types of spacecraft for efficient dual launches. The first satellite that would have been deployed was the Eutelsat HOT BIRDTM 7 TV broadcast platform, followed minutes later by the French CNES space agency's STENTOR telecom demonstrator spacecraft.
The Ariane 5 used for today's mission is the first launcher with a 10-ton payload lift capacity to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said it was too soon to give an explenation of the failure. A press conference is scheduled for 8 a.m. EST tomorrow.
Europe's super rocket explodes
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2565387.stm
Europe's new heavy-lift rocket has failed on its maiden flight.
The Ariane 5-ESCA blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 1921 (2221 GMT) local time and exploded over the Atlantic three minutes later.
"We have already known failures, we will know more " Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace
Sources close to the launch site have told BBC News Online that first indications suggest a failure of the rocket's main Vulcain-2 engine, as its performance was seen to reduce dramatically before the vehicle veered off course.
All Ariane 5 launches have now been put on hold, which threatens next month's daring Rosetta mission designed to put a lander on a comet.
Slow speed
According to our sources, it seems that after the rocket's two solid-fuelled boosters separated from the core stage, the pressure of the liquid fuel entering the Vulcain-2's combustion chamber was less than expected.
The effect became apparent three minutes into the flight when it was clear the Ariane 5 was not gaining the required altitude or speed.
Seconds later the vehicle's self-destruct mechanism activated.
The Vulcain-2 engine is supposed to power the rocket for the first nine minutes of flight. The debris from the rocket, and its dual satellite payload, fell into the ocean.
Arianespace, the rocket's operators, have scheduled a media conference for Thursday.
Main stage
Wednesday's launch was the second attempt to get the Ariane 5-ESCA airborne. The first countdown on 28 November was halted because of a computer glitch.
The launcher was a beefed-up version of the vehicle that first went into full commercial service in 1999.
Wednesday's explosion was the fourth failure, and the third total loss of an Ariane 5 rocket in its 14-mission history that goes back to 1996.
The enhanced Ariane 5 has a payload capacity of 10 tonnes, as opposed to the standard Ariane 5 capacity of six tonnes. This is achieved by increasing the performance of its rocket motors by about 20% and incorporating better fuel pumps and bigger fuel tanks.
A new cryogenic upper stage has also been included in the enhanced Ariane 5 concept.
Comet question
The setback has put an enormous question mark over Europe's upcoming science mission Rosetta, which was built to put a lander on Comet Wirtanen.
The Rosetta mission would land on a comet
The Rosetta craft was due to launch on the next Ariane 5 flight on 12 January. Its eight-year journey to the comet requires the probe to be swung around Mars once and Earth twice to get it in the right position to catch the comet.
This means Rosetta has a tight 20-day launch window. If it is not despatched during this time, it is likely the spaceprobe will have to be directed towards another comet.
There are several other possibilities but astronomers would be dismayed to rule out an encounter with Comet Wirtanen.
Cruel reminder
The Ariane 5 launcher lost on Wednesday was carrying two satellites: a Hotbird TM7 for the European telecoms consortium Eutelsat, and Stentor, an experimental communications satellite for the French space research institute CNES.
The Eutelsat had an estimated value of about 250m euros; the Stentor was said to be worth 380m euros. Both were insured.
The CEO of Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, immediately apologised to his two customers.
"At this stage it is too early to give precise reasons for this failure," he said.
"Our job is difficult. It's at moments like this we are cruelly reminded of it," he added. "We have already known failures, we will know more."
Australia blasts back into space game
From http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/11/1039379882750.html
The first Australian-built satellite in 35 years is due to be launched on Saturday as the nation re-enters the Space Age.
The $20 million, 60-kilogram, half-metre, cube-shaped FedSat - a so-called "micro-satellite" - will be launched on a Japanese rocket from Tanegashima space centre, 900 kilometres south-west of Tokyo, at 12.31pm Melbourne time.
FedSat was built by the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems, a consortium comprising the CSIRO, four companies and six universities, including La Trobe. It aims to test space-based broadband communication and new satellite computers. It will also collect data on solar radiation and the Earth's ionosphere.
The executive director of the Australian consortium, Brian Embleton, said FedSat was the first satellite developed in Australia since WRESAT and Oscar 5 were built in 1967-1970. He said technology had made satellites smaller and cheaper to build.
"It's just been so expensive to get into the (space) game; now it's affordable," Dr Embleton said. "Ten years ago, you needed a very large, expensive satellite . . . (now) it's just a question of getting on the bandwagon."
The satellite was built by 15 engineers and scientists at Auspace in Canberra. Most of the on-board equipment was built in Australia, although NASA contributed a payload.
Dr Embleton said the Aussat satellites, launched to improve Australia's communications in the 1980s, were Australian-owned but built overseas. "It didn't rub off on the local industry and that was a great disappointment to many," he said.
CSIRO chief executive Geoff Garrett said: "We have extremely high hopes for FedSat, which will end a long drought in Australian satellite flights. The scientific data it returns will be helpful for our own research, and will also contribute to research efforts in Japan."
FedSat is built to last three years, although its 800-kilometre, low-Earth polar orbit means it will be about a century before atmospheric drag condemns it to a fiery re-entry. The satellite has six experiments on board. Dr Embleton said FedSat was being launched free in return for sharing the satellite data with Japanese scientists.
Science Minister Peter McGauran said the launch - which "dwarfed" the cost of building FedSat - was a "generous gift from Japan for our centenary of Federation".
Although Australia was the third country after the US and USSR to launch a satellite from its territory, it has fallen behind in the space race. It is not one of the 15 countries involved in the International Space Station, a project that includes even small nations such as Denmark.
Mr McGauran said Australia "lost our way . . . we didn't assign space exploration and space technology the importance it needed and we are making up for lost time".
The launch will be shown live at www.crcss.csiro.au
Phoenix TV may win China hotel rights
From http://www.thestandard.com.hk/thestandard/news_detail_frame.cfm?articleid=36105&intcatid=1
Putonghua broadcaster Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings is on the landing-rights list to broadcast its InfoNews channel in three-star hotels on the mainland from the beginning of next year.
AOL Time Warner's China Entertainment Television Broadcast (CETV), Bloomberg TV and News Corporation's Star Xing Kong Wei Shi are also included, Ming Pao newspaper reported yesterday.
Phoenix deputy chief executive Leung Noong-kong told The Standard: ``We are still waiting for the approval and will have an official announcement once it materialises.''
Taiwan-backed applicants Asia Plus and Eastern Television had been removed from the list, sources said.
Phoenix had said the InfoNews channel, started last January, cost about US$20 million (HK$156 million) a year to run.
The company, which had permission to downlink its flagship Phoenix Chinese channel and a movie channel in Guangdong, also said InfoNews was likely to continue to lose money for up to four years even if it won China landing rights.
Media Partners Asia analyst Vivek Couto said: ``Phoenix InfoNews has been loss-making since its launch, depressing Phoenix's overall cashflow generation, so any kind of extended distribution is welcome.''
At present, CETV can reach more than 13 million homes in Guangdong and more than 18 million in total on an unofficial basis.
Xing Kong expects to break even in three years largely due to its general entertainment programming formula, based on the approach of ratings leader Star Plus in India.
``India's TV market is far different from China, and while Xing Kong is gaining in popularity ... it remains to be seen whether its ratings success, delivered on a very small reach, can translate into sizable ad dollars,'' Couto said.
The US$2.4 billion TV ad market remains dominated by CCTV and aggressive provincial broadcasters.
``Phoenix has made a dent historically ... while others [CETV, Xing Kong] have yet to really register on the radar screen,'' Couto said.
Phoenix's losses narrowed to HK$20.4 million in its fiscal first quarter from HK$34.88 million a year earlier.
Its shares closed unchanged yesterday at 73 HK cents.
11/12/02
Thank you all those that showed up in the chatroom it was interesting discussing what new channels people would like to see in our region. Let me know if you have some good sugestions!
Site updates might be a little delayed over the next few days as NZ is playing India in the Cricket so I will be watching that.
From my Emails & ICQ
Nothing but spam !
From the Dish
Intelsat 701 180E 4174 L AFN News and AFN Sports have started , PowerVu, PIDs 1260/1220and 1360/1320. New PIDs for AFN Pacific: 1160/1120.
PAS 8 166E 12366 H "MCM Asia" has left , replaced by a Les amis info card.The Les amis test card have left again.
PAS 8 166E 12646 H A new mux has started, Sr 28066, Fec 3/4.
PAS 8 166E 12686 H "CNBC Asia" has left .
Koreasat 3 116E 12530 H "ECN" has started testing on , clear, PIDs 2320/2321, Sky ch 722.A test card has started on PIDs 2336/2337, clear.
Asiasat 3 105.5E 4020 V "Sahara TV" and seven test cards have started , fta, Sr 27250,Fec3/4, PIDs 512/650-519/720.
Asiasat 2:100.5E 3660 V "EuroSport News" has left .
Yamal 102 90E 3725 L GTRK Dalnevostochnaya and Radio Rossii have moved to3729 L, Sr 4285, Fec 3/4, PIDs 308/256.
Thaicom 2 78.5E 3764 H "BBTV Channel 7" has left .
NEWS
Astra Satellite Splashes Into Pacific
From http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/12/11/048.html
The Associated Press The world's largest communications satellite plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, two weeks after a Russian booster rocket failed to put it into the correct orbit, the Russian Aviation and Space Agency said.
European mission control used the Astra-1K's engines to push it back into the earth's atmosphere and push it into the southern Pacific Ocean, said space forces spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko.
The French-made Astra-1K was rendered useless following its Nov. 26 launch atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan when the Russian-made DM-3 boosting unit failed to give a secondary impulse to send it to a higher orbit, said Konstantin Kreidenko, a spokesman for the Russian Aviation and Space Agency.
Kreidenko said in a telephone interview that a glitch in the software that controls the DM-3 may have caused the failure, saying the DM-3 boosting unit, manufactured by RKK Energia, is used frequently to launch satellites to high, geostationary orbits without any problems.
With a height of 6.6 meters and a total span of 37 meters and equipped with 10 antenna reflectors, the satellite had been intended to replace three Astra satellites now in orbit.
Its owners later established partial control over the satellite but said it would never be able to fulfill its main mission of handling signals for radio, television, mobile telephones and the Internet.
Interfax reported an insurance industry source as saying the satellite was insured for more than $217 million.
The Astra-1K, manufactured by France's Alcatel Space corporation for the Societe Europeene des Satellites of Luxembourg, was the largest communications satellite ever built, at 5.25 metric tons.
The failure marked another setback for Russia's satellite-launching program, which Moscow sees as a potential cash cow for its depressed space industry. It followed the Oct. 15 explosion of an unmanned Soyuz-U rocket, also carrying a satellite, half a minute after liftoff.
New TV network will air programmes from Oman
From http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=20517&pn=local
MUSCAT Middle East Television (MET), a Dubai Media City (DMC)-based broadcaster, will be airing programmes from Oman, early next year.
Although it is only just over a month since MET has begun beaming its programmes, the overwhelming response this first 24-hour free-to-air Indian satellite channel and the first overseas Malayalam Channel has received, specially from Oman, has prompted the channel to produce programmes specifically from Oman, the promoters said yesterday.
These programmes would be interactive in nature, mainly chat programmes and the like. Furthermore, there will also be special programmes on the activities among various communities in Oman, which will soon be covered and aired.
The enquiries that Oman has generated in this regard is very optimistic, says John Thomas, managing director of MET.
The MET is a 24-hour free-to-air digital satellite channel in Malayalam (with regular slots for Hindi and other south Indian languages) catering to the Indians in the Gulf and the rest of the world with local programmes produced mainly in the UAE. Apart from attracting substantial viewership of expatriate Malayalam-speakers and Indians, the channel has also appealed to a large number of viewers in Kerala and India with its highly entertaining content produced and broadcast with world-class production and technical standards.
The main target audience of the new channel is from the AGCC countries. Regular time slots are being offered for Hindi and other South Indian languages. Compared to other Malayalam channels the viewership of MET is much more because of the multi-language programme platform.
The project called for an initial investment of $20 million, Thomas noted.
The new channel, a sister concern of the Dubai-based Alan Technology LLC, a leading player in the Gulf information technology sector, has been airing many programmes produced locally with specific time slots focusing on Dubai and other AGCC countries, covering business activities, local festivals, tourism spots, conferences and exhibitions.
