26/07/04

ANT Greece has turned up FTA on NSS6 but DO NOT DO INSTALLS FOR IT until we know what is going on with it.

Some activity on B1 the empty carrier on 12483V has gone!

From my Emails & ICQ

From Bill Richards

NSS 6
0840 UTC
11083 HORZ S/R 2170 FEC 3/4 Vpid 34 Apid 35 SID 1 "Ant Greece"

FTA Lang Greek

Regards
Bill Richards
South Australia

From John Harrison

B3 12442 H
B3 12452 H..6670
V8's Live from Winton Raceway
Race Control Radio

From Steve Hume

Telkom 1 signal up in power
3896H SR: 2000

Loads as "9Mhz, PAL,1" but is Trijaya Radio 104.75 Indonesia

APID1: 256
APID2: 257
VPID: 308
PCR: 8190
TTX PID: 0000

Measat 2

I'm currently seeing Measat 2 4085v at higher than normal levels. (BestI've seen actually)

Just incase any of you want to line up on it. Should be a good time to try.

From "adhoc"

Currently on Asiasat 3s

India v Pakistan
PTVK FEEDS1
4111 V SR:3333 Vpid 308 Apid 256

From the Dish

Optus C1 156E 12407 V "Woolworths" has left .

Optus B3 152E 12407 V "Sky Radio (Australia)" has started , APID 517.

Telstar 18 has left 142 East, moving west.

Apstar 1A 134E 4160 H All channels in the CCTV mux are Fta.

AsiaSat 4 122E 3733 H "The test card and Fish video" have left .

Palapa C2 113E 3580 H "The Kabelvision mux" has left again.
Palapa C2 113E 3918 H "Occasional feeds" on , SR 3500, FEC 3/4.

Palapa C2 113E Updates in True World TV: CTS on 11132 V is now Fta. MAC TV on 11472 V is now Fta.

Worldsat 1 108.2E 12326 H "Raj Vidya Kendra TV" has started on , Fta, SR 5000, FEC 3/4, PIDs 4194/4195, South Asian beam.
Worldsat 1 108.2E 12704 H "FGTV Sat" is now encrypted in BISS.

Telkom 1 108E 3896 H A test card and Trijaya FM have started on , Fta, SR 2000,PIDs 308/256 and 257.(Well done Steve you finally convinced Lyngsat that it exists and his technical info is WRONG after several months arguing it.)

ST 1 88E 3550 V "TVB 8, MATV and Channel V Chinese" have left .

Intelsat 709 85.2E 11486 V "ATV Home Channel and ATV World Channel" have started on , Videoguard, PIDs 514/652 and 516/654.

Thaicom 3 78.5E 3640 H New PIDs for the RR Sat promo on : 257/258.
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3695 H "Sky International" is Fta.

Telstar 10 76.5E 3652 H "TV Lanka Channel 3" is Fta.
Telstar 10 76.5E 12333 H "Rainbow Channel (Taiwan)" is back on , Viaccess, PIDs 102/103.

PAS 10 68.5E 3744 V "Zee TV Africa" has left .
PAS 10 68.5E 4070 V "Dubai Sports Channel" has started on , Fta, SR 3300, PIDs 308/256.
PAS 10 68.5E 4075 V "Hungama Channel" has started testing on , Irdeto, SR 4000, FEC 3/4, PIDs 500/600.

NEWS

Broadband rollout for 99 towns

From http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/news/200407/s1161814.htm

Telstra rolls ADSL out to 99 more towns.ABC TV

Nearly 100 Australian towns have moved a step closer to broadband Internet access today, as Telstra announced it would make more local exchanges ADSL-capable under a Government subsidy scheme.

The Federal Government announced last year that it would spend more than $100 million subsidising broadband services for regional and remote Australia under the HiBIS program.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has announced today that three companies have registered under the scheme and two more, including Telstra, have approval to do so.

Telstra says more than 106,000 customers in 99 towns, most in rural areas, will now gain access to broadband ADSL services for the first time.

The 99 towns selected are those with the highest registered demand for ADSL services.

"More affordable broadband, in line with prices available in metropolitan areas, will now be available for rural, regional and remote Australia, helping businesses and individuals living in those areas stay connected," Senator Coonan said in a statement.

Other firms approved to start providing broadband services under HiBIS are:Canberra-based RBBS, which will provide two-way satellite services in high-cost areas across Australia;DCS Internet, which will provide wireless broadband services in eastern Victoria;E-wire, which will provide cable modem services in parts of WA's south-west; andWideband Services, which will provide wireless broadband services in eastern Victoria.

Putting those TV ads on ice

From http://townsvillebulletin.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,10227285%255E462,00.html

TECHNOLOGY that allows people to black out or mute television advertising could be available in Australia as early as November, posing a threat to the $2.9 billion television advertising industry.

For $3 a week, viewers with the right digital set-top box would be able to subscribe to the technology, a spokesman for ICE Personal Digital Television said.

The Intelligent Content Engine technology claims to be able to remove ads when playing back recorded programs, lower or mute the sound in ad breaks, automatically surf between channels during commercials and restrict unsuitable programs.

"You can use it with your current TV but it works with (ICE-enabled) digital set-top boxes," the spokesman said.

ICE would launch the technology to potential investors next week and was planning to roll it out this year. Set-top box manufacturers had already shown "considerable" interest in incorporating it into their products, he said.

Digital video recorders enabling viewers to skip ads are in about 4 per cent of US homes, or 3 million households. This is tipped to rise to 20 per cent in two years.

In DVR homes, up to 75 per cent of ads are skipped - resulting in 2 per cent of the advertising market, worth $US1.2 billion ($1.6 billion), being ignored, according to industry research.

In Australia, Foxtel has flagged the possible launch of similar technology but the launch of ICE, and the impact it might have on television advertising budgets has taken the advertising industry by surprise.

A Seven Network spokesman said ad-skipping technology was in its early days and had no measurable effect in the US. "Advertisers continue to recognise that television is the single most important platform for the development of a brand," he said.

However, John Sintras, chief operating officer of media buying agency Starcom, which is responsible for booking ads worth $600 million a year, said the technology was "a concern" for television advertisers who already wanted better information on the effect their advertising investment was having.

He said if advertising levels fell, it would affect the quality of free-to-air television.

"Are consumers that stupid that they don't know that they get a free-to-air service because of advertising," Mr Sintras said.

Retailer Harvey Norman said the technology would lead to an explosion in digital set-top box sales.

Astro: New anti-cloning access card

From http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=28258

Penang: Astro, the sole satellite television station in the country, will introduce a new anti-cloning access smart card to its 1.383 million subscribers soon to fight the growing access card cloning racket.

