Transvision Satellite Teleport in Hawaii Connects Asia With U.S.

From http://www.satnewsasia.com

Transvision International Teleport has opened a new satellite teleport in Hawaii that provides direct connectivity from the U.S. mainland to the Asia Pacific region and India.

Two of the seven antennas in the teleport are now operational: a 9.3-meter C-band antenna pointing to the Philippines’ Agila 2 satellite at 146 East Longitude and an 11-meter C-band antenna pointing to Malaysia’s Measat2 satellite at 148 East Longitude.

When complete, Transvision's teleport will have antennas ranging from 7 meters to 18 meters. Transvision is a diversified satellite communications company specializing in domestic and international video, voice and data transmissions.

Sited on 30,000 square feet of land, the new Transvision teleport is strategically located to provide Internet, data broadcast, IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit) and digital video relay between the West Coast of the United States and Asia Pacific.

Its Hawaiian location provides significantly better look angles than do teleports on the U.S. mainland. The Hawaii site extends the customer's reach by offering single-hop, carrier-neutral access to satellites serving Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which are inaccessible directly from the U.S. mainland.

Later this year, Transvision plans to enhance its teleport with the installation of three Ku-Band antennas: a second 11-meter antenna and two 7- meter antennas.

Transvision will also have access to the Southern Cross Cable, which provides a 120-Gigabit, high-speed fiber connection to the U.S.West Coast to provide connectivity to Internet hubs such as PAIX (Palo Alto Internet Exchange) and the major international switched voice facility in Los Angeles.

Transvision's Hawaii teleport provides access to the following satellites: US Domestic footprint: GE-1, GE -2, GE -3, GE-4, Telstar 4, Telstar 5, Telstar 6, Galaxy 4R, Echostar 4, Galaxy 10R, Galaxy 5, Telstar 7 and Satcom C4. Asia-Pacific Footprint: Intelsat 702, Intelsat 802, Panamsat 2, JCSAT -1B, Measat 2, Agila 2, Superbird C and Jcsat-3.

Johnson Regalado of Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corporation, operator of the Agila 2 satellite, said the teleport will extend Agila 2’s coverage to over two billion people throughout the entire Asia Pacific region, including India, and extending as far west as the Maldives.

The new teleport in Hawaii is also a full-service facility offering access to the Southern Cross fiber capacity, and connectivity to major carriers like Sprint, AT&T, UUNET and Time Warner.

Transvision is an affiliate of Transvision International, a diversified satellite communications company specializing in the domestic and international transmission of video, voice and information. Transvision is headquartered in Oxnard, California.

A New TVNZ

24/6/01

Just a quiet rainy old Sunday...

From my Emails & ICQ

Chris Pickstock reports 23/6/01 6.51pm,

B1 "NRL" on , 12665 H Sr 5632 after that game it moved to 12675 H Sr 5632, "Brisbane Broncos v West Tigers"

From Me,

24/6/01 1a.m Syd Optus B1 12367 V "France vs South Africa Rugby" Sr 5630 Fec 3/4 Vpid 308 Apid 256
24/6/01 3p.m Syd Optus B3 12363 V "NZ vs Australia Soccer" Sr 6111 Fec 3/4 Vpid 1160 Apid 1120 (C7 feed)

From Bill Richards a feed spotted yesterday

4035 H "Singapore golf feed" Sr 6110 Fec 3/4 Vpid 4194 Apid 4195

From the Dish

Agila 2 146E 4080 H KSBN 1, KSBN KS, KSBN P2 and Miz TV were replaced by test cards.(Asia only beam)

Palapa C2 113E 4140 V "TV Brunei" has moved to 3733 H (No longer receiveable in Australia?)

Asiasat 2 100.5E 4000 H "MCM Asia" has left (Is this still on Canal+ I701?)
Asiasat 2 100.5E 3907 H "CCTV 1" has started on , Sr 5632, Fec 3/4.

Pas 4 68.5E 3812 H "B4U Entertainment" has started on , Vpid 1260 Apid 1220.

NEWS

T S I C H A N N E L N E W S - Number 25/2001 - June 24 2001 -

A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by Tele Satellite International

Editor: Branislav Pekic

Edited Apsattv.com Edition

A S I A

ASIAVISION DIGITAL SWITCHOVER A SUCCESS

The successful migration of Asiavision transmissions to digital has been
heralded by ABU members as the opening of a new chapter in the
organisation’s history. Meeting for the first time since the January 1
switchover, members of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union’s News Study
Group celebrated the fact that all 12 news exchange participants now
receive the daily, 30-minute Asiavision feed digitally. At the meeting,
delegates agreed to examine the possibilities of greater co-operation
with the EBU’s Eurovision news exchange and to continue joint
operations, co-ordinated by Asiavision’s central offices in Kuala
Lumpur. One of the principal beneficiaries of the ABU’s digital drive
has been Bangladesh Television, which is set to receive a loan of around
US$190,000 to buy a digital satellite earth station. This will enable
the broadcaster to become the tenth member of Asiavision to transmit as
well as receive digitally. The earth station, which will be built at
BTV’s complex in Dhaka, is expected to be operational by late October,
in time for the country’s general election and will be available, with
the ABU’s permission, to outside broadcasters for use in the event of a
breaking news story.