?Our goal is to provide quality entertainment with a difference. Although our primary target is South Indian viewership, we will have several programmes tailor-made to appeal to all Indians living within and outside the country thanks to our global reach,” Sudhir Kumar, executive director of MET, noted.
?Unlike other Malayalam television channels that rely mostly on film-based programmes, MET will focus primarily on news-based as well as feature programmes. Innovation will be our strength, and we have lined up a lot of exciting and refreshing topics for telecast,” Sudhir added.
The MET uses the latest server-based transmission technology and is uplinked from Dubai Media City’s teleport facilities. In a short span of time that MET has started, it has been regarded as a well-packaged family entertainment channel for the subcontinental viewer residing in Middle East, Far East, Africa, Europe and Australia.
MET will be available on the following specifications.
Satellite Panamsat 10 (PAS 10) at 68.50 E., Frequency 4131 MHz, Symbol Rate 3308, FEC-2/3, Polarisation: Horizontal, Service ID-MET, Video PID-33, Audio PID-36.
Any individual receiving any of the Malayalam channels at the moment can receive MET by adding one LNB to his existing dish, John Thomas noted.
Ahimsaa channel to be launched on 30 Jan 2003
From indiantelevision.com
MUMBAI: Ahimsaa, a 24-hour global satellite television channel is all set for its launch on 30 January next year. The content of the channel will primarily comprise social, environmental and women empowerment issues.
The first official announcement about the launch was made at the 'Converging World 2002' held in Bangalore between 3-5 December. The channel is promoted by the Kolkata based Santosh Kumar Jain who besides being a partner in Aastha Television and CMM Music has also promoted ATN World and ATN Bangla in West Bengal. It is being backed by The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU) which is headquartered in Mount Abu, India.
"We propose to have kids shows; serials aimed at the youth and career guidance; women's rights and issues beauty tips; and even cooking. We shall even cover issues like Aids, health, alternate therapies and cures," Ahimsaa Global Media Director, Sonal Jain elaborated while speaking to the indiantelevision.com team.
The channel will reach out to over four billion people in more than 150 countries through its programmes on spiritual, ethical and social themes, stated an official release. It will show children's programme like 'moral story telling' sessions, alternate methods of education and special programmes for the youth on career guidance, awareness regarding drugs, AIDS and other issues, the release added.
"Negotiations are on with the managements of PAS-10 and Thaicom for uplinking facilities. We are also commissioning inhouse content at Kolkata. Within two years, we expect the advertisers to provide content. At present we have programming content of around eight hours and there will be repeat telecasts. We propose to increase the programming content as time goes by, " said Brahma Kumaris' chief of multimedia, B K Karuna.
Consumers to pay only for channels they view
From indiantelevision.com
NEW DELHI:The Rajya Sabha today unanimously passed the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill. The Lok Sabha had earlier passed the Bill in May this year.
Piloting the bill, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Sushma Swaraj said that the bill provides protection to the consumers and they would be required to pay for only those channels that they would like to view and not for the arbitrarily prepared bouquet by the broadcasters. This would also resolve the controversy of actual subscribers, which had all along been a contention between the broadcasters and cable operators. She said the Government will fix the number of channels in the basic tier and not the specific channels.
The rate for each pay channel would be decided by the broadcasters and the rate lists would have to be displayed by the cable operators. Swaraj hoped the cost of Set Top Boxes (STBs) would come down once these are produced at a mass scale. The STBs would be allowed both in analog and digital forms, she said.
The Bill seeks to provide for:
Empowering the Government to mandate through notification, in a phased manner, installation of addressable systems for viewing pay channels;
/ree-to-air channels in the areas thus notified , to continue to be received by the subscribers in the existing receiver sets without having to go through the addressable systems;
A provision that the subscriber would not be required to change the receiving set irrespective of the channels that he wishes to receive and to provide that he would be free to view the channels from amongst those offered by the cable service providers;
The flexibility for adoption of technological advancements and upgradation in the addressable systems and to provide that the technical standards and performance parameters of the systems would be laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards, from time to time;
The Government to prescribe, from time to time, the maximum amount to be paid by the subscriber to the cable service provider for the ‘basic service tier’ consisting of the bouquet of notified ‘free-to-air’ channels and to determine the number of channels to be included in this ‘tier’ and the maximum cost for the same in different States/cities/areas of the country, from time to time; and
Effective enforcement of the amendments, violations of which would constitute a cognizable offence.
The Government has been monitoring the implementation of the Act and taking corrective measures as and when considered necessary. Amendments were made in the Act in the year, 2000, vide, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2000. In recent months, there has been a great public outcry against frequent and arbitrary hike in the cable subscription charges.The subscription rates are being fixed arbitrarily by broadcasters and cable service providers in almost area specific monopolistic distribution system and the subscribers no choice to ask and pay for the channels he wishes to view.
At present, there is no legal or administrative instrument by which the Government could intervene and regulate the subscription charges or ask the cable service providers to transmit/retransmit television signals through any addressable system which would enable record of actual viewership leading to under-reporting of the number of subscribers by the cable service providers, Multi Service Operators (MSOs) and broadcasters, which, in turn, is also affecting revenues due to the Government.
The public demand for Government intervention is such that it needs to be addressed on a priority basis. Besides mandating the viewing of pay channels through an addressable system, the Government would notify from time to time and place to place, the subscription of the basic tier of free-to-air channels, since the primary objective is ensure that every subscriber receives at least a minimum number of free-to-air channels at reasonable cost.
10/12/02
Chat night live chat in the chatroom 9pm NZ and 8.30pm Syd time onwards.
Sorry things are running late busy today
From my Emails & ICQ
Nothing to report
From the Dish
Intelsat 804 176E 4177 L The AFN mux has left .
PAS 8 166E 12366 H The Les Amis test cards are back, Fta, SIDs 5-8.
Asiasat 3 105.5E Sahara TV has left 4020 V (PAL), moved to 3660 V. (start looking for the Digital version any day)
PAS 10 68.5E 4184 H Occasional feeds on, PIDs 1560/1520.
Satellite Launches:
NSS 6 is scheduled to launch with Ariane on 17 December.
Apstar 5 is scheduled to launch with Zenit/Sea Launch.
NEWS
Telecom trialling videos on PCs
From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2134435a28,00.html
Telecom started a trial of movies and music videos for personal computers yesterday to compete with the pay-per-view videos of Sky TV and TelstraClear.
But the company still wanted to hammer out a deal with Sky TV for bundling pay-tv with Telecom's telephone and internet services, it said yesterday.
Telecom marketing manager, consumer, Sandra Geange said Telecom and Sky were still negotiating about bundling their products. Telecom's deal with Sky ended six months ago and negotiations for a new agreement have been protracted and difficult.
"We are hoping it will be resolved by the end of the calendar year," Ms Geange said.
Telecom's new video-on-demand service is marketed as "JetVideo". The movies and music videos are supplied by Singapore-based Intertainer Asia which has supply relationships with movie providers such as Warner Bros, Universal Studios, MGM and Warner Music.
The video and music is transmitted by Telecom's broadband service, Jetstream, and is watched through personal computers or televisions.
Ms Geane said the videos needed a minimum broadband capacity of 1.5 megabits per second. Twenty-four movies and 12 music videos were on offer and they would be refreshed in mid-January.
One hundred households in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Taranaki are taking part in the three-month trial of the new service - 90 on PCs and 10 on televisions.
Ms Geange said Telecom wanted to assess whether the video-on-demand through PCs had significant customer appeal.
Telecom had not yet priced the video-on-demand service but it would probably have to be competitive with Sky TV's $7-$10 pay-per-view video service.
It was easier to deliver over a PC rather than television which required a set top box. The set top box technology was changing quickly.
The trial would provide Telecom with information about the potential market for the service and practical information about delivery and what support customers needed.
Trial participants required a standard PC and Jetstream.
Satellite porn gets a mixed reception
From Pacnews
Pape'ete: Satellite television has brought the world to the remote islands of the Pacific - but is it a blessing or a curse?
Tahiti Nui Satellite (TNS) TV, a multi-channel service funded by the territorial government in French Polynesia, was launched two years ago to provide a variety of programs to the outer islands and now boasts 10,000 customers. One channel, however, is proving very problematic, the porn channel.
The pornography channel is apparently very popular with viewers but has just as many detractors.
At first the satellite service was welcomed as broadening islanders' lives. Tea Hirshon, of the Opposition party, Tavini, said: "When the company was created, the goal was to open all of French Polynesia to the outside world through different programs, which is fun."
Ms Hirshon is part of a women's group in the party that recently raised concerns about the violence and pornography screened on the satellite server.
Alex Du Prel, the editor of the island's monthly news magazine, Tahiti Pacifique Magazine, said the satellite pay-TV service, which can be received across the outer islands, was of particular concern.
"On one of the islands, Ravaivai, the mayor was also the pastor on the island," he said. "Since that TV came out, he shuts down the island generator at midnight and switches it on at six o'clock in the morning. In that way, he ensures nobody is going to watch."
While the Government can put limits on free-to-air TV, it is difficult to control the use of satellite TV.
Mr Du Prel said: "They did not put that channel on for the Cook Islands, but any guy in the Cook Islands can buy a subscription and get a card because the satellite doesn't know where he is."
Cook Islands Television takes only a few of the more than 20 channels provided by TNS, none with pornography.
The Cook Islands' former telecommunications minister, Norman George, said: "Some of the programs are truly alien to our Polynesian way of life - too violent and too sexually oriented. We've gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that there is no access to pornographic material."
(Craigs comment, Welcome to the real world Pacific Islanders)
French satellite magazine fined
From http://www.advanced-television.com/pages/pagesb/newsdaily.html
The French magazine Tele Satellite was found guilty of inciting fraud in a Paris tribunal last week. The offence relates to articles it published in September 2000 and December 2001, on the Mediaguard access control system used by Canal Plus and Canal Satellite. The incriminating articles explained how information on programming pirate cards is available on the Internet and gave some information on how the cards are made.
The defence pointed out that the articles concerned the piracy phenomenon but the tribunal considered that they gave sufficient information to enable people to hack the channel.The director of the magazine and the journalist were each fined E750. Meanwhile, all the information needed to make and programme pirate cards is easily available to anyone carrying out a quick search on the Internet and blank cards can be bought over the counter from electronics components shops in Paris.
Sahara TV going digital
From http://www.hinduonnet.com/bline/stories/2002121001190400.htm
SAHARA TV, the 24-hour free-to-air general entertainment Hindi channel, has announced that it has set up its own modern multiple channel digital uplink earth station at Noida with both playout and uplinking facility directly from India.
With this Sahara TV goes digital from Tuesday next, offering higher quality of digital picture and sound.
The digital feed will now be extended on transponder 10-V of AsiaSat 3S.
Mr Sumit Roy, Head of Sahara TV, in a statement said that the preparation work was already completed.
"We have commenced our analogue services on transponder 10-V and 1-V of AsiaSat 3S in order to facilitate switchover by our cable operators. However, the channel, which has wide penetration, will continue to telecast both digital and analogue feed simultaneously for about a month."
SET Asia to commence operations in Canada
From indiantelevision.com
MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television Asia has entered into a distribution agreement with Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) Canada, a leader in the provision of South Asian television services in that territory.
According to a statement by Sony Entertainment Television, chief executive officer,Kunal Dasgupta, Sony Entertainment Television Asia (SET Asia) will commence operations in Canada today,
." We are delighted with our partnership with Sony Entertainment Television, an organization that is backed by Sony Pictures Television International, which was earlier known as Columbia TriStar International Television. We expect to tier this impressive channel with our current licensed service, subject to regulatory approval, to offer a compelling package of a South Asian bouquet of channels in Canada," ATN president and chief executive officer, Shan Chandrasekar is quoted as saying in a press release.
ATN currently owns and operates four South Asian channels and has been awarded licenses for eight more digital channels. Amongst the new licenses one is in collaboration with Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) and the Sports Network (TSN) and the second in collaboration with Vision TV and Radio Nord. ATN is a publicly trading company, quoted on the TSX Venture Exchange as YTN.