Astro chief operating officer, David Butorac said subscribers will be informed to change their access card soon when the new smart card was ready for distribution.

He said this was to ensure that the cloning access card became obsolete.

“Those who use manufactured or distributed a clone Astro access card will find themselves on losing side soon,” he told reporters here after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Philips and Sanmina-SCI System (M) Sdn Bhd (SSCI), Friday.

The MoU is an agreement to appoint SSCI as a manufacture for the new box of Philip’s Astro decoders.

The new box of Astro decoder is already in the market and Astro is confident of installing about 300,000 boxes to its new customers next year.

“We will replace the access card with a new high-tech smart card and we have invested about RM5 billion to enhance the infrastructure, technology and programming for Astro,” he said.

Chief executive officer Philips Malaysia Bhd, R. Kumar said the new Philips Astro decoders would be manufactured completely in the country.

Following the MoU, Philips will transfer its technology to SSCI. The enhanced version of the Philips decoders will be manufactured at its plant in Bukit Tengah Industrial Park, Prai.

“Given Astro’s long-term plans to expand its services in Southeast Asian markets, it is only natural that the enhanced Philips decoders for Astro users are manufactured in Malaysia as opposed to just assembling the decoders,” he said.

SSCI has the capacity to manufacture 500,000 Philips decoders annually with a view to meeting Astro’s expansion plans. - Bernama

Research satellite launched by China

From http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=112016078&p=yyzxy6784

China launched a second research satellite into orbit today as part of a joint project with the European Space Agency to study the Earth’s magnetic field.

The satellite was launched at 8.05 Irish time in the northern city of Taiyuan off a Long March carrier rocket.

It joins another satellite which China launched in December, also in collaboration with the European agency.

Both are part of the “Double Star” project, which will study the Earth’s magnetic field, ionosphere and upper atmosphere.

The project is China’s first collaboration with the European Space Agency.

China’s space programme, a key prestige project for the communist government, sent its first satellite into orbit in 1970 and in October launched its first manned space flight.

First Tamil TV service for South Africans

From http://www.123bharath.com/india-news/index.php?action=fullnews&id=4099

Cinema South India > Durban, July 23: The first television service for South Africa's more than half a million strong Tamil community was launched at a glittering function here.

The leading satellite channel provider in the country, DSTV, introduced its new Indian bouquet of services, resulting in three new Indian channels being added to the three that have been available to subscribers for several years now.

Until now, Zee-TV, Sony and B4U have been available to subscribers who could either subscribe to this bouquet separately or as part of the wider service of more than 50 channels offered by DSTV.

Now DSTV has repositioned its Indian offering into separate Hindi and Tamil bouquets as Sun TV, KTV and NDTV 24X7 have also been signed up.

The Hindi bouquet will now comprise the original three services plus NDTV 24X7, while the Tamil bouquet will feature the three new channels only.

"It took us almost two years to source and secure the very best in Indian entertainment for South Africa," said Linda Vermaas, general manager for content at Multichoice, the holding company for DSTV.

"It marks the start of a brand new relationship with the south Indian community in this country.

Vermaas said research had shown that consumption of news from India was very important to the South African Indian community.

"We also found that English was considered an important medium in which to consume fast-moving factual content, especially among the younger generation."

NDTV director Sameer Manchanda said the channel dominates news in India and was ahead of BBC, CNN and NBC after starting up as the first such service in India a decade ago. It is also the only Indian channel to have won an Emmy Award.

Manchanda told IANS that the newsworthiness of stories emanating from South Africa for a wider audience would decide how much content from the country would be included on NDTV in future.

In a recorded message played at the launch, Shanmugam Kannappan, vice president of sales at Sun Network, said he hoped the third generation Tamil community in South Africa would appreciate the channels being brought to them.

"I hope that this partnership between DSTV and Sun will be a step towards making our channels accessible globally."

The DSTV bouquets will also be available in several other African countries in which Multichoice provides a service.

Tamil community leaders, who have been clamouring for a service of this nature for some time now, welcomed the initiative.

"It really means a lot to us as we have been struggling to get a fair share of Tamil entertainment. We are confident that the Tamil community will support the bouquet and we will be promoting it at all our functions," Bala Naidoo, vice president of the South African Tamil Federation, told IANS.

Astro to tap Indian market via radio services

From http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k4/july/july142.htm

NEW DELHI: Astro, the entertainment major from Malaysia-based Measat, is once again attempting to tap the Indian market but this time it is doing it through radio services.

Astro CEO Ralph Marshall has been quoted by the Hong Kong-based Media Partners Asia publication Media Routes that the company would expand regionally with pay TV investments in Indonesia and radio ventures in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.

No details were, however, made available as to the nature of the radio venture that Astro was looking at for the Indian market. The options before Astro, keeping in mind the Indian government guidelines for radio ventures, is to start a digital satellite TV radio service on the lines of those been made available by Worldspace at the moment.

Another option for Astro is to hitch up with a local partner to start community radio services. But the licence procedure for community radio service is cumbersome, which has been a deterrent for several other players. Or else, Astro can optimistically wait for the Indian government to review foreign investment norms in FM radio sector, which is nil at the moment.

But, Astro's parent company Measat did have a relationship with Indian pubcaster Doordarshan in the mid to late 1990s for starting a KU-band DTH television service in India. The memorandum of understanding was allowed to lapse, as DD did not get the requisite permission from the government.

Astro, an integrated media major (pay TV, radio and movies), has, however said it's bullish on maintaining robust pay TV subscriber growth at the 300,000/year level and expanding regionally. According to Media Routes, Astro's first quarter result was marginally below expectations amid noise about piracy and new competition (MiTV, Telekom).

Astro also plans to complete a $300 million syndicated loan facility this year, which will be used to repay its outstanding $250 million term loans. On a conservative note, MPA has forecast that Astro is likely to add slightly under 260,000 subscribers for the 12-month period to end in January 2005, taking Astro's overall residential subscriber base to 1.542 million.

NDTV 24X7 hops on to MultiChoice platform in Africa

From http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k4/july/july154.htm

MUMBAI: Leading English news channel NDTV 24X7 is now available on the MultiChoice platform in Africa.

The MultiChoice platform will now carry both North and South Indian content. The North Indian bouquet, currently comprising the Sony, B4U and Zee TV channels, will be enhanced with the addition of NDTV 24X7.

A new South Indian bouquet will also include NDTV 24X7 amongst the other channels.

Linda Vermaas, MultiChoice's general manager content was quoted in an official release as saying, "The addition of NDTV 24X7 to the North and South Indian offering is evidence of MultiChoice's ongoing commitment to bringing high quality entertainment and information to its diverse subscriber base. It's taken us two years of intense research and negotiation to ensure that we secured channels that would meet the rich cultural and linguistic needs of South Africa's Indian population."

Sameer Manchanda, Director - NDTV said, "We're very pleased to be partnering with MultiChoice to make India's no. 1 English news channel available to the large Indian diaspora in Africa. We're confident that NDTV will further strengthen the strong bond that the community shares with India and we will continue to provide the best and most credible news coverage from the region.

The North and South Indian bouquets is being marketed under the banner of DStv Indian. Multichoice's DStv Indian package was officially launched in South Africa on Wednesday (21 July).

Zee's biz channel to launch this week on Dish TV

From http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k4/july/july160.htm

NEW DELHI: The Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms is going ahead and doing a soft-launch this week of a business news channel on a direct-to-home television service, Dish TV.

"Zee Business (the new channel as it has been christened) will be launched in a quiet manner on Dish TV this week and slowly things would be ramped up," Zee Telefilms news director Laxmi N Goel told indiantelevision.com.

Zee Telefilms and another Chandra company, ASC Enterprise, promote Dish TV, the country's first DTH service.

According to Goel, the business channel is being launched on the DTH platform first as government permission for uplinking from India has not come through yet.

The proposed business news channel would start off with about eight hours of programming. Over a period of a month, the effort would be to increase the content and number of telecast hours to 18 or 24, Goel added.

The dry runs or test runs of the channel had been on for some days now. The business channel would be on the NSS-6 satellite along with other Dish TV channels.

Though Goel did not elaborate on the business model for Zee Business, he did say that there is definitely a market for a Hindi business channel, which would not restrict itself to covering only stock markets.

Incidentally, CNBC-TV 18 is also planning to come out with a Hindi business news channel and TV Today Network promoter Aroon Purie had told indiantelevision.com in an interview some time back that there was definitely room for a non-stock market business channel in India.

Zee's Goel pointed out that as and when government permissions and other necessary clearances come through, the business channel would be offered on cable networks too. A decision on whether it would be a pay channel or free to air on cable networks would be taken at an appropriate time.

The Zee business channel's application for uplinking, after going through some changes, has been pending with the government for over six months.

Education satellite set for September launch

From http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200407240315.htm

Bangalore, July 24. (PTI): India's first exclusive satellite for serving the education sector, EDUSAT, primarily meant to provide space-based connectivity and support to non-formal education, is all set to be launched in September.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the satellite is specially configured to meet the growing demand for interactive satellite-based distance education system for the country through audio-visual medium, employing Direct To Home (DTH) quality broadcast.

The satellite will have multiple regional beams covering different parts of India -- five Ku-band transponders with spot beams covering northern, north-eastern, eastern, southern and western regions of the country, a Ku-band transponder with its footprint covering the Indian mainland region and six C-band transponders with their footprints covering the entire country, the space agency said.

ISRO Chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair said EDUSAT would be launched from the spaceport of Sriharikota on board Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

The scope of the programme is to be realised in three phases. In the first phase of pilot projects, a Ku-band transponder on board INSAT-3B, which is already in orbit, is being used.

In the second phase, EDUSAT will be used in semi-operational project with one uplink in each beam and about 100 to 200 classrooms per beam.

In the third phase, the network is expected to become fully operational when it will be able to support a total of 25 to 30 uplinks and about 5000 remote terminals per uplink.

Zee may merge ETC Networks with itself

From http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/789989.cms

MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms, a majority owner of the listed broadcaster ETC Networks, is mulling a merger of ETC with Zee in the not-too-distant future. This will follow the current merger process between E-Connect India and ETC Networks.

Following heavy losses in various new media subsidiaries like E-Connect and Zee Interactive Learning, Zee Telefilms had announced it will withdraw from these businesses in September last year.

Subsequently, it was decided to merge E-Connect with ETC Networks after the former had shown a net loss of over Rs 21 crore.

E-Connect’s focus was on entertainment-based content and website development for group companies and third parties.

Jagjit Singh Kohli, MD of ETC Networks, told ET that the ETC- E-Connect merger process was currently being pursued in court following which ETC’s merger with Zee will be taken up. Zee owns 57% in ETC.

The original promoters, Mr Kohli and others, have a minority shareholding in the company and the merger is seen as an exit route for them.

The original promoters also have a three-year management contract with Zee to run ETC Networks. With just one year remaining, a merger process will also pave the way for Zee taking over the reins of the company.

Meanwhile, ETC Networks, which owns the music channel ‘ETC’ and ‘ETC Punjabi’ is planning to launch two new channels in the near future.

The spiritual programming currently on ETC Punjabi will be spun off into a 24-hour spiritual channel called ‘ETC Khalsa’. The company also intends to launch a south Indian music channel.

The ETC flagship channel mainly concentrates on Hindi and Bollywood music. The new south Indian channel will have slots for film and other popular music of all the 4 south Indian languages, Mr Kohli said.

25/07/04

No Update

24/07/04

No update

23/07/04

Not much to finish the week on

Kabelvision / Smart TV on Palapa C2 still there and still playing with power levels.

From my Emails & ICQ

From G. PNG

Kablevision of Indonesia have established or are in partnership with others in a
DTH venture called Smart TV which is presently testing in preparation for launching their service shortly.

The Smart TV operation will enable Kablevision (who previously only had rights to operate a cable service) to take on Indovision in the DTH business.

From vk4bkp

Pas8 12526H 28066 3/4 the test patterns are back on.
I701 12693H 28066 3/4 now showing scrambled. Encryption unknown.

From Fishing Fishing

Asian cup 2004 is on Dubai sports on As2 everyday (4020v).

Fishingg

From Jon C (Thailand)

live asian cup 2004 & copa america FTA on Apstar 1A

Satellite: Apstar1A
FREQ: 4160
POL: H
S/R: 27500

live asian cup 2004 & copa america 2004

From Ukfeedhunters group

New 'FEED' on PANAMSAT 10 68.5 EAST
4.070 HORIZONTAL 3300 FREE 308 / 256
shows Sports Dubai, Arab comment

From the Dish

PAS 8 The test cards are back 12526 H.
PAS 8 12686 H "The Jadeworld info card" is now encrypted.

Palapa C2 113E 3580 H The Kabelvision mux is back on , new SR: 27000, partly new line-up.

AsiaSat 2 100.5E 4020 V "EuroSport News" is now encrypted.

NSS 6 95E 11106 H "TV Romania International has replaced Realitatea TV" , Fta SR 3255, FEC 3/4, PIDs 1160/1120.
NSS 6 95E 12729 V "Sexy Sat TV" has started on , Fta, PIDs 2305/2306, Australian beam.

Yamal 201 90E 3674 L "The SGU" mux has left .
Yamal 201 90E 4041 R "The REN TV" mux has left .