9/12/02
I am slowly adding more links to the links section. Please send more (saves me looking)
From my Emails & ICQ
From "SiamGlobal"
RE CNBC ENCRYPTION
BAD NEWS FOR VIEWERS IN ASIA PACIFIC . GREAT NEWS FOR BLOOMBERG .
JUST AS BBC WORLD HAS TAKEN OVER AS THE MAIN NEWS SERVICE IN ASIA SINCE CNN ENCRYPTED BLOOMBERG WILL NOW PULL WAY AHEAD OF CNBC AS THE MAIN FINANCIAL SERVICE.
BBC WORLD'S REGULAR FINANCIAL NEWS BULLETINS WILL ALSO INCREASE IN IMPORTANCE. SIAMGLOBASL BKK
PS CAN SOMEONE INFORM US WHAT ENCRYPTION SYSTEM CNBC WILL BE USING AND WHETHER CNBC INDIA WILL REMAIN FTA WHICH WILL LESSEN THE BLOW TO VIEWERS .
From Stu Mcleod (NZ) 8/12/02
Hi , just a report of two signals found on 176 East
RHC , 3874 , 6110 , 3/4 - Globo International ( Power Vu )
RHC , 3845 , 1499 , 3/4 - TBE ....176 ( TAB from Aussie , www.tab.com.au ) has video and audio . No T.Text however at the time of report .
Both signals relatively strong here on 3.0 meter .
Stu
From Bill Richards 8/12/02
Asiasat2
0600 UTC
3966 V Sr 6110, Fec 3/4, Vpid 308 Apid 256 "Globecast Kuala Lumpa Golf Feed"
0610 UTC
3846 V Sr 4800, Fec 3/4, Vpid 1110 Apid 1211 "Unidentified Chinese Channel"
0614 UTC
4055 V Sr 6200, Fec 3/4, Vpid 33 Apid 32 "SSTV-DBS-1 Chinese Basketball Feed"
Regards
Bill
From the Dish
NSS 5 177W "NSS 5" has arrived at 177 West.
PAS 8 166E 3860 H It's Z Channel on , PIDs 920/921, Viaccess 2.
PAS 8 166E 12366 H The Les Amis test cards have left .
Koreasat 3 116E Updates in SkyLife:
Dong Ah TV has replaced Travel & Leisure TV on 12450 H, Videoguard, PIDs 1888/1889.
Travel & Leisure TV has replaced Dong Ah TV on 11747 L, Videoguard, PIDs 4208/4209.
Koreasat 3 116E 12530 H A test card has started , Videoguard, Sr 27490, Fec 3/4, SID 901, PIDs 2320/2321.
Palapa C2 113E 11132 V TVBS and ERA News have replaced Phoenix InfoNews and Scholar Business Network on , Viaccess 2, PIDs 64/65 and 72/73.
Koreasat 2 113E 12370 H "Biz TV" is Fta again.
Asiasat 3 105.5E 3660 V "Sahara TV" is back on , PAL.
Yamal 102 90E 3564 R The Netservice mux has started on , clear, SR 1240, FEC 7/8, a copy of LMI 1: 12605 V.
Intelsat 906 64E 3642 R East Africa Radio has left , APID 1027.
Intelsat 906 64E 4080 L "Hero, NPR Worldwide AFRTS and Z Rock" are now encrypted.
NEWS
No-pay TV costs industry $50m
From http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/07/1038950233423.html
Pay television piracy is rife in Australia, with at least $50 million of revenue lost to illegal activity last year.
The Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association estimates between 5 and 10 per cent of all pay TV connections are illegal.
Pirate operators are reportedly charging as much as $4000 for the full installation of a satellite dish and illegal set-top box.
Hacked smart cards that give legitimate subscribers access to premium channels for which they have not paid range between $200 and $300.
But a campaign to stop the piracy is claiming some early victories, with the conviction and fining of a 27-year-old television installer from Sunshine and a spate of arrests over recent weeks.
More than 3000 hacked smart cards have been seized in recent searches around the country. In August, 37 ACT police officers raided 10 homes after a three-month investigation into a network of ACT satellite television users illegally getting access to subscription services. Ten people were arrested and that same month, searches on two Ballarat premises resulted in the seizure of a significant amount of equipment as well as two arrests.
A man from Mill Park, alleged to be one of the country's leading suppliers of pirated smart cards and related manufacturing equipment, has been summonsed on a range of state and federal charges at a date yet to be set.
The crackdown comes at a crucial time for pay TV operators, who rely on the growth of satellite customers to bring the loss-making business into the black. Although both cable and satellite networks are prone to piracy, the ready availability of satellite dishes and set-top boxes makes this market more vulnerable to illegal activity.
According to one story reported in a trade newsletter, an executive of regional provider Austar was offered a bogus smart card by a neighbour.
However, consumers are likely to find they have been duped by the illicit equipment, as pay TV operators regularly modify their encrypted signals to screen out hacked cards. Ironically, operators can pinpoint the location of pirate activity by inquiries to call and help centres made by customers whose cards cease to work as a result of the industry's technological countermeasures.
Although pirates are being targeted in the current crackdown, consumers who gain access to pay TV services via pirated devices could potentially face criminal charges.
"Many people in the community are not aware of the consequences of pirating pay TV equipment," Debra Richards, the executive director of ASTRA, said.
"They are perpetuating a crime and exposing themselves to severe penalties of up to $60,500 in fines and imprisonment for up to five years.
"Consumers, too, are leaving themselves very exposed. If they end up being conned they can often find themselves with a faulty service that can be easily shut down or even worse - has faulty wiring and may be dangerous. As a result of this illegal practice, others pay a higher price."
Only employees and licensed contractors of pay TV providers can carry out installation work, says ASTRA. Such work is accompanied by official contracts and paperwork.
ASTRA has set up a hotline for the reporting of suspected pirate activity at 1 800 428 888.
Gilat contending for New Zealand tender
From http://www.haaretzdaily.com/
Israeli satellite communications company Gilat Satellite Networks (NASDAQ:GILTF) is competing for a New Zealand "Probe" tender, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Gilat will be going head to head with Optus, PanAmSat, Intelsat, New Skies and Hughes over the broadband contract, which is to supply high-speed Internet to rural areas in the island nation. The scope of the tender is not known.
No comment could be obtained from Gilat.
Optus already provides nationwide broadband services in New Zealand, the Herald reported. Intelsat has New Zealand within the beam of its satellites, and so does PanAmSat.
The winning vendor may have to establish a satellite earth station to secure the tender, the paper said. The winner will be announced on December 20.
Gilat has rich experience in establishing broadband data networks, through rStar, a subsidiary recently acquired in the U.S.
RStar, formerly known as ZapMe, has supplied free broadband networks to schools in the U.S., hoping to generate revenues from advertising.
Gilat has yet to publish its third-quarter results, but is expected to do so mid-week. For the second quarter, the company reported revenue of $51.6 million, down 30% from the first quarter. Its net loss totaled $35.7 million in the second quarter.
Several weeks ago, Gilat announced the guidelines of its arrangement with creditors, mainly bond-holders and Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI ). The bond-holders will be converting most of the debt owed to them into shares, bringing them a holding of about 80%. After the arrangement, Hapoalim will have a 14% interest.
Multichoice Clamps Down On Hotel Piracy
From http://allafrica.com/stories/200212080200.html
MultiChoice Africa limited and MultiChoice Nigeria Ltd., in conjunction with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has taken its campaign against broadcast piracy to a higher dimension. On Tuesday, 26th November, 2002, the bailiff of the Federal High Court, accompanied by copyright inspectors of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, and officers of the Nigerian Police Force (CID), raided the premises of an Ibadan based hotel, D'Rovans Hotel Ltd., for engaging in the infringement of MultiChoice copyright in its transmission.
The raid was in execution of an Anton Pillar Order of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, which empowered the plaintiffs through the court Bailiff, to enter the premises of the hotel and take possession of equipment, machines and contrivances which constitute evidence of the infringement.
Items confiscated by the court bailiff during the raid includes, DStv satellite decoders, a MultiChoice Smartcard, satellite receivers and other equipment used by the hotel for the illegal distribution of MultiChoice broadcast.
The plaintiffs, acting through its solicitors, Abraham and Co. had sought and obtained a "Search and Seizure Order" from the Federal high Court Ibadan, following the complaint of an infringement on its DStv broadcast by the hotel.
Copyright inspectors of the Nigerian Copyright Commission conducted an investigation, further to a complaint by the plaintiff, which led to obtaining of the court order. This is in furtherance of the commission's drive to ensure that the incidence of piracy in the country is curtailed. Frikkie Jonker, MultiChoice Africa Anti-Piracy Manager confirmed that the raid on D'Rovans Hotel is one of several raids that will be carried out against hotels and other establishments in Nigeria involved in the illegal re-distribution/transmission of their broadcast without obtaining proper licence
BBC World's Asia audience growing: report
From indiantelevision.com
NEW DELHI: The sixth Pan Asia Cross Media Survey (PAX) has found that unlike other news channels, BBC World has held onto the audience it gained in 2001 as well as showing annual growth in some of Asia's biggest urban centres.
BBC World's monthly audience grew by 14 per cent year-on-year to 993,000 - the fastest growth for any of the top ten international channels, according to a press release from BBC. BBC World enjoyed particularly large growth in Kuala Lumpur - up 79 per cent, Bangkok - up 41per cent, Hong Kong - up 17 per cent and Taipei - up 16 per cent.
According to the study, BBC World also attracts a further 590,000 monthly viewers in Seoul and in India which combined with the rest results in a total panel viewership of 1.58 million. This confirms the trend seen in the recent IATS survey among air travellers, the only other recent survey in Asia which even attempts to measure viewership amongst such business audiences.
In particular, BBC World's investment in business programming is attracting a loyal audience of senior business people. Findings show that more than 44,000 'Top Management' in Asia tune into BBC World 'Every day/ Almost every day' - more than any sports or business news channel. Among those in such senior positions in medium and larger firms (50+ employees), BBC World's 21,000 regular viewers makes it the fourth largest international channel and the eighth largest among all the channels across Asia, including terrestrials (and among the top five outside Korea).
BBC World's overall audience profile also remains enviably upscale. Among the largest ten international channels which business decision-makers in Asia-Pacific watch, BBC World's audience includes the highest proportion of top management (34 per cent) and opinion formers involved in more than three business activities (30 per cent).
The PAX 2002 survey was conducted from July to September 2002 among 3,976 respondents in nine markets in South East Asia and India. This release is based on the full nine-markets (Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, and India).
T S I C H A N N E L N E W S - Number 49/2002 8 December 2002 -
A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by TELE-satellite International
Editor: Branislav Pekic
Edited Apsattv.com Edition
A S I A
CASBAA REPORT FORECASTS 45% GROWTH FOR CABLE AND SATELLITE
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) on
December 3 revealed the latest figures and forecasts for Asia Pacific's
pay-TV industry. According to CASBAA, the cable and satellite (C&S)
industry in Asia-Pacific is set to grow from the current 157 million C&S
subscribers to over 228 million subscribers in the next eight years,
registering a 45 per cent growth rate from 2002 to 2010. China and India
will continue to be the key markets in 2010, with 128 million subscribers
in China and 53.35 million subscribers in India. CASBAA forecasts that
there will be a dramatic growth in the number of households with digital TV
from the existing 7.9 million homes in 2002 to 166 million by 2010. The
CASBAA report states that the total Asia-Pacific subscription TV revenues
are forecast to rise by more than 58 per cent, from $13 billion in 2002 to
almost $31 billion in 2010. Japan, China, India and South Korea will
account for 81 per cent of the total subscription TV revenues in 2010. By
2010, cable will bring in more than two-thirds of subscription TV revenues,
with direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcasts accounting for 19 per cent,
and telephony-based services accounting for 12 per cent. There are
currently 450 million TV households in Asia-Pacific, and the figure is set
to hit 555 million TV households by 2010. Of the total TV households in
2010, 53 per cent of the households are expected to subscribe to either
cable services (both analogue and digital), DTH packages, telephony-based
services and Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals. This leaves 47 per cent
of TV households that will only receive analogue terrestrial signals,
demonstrating the growth potential of Asian subscription and digital
systems even after 2010. This new report has been jointly developed by
CASBAA with research specialists, the Informa Media Group.