Thaicom 3 78.5E 3640 H "Spectrum" has started on , Fta, PIDs 1793/1794.

NEWS

HONG KONG: Cable TV puts rural viewers in the picture

From http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=12974

Satellite transmissions to bring Hong Kong Cable Television to residents of Hong Kong’s outlying islands and villages

Residents of remote districts, such as the outlying islands and villages in the New Territories, will soon be able to access Hong Kong Cable Television.

The city's No1 pay-television operator would use satellite transmissions to provide universal geographical coverage, from about 95 per cent coverage now, to show its "whole-hearted commitment" to Hong Kong, Cable Television's vice-president, Eric Lo, said yesterday.

The company has rented two transponders from Apstar 5 to offer the service, which will start in two months. Each customer will be charged $308 a month - the same as regular subscribers - but will need to pay $2,000 to $6,000 to have a satellite dish installed.

About 20 channels will be offered, just half the number of the standard package. The service will include news, documentaries and entertainment.

i-Cable to reach into blind spots

From http://www.thestandard.com.hk/thestandard/news_detail_frame.cfm?articleid=49498&intcatid=1

i-Cable Communications, Hong Kong's dominant pay-TV operator, is leasing two transponders from APT Satellite Holdings to extend its network coverage to 30,000 blind-spot households over the next three years.

The multi-channel television operating arm of conglomerate Wharf Holdings now beams signals via its underground cable and microwave transmission networks, to 2 million households in Hong Kong, or 95 per cent of the city's population.

Cable TV subscription service executive director Eric Lo declined to disclose terms of the deal with APT Satellite. ``It is not a pure profit-oriented project, as the costs are really high; [it's] to fulfil our 100 per cent coverage promise,'' he said.

A free trial run of services targeting the blind-spot households in Sai Kung, outer islands and some other remote areas will start early in August, offering 20 channels. But the service, which would begin charging subscribers from late August, would be more expensive than the basic monthly package of HK$308. Subscribers also would need to pay between HK$2,000 and HK$6,000 up-front to lease a satellite dish and decoding equipment.

Shares of i-Cable dropped 1.79 per cent to HK$2.65 on Thursday.

Russia launches Kosmos rocket with military satellite

From http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040722185533.r8js0tbq.html

A Russian Kosmos rocket carrying a military satellite blasted off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome late Thursday, a spokesman for Russia's space forces said.
The Kosmos-3M rocket was launched at 9:46 pm (1746 GMT), the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

The military satellite was the fifth one to be sent into space since the beginning of this year.

India, China to add 83 million multi-channel TV households

From http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/stories/2004/07/23/9512.html

India and People’s Republic of China (PRC), jointly, are expected to add 83 million multi-channel TV households,
in five years from now. Also, together, these two Asian giants are likely to add more number of multi-channel TV households, than the entire increase in the rest of the world, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey of the media and entertainment industry for 2004-2008. FE had earlier reported that the PwC study saw the Asia-Pacific region as the primary driver for growth in the entertainment sector. Now, there’s more.

For instance, India and China will be the principal catalysts of growth, as both are “investing heavily in their communications and media infrastructure.” Another reason why these two Asia-Pacific biggies are driving the region’s media sector growth, is that they “are opening up their markets to foreign investments,” according to PwC.

Technology development and digital wave in India and China are among the other key factors. Above all, the study looks at the huge population and low penetration of media in these two countries as a big plus.

Interestingly, the research considers the Tata-STAR direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting venture, which is being planned for the year-end, a mover too for the Indian media sector. Besides, the projected increase of the multi-channel households in India by 21 million in the next five years, would translate into 7.6 per cent penetration raise, the PwC report says. Currently, there are around 45 million cable and satellite homes in the country. There are a few thousand DTH (from the Zee stable) homes also in the country.

If India is expanding its satellite homes, China’s numbers are impressive as well, going by the study.

“We project an increase of 30 million satellite households and an additional 32 million cable households in the PRC by 2008, for a total gain of 62 million multi-channel households.” China plans to launch its first satellite service in 2005.

While the TV distribution market in Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at 12.6 per cent compound annual rate, the overall media and entertainment market in the region will grow at a 9.8 per cent compound annual rate in the next five years.

On the whole, the global entertainment and media industry is on the recovery path, from the 2001-02 downturn, the report concludes.

Although technology is a growth vehicle, the political and military environment could pose a hurdle.

DTS Tests 5.1 Channel Sound Over IP Network

From http://news.designtechnica.com/article4798.html

DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.) demonstrated the viability of streaming high definition surround sound audio over the Internet in a recent trial with Swedish Radio.

Audio mixed live in 5.1-channel surround sound from an outside broadcast was encoded at 24 bit, 96kHz using DTS' Coherent Acoustics codec, and streamed onto the Sprint Network via Internet protocol, at 1.5Mbs - equivalent to full DVD-V and DVB bit rate.

The event marked the first time that DTS Digital Surround has been streamed over an IP network, and proves that high bit rate, high quality surround sound audio can now be streamed using DTS, providing a common delivery format for DVD, DVB and digital cinema.

Ted Laverty, Director of Business Development for DTS, explained, "The exercise arose out of our on-going cooperation with Swedish Radio and their continuing DTS-encoded DVB satellite service. They are experiencing a fast-growing demand for the high quality DTS downloads on their Web site (www.sr.se/multikanal), and were keen to examine the viability of providing a streaming signal of the same quality. The success of the transmission further establishes DTS as a convergent technology, providing the same high quality, multi-channel audio across the various content delivery channels."

The signal feed from the live concert - also broadcast on SR's DTS satellite transmission - was encoded with a DVB MPEG2 encoder with IP outputs. A DTS signal was streamed using Internet protocol live onto the Sprint Network, and signal was successfully recovered using a proprietary DTS software player designed for the purpose.

The success of the test proves the viability of very high quality audio multicasting over broadband, and points to the evolving potential for IP delivery of digital programming by broadcasters - particularly in Europe where services offering up to 8Mbits connections are starting to come online.

(Craigs comment, Video and audio broadcast over I.P are becoming a real alternative to satellite distribution. Take a look at http://www.videolan.org )

Digital TV switchover delayed

LONDON (Reuters) - Television watchers will not be forced to switch over to a digital signal until 2012, two years later than originally planned by the government.

"While the broadcasters have not reached a full consensus on the optimum timetable, some -- including the BBC -- have suggested that 2012 may be the most appropriate date for the completion of switchover," Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told Parliament on Thursday.

Digital television providers, which offer a wider array of programming beyond the five channels available with an antenna, have been stepping up their efforts to lure new customers in anticipation of the analogue switch-off.