MTV OPTIMISTIC ON ASIAN OPERATIONS
MTV Networks said on December 4 it expected earnings from international
operations to grow 30 to 40 per cent in 2002. "Outside of the United
States, we've had tremendous growth in the last three years," William
Roedy, president of MTV Networks International, told Reuters in an
interview. Roedy, who oversees all business outside the United States said
the international operation has had two years of over 100 per cent growth
in EBITDA (earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation) and this
year expects a rise of 30 to 40 per cent. In the United States, MTV
Networks has seen EBITDA growth ranging from 15 to 20 per cent on average.
The international operations of MTV Networks manages more than 30 channels
including round-the-clock music channels MTV and VH1, and kids channel
Nickelodeon. Advertising accounts for about 40 per cent of revenues for MTV
Networks' international operations. Another 40 per cent comes from
subscriptions and the rest from activities such as licensing and
merchandising. MTV Networks says it beams into about 400 million homes
worldwide and that eight out of 10 viewers come from outside the United
States. MTV currently broadcasts in blocks of between one hour to six hours
to some 60 million homes in China, according to Frank Brown, president of
MTV Networks Asia. There has been industry talk that Viacom is trying to
get a 24-hour Mandarin language MTV music channel over cable systems in the
rich southern Chinese province of Guangdong. "I expect to be 24 hours in
China shortly," Roedy said but declined to offer details.
AUSTRALIA
NETWORK TEN REPORTS INCREASED REVENUES
CanWest Global Communications announced on December 4 that its Australian
TV operation, Network TEN, has reported its highest ever quarterly
television revenues and earnings for the three months, ended November 30,
2002. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)
grew by 24% to A$74.4 million for the quarter. Group revenues for the first
quarter of fiscal 2003 rose by 16% to A$214.1 million. Television revenue
increased by 20% to A$193.4 million. TEN also increased its national
commercial share by 9.7%, a 25% share improvement over the past two years.
Nick Falloon, the executive chairman of Ten Network Holdings, dismissed
rumors of a management buyout.
Internet - www.canwestglobal.com
AUSTAR TO CARRY SBS ON SATELLITE
Pay-TV provider Austar Communications started re-transmissions of national
multicultural broadcaster SBS through its regional satellite service. Many
of Austar's customers were previously unable to receive SBS due to analogue
television transmission blackspots. The new service, which started on
December 4, would not mean extra costs for Austar's customers, chief
executive officer John Porter said. Longer term, Austar said it would work
with SBS to retransmit SBS's other digital services, including extra
channels, SBS Radio and interactive programming. The addition of SBS takes
the number of channels available on Austar to 42 TV channels and 24 digital
radio channels.
INDIA
SET INDIA WOOS NDTV
Sony Entertainment Television (SET) India is negotiating with Prannoy
Roy-promoted NDTV for a distribution arrangement of its proposed news
channel, even as CNBC has decided to defect to the Zee-Turner bouquet. "We
are in talks with NDTV. We want to tie-up with a news channel as CNBC will
move out of our bouquet after the contract expires on March 31, 2003," said
SET India chief executive officer Kunal Dasgupta. Sony had expressed
publicly that it wanted Aaj Tak on the bouquet. Though Sony is still
interested in getting Aaj Tak, it feels that it will have to get a news
channel in before April 1, 2003.
PAY-TV CHANNELS INCREASE SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Almost all satellite channels have announced a hike in monthly subscription
rates. One-Alliance distribution platform, which broadcasts Sony and HBO,
has hiked its cable subscription rates from Rs40 to Rs55 per subscriber per
month. ESPN-Star Sports has raised the rates from Rs24 to Rs32. Star India
(SI) has decided against hiking the price of its bouquet of channels and
has instead decided to focus on getting higher declaration of subscribers
from cable operators. This forms a part of its strategy to tackle the
problem of under-declaration of subscriber base by cable operators.
INDONESIA
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA SIGNS LOCAL TV DEALS
Channel NewsAsia, the Singapore-based regional broadcaster, has broadened
its reach in Indonesia with the signing of an agreement with Metro TV for
an exchange of news and programmes. The agreement allows Channel NewsAsia
to be seen by audiences in Jakarta and 29 other cities in Indonesia through
Metro TV's free-to-air channel. Until now, it has been available to
Indonesian viewers only through pay-TV. Run by the Media Corporation of
Singapore, Channel NewsAsia is seen in 16 territories across Asia. Its aim
is to provide an Asian perspective to news events in the region.
JAPAN
ANALOGUE SWITCH-OFF DELAYED UNTIL 2011
It has been announced that analogue satellite TV broadcasts will continue
until 2011, four years longer than originally proposed. The decision marks
a victory for the public broadcaster NHK, which had said that many of its
satellite viewers would not be ready to convert from analogue to digital by
2007. About 15 million Japanese households currently receive analogue
television by satellite. NHK predicts that by 2007, there will still be 5
million homes that have not upgraded to digital. As the current analogue
satellite used by NHK will reach the end of its life in 2007, a new
satellite will be launched to take over for the final few years. A formal
report on the future of Japanese satellite broadcasting is expected from
the Ministry of Communications later this month.
SINGAPORE
NEW PAY TV LICENSE TO BE ISSUED
Singaporean authorities will offer a second pay-TV license by mid 2003 to
promote competition in the local pay market. Singapore StarHub Cable Vision
is currently the only pay-TV provider in a country of a little under one
million TV homes. There is almost complete cable penetration and about
340,000 pay-TV subscribers incoming regulator, the Media Development
Authority, which will replace existing regulator the Singapore Broadcasting
Authority from January, will request bids early in 2003.
SOUTH KOREA
SK TELECOM TO LAUNCH MOBILE TV SERVICE
Korea's leading cellco SK Telecom will launch a mobile TV service in 2003.
The plan is to provide up to 15 satellite channels for a monthly fee of
Won5,000 ($4.10) a company representative told the Wall Street Journal. A
specific launch date for the Personal Mobile Satellite Broadcasting service
was not given.
8/12/02
Sunday no update
7/12/02
Globecast has made minor alterations to the naming of some channels in its B3 mux.
From my Emails & ICQ
From CNBC
URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT FASCIMILE TRANSMISSION
From the desk of Candice Kang, Regional Manager, Distribution-Hotels, Asia Pacific
Direct Line: (852) 2509 5129 Direct Fax: (852) 2521 9161 Email: [email protected]
Date: 1 November 2002 Pages: 1
To: The General Manager, The Director of Rooms, The Chief Engineer, The Front Office Manager
Re: CNBC Encryption on PanAmSat (PAS) 8
Warm Greetings from CNBC Asia Pacific, and thank you for your continued support for our Service.
We are pleased to inform you that with effect from 1 January 2003, we will be encrypting our signal on the PanAmSat (PAS) 8 satellite.
This will mean that all signals received directly from the PanAmSat (PAS) 8 satellite will require a new IRD (decoder) for decoding the Service.
For more information on how to subscribe to the Service, please feel free to contact us via the following email address: [email protected],
or fax number: +852 2521 9161
CNBC continues to wish all our hotel partners prosperity and success.
Yours sincerely,
Candice Kang
From Zapara (W.A)
I am getting a small 3rd spike on Int701 Ku, unfortunately it is to weak to resolve with my Nokia, can anybody on the east coast see this spike, Also there is some C Band activity around the new Int804 sat I see a signal at 3874 110 3/4 it tags as Globo Internet and it is exactly that Data services, there are also a lot of other spikes on around there. As I have never been able to resolve any other digital stuff other then Int701 I am unsure what sat I am looking at?
From Doug
B1, 12524 h 6110 3/4 " ch 9 swimming"
doug
From "SJ"
1615 NZDT
B1, 12420vt, SR 6668, FEC 3/4 (Globecast telethon feed / colour bars at present)
B1, 12429vt, SR 6668, FEC 3/4 (Globecast 2 telethon feed / life's a beach scene)
Steve Johnson
NZ
From the Dish
Intelsat 804 at 176E Intelsat 804 has replaced Intelsat 702 at 176 East.
Intelsat 702 176E Intelsat 702 has left 176 East, moving west.
PAS 8 166E 12686 H "SBN - Shanghai Broadcasting Network" has started , Fta, PIDs 1310/1320.
Optus B3 156E 12336 V "KBS Korea" is now encrypted.
Optus B3 156E 12376 H "SBS South East" has started on , Irdeto 1, SID 1009, PIDs 520/648.The Expo tests have left this mux.
Superbird C 144E Occasional feeds on 12357 V, SR 4150, FEC 7/8, NE Asian beam.
Asiasat 3 105.5E 3660 V "Sahara TV" has left (PAL) again.
Asiasat 2 100.5E 4020 V "Almajd Channel 2" has left , replaced by an Almajd Channel 2 promo.
NEWS
Sahara TV switching to digital 10 December
From indiantelevision.com
MUMBAI: Free-to-air Hindi general entertainment channel Sahara TV is going digital from Tuesday, 10 December. Sahara has also set up its own multiple channel digital uplink earth station at Noida with both playout and uplinking facility.
The digital feed will be available on transponder 10-V of AsiaSat 3S from 10 December from 7 pm onwards.
With the digitalisation as well as uplinking facilities in place, the stage looks to be set for the launch of Sahara's proposed bouquet of news channels, including one national and 30 city-based news channels, in early 2003. While Sahara officials were not forthcoming on a launch date, it could well be 26 January 2003 - Republic Day. This would also fit in well with the nationalistic image that the Subrata Roy-promoted group is strong on.
Sahara TV head Sumit Roy was quoted in an official release as saying: "The preparation work is already done. We have already commenced our analogue services on transponder 10-V and 1-V of AsiaSat 3S in order to facilitate switchover by our sanchar saathis (cable operators)."
While the channel will be switching to digital on 10 December, the analogue feed will continue on transponder 1-V during the seeding of digital receiver boxes. Sahara plans to continue with the simultaneous telecast of digital and analogue feeds for a month after 10 December.
All playout and uplink for both digital and analogue services of Sahara TV now originates from Noida, with infrastructure comprising high-end digital encoding equipment with statistical multiplexing in MCPC (Multiple Channel Per Carrier) domain,
Digital Feed Technical Specifications
Mode: Free to Air
Satellite : Asia Sat 3S
Orbital Location : 105.5
Downlink Frequency : 4020 Mhz
Polarisation : Vertical
Orbital Location : 105.5
FEC : ¾
Symbol rate : 27.25M-SYM/SEC
Analogue Feed Technical Specifications
Downlink Frequency: 3660Mhz
Polarisation : Vertical
Audio Sub-carrier: 6.3 Mhz
Information about the digital receiver boxes for cable operators is available at the following numbers:
Mumbai : 022-56901310
Delhi : 011-23704100
Kolkata : 033-22827137
Bangalore : 080- 5321640
Turner and Speedcast ally in Asia for streaming CNN live
From Indiantelevision.com
HONG KONG: SpeedCast, a satellite-enabled broadband ISP in Asia, and Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific have announced that the latest news headlines on CNN and CNNfn channels can be accessed on SpeedCast's multimedia service, NetTV. NetTV is a closed broadband network for SpeedCast ISP partners' broadband subscribers in the region.
Under the terms of agreement, Turner Broadcasting has licensed SpeedCast CNN and CNNfn channels to stream live on its NetTV service in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong (CNNfn only), Taiwan (CNNfn only) and South Korea (CNN only). Broadband subscribers to SpeedCast's ISP partners will be also be able to access CNN's news and financial programming on their desktop PCs on a 24-hour basis.
According to the press release, CNN chose SpeedCast as its regional streaming technology and distribution partner due to its superior technological capabilities and expertise. SpeedCast's proprietary encryption system, MediaVault, can encode CNN and CNNfn live content into streaming media format as well as to encrypt content against unauthorised use. Additionally, SpeedCast also uses a satellite network to bypass public Internet congestion whilst transmitting data, distributing streaming content to strategically located edge servers thereby ensuring a consistent, high-quality multimedia viewing experience by NetTV subscribers from any location in Asia.
SpeedCast NetTV service is available to ISPs throughout Pan Asia. The press release states that SpeedCast's ISP partners have an estimated addressable market of 8 million broadband users, who can subscribe to the NetTV service.
(Craigs comment, this service on Asiasat 3)
Sri Adhikari Brothers to take over SABe TV business
From http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=30277979
MUMBAI: Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network has decided to take over the channel SABe TV's business from SABe TV with effect from January 2002.
This takeover from its wholly-owned subsidiary follows the shifting of the uplinking of the channel to India from Singapore last month, Sri Adhikari Brothers vice-chairman and managing director Markand Adhikari said here on Wednesday.
The Reserve Bank of India, on December 2, had consented to the takeover of the channel business, he said, adding the company would have to recast the accounts for the period ended March 31, 2002 impacting takeover.
The results for first and second quarter of 2002-2003 would also need to be recast, he said.
6/12/02
No site update today I just dont have the time today, Back Saturday
5/12/02
NSS 5 is moving to 183E keep an eye on that one. Has 6 KU transponder capeable of Aus or NZ service and 36 Cband transponders.
Sahara TV in analog has started on another freq. Expect the main freq to change to a digital service soon.
Not much else for today!
From my Emails & ICQ
From me
Bush fire feeds seen today on B1 12430V and B3 Globecast "Adhoc" channel
From "Pallen 5" 4/12/02
Ceduna Eclipse live crosses B1, 12429 V 6109 B1...3/4
From the Dish
NSS 5 163.5W is here moving to 183E
Palapa C2 113E 11152 V "MAC TV" has started , Fta, Sr 2900, Fec 3/4, PIDs 308/256.
Ge1 / App1 108.2E 12470H "feeds" Sr 27500 Fec 3/4
Asiasat 3 105.5E 3660 V "Sahara TV" has started, PAL, 6.30 MHz. (Must of moved preparing for the shift to Digital)
NEWS
C&S industry to grow 45% by 2010: CASBAA
From Indiatelevision.com
SINGAPORE: The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has released the latest figures and forecasts for Asia Pacific's pay-TV industry.
The figures can be found in their newly launched Casbaa Asia Cable & Satellite Guide 2003.
According to Casbaa, the cable and satellite (C&S) industry in Asia Pacific is set to grow from the current 157 million C&S subscribers to over 228 million subscribers in the next eight years, registering a 45 per cent growth rate from 2002 to 2010.
China and India will continue to be the key markets in 2010, with 128 million subscribers in China and 53.35 million subscribers in India.
"Second Asia is producing a lot of local content. Audiences here are showing a lot of preference for films," he said.
Digital TV set to change the industry landscape
Digital TV has been singled out as the hottest industry development for the next decade. CASBAA forecasts that there will be a dramatic growth in the number of households with digital TV from the existing 7.9 million homes in 2002 to 166 million by 2010.
"The long-held potential of the region is now coming to fruition. Digital television will herald a boom for technology manufacturers, cable and satellite systems operators, programmers and advertisers. Furthermore, digital technology will help to combat piracy, by increasing the complexity and costs of decoding pay-TV signals," said Casbaa CEO Simon Twiston Davies.
"Digital cable services were only just beginning to be deployed in 2002 in Asia Pacific," said Robert Wilson, Casbaa director for media & research. "But the trend is unstoppable. Digital TV will create greater choice and quality, leading to an exponential increase in subscription TV revenues in the region by 2010."
Subscription TV revenues to double
The Casbaa report states that the total Asia-Pacific subscription TV revenues are forecast to rise by more than 58 per cent, from $13 billion in 2002 to almost $31 billion in 2010. Japan, China, India and South Korea will account for 81 per cent of the total subscription TV revenues in 2010.
By 2010, cable will bring in more than two-thirds of subscription TV revenues, with direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcasts accounting for 19 per cent, and telephony-based services accounting for 12 per cent. This immense potential of subscription TV revenues is a result of the huge growth of TV households expected in the region. There are currently 450 million TV households in Asia Pacific, and the figure is set to hit 555 million TV households by 2010.
Of the total TV households in 2010, 53 per cent of the households are expected to subscribe to either cable services (both analogue and digital), DTH packages, telephony-based services and Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals.
This leaves 47 per cent of TV households that will only receive analogue terrestrial signals, demonstrating the growth potential of Asian subscription and digital systems even after 2010.
"The increasing penetration of pay-TV services will add dramatically to the attraction of cable and satellite services as an advertising vehicle. Today, we see 15% of the TV ad spend coming our way. There will soon be a major shift in the allocation of this ad spend with pay-TV taking a larger proportion. This will happen as terrestrial networks delivered by traditional telephone networks and satellite platforms meet us on an even playing field. The best is yet to come," said Twiston Davies.
This new report has been jointly developed by Casbaa with research specialists, the Informa Media Group. The report is included in the Casbaa Asia Cable & Satellite Guide 2003 and Informa's Asia Pacific Television - 7th Edition, both of which will be launched at Casbaa Convention 2002, happening from December 4-5 in Singapore.
The report is sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and co-sponsored by Nielsen Media Research, which assisted with provision of the data.
Digital TV Households (000)
2001 2002 2005 2010
Australia 737 807 1,646 4,126
China 0 69 11,886 86,927
Hong Kong 30 5 205 1,164
India 0 0 3,301 22,528
Indonesia 30 31 149 430
Japan* 2,770 4,032 10,164 25,514
Malaysia 740 833 1,144 2,228
New Zealand 303 409 546 933
Philippines 8 27 285 1,943
Singapore 35 49 231 736
South Korea 26 1,138 5,074 10,996
Taiwan 79 133 1,355 4,055
Thailand 255 285 399 3,445
Total 5,013 7,851 36,385 165,669
Source: Informa Media Group
* excludes BS satellite
Subscription TV Revenues (US$ million)
1995 2001 2002 2005 2010
Australia 11 516 571 833 1,742
China 504 1,634 1,750 2,171 3,299
Hong Kong 52 225 235 355 627
India 450 1,270 1,846 2,729 4,980
Indonesia 0 25 34 99 300
Japan* 1,015 5,081 5,816 8,392 13,593
Malaysia 0 127 164 238 397
New Zealand 38 136 168 214 344
Philippines 21 128 162 256 479
Singapore 1 55 67 104 165
South Korea 0 603 1,017 1,969 3,307
Taiwan 503 952 998 1,162 1,455
Thailand 21 110 119 161 278
Total 2,615 10,862 12,946 18,685 30,967
Source: Informa Media Group
* excludes BS satellite
4/12/02
Trying to get the site done early today as i want to watch the cricket at 6.45pm
From my Emails & ICQ
From Mayadass Brijmohun
Hi Craig
This is a sad week for FTA indian channels in Australia.With ETC and ETC Punjabi out of Thaicom 3,
we have lost a lot of very good channels which showed a variety of programmings for the indian
community, and australians in general.
We lost Asthaa ,a favorite for the elderly ,CMM, ETC, Anjuman very popular with the young ,
Lashkara,Gurjari, ATN World much watched by punjabis , gujratis and bengalis respectively
I think we all know the reasons behind the chase for the 3600 on Th 3.
Some time ago we lost DD1 andDD2 a sad and pity case of DD people or indians not properly
managing their flagship channels (much contrary to what DD website says), compared with DW,
TV 5, Worldnet, etc.
These days we watch a lot of SAB TV, Sahara TV ,INDUS bouquet and ETV bouquet on IN 2E.
Sahara Tv has improved its programming very much since ZEE became encripted and DDs disappeared.
Local indian pay tv is ok but (a) its exspensive for the average indian, struggling with mortgage,
(b)not much variety and languages ,a lot of -Days of our lives- types of serials ,like the ladies wear
their nice saris and manglasutra (gold necklace) in the kitchen chores.
(c)quality of transmission (picture, pixelisation) .
There are a lot of nice indian channels on Insat 2E and Thaicom 3 but unfortunately they get transmmited
on the smaller footprints. (and we australasians are too far away from them.)
Also very few australians can receive Pas 10 which has very good FTA indian channels.
Hopefully , one day DD1 and DD2 will be back, (and we dont watch cricket).
Thanks, Best Regards for the season to all Apsattvers.
(Craigs comment, ETC is supposedly moving to Asiasat 3! which is a bonus it will mean it will be available in NZ as well! Also Sahara should be going digital and adding their new FTA news channel soon. Hopefully I can bring you better news about Indian TV next year!)
From the Dish
PAS 8 166E 12686 HAll channels in the Jadeworld mux on are fta, except CNBC Asia. The test cards have left.
Eutelsat W5 at 53-54E Very strong test carriers on 11242 H, 11408 V, 11492 H and 11575 V.(Naporex in Poland) Brief and weak test carriers on 11492 V and 11575 V.(J Fuller in UK)
Those in Western Australia are asked to have a look
NEWS
Australia to launch satellite
From http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5614013%255E1702,00.html
AUSTRALIA is set to launch its first home-grown satellite in 35 years.
The $20 million satellite, built in Canberra, is to be launched in Japan on December 14.
The FedSat took six years to complete and will carry communications, space science, navigation and computing payloads.
Science Minister Peter McGauran will travel to Tanegashima, south of Tokyo, next week to watch the satellite's launch which he said would help rural Australians with broadband access.
"The satellite brings Australia into a new era of high technology," Mr McGauran told reporters.
New Skies Satellites Expands Into China
From http://www.e-insite.net/eb-mag/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA263109&spacedesc=news
Global satellite operator New Skies Satellites N.V. has announced an expansion of its operations in the People's Republic of China. New Skies currently operates five telecommunication satellites in geosynchronous orbit as well as various ground facilities located around the world.
The Luxembourg-based company has just opened an office in Beijing and appointed senior sales officers in both Beijing and Hong Kong as part of its drive to promote a new satellite platform scheduled for launch later this month that is expected to begin serving Asian customers in the near future.
"China is such an important market for us, particularly as we prepare to launch NSS-6, a satellite with powerful new capacity for the region, that we have hired two of the communications industry's most experienced sales executives, each with many years of success in the China market," said CEO Dan Goldberg in a statement. "
The NSS-6 satellite has been designed to give Chinese customers with access to telecommunication services ranging from DTH TV program distribution to two-way VSAT business communications. The satellite, which is scheduled to be launched later this month to an orbital assignment of 95 degrees east longitude, will feature Ka-band (20/30 GHz) uplink beams focused on Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing/Tianjin, Wuhan, Tokyo and Seoul, among other Asian cities.
The NSS6 Ka-band payload, which has the ability to deliver higher power and higher throughput to customers equipped with smaller, more efficient transmission systems, cold be used to enable broadband-via-satellite services for both the residential and SOHO markets in China. In addition, the spacecraft will carry ample Ku-band (11/14 GHz) capacity for facilitating both intra- and inter-regional applications within Asia and the rest of the world.
Asianet To Launch News Channel
From http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=23089
Kochi: Asianet Communications plans to launch the first Malayalam news channel by the end of this year. Originally Asianet had intended to wind up its second channel Asianet Global and have a new one fully devoted to entertainment, but has now shelved the proposal.
As per the new plan, Asianet Global is to be rechristened as Asianet News. It would have news programmes from 6 am to 10 pm after which there would be a variety of entertainment programmes. There would be news bulletins every hour. This was to cater to the large NRI (Non Resident Indian) audience in West Asia and Europe. A news-based morning show is also on the cards.
The company was toying with the idea of a news channel idea for a long time. It was with this intention that Asianet Global was launched, there were very few news-based programmes which later gave way to film-based entertainment ones. But with the channel not fetching returns, the management decided to go in for an entertainment channel called ‘Asianet Plus’. Midway through the process, there was a rethink and the concept of a news channel was revived.
As per indication, the present news network could be channelised for the new channel, according to Asianet sources. The test telecast is already on. Though the launch was supposed to take place on December 5, sources said it would could be delayed by a few days.
3/12/02
Live satellite related chat tonight 9pm NZ and 8.30pm Syd onwards in the chatroom
Thank you for all your Emails about the Imparja situation. The Lyngsat site has been told similar by Imparja and has removed details. I think they will be back on there shortly though.
From my Emails & ICQ
From Kevin
Craig,
re Imparja's e-mail. Doesn't their comments that "un-authorised
interception and possibly illegal use of our private, point to point
satellite signal." mean that interception of any feed on B1 or any
satellite for that matter is un-authorised and possibly illegal? Has the
listing of feeds become or have always been illegal and should everyone
stop listing feeds now???
I imagine Lyngsat and SatcoDX are in trouble now too.
If Imparja or anyone else really don't want to be intercepted by FTA
receivers on B1 they should just encrypt themselves in BananaVision or
something. ;-)
Kevin.