Some regions could see their analogue signals of BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and five, turned off as early as 2007, however, as the switchover is gradually rolled out, she said. The government originally had hoped to finish the switchover by 2010.

The BBC, the publicly funded broadcaster, said last month it would not be against an earlier switchover to digital, but suggested that 2010 would be a "stretch". It has been considering a stand-alone free digital satellite service or partnering BSkyB on its recently announced free venture.

Jowell also served notice that televisions should be marked with dates to indicate when their usefulness will run out as part of an effort to encourage the purchase of digital sets.

"We are therefore engaged with retailers and manufacturers -- who also need to plan ahead -- to see that good clear information is given to consumers currently planning to buy a television or an item of recording equipment," Jowell said.

She asked media regulator Ofcom to devise a plan to ensure that help is provided to "vulnerable consumers", such as the elderly, who may be unable to afford digital upgrades.

"The government's final endorsement of a timetable will be subject to being satisfied that adequate measures are in place to meet this objective," she said.

About half of households already have digital TV in some form. Freeview, a digital service without subscription fees, has boomed, reaching 3.5 million households in less than two years.

Digital satellite service from pay-TV provider BSkyB has about 7 million subscribers, and cable providers NTL and Telewest have another 2.4 million digital viewers.

No Olympics on local Filipino TV

From http://www.mb.com.ph/SPRT2004072314631.html

NBN 4 debt forces IOC to cancel broadcast

FILIPINO SPORTS fans won’t be able to watch the Olympic Games in Athens on television next month. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has denied the country the right for television coverage of the Athens Games following the failure of the government-run NBN 4 to settle its debt with the IOC.

IOC president Dr. Jacques Rogge addressed the letter to the office of President Macapagal-Arroyo, although it could not be confirmed if the Chief Executive had seen it.

Pressed for comment, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Celso Dayrit yesterday confirmed the report, placing the blame on NBN 4 which still owes the IOC $1.2 million for its coverage of the Sydney Games four years ago.

"The IOC has bent backwards to accommodate NBN 4, but now it seems negotiations have not gone anywhere," said Dayrit.

It is not the first time the government station accumulated arrears with the IOC.

During the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, NBN 4 failed to pay the IOC on time that nearly put in jeopardy the television coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Games.

However, privately-owned ABS-CBN came to the rescue and negotiated a deal with the IOC, allowing local fans to watch boxer Roel Velasco win a bronze medal.

With two weeks remaining before the start of the Olympics, Dayrit said it is unlikely if another station could come in and save the Philippines from the ignominy of being the only nation denied of watching the biggest sporting event on television.

Dayrit disclosed that as early as last year, two groups – the consortium of Bobong Velez and ABC 5, and Solar Sports — indicated their desire to cover the Games. But the IOC did not entertain their separate bids after getting an assurance from NBN 4 that it would settle its obligation.

The development puts the Philippines in an embarrassing situation where it will become the only nation among 220 IOC member countries where the Games will not be seen.

It will also mark the first time since 1964, the year the IOC started beaming the Games live via satellite, that the summer spectacle will not be seen by Filipino sports fans in their living rooms.

Govt. to supply set top boxes to remote areas

From http://www.hindu.com/holnus/002200407230321.htm

New Delhi, July 23. (PTI): The government proposes to supply 10,000 Set-Top Boxes and dish antennae in remote regions of the country as part of a pilot project to provide TV coverage to such areas through satellite transmission in Ku-band, Lok Sabha was informed yesterday.

In a written reply, Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy said initially, these would be provided in eight states/regions, public institutions like 'anganwadies', schools, public health centres, panchayats, youth clubs and cooperative societies.

"The full set, containing dish antenna and satellite receiving equipment (excluding TV receiver), would be provided free-of-cost to these institutions for receiving a bouquet of 30 channels," he said.

Meanwhile, places where distributing STBs and dishes was not possible, cable head-ends will be set up by DD.

"About 200 cable head-ends will be installed by DD in these states, for uncovered village/areas, where population concentration is around 50 TV households or so," Reddy said.

Cartoon Network, Pogo aim at all DTH platforms

From http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k4/july/july144.htm

NEW DELHI: Cartoon Network and Pogo, the kids channels from the Turner stable, are not likely to restrict themselves to the Zee and ASC Enterprise-promoted Dish TV direct-to-home (DTH) platform, but would look at other such avenues too.

"As far as we are concerned, the more platforms we are on, the better it is," Turner International India MD Anshuman Misra told indiantelevision.com here today.

However, he added that no official word had come regarding Cartoon Network and Pogo from either Indian pubcaster Doordarshan or the Tata-Star combine, both of whom propose to start a DTH service in the near future.

But even without additional platforms, Misra said both the channels were doing well with Pogo "exceeding expectations factored into the business plan."

Still, it is Cartoon Network that is setting the cash box ringing for Turner in India. The kids channel, which was introduced in the Indian market in 1995, recorded a 48 per cent growth in ad sales revenue on year-on-year basis during the period 2002 and 2003 (calendar year).

The quarter on quarter growth in 2004 (January - March vs. April - June) in ad sales revenue was 36 per cent for Cartoon Network, Misra pointed out, adding, "With Cartoon Network now being perceived as a mass channel, some non-traditional advertisers (like petroleum company HPCL) too have come on board."

Though exact numbers are not available regarding the size of the kids market in India, it is estimated to be in the region of Rs 1 billion. "Our assumption is that the advertising pie would grow for this particular genre of television programming and entry of more players may fuel that growth through competition," Misra said, while dwelling on the advertising market.

Over the next six months, the Indian market would see several other channels - from the Disney group, UTV's Hungama - being launched. The target audience: pre-school to college.

According to Misra, combining on-ground activities with on-air initiatives has paid off well for Cartoon Network and should for Pogo too, which is still in its early days. Events like Toon Cricket, Toon Yatra and now Toon Games have all proved to be 360-degree marketing activities that have yielded good dividends for the channel.

Pointing out that similar activities would be unveiled for Pogo too, Misra added, "At the moment, we are looking at introducing Hindi language in Pogo, which would be ramped up slowly." Telugu and Tamil continue to be other languages, apart from Hindi, which are attractive for Cartoon Network and Pogo.

At some later stage, according to Misra, Cartoon Network might also look at having separate feeds for countries like Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to attract local advertising.

22/07/04

TVNZ Freevue 1(On Optus B1) plan to show some special programing for Maori language week. Why? we have a dedicated Maori TV channel in the same mux that rates below the radar. The effort to do some special Maori programing on Freevue 1 is a total waste of time. Also while on the subject of TVNZ digital channels. When does the testing start that was mentioned months ago? and I don't mean Dwelle and CCTV9 on Freevue 2 and 3. Other Countrys are looking at Freeview / Fta satellite type services to promote take up of digital tv. What are TVNZ doing ? Is there ever going to be a serious effort made with the TVNZ transponder? It doesn't look like it.