(Craigs comment, It's the Commercial use of Imparjas B1 signal they appear to be concerned with of course long term readers of my site will know I have never promoted Commercial missuse of any signals. Think back to the soccer worldcup when I even put up a disclaimer and even helped out TEN Sports India crackdown on cable operators illegally sourcing broadcasts from elsewhere. As for feeds these are ocasional transmissions and are not to be used commercially either, but private viewing of such transmissions are not illegal )
From Jason
Hi Craig
Looks like Lyngsat must have recieved the email
from imparja as the imparja tv details are now missing
on the B1 list. May be it should be listed as an
encrypted service or even a feed service. You can't
exactly call imparja service encrypted as it is not.
Just the PIDs are missing! All this trouble with
thanks to those doggy installers which give a bad name
to the good ones and spoil everything for the
hobbists.
Regards
Jason
From TVKorea (Optus B3 Globecast service)
Thank you for your message.
Please forward the following details to your readers.
Current SPECIAL OFFER:
1. Installation, set top box and satellite dish is being offered for $399.00 as a Launch Special. Customers will keep the set top box, wiring and satellite dish once they complete the minimum term of 18 months.
2. Monthly subscription fee of $32.95.
3. For the first 200 customers to apply and be approved, 3 months of subscription FREE.
4. This offer is only valid for customers who apply by the 31st of December 2002.
To apply for the service:
A. Customers must ring 02 8243 0700 to request an Application form, or
B. Email their Name, Address and Contact Phone Number to [email protected]
C. Customers must have a credit card to authorise all payments.
The application form once completed should be returned in the Reply Paid Envelope for tvKorea to process. Once approved the installation will take 2-3 weeks depending on customer availability at the premises.
I hope this is enough information.
Regards,
Customer Service.
[email protected]
(Craigs comment, Please note this service is not available to subscribers in NZ)
From Col
Satellite article in December Silicon Chip Magazine
Hi All...
just picked up my copy of Silicon Chip from the news agents. Gary Cratt
(AV-Comm)has put in 7 page article (advertisment) about how to recive C
Band.
Regards to all
Col
(aka VK2TRC)
From Dunk 2/12/02
Channel 10 news Feed seen B1,12429v sr-6668 fec- 3/4
From the Dish
Asiasat 2 100.5E 3660 V "EuroSport News" is now fta.
ST 1 88E 3582 H "Super TV, Star Sports and TVBS"are now only in Nagravision.
ST 1 88E 3632 V Minor updates in the MMBN mux .
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3600 H "ETC and ETC Punjabi" have left , replaced by info cards.
LMI 1 75E 3431 H "TV Lanka" has left , moved to 3454 H.
NSS 703 57E 3980 RA GCV info card has started on , Fta PIDs 52/51.
Eutelsat W5 at 52-53E Eutelsat W5 is now geostationary at 52-53 East, moving west.
NEWS
Eyes on the sky for broadband contract
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
A fifteenth "region" covering the country has been added to the Government's rural broadband initiative, targeting satellite operators who can extend high-speed internet access to outlying schools and their communities.
Satellite operators Optus, PanAmSat, Intelsat, New Skies, Gilat and Hughes are expected to respond to a request for proposal being issued by the Government and planned to cover from 150 to 300 schools.
Some of the operators already have small commercial services running in New Zealand.
Optus launched a nationwide wireless broadband service earlier this year, though customer take-up is believed to have been low. Its satellites also provide the international feed for Sky TV's programming.
Intelsat has several satellites over New Zealand and New Skies' involvement could hinge on delayed plans to shift a satellite positioned over the Atlantic to cover the Pacific.
PanAmSat has a satellite covering the region but its Porirua-based partner, Linkworks (with which PanAmSat has teamed to provide a bandwidth on-demand service to New Zealand and Australia) is not interested in the broadband initiative (known as Probe).
"It's a long haul to get these projects through and at this time we thought our energies were better put elsewhere," Linkworks spokesman Don Peat said.
Linkworks is acquiring a site in Wellington to build an earth station, including a 4.5m satellite dish and control hub.
Those vendors responding to the request for proposal being issued by the Government will need to be able to deliver satellite-based systems that can supply symmetrical bandwidth at a minimum speed of 64Kbps, or slightly better than dial-up internet.
But a "bandwidth on demand" option will have to be provided and allow for speeds up to 384Kbps for videoconferencing.
"You could tell a service provider you only want that sort of bandwidth for a couple of hours a day and they will provide it because it makes better use of the satellite capacity," said Probe project director Tony Van Horik.
The chosen vendor may have to establish a satellite earth station to secure the tender.
"We will state a preference for a New Zealand-based satellite hub station," a letter to parties interested in the project said.
"We have relaxed latency and availability from the request for information also to suit satellite operations."
Those vendors responding to Probe tender proposals in other regions will be asked which communities they think are best served by satellite.
Region 15 will probably involve a single tender spanning the country, a structure Probe critics believe the Government should have adopted for the other regions.
The Government last week extended the tender date for the initiative, citing"unexpectedly high interest".
However one key player in the regional tendering process said the Government was slowing the process to ensure mistakes were not made in what was becoming an increasingly "political" process.
The next Probe tender winner will be announced on December 20 when the Far North decides which vendors it will go with. Telecom/BCL, Vodafone/Walker Wireless and UCC have been shortlisted in the region.
Recently Telecom executives went north to try to convince the local community that Telecom was committed to the area.
Chief operating officer Simon Moutter accused an audience of having an "ABT" ("Anyone but Telecom") attitude to the tendering, but received assurances that Telecom's bid was being taken seriously.
Sushma Swaraj unsure of when DTH would start
From indiantelevision.com
NEW DELHI: India's information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament that it was not possible to indicate as to when KU-band direct-to-home (DTH) service will become operational in the country, even as two applications are pending with the government seeking permission to start it.
In a written reply given in India's Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), the Minister said that the decision to start DTH services was taken by the Government in November 2000 and detailed guidelines for it were issued in March last year.
"Two applications have been received seeking permission start DTH service in the country.....It is not possible to indicate when the DTH service will become operational in the country," Swaraj said. Asked if there was a proposal to review the guidelines originally mandated, the Minister replied in the negative.
Various bodies, including India's Planning Commission, have in the past have said that the present DTH guidelines, especially those relating to FDI, need to be previewed as the policy has failed to attract any investment till now.
The two companies which, earlier this year, have sought DTH license are Space TV (a Star TV affiliate) and ASC Enterprises Ltd, a company which is promoted by Zee supremo Subhash Chandra and through a subsidiary is implementing India's first private satellite project called Agrani. Agrani recently also moved an application seeking uplinking permission.
In the month of October, Swaraj had told journalists that the government is studying the applications regarding DTH licence and the procedures are underway. To a question by a scribe as to why a DTH service hadn' t started till now, Swaraj had said that even the companies looking at starting a DTH service in India "would need some time to firm up their business plans."
Zee-Turner to bring Reality TV
From http://www.hinduonnet.com/bline/stories/2002120302730100.htm
IF you are a couch potato deriving pleasure in watching car chases, emergency services or any other live action, here's Reality TV for you.
Zee-Turner Ltd, the subsidiary of Zee Telefilms Ltd, is planning to distribute the UK-based Zone Broadcasting Maximum Reality Ltd's Reality TV channel in India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Reality TV was launched in October this year in the UK on the Sky Digital platform and is received by 10 million paid subscribers in several countries across the globe. The channel claims "to capture human drama when everyday life takes a turn for the unexpected".
Mr Sunil Khanna, Chief Executive Officer of Zee-Turner Ltd, said, "We will be distributing and marketing the channel. It will be launched in mid-January next year." "It is a 24-hour channel which will showcase live action as it happens in various parts of the world," he said. It will feature live action such as volcanoes erupting and police chases, among other such happenings.
While initially the channel would be in English, it could later be dubbed into Hindi and other regional languages as well. "The content is such that language would not be an issue," Mr Khanna said. Though the content initially would be international, some Indian content would be brought in later.
Reality TV is positioned as a niche channel and is being targeted at action-oriented youth.
Europe*Star to float third satellite in Asian region
From http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=30105214
NEW DELHI: The London based Europe*Star, a leading satellite operator, may launch its third satellite in the Asian region.
Currently, it has two satellites over Asia and all the leading international long distance (ILD) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are its clients. More than 20% of the total ILD traffic in India is being transmitted through Europe*Star.
?We are seriously thinking about going for another satellite. We may also buy transponder capacities from the satellites already available in the region,” said David Chegnion, general manager and head of global sales of Europe*Star.
The company provides satellite bandwidth on Ku-band spectrum. This reduces the size of the dish required to send and receive signals. Moreover, the satellite capacity allows the ILD operator to launch the service from day one.
India’s first private ILD operator Data Access has leased transponders from Europe*Star. “More than 50% of the Data Access traffic is currently passing through our satellite,” said Mr Chegnion. Data Access accounts for 40% of the total ILD traffic in India.
Pak satellite to reach operational orbit on Dec 2: Musharraf
From http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?ccode=ENG4&newscode=19210
Islamabad: Pakistan's first geo-stationary satellite, which it bought from Turkey, is likely to reach its operational location on Dec 23, President Pervez Musharraf said today.
He said the second-hand satellite, christened "Paksat One", would start moving from its current location, 50 degrees East, tomorrow and would be in its designated orbit, 38 degrees East, on Dec 23.
Officials at the Ministry of Science and Technology said the satellite would be used only for commercial purposes like TV transmission and communication.
"Paksat One", which was earlier called "Anatolia 1", will reserve the 38 degress East location alloted to Pakistan which would have been lost if a satellite was not placed there by April 19 next year, former Pakistan Science and Technology Minister Atta-ur-Rehman said.
Pakistan has already lost four of the five slots allocated to it in 1984 by International Telecommunications Union which regulates satellite-related matters worldwide.
Speaking at the launch of Pakistan Educational Network here, Musharraf said there are around 250 satellites in geo-stationary orbit at present and not much space is available for new entrants.
He said Pakistan would place its indigenously manufactured satellites in space in next four to five years.
Pakistani cabinet has approved acquisition of Hughes Global Systems Satellite (HGS3) as "Paksat" satellite on lease for five years at an initial cost of some 4.5 million US dlrs.
Another 4.6 million dlrs will be payable for the next five years for operational expenses as long as the satellite remains functional, cabinet sources said.
2/12/02
Imparja have sent me an interesting email which I will put up in the Emails section. I have modified the Optus B1 page accordingly to indicate the situation. I will reply in private to their email later tonight but I have to say I don't like the heavy handed way they came across but I can see their point. I can see some emails coming in about this issue from readers. Might be a good topic for the chatroom tommorow night.
Mostly NZ news in the news section today.
Has anyone heard of G-TV Int supposedly starting up a Russian tv service for NZ? supposedly starting 14th Dec? $ 225 hardware cost and $60 a month? Any ideas?
Info for them is
G-TV
0800 4653464
Fax 09 4156298
From my Emails & ICQ
From Imparja
Dear Mr Sutton
I note from your website that you are "promoting' the availability of
Imparja as a "Free to Air" signal, on Opus B1. You also state that this
broadcast is "DVB"
This information is incorrect and we require that it is immediately removed
from your website.
1) Imparja is NOT free to air on B1. and is not a DVB signal and is not
comparable to other free to air television services you refer to on your
website. Australian Broadcasting Authority regulations prevent Imparja
from delivering its signal to locations outside its licence area
Imparja's "broadcast" signal, is on B3 and is encrypted such that it is
only available to designated locations within our licence area.
The "free to air" signal you refer to is actually a private point to
point connection that delivers our raw programme content in a form NOT
intended or configured for direct reception, to the multiplex point. It is
NOT DVB and this is indicated by the fact that there are no SI PSI tables.
Interception therefore requires a specific knowledge of the internal
structure of the PIDS to receive it. This configuration is designed to
make interception as difficult as possible and we do, and will continue to
take precautions to render it unusable when it is carrying critical
material.
I am aware that you and certain other publications and websites publish
information designed to facilitate its interception, but the mere fact that
a "normal" FTA receiver needs to be specially set up to allow this
interception indicates clearly that the signal is not "transmitted" or
"broadcast" within the normally understood meaning of those words.
As a result of the incorrect and misleading information on websites such as
yours, Imparja has suffered costs and potential damages by people using
your information to make un-authorised interception and possibly illegal
use of our private, point to point satellite signal.
I would be grateful if you would prominently display the attached
information on your website so that we may be sure that the correct
information is being disseminated.
If you have any queries on the above, or any aspects of Imparja's service
please feel free to contact me
Yours Sincerely
Tim Mason
Chief Engineer
Imparja Television Pty. Ltd. ABN. 78009 630120
Address: 14 Leichhardt Terrace, Alice Springs NT 0870
PO Box 52, Alice Springs NT 0871
Phone: 08 8950 1450 Fax: 08 8953 0322
E-mail: ******@imparja.com.au
From Victor Holubecki
SBS has started on Austar channel 13.
From the Dish
PAS 8 166E 12284 H "ABC Asia Pacific" has started , Fta, Sr 5858, Fec 5/6,PIDs 522/650.
Optus B1 160E 12456 V The Saturn TV guide moved to 12483V Encrypted
Optus B1 160E 12519 V "Business link has returned"
JCSAT 3 128E 3960 V "ETTV Life, Unique Satellite TV, JET TV, SET International and BNE TV Network" are now encrypted.
Yamal 102 90E Khabarovsk TV and Radio Rossii have moved from 3729 L to 3735 L, Fta, SR 4285, Fec 3/4, PIDs 308/256 and 257.
NSS 703 57E 3980 R "Teja TV" is now encrypted.
NSS 6 with Ariane is delayed from 12 December to a yet undecided date later in December.
NEWS
NZ Govt invites satellite Probe
From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2127302a1896,00.html
In a surprise move, a national satellite tender for remote areas has been added to the Government's broadband tenders for 14 separate regions.
The Project Probe tenders going out later this month for broadband solutions to schools and the wider community have, up till now, embraced a regional approach.
Project co-ordinator Tony van Horik says Region 15 has been added to ensure economical delivery of high-speed services to remote areas. The tender will call for proposals from satellite providers for 150 to 300 schools and communities across the country.
Mr van Horik expects satellite providers will link in with the regional tenderers as some satellite companies may not wish to offer a retail service. Eighteen companies had been chosen to contest the tender, which will now also go to "three or four" satellite companies.
About $45 million is understood to be up for grabs to finance the schools project and tenderers are expected to demonstrate they can provide a whole-of-community solution.
The tender is going out later than expected due to rising interest from government departments realising the benefits of aggregating their demand regionally - which also strengthens the business case for suppliers.
Responses will be due late February, and will be evaluated in March and April. Contracts should start being signed around May or June.
Three regions have already issued tenders.
Southland is finalising legal contracts with its preferred supplier Vodafone/Walker Wireless and is setting up a regional trust to manage broadband services. It has applied for funds from central government and Southland funding agencies to subsidise roll-out to less economic areas. It will also receive funds from Project Probe, and is working closely with that team.
Project co-ordinator Steve Canny says that a satellite solution would be useful in some areas such as the Chathams, but he is not sure if it would work in Southland given the "look" required through dense atmosphere. Very large dishes could be needed and the return path could be a challenge, he says.
Southland has an effective terrestrial solution for 93-95 per cent of communities and all schools, but he says some areas such as Milford Sound may find satellite more economical.
Mr Canny expects to start roll-out of services in March and be completed by December 2004.
Northland and Wairarapa are both evaluating shortlists of Telecom/BCL, Vodafone/Walker Wireless and UCC.
Far North Development Trust spokesman Chris Mathews says Northland hopes to announce its preferred partner later this month, while Peter McNeur, a spokesman for Wairarapa Smartregion, says a decision is expected in February. Both regions are using two consultancies working independently of each other, and both have hired accounting firms to do a financial audit of the tenderers.
Rugby League: Prime wins rights to NRL, Warriors matches
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Prime Television has secured the rights to the 2003 National Rugby League (NRL) competition, including all New Zealand Warriors matches.
TV3 had the free-to-air rights for rugby league coverage in New Zealand this season.
The deal struck between Prime and Sky this week, will see Prime broadcast all New Zealand Warriors matches, five semi-finals, the grand final, the state of origin series and every rugby league test match played in Australia.
Prime said in statement it would also broadcast two games every week during the NRL round robin competition, double that carried by TV3 this year.
"Prime is looking forward to working with Sky TV and the New Zealand Warriors to build on the huge success of this year's NRL minor premiers," Prime Television New Zealand chief executive Officer Cameron Murray said.
Sky Television's chief executive John Fellet said having a free-to-air broadcasting partner was an important part of Sky's on-going involvement in televised sport in New Zealand.
(Craigs comment, Primes previous involvment with Sky was with Coverage of the Soccer Kingz matches. Residents in many parts of NZ who can't get Prime TV are already complaining about this deal)
'Shattered' Coasters left out of Prime TV position
From www.stuff.co.nz
West Coasters will be shattered when they realise they won't be able to watch free-to-air coverage of the New Zealand Warriors, according to local league identity Peter Kerridge.
Prime has won a bidding war for the rights which are sold by Sky Television but the channel cannot be received on the West Coast or in Northland.
The rights were held by TV3 but it was not prepared to match the $2.8 million Prime bid.
The Sunday Star-Times understands the price of the rights had increased by more than $1m compared with 12 months ago.
Kerridge, president of the West Coast Rugby League, said there would be a lot of disappointed Coasters.
"They are going to be shattered," he said. "There is enormous support down here for the Warriors."
While Kerridge said while hotels could afford Sky coverage, Kerridge said many locals could not.
"It is the lower socio-economic group which is the backbone of our game," he said.
Kerridge suggested Sky penetration in the area was "modest" due to the cost.
The announcement came at a time when the local league had been discussing how it could capitalise on the success of the Warriors and promote the game.
"Just when we are on a high, the shutters come down," he said.
Prime chief executive Cameron Murray said the channel reached 85% of New Zealand. Penetration would be up to 90% when the 2003 NRL kicks off in March.
Murray was unsure when the channel's coverage would be extended to the West Coast and Northland but he said he understood the disappointment.
Prime will also broadcast another NRL game each weekend.
"It is a big step forward for us," Murray said. "I think we will see a substantial lift."
Prime has vowed its coverage will be delayed by only two hours and it won't be pushed back until late-night slots to avoid clashes with peak programming.
SES Americom and SCC Sign Trans-Pacific Agreement
From satnewsasia.com
SES Americom, Inc. and U.S.-based satellite operator, and Space Communications Corporation (SCC) of Japan have signed a multiple-year satellite transponder service agreement for Americom's AMC-13 satellite.
Being built by Alcatel, the all C-band satellite is planned for operation in early 2004. AMC-13 will deliver trans-Pacific services from its orbital position at 172 degrees East, as well as connections to the Americas, Asia and Australia/New Zealand. In addition to the trans-Pacific space segment, the service agreement includes the provision of uplink and downlink services by SES Americom at its earth station in South Mountain, California. SCC can access the broadcast community in Europe via the fleet of 41 satellites that SES Global, the parent company of SES Americom, either owns or has access to through its partnerships and participations. Until AMC-13 is ready for service, SCC will employ Spacenet 4, the satellite currently operating at 172 degrees, to provide its customers with services between Japan and North America.
AMC-13 is planned for launch at the end of 2003 on an Ariane 5 ECA into the 172 degrees East orbital position. The Alcatel-built spacecraft is based on a Spacebus 4000 platform, with a C-band payload of 60 36 MHz transponders and will provide EIRPs in excess of 41 dBW. The Spacenet 4 satellite, launched in April 1991, has 18 C-band transponders, 12 of which are 36 MHz; 6 are 72 MHz.
SCC will utilize the satellite capacity through its Tokyo-based ground facilities for transmission and reception services in Japan for the SES Americom Spacenet 4 and the planned AMC-13 satellite. The terrestrial services in Japan will support SCC's customer base, and will be available as well for SES Americom's customers in the U.S. and elsewhere in Asia. SCC will also provide fiber connectivity to its own data center in Tokyo and on to Japan-based customers.
SCC owns and operates a total of four satellites called the Superbird fleet. These provide satellite telecommunications services, satellite digital content delivery, direct-to-home broadcasting service and DirectPC VSAT services to major customers, including the Japanese government and the major organizations in the broadcasting sector.
In November 2001, SES Americom was combined with SES Astra to form a new premier global satellite company, SES Global S.A. The new company has a fleet of 28 satellites and can deliver satellite services to more than 90% of the world's population. In addition, SES Global's strategic partnerships and participation in AsiaSat, NSAB, Star One, Americom Asia-Pacific and Nahuelsat combine to give entertainment, telecommunications, Internet, news and enterprise customers access to a fleet of 41 satellites.
SCC was established in 1985 as a pioneer in the satellite communications business in Japan, following liberalization of the nation's telecom industry. The company was founded with the support primarily of Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and today 28 Mitsubishi Group affiliates continue to provide financial resources as shareholders to enable SCC to meet the nation's communications demand.
Shin Sat Airs Optimism on Profit Rise for 2002
From satnewsasia.com
Thai satellite operator Shin Satellite Plc (ShinSat) believes sales of ground station terminals for its new iPSTAR-1 Broadband Internet Satellite should help improve profits this year.
ShinSat expected net profit to improve over the US$35.87 million in 2001 from sales of ground stations. Richard Jones, head of investor relations, said ShiSat’s profits would rise slightly compared to U.S. satellite operators who are facing losses but did not give specific figures.
In the first nine months of 2002, ShinSat posted a net profit of US$27 million, down one percent on last year. Revenues from transponder rentals, the major source of ShinSat's income, dropped two percent year-on-year. ShinSat operates three satellites covering Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and most of Europe.
ShinSat sees its US$350 million iPSTAR-1, to be launched in 2003, as the main source of future. The satellite will offer high-speed data transmission for Internet and multimedia applications and is expected to become a mainstay of the company's revenue. IPSTAR-1 will provide a nominal capacity of over 50 gigabits per second (the equivalent of more than 1,000 standard 36 MHz transponders) and is 20 to 40 times more efficient than conventional satellite technology, claims ShinSat.
Jones said ShinSat's revenues could triple to US$400 million within five years after the launch of iPSTAR. Shin Sat had revenues of US$108.5 million in 2001. It has so far received bookings for about 30 percent of iPSTAR's capacity, and expects bookings to reach 50 percent within the first year of the launch, or about US$250 million in revenue.
ShinSat currently operates three satellites: Thaicom 1A, 2 and 3. Thaicom 1A and Thaicom 2 are two Hughes HS-376 spacecraft. Thaicom 1A carries 12 C-Band transponders and 3 Ku-Band transponder while Thaicom 2 has 10 C-Band transponders and 3 Ku-Band transponders. The C-Band footprints of Thaicom 1A and Thaicom 2 cover Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea, Japan and the east coast of China. Thaicom 1A and Thaicom 2 provide a high Ku-Band spot beam over Thailand and Indochina.
Thaicom 3 is ShinSat's second-generation satellite and is one of the most powerful and technologically advanced satellites ever built. Thaicom 3 has 25 C-Band transponders and 14 Ku-Band transponders and is a three-axis stabilized spacecraft. Seven C-Band transponders cover Asia, Europe, Australia, and Africa, or more than 120 countries and three billion people.
Legal Row Threatens Laos Satellite Project
From satnewsasia.com
Laos, one of only four remaining Communist states in Asia and one of the world's poorest countries, is embroiled in a legal row with its partners in a satellite project.
The Laotian government said its dispute with Asia Broadcasting and Communication Network (ABCN), a firm set up by Thai, North American and Japanese telecoms firms to help Laos build, launch and operate its first satellite, involved ABCN’s refusal to pay the US$9.67 million awarded the government by a trial court last month. Details of the row were not explained by the government, which owns 20% of the joint venture.
ABCN has a 30-year concession to operate the US$380 million satellite whose launch is set for 2004. Laos hopes to profit from renting out the satellite to broadcasting companies covering the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 and by offering it for Internet access and other communications services.
The Laotian government said it was seriously considering replacing ABCN with another partner and was also mulling confiscating the ground station and putting it up for sale. ANCN, however, said it had no intention of reneging on debt repayment as it had spent some US$100 million on the project.