Palapa C2 power levels are up and down. Problems? I have emailed them to find out. But I seem to get back a response suggesting they have some sort of email problem. Satelindo if you read this your email system needs fixing, error message relates to "Relay operation rejected"

A new Adult Channel has started on Nss6 "SexySat"
Website http://www.sexysat.tv/

Some info on it they broadcast FTA, and make money via sex chat phone numbers. It is NOT a pay channel and does not screen ADULT movies etc. Might be filler to get Australian dishes pointing to Nss6.

Some changes noticed on B3 12407V line-up

Jon's Asia Weekly

Issue 13 / 14

"So what a week, what a month, what a year … What an example!"

So here we were just two weeks ago and I was commenting on how the pace of life was hotting up around here, but as is normal in the tropics things always get hotter before they cool down. So my apologies for not bursting into print last week, as business and events overtook me.

In today’s hi-tech world, it is rare for you to get a good example of just what a digital satellite is all about, as all the birds up there is a great example of themselves. Two weeks ago after installing a new 10’ dual C and Ku Band dish I was doing DX hunt around the C band, adding a few new birds over in the west to the watch list we have here and when I headed back over to the East I rediscovered the good old faithful (no pun intended for the CLS Xtains out there) JCSAT 2a satellite on the C band.

Nothing new in this bird you might think, and indeed you are right.

In fact there are even rumours down in the bottom part of the world, that it is not sending any programming out these days (been there for a while) but rest assured it has one of the best examples of a digital satellite transponder I have ever seen to date {I am sure there are other but I have not seen any to this extent}.

We are all familiar with the everyday garden variety transponder which will in all likelihood have a video stream (of course) and at least one audio stream, and maybe two audio/language channels with left and right audio channels activated (the BBC on PAS 2, PAS 8 and on PAS 7/10 are good example, but I digress).

On JCSAT 2a at 154 degrees East you will find the ‘BYU TV’ transponder (http://www.byutv.org/) at 3915-V-4167, “hmm so what?” you say.

Well it is the S/R that intrigued me.

“4167” is not that wide and what was all that ‘PID’ text you read next to its entry on the satellite location web sites like satcodx? So I decided to take a look and to my surprise and 45 minutes later saw the following…

A neat little video feed from Brigham Young University, thus the name BYU TV, but this was not what got me.

It was the audio streams. Huh? Yep you read this right, it was the audio stream“S” that got me (note the plural). You see these guys must have sat down one day and said “well if we are going to do this we are going to do this right, and make it available worldwide” and they simply did just this.

From one video source they also have about 19 audio sources – then broken down into one left and one right audio channel. All of them are sending out on one audio (left) channel a native language audio stream and on the other audio (right) channel it is an English stream. Albeit I was happy to see the Australian, Kiwi and Vietnamese audio feeds were in English along with a few others, on both channels.

So if you every want a good example to show your friends or colleges of a good digital transponder that really demonstrates the power of this medium, pop over to JCSAT 2a and have a tour of the BYU TV language and audio streams.

Ku Band
======
Size matters, yep heard that before. Yikes I even said it before.

So you might recall a few weeks ago one of the re-broadcasters of ABC AP changed their transponder line up and in the process ABC AP disappeared in this part of the world on small Ku band dishes. Not to be put off, one smart bod decided he could help out and stuck ABC AP on ‘wi-fi’ for all the geographically challenged locals to see. Works well at about 20 to 25 fps on your Windows 9 Media player, saw an example of this at on my notebook and was most impressed. Now it seems there is a run on “lifeview” and other video cards around the region at the moment. Wonder why? Did our friendly chap in Vietnam ever blow up the mountain that blocks PAS 8

With all the changes going on, on the Ku band across the region and the subsequent new updates to firmware for many set top boxes, it has been great to see the changes in the receivers low signal reception improve drastically. We can now enjoy many new transponders that we previously could not see.

One of them is Telstar 10.

What a traffic jam it is in this part of the satellite space.

You have Thaicom 2/3 C and Ku Bands, Telstar 10 C & Ku Bands and LMI1 C and Ku bands all nearly on top of each other, fighting to get their signals out across the region. Well it is nice to see with all the changes to the various STB firmware, all of them are all back in their right lanes, and signals are booming out across the region.

The FTA on Telstar 10 is simply great, and my father-in-law takes great delight in telling me my Chinese is ‘rubbish’ these days and I should go back to Hong Kong and Shenzhen for a month and start all over.

XFree I seem to hear that name the song “Free Me” by some US singer pop into my mind whenever I read anything on this subject these days.

Nearly half the messages boards across Asia over the last three weeks has been chocker block with messages saying “I told you so” and “I told you this” and “Well you know when you did this, it was for … “ Yikes live with it guys and girls! If this is your sort of entertainment you enjoy, get on with it and get a new card and enjoy the programming if and when it starts again.

I noted none of the satellite PCI / computer users out there made any noise about it. Funny that. Was it really the encryption that was the problem as the broadcast message says on the transponder or was it the lack of it? Seems to me the old 80/20 rule was well and truly broken and this is a good opportunity to fix it with a sub card. I am sure we will read more about it in the days to come.

C Band
======
What a couple of weeks for the C band DX hunters. Everything from fish tanks, to CNN, ESPN, Star Sport, HBO to Ant(s).

It took a long while for TARBS to pop off Thaicom 2/3 C Band, which gave many of us the opportunity to see all the programming free to air for a while. Then an “Ant” popped off TARBS and popped up on a RR feed and by the looks of it today, it popped off again. Funny things these Ant(s).

PAS 7/10 has been busy with new tests being done by all many companies. Noted the “Times” and “India” tests booming into Thailand. The AfricaSat test is back to Telemedia test patterns, and DD Sport is gearing up for the Olympics.

Had a very interesting DX hunt from PAS 7/10 over to NSS703 the other day.

WOW and I mean WOW, the people at the old AFRTS now called AFN on Intelsat 906 send a signal into Thailand stronger then the local channel 9 off Thaicom 2/3. Keep up the good work as many of the bases over here really enjoy it (now all I need is a powerVU box to watch it).

Loved the BT Tower advertising on the BT MUX on Intelsat 902. Shame we can not see all the horse racing on there. Every noticed what they have. Boy do I know some people across this region that would love to subscribe to this (smile).

TVNZ used to be on NSS703, so I thought I would go hunting. SunTv, and the Sun Network was a pleasant surprise, but no TVNZ feeds any more to be found anywhere. So where did they go to then? Back to Intelsat and down to PAS 8?