Among major investors in ABCN are United Communication Industry Plc (19%), International Engineering Plc (17 %), Canada's Telesat (10 %), Loral Space & Communications (6%) and Itochu Corporation (6 %).
Zee adds Realty TV to bouquet
From indiantelevision.com
MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: Subhash Chandra's Zee Telefilms is certainly not letting any grass grow under its feet following the defection of movie channel HBO from the Zee-Turner platform to Sony Entertainment's One Alliance.
In a deal signed two days ago but announced today, Zee-Turner has entered into a distribution agreement with the Zone Broadcasting (Maximum Realty) Ltd for distribution in India of Realty TV, a channel devoted solely to reality television programming. The channel will be launching in India in January, industry sources say.
It is further learned that Zee-Turner will be hiking its full package rate from the current Rs 42 to around Rs 60. The full package includes all the Zee channels, the Alphas, the Turner channels (Cartoon Network and CNN), Zee's educational channel ZED and Realty TV. However, judging by the packaging structure that Zee adopted earlier in the year wherein it offered various combinations of channels at different prices, most operators will be paying lower rates.
Meanwhile, today's Financial Express has quoted Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea as saying the lead network had decided to maintain status quo on its rates and would concentrate instead on driving up connectivity.
While Star's distribution head Tony D'Silva maintains that a final decision on this would only be made next week, if as reported Star has decided to refrain from going in for a hike, it is bound to increase the pressure from cable operators if Zee hikes its full package rate to Rs 60.
Meanwhile, industry sources say that Turner will inform Zee by next week whether premium movie channel Cinemax can be brought into the bouquet to replace HBO. HBO being a stakeholder in Cinemax does complicate matters. Further, with HBO and Star Movies having tied up most of the rights for new Hollywood blockbusters, there may also be an issue of getting decent titles on the channel to contend with.
Realty TV is a UK-based channel launched about a month ago, industry sources say. Realty TV is also available in South Africa.
Alongside the Realty TV announcement, Zee also informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that its board had today approved and ratified the distribution agreement entered into between Zee-Turner Television Eighteen India Ltd for distribution of CNBC channel in India.
T S I C H A N N E L N E W S - Number 48/2002 1 December 2002 -
A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by TELE-satellite International
Editor: Branislav Pekic
Edited Apsattv.com Edition
A S I A
AUSTRALIA
PRICE INCREASE FOR OPTUS PAY-TV PACKAGE
The country’s two main pay-TV providers will raise their fees after their channel-sharing deal. From December 1, Optus subscribers will get 16 Foxtel channels, while Foxtel will get Optus's MTV and Ovation channels as well as three movie channels. Optus's entry-level subscription fee will rise from $A24.95 to $A39.95 a month. Foxtel customers will pay $A3 a month extra for MTV and Ovation. To get the three extra movie channels, they will pay an extra $A24.95 a month.
TASMANIA TO GET THIRD COMMERCIAL TV CHANNEL
A partnership between the two existing operators was on November 26 licensed to run Tasmania's third commercial TV service. The digital service will be operated by TasTV, which is jointly owned by Southern Cross Television and WIN Television Tas, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) said. An ABA spokesman said it is the first licence issued under a recent change to the Broadcasting Services Act, which enables existing licensees to bid for a second licence in areas which don't have three services. The change was made to encourage a third service where there was insufficient incentive to attract a new player. TasTV, which paid an allocation fee of $12,000, must start the new service within a year. While large areas of rural Australia have only two commercial services, Tasmania is the only state without three.
AUSTAR SEEKS TO SIGN UP NEW SUBSCRIBERS
Australia's number two pay-TV provider Austar is planning an aggressive drive to sign-up new customers in 2003, hoping that the improved financials and the approval of the Foxtel and Optus channel sharing plans will stimulate the sector overall. Chief Executive John Porter said Austar planned, "to get all hands to the pump on growing subscribers in the first quarter," of 2003. Austar, which serves regional and rural Australia and has around 435,000 subscribers, has seen a fall of 6.5 per cent of its customer base in the last quarter as a severe drought has lowered incomes in country areas. Austar, 81 per cent owned by United Global Communications, will benefit from Foxtel and Opaccord gaining government approval because it has a programming joint venture with the former. Now that these channels will be seen by a further 280,000 Optus customers Porter believes that will add a further €10 million a year in subscriber revenue.
BAHRAIN
ENGLISH LANGUAGE CHANNEL TO LAUNCH IN 2003
A new English language satellite TV channel is preparing to launch in the Gulf. The Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) will launch the Bahrain-based free-to-air channel early next year. According to MBC marketing director Mamdouh Abougabal, the channel will provide "a rich fare of news, analysis on current affairs, and latest Western movies." He says the station is targeting the "80 percent-plus young Arabs who want to see English programs on a private free-to-air channel. The English channels available in the Gulf are all government owned." The new channel will broadcast on C band via Arabsat. MBC will continue to broadcast its Arabic service, which launched 11 years ago and according to Abougabal "still remains the number one preferred channel for the Arabs." MBC has ordered additional equipment from Harris Automation Solutions as it doubles its facilities from three to six channels at the Dubai broadcasting center. For the last year MBC has been transmitting programming for three family channels from a single control suite, broadcasting via satellite not only to the Middle East, but also to expatriates in Europe and the Americas.
BANGLADESH
STATE TV TO LAUNCH SATELLITE SERVICE
Bangladesh's state television network is preparing for its international debut, planning satellite broadcasts to target overseas viewers, an official at the station has confirmed. The Sangbad newspaper reported that Bangladesh Television had set a March 2003 start date for broadcasts to the Middle East and Europe, where there are large Bangladeshi communities. Bangladesh's first private station, Ekushey Television, was launched in 1999 but went off the air in August after a lengthy court battle challenging its license. Since then, two new private cable networks, Channel I and ATN Bangla, have begun operating alongside the state network.
INDIA
PAY-TV DECISION PROVOKES PROTESTS
The decision of Tamil TV channels to go pay has triggered a battle among cable TV operators, with those relaying only free-to-air channels criticising operators transmitting both free and pay channels, and chiefly against the multi-system operator, Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV). The emerging group of ``free-to-air' (FTA) operators established the Tamil Nadu State Cable TV Operators' Welfare, Protection and Service Association recently, and in a meeting on November 25 laid down a list of demands to the State Government and a threat of agitation if they were not given a fair share of the Tamil pay channel pie. The FTA operators now want to transmit at least some Tamil pay channels at an additional Rs.10 per subscriber so they can still have a presence in the market, but allege that the Tamil channels are refusing to give them the decoders. The association urged the State Government to take steps to release the cable TV industry from a monopoly unit, and "ensure that the poor do not have to pay for channels they do not want to watch, and to direct the Tamil pay channels to give decoders to non-SCV operators too".
HBO TO JOIN SET AND DISCOVERY ONE ALLIANCE
Hollywood movie channel HBO will be joining the Sony Entertainment Television (SET) and Discovery's One Alliance from January 1, 2003. The channel's ad sales and distribution arrangement will be managed by One Alliance as its contract with Turner International India ends at the close of the year. With this decision, HBO will be a part of the One Alliance bouquet which includes Sony, Max, Discovery, Animal Planet, AXN and CNBC. The transition of HBO from the Zee bouquet to Sony bouquet on the midnight of December 31, 2002 will be seamless. In the new alliance, the effort will be to increase HBO's presence to 25 million homes from the current 15 million homes. Following the entry of the seventh channel in the One Alliance bouquet, the possibility of a subscription rate hike cannot be ruled out. Currently, the rate stands at Rs 40 for six channels. SET India is in advanced talks with MTV for a distribution deal, which will fill in the gap of a music channel in the bouquet. The absence of a news and a children channel will still be felt, but SET India chief executive officer Kunal Dasgupta said the company was in talks with Aaj Tak. In a separate development, business channel CNBC India is considering to move away from Sony and join the Zee-Turner bouquet, after the board ratification from TV 18 and Zee Telefilms. CNBC has a distribution agreement with Sony till March 31, 2003.
TURNER TO LAUNCH NEW HOLLYWOOD MOVIE CHANNEL
Turner International India, an AOL Time Warner company, is all set to launch a new Hollywood movie channel in India. Industry sources said the movie channel will be called Cinemax. Cinemax is a premium 24-hour movie channel owned by Time Warner in the US. It provides motion pictures and new entertainment specials including movies. Time Warner launched Cinemax in 1980, eight years after launching HBO in 1972. The new channel will replace the slot occupied by HBO in the Zee-Turner bouquet which has moved to Sony’s distribution platform One Alliance. Turner India MD Anshuman Mishra confirmed that they would launch a new movie channel. While movie channel HBO is owned by AOL-Time Warner in the US, a separate HBO channel was formed for the South Asia in September 2000. Rivals in the US, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Columbia Tri-Star), Paramount and Universal Studios teamed up with Warner Bros to jointly operate HBO in the South Asia and share revenue.
INDONESIA
PARLIAMENT STOPS PLANS TO SELL PUBLIC BROADCASTER
The Indonesian parliament has scrapped plans to privatize public broadcaster TVRI. The channel has been losing audience share and money since commercial broadcaster arrived in the country, with 35 new commercial stations due to launch in 2003. Earlier this year it was allowed to carry advertising in additional to its broadcaster levy revenues.
MALAYSIA
NEW TV CHANNEL TO LAUNCH IN JANUARY
Malaysian Channel 8 will relaunch in February if test transmissions in January go to plan. Channel 8, which was formerly known as Metrovision, has been off air since 1999. When it launched in 1995, Metrovision was Malaysia's second commercial broadcaster. The new Channel 8 is being backed by local businessman Datuk Hamzah Abdul Majid. The channel will target the west part of the country at first, and will also be available free-to-air on the Astro DTH platform.
THE PHILLIPINES
MAGIX BOX TO HELP LAUNCH OF INTERACTIVE SERVICES
A new scheme to fund the roll out of digital set-top-boxes in the Asian region has been launched by M@gic Box in partnership with OpenTV and decoder manufacturer Nokia. The box will also incorporate a credit card payment mechanism allowing M@gic Box to take a share in all transactions subscribers make. The first operator to deploy under this arrangement is Philippines DTH operator PMSI. M@gic Box already have content agreements in place with a number of OpenTV partners including Lagardere Active (provider of Elle and other magazine branded iTV magazines) and games developer Visiware who will initially provide PMSI with 4 games under the Playin' TV brand. M@gic Box will also be developing their own applications and from early December will launch a local news & information service under the brand name of M-D@ily which will offer Sports, Business, Entertainment, Breaking News and Headline News, updated hourly. From early next year their offering will be supported by a 7-day EPG and enhanced-TV services. OpenTV, a strategic partner in the venture, will be providing M@gic Box with a broad range of iTV solutions including their OpenTV Account and OpenTV Advertise solutions. The iTV services will be deployed in EN2 using Nokia's 8830S set-top boxes. The Philippines will be followed by other Asian markets currently under development including Thailand, Malaysia, China & India. M@gic's key investors are all Asian businesses. Initial funding was provided by Hutchison Corporate Accesswhich recently became division of PCCW in Hong Kong. Principals of Corporate Access include developers of Star TV. Other key operating partners include Vision Media Group, in Malaysia and Logan Technology Group.
http://www.magicitv.com
SAUDI ARABIA
PRINCESS TO SET UP TWO CHANNELS
Saudi Princess Sarah Bint Bandar Bin Fahd on November 27 said the aim of her project of setting up two TV channels was to confront a rising anti-Muslim campaign in the West. The Saudi daily Ukaz quoted her as saying that the two channels were part of an integrated and well-studied scheme. ART Vision for children and the academic channels will go on airwaves soon.
THAILAND
LOSSES DOWN AT UBC
Leading pay-TV platform, United Broadcasting Corp reported that in the nine months to September of this year it had a net loss of €1.25 million compared to €24.6 million for the same period in 2001. In mid-2002 UBC said it was on course to meet its target of adding 60,000 subscribers by the end of 2002 after revealing new customer sign ups in the first quarter of 2002 were four times greater than the same period in 2001. These ambitions have been scaled back to between 40,000 and 45,000 for the year as UBC faces up to the competition from provincial cable operators who undercut the company by allegedly running movies and other programming that is pirated or unlicensed. UBC predicts that subscriber growth will get back on track once the Thai government cracks down on piracy.
1/12/02
No update Sunday