The mighty fish tank popped up down on Asiasat 4 and just for the record my kids already named “Bob, Barbie, Doug (the one with the bright orange head), Tawee, Yai and model [although I think the last two are the same fish]” so work out who is who.

There was a fish tank on PAS 2 ‘Ad Hoc’ earlier this year, but in the scheme of things the Asiasat 4 fish tanks wins hands down as it is not a video loop like the PAS 2 one was. (HINT: Camera-test-person at AS4 - get the tripod out of the picture lads, it makes a bad reflection at night). So the fish tank score is Asiasat 1 Panamsat 0 . Another 5 months to go I wonder who will win?

Did we have a monsoon tonight or did we have a monsoon. The best thunder storm and rain this year to date and much to my surprise the new test being conducted by Kablevision on Palapa C2 C band did not drop a beat. So well done with the testing. On a personal note, it was nice to see “E! Entertainment and the Family Channel” for the first time. The kids were watching Disney as their Ku feed had died due to very bad rain fade, so this test made the whole family happy tonight.

The ABC AP people have Gregory Peck all over the tele tonight. Did we note some strange audio on their PAS 2 mux this past week on the second ABC channel or was it to much sun?

Dishes
======
Some people are bit strange when they are in a foreign land.
True story.

We did a fixed dish installation here the other day for a foreign chap who had a network subscription from his home country.

We installed the dish, hooked up his new receiver which we supplied, tuned all the FTA on the bird to show him that everything worked 100%.

So what did he do?

Rang up his home country to speak to his cable company. This was so he could turn his card back on, they asked him the message on his decoder? He told them “E16” (now that gave it away), then there was this almighty shout from his study saying “OK they said you installed it OK! You can go now”

Well I ask you, what are the chances of this happening? Thai dish & Thai decoder to boot (yep the same OEM for the decoder by the looks of it). So I went and brought a lottery ticket and guess what, today I see in the paper that the ticket won THB 500!

Noted more and more butterfly dishes this week. We were called into a condo this week and noted 3 dead dishes. One was quite funny as it had as I have written before clapped hands and become a sleeping butterfly. This place was a tad strange as they had the local Ku band cable network dishes on 6’ poles to clear the surrounding roof, with no tethering or ties. So image at about 100 meters off the ground what these little things did? Yep tried to become Frisbees once the welds in their ground mounts broke and flow off the roof and landed one story below.

Sport
======
So much over the last few weeks but I am a ‘Kiwi’ so here are the global highlights..

Cricket – Natwest ODI’s
New Zealand won (shame we lost the tests)

Rugby – the Cup
New Zealand won

Rugby – Pacific Island test (read Auckland A/B team)
New Zealand won

F1
New Zealand pit crew in Schumes team helped him win at Silverstone

Golf
Kiwi caddy – his player won

And there was no other major sporting events, was there?

After all the feed hunting for the Euro2004 soccer it has amazed me there are not to many people chasing the Copa America series, which I have to say has been good to see, even with all the national strikes mucking up the schedule.

The Asia Cup ODI’s are in full swing at the moment, and DD has in conjunction with Star Sport been bringing it live and FTA to the region. Nice to see Sri Lanka doing so well.

Not being a really big AFL fan (it is just, not rugby) it was pointed out to me by the local Thai AFL team this week {big Gazza say hi to everyone down at the port and over at the MCG} that ABC AP carries 10 or the 16 teams matches every weekend. Now I see why these guys are so mad keen on getting ABC AP just for this for the AFL alone.

Gossip
======
I have four chr$ for you “00AF”. Moral of the story “Listen to rumours, even if they are six months old” [said or read in a German accent] “Zhere vere tons of people all over zee vorld” last veek going “Oh Oh Another Fudgeup” – bingo multi ECM’s, and the result was truckloads of STB patches spotted all over the place.

Not to be out down, some really cleaver marketing people ‘dreamed’ up a way to “up” the company profits, by making a few changes here and there and then doing this everyday and immediately increased the subscriber base by up to as high as 12% above the monthly churn target, or so a dickybird tell me.

It seems that shortly those of us up here in SEA will soon have more viewing options from Ku band cable TV operators in Malaysia, according to the press it looks like we can soon add Astro to our list of cable providers.

Here we are at the end of July and still no solid news about the new Thai MUX being proposed by the lads over in China. 40 plus channels was it? Lots of snippets about their local China operations, and more visits to Thailand, but nothing solid since some bright spark in the local ministry went on record in the local papers as saying this will not happen. But who knows. We already have MVtv on Thaicom 2/3, which is mostly Chinese movies dubbed in Thai.

Still big discussions going on over the local concessions for media shops and for cable operators. Seems the local TV channels who are not allowed to broadcast any form of advertising in Bangkok are now broadcasting from outside Bangkok adverts [which they are allowed to do], which you might or might not see in Bangkok. Oh did I mention the only way not to see the adverts is not to watch the channel? Go figure?

Comments
=======

Drop a note to Jon at [email protected]

From my Emails & ICQ

From Ocean

5.50pm Syd
Telstar18/ApstarV testing now 3878 H on-off carrier, no DVB, no analog 12dB
CNR, 3.2m in Sth.Australia.....

From Bill Richards

Subject: NSS6
2000 UTC
Nss6 12729 Vpid 2305Apid 2306SID 9 SexySat.TV FTA Promo

Regards
Bill Richards
South Australia

From Vk4bkp

Sexy sat tv screenshot

(Craigs comment, actually for some reason he got carried away and sent about a dozen ..hmmm)

From Steve Draper

Specials on TVNZ FreeVu 1 (B1)
Maori Language Week, Monday 26th July - Sunday 1st
August, will be marked on DTH. Each evening at 8pm a
programme from TVNZ's Television Archive will be aired
on FreeVu1. The programmes chosen were originally
seen on "Marae" and "Waka Huia", they are in
themselves now taonga,(treasures or sacred items),
because some of the key participants have since passed
away. All the programmes have English sub-titles. END

(Craigs comment, they must be joking? tell me their serious putting on this ancient CRAP)

From SiamGlobal (Thailand)

ONE OF THE new CHANNELS ON PALAPA bouquet HAS THE KABELVISION LOGO SO NOW WE KNOW FOR CERTAIN !

From Tacomp

PALAPA C2
kabelvision
26% loading in Sydney
3.7m dual lnb

From Hans Spitaler (Canberra)

Palapa C2
Kabelvision %15 on KTI 3.1m mesh with a Zinwell lnbf

(Craigs comment, erratic signal power fluctuating..)

From David

Sri Lanka VS Pakistan is on Asiasat 3S
4111 V SR: 3333

(Craigs comment, Cricket also on DD National on Insat2e)

From Mark

Korean Soccer seen on PAS2
3767 Vert 6620 3/4
Service is labled DACOM SNG

Cheers,
Mark

From the Dish

No Lyngsat received as yet

NEWS

HONG KONG: Talk of Intelsat's exit fails to dent TVB

From http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=12947

Investors have reacted positively to speculation that the pay-television venture of Television Broadcasts (TVB) might lose its United States majority partner Intelsat

Investors have reacted positively to speculation that the pay-television venture of Television Broadcasts (TVB) might lose its United States majority partner Intelsat.

Shares in Hong Kong's leading free-to-air broadcaster rose as much as $1.30 to a seven-day high of $34.50 yesterday, despite media reports that Intelsat planned to pull out of Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting, in which it holds a 51 per cent stake it bought in February last year. They closed up 1.2 per cent at $33.60.

A Broadcasting Authority spokesman yesterday said it had not been informed of any shareholding changes at Galaxy. A Galaxy spokeswoman said she had heard nothing of such a plan.

Local brokers said investors would welcome a change at the loss-making venture, either through TVB's exit or the introduction of another strategic partner.

Slow subscriber uptake of Galaxy's exTV service had prompted concerns that Intelsat lacked the experience to run a local pay-television operation.

ExTV has attracted less than 5,000 customers since its launch in February, compared with 670,000 at dominant player Hong Kong Cable Television and 300,000 at NOW Broadband TV.

ExTV has reportedly faced difficulties acquiring approval from building owners to put dishes on roofs.

Some industry observers expect TVB to strike a deal with Hutchison Global Communications (HGC) to deliver its pay-television programming over HGC's network. Another possibility is a tie-up with Malaysia-based Astro Broadcasting.

Amdocs Wins on Astro's Turf

From http://www.boardwatch.com/document.asp?doc_id=56552

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), the world's leading provider of billing and CRM for true integrated customer management, today announced that it has been selected by ASTRO ALL ASIA NETWORK plc's MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems (Astro) to implement its next-generation consolidated Subscriber Management System including billing, customer relationship management (CRM) and order management solution for Astro, a Malaysian satellite-based PayTV multimedia group. Amdocs will enable Astro to seamlessly link all customer-facing processes to build stronger, more profitable customer relationships and improve service delivery to its more than 1.5 million subscribers, while lowering costs.

The Amdocs solution allows Astro to move toward integrated customer management as a way of doing business and consists of Amdocs Enabler billing platform, ClarifyCRM and Order Management products, as well as system integration services. It is a flexible system designed to support Astro's rapid introduction of new entertainment, communications and information offerings, as well as its future business growth.

"Our continued rate of business growth demands that we move beyond a traditional subscriber management system to an integrated solution for managing customer relationships," said Greg Woolstencroft, chief information officer at ASTRO. "We are looking to the Amdocs solution to provide Astro with an integrated framework to rapidly launch new offerings and deliver highly personalized service to our customers, while helping us streamline operations and reduce costs."

The Advert Channel

From http://www.waveguide.co.uk/latest/news040721.htm

The world's first TV channel dedicated entirely to adverts is to launch on digital satellite television in the UK.

The Advert Channel promises the best of contemporary adverts, as well as samples from the last four decades.

Its founders say there is a big public appetite for ads, with 4,000 downloaded from the internet every day.

Viewers will be able to take part in game-shows and phone-ins relating to TV adverts. The channel - complete with its own ads - starts on September 6.

The channel has already soft-launched on Channel 694 on Sky Digital.

Co-founder Chelsey Baker said some viewers found ads more interesting than television programmes.

"We watch hours and hours of adverts as a nation and compared to what they used to be, adverts are now something of an art form," she said.

"Adverts are absolutely infectious and until now there's never been a home for anybody to watch them," she said.

Sleepy DD Wakes Up To Catch Pvt Channels Stealing Content

From http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=64166

Adex, CMS, ANI may monitor Athens show lifted from public broadcaster

This is a first from public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. From being a mute spectator, it’s turning active, to catch private channels showing more than they should. No, this is not about censoring obscenity on TV, but Athens Olympics. The pubcaster and the telecast rights holder to the Olympic Games is in the process of engaging three media organisations, for monitoring private news channels as the “biggest show” unfolds in Athens. These agencies would keep an eye on the news channels, to see that they don’t run more than six minutes of DD Olympics footage in a day, and that no bulletin carries over two minutes of the Games. For reference, they’ll have a rulebook: International Olympic Committee’s manual for news channels.

So far, private broadcasters have often shown Doordarshan’s (controlled by Prasar Bharati) content on their channels quite freely.

According to Prasar Bharati CEO K S Sarma, Adex (a division of Tam India Research), Centre for Media Studies (CMS), and Asian News International (ANI) would be engaged to monitor Olympics packages across private channels. DD is also planning to sell select highlight packages of the Olympic Games to news channels, Mr Sarma told FE. Even as he admitted that the state broadcaster would make some money from selling content to other channels, he refused to give out any figure, saying “these are early days yet”. Athens Olympics is only 23 days away.

Even as Mr Sarma named three media agencies for monitoring private channels during the Games, an official of Tam India said: “Talks are on with Prasar Bharati, but there’s no final word on the deal yet.” Chairman of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) Bhaskar Rao told FE: “We haven’t heard from Prasar Bharati yet. But, we’ll monitor the Olympics coverage anyway at our media lab....” According to Mr Sarma, while ANI would monitor the private channels free of cost for DD, Tam would charge Rs 5 lakh for the job and that the deal is being finalised with CMS.

Meanwhile, private channels are yet to sign on the dotted lines for buying the Olympics package from Prasar Bharati. TV Today CEO G Krishnan said: “We have not received any communication yet.” Star News officials said: “Talks are on....” Mr Sarma, however, said letters have been sent out to all channels, along with the IOC rulebook.

Bangladesh plans law to curb TV satellite channels

From http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?ccode=ENG4&newscode=62692

DHAKA, July 21 (Reuters) Bangladesh will enact a law soon to stop cable television operators from broadcasting what it believes are undesirable satellite channels, Information Minister M Shamsul Islam said today.

He did not name any channels, but other media officials said some overseas programmes were ''X-rated''.

''The sky is open and it is very difficult to control it,'' Islam said. ''But we are working on a policy to control those channels transmitting programmes contrary to the social and religious values of the country.'' ''We feel the need for a law to stop obscene programmes,'' he added.

Bangladesh currently has four local satellite television channels, including three in the private sector, and the government was considering allowing more, Islam said.

These channels have not violated the state's policy or hurt religious sentiments, officials said. But overseas channels can also be received and some of these do not follow the same standards, they added.