STAR TV TO TURN PROFIT NEXT YEAR

Pan-Asian DTH operator Star TV’s core business will turn a profit by
October 2002, according to the group’s CEO, James Murdoch. Star TV has
not posted a profit in the eight years since it was acquired by News
Corp.

AUSTRALIA

ABC TO PROVIDE TV SERVICE TO ASIA AND PACIFIC

The Australian Government on June 20 announced that it had chosen the
Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) to provide an Australian TV service
to the Asia Pacific region. It said that it would fund ABC to the tune
of A$15 million per year for a duration of five years to cover costs of
the venture. The government had promised to fund an Asia Pacific
Australian channel since Seven Network, Ltd. closed its Australian
Television International commercial satellite TV venture in March.

CHINA - HONG KONG

CCTV RENEWS CONTRACT WITH PANAMSAT

PanAmSat on June 19 announced that China Central Television (CCTV), the
national broadcaster of the People's Republic of China, has renewed
their seven-year-old relationship with the company for an additional
five years. PanAmSat currently provides full-time program distribution
services for CCTV via the company's PAS-3 and PAS-9 Atlantic Ocean
Region, the PAS-4 Indian Ocean Region and the PAS-2 Pacific Ocean Region
satellites. CCTV's service on PAS-2 will migrate to PanAmSat's PAS-8
Pacific Ocean Region satellite in early July. PanAmSat will continue
distributing CCTV throughout the Pacific Rim and the Americas via PAS-8
and PAS-9, respectively. The broadcaster will also transition its
services on PAS-3 and PAS-4 to the recently launched PAS-10 Indian Ocean
Region satellite upon its service commencement later this summer.
PanAmSat's latest satellite offers more powerful and comprehensive
coverage of Africa and South Asia, enabling CCTV to achieve full
coverage of the regions using just one beam on the new spacecraft. CCTV,
a PanAmSat customer since the launch of the company's PAS-2 satellite in
1994, became the world's first global Mandarin Chinese television
service when it expanded its services to include the PAS-3 satellite in
1995.

ASTRO WILL NOT BUY STAKE IN GALAXY

Hong-Kong’s leading broadcaster, Television Broadcasts, Ltd., on June 22
announced that Malaysian TV firm Astro Broadcast Corp. Ltd. would not
buy a stake in its Galaxy pay-TV unit. TVB said that it was still in
communications with potential suitors for the Galaxy project, but that
if these negotiations were not concluded by June 2002, it may cease the
Galaxy project altogether. TVB’s current license agreement with the Hong
Kong government dictates that the broadcaster may not hold more than a
50 per cent stake in Galaxy. That meant that TVB had to drop its stake
from 62.13 per cent. Further conditions mean that the pay-TV service may
not launch until after June 2002.

INDIA

HFCL EXITS TV SECTOR

The HFCL-Kerry Packer joint venture (HFCL Nine Broadcasting India) has
announced that it is shutting its television business in India and that
the company’s programmes on the government-owned DD-Metro channel will
be taken off the air from September 10. This follows a decision by the
company not to bid for DD-Metro’s primetime slots due to what it called
the “unrealistic non-financial terms” proposed by DD.

MALAYSIA

METROVISION TO BECOME CHANNEL 8

Rediffusion plans to rebrand Metrovision, the Malaysian terrestrial
broadcaster it gained control of in March. Metrovision will be
relaunched as Channel 8 in 9-12 months. It will broadcast nationwide,
and foreign content will make up 70 per cent of programming.
Rediffusion, which has diverse business interests, has the option to buy
all of Metrovision over the next ten years for a minimum M$20 million
and is currently looking for a strategic partner to help it manage
Channel 8.

NEW ZEALAND

CANWEST CHANNELS IN TELSTRA PAY-TV PACKAGE

CanWest Global Communications Corp. is likely to make its New Zealand
television channels available on a planned Telstra Saturn Ltd. digital
pay-TV service. CanWest, Canada's largest media company, runs
terrestrial channels TV3 and TV4 in New Zealand. Telstra Saturn, a joint
venture between Telstra Corp, Australia's largest telecommunications
company, and Austar United Communications Ltd, operators of Australia's
second-largest pay-TV platform, will begin its service in the third
quarter of this year, according to the New Zealand Business Times. The
CanWest channels are available on pay-TV platform Sky Network Television
Ltd's digital service. This week CanWest declined an invitation to
include TV3 and TV4 in government-owned Television New Zealand's
free-to-air digital television service that is being launched this year.
Telstra Saturn already has an agreement to carry TVNZ's two channels on
its pay-TV service, meaning that it may be able to offer all free-to-air
channels on its digital service, according to NZBT.

SOUTH KOREA

KBC CHOSES SATELLITE TV AND RADIO PROVIDERS

The Korea Digital Satellite Broadcasting Corporation selected 49 TV and
60 audio program providers for satellite broadcasting scheduled to be
launched later this year. Among the 49 TV channels, 10 are for movies,
six for sports, five for music and seven for entertainment. Others
include lifestyle, documentaries, education, news and religious
channels. Each of the nation’s three representative broadcasting
stations, KBS, MBC and SBS won 3-channels for sports and soap operas.
Education Broadcasting Systems EBS won two channels while 24-hour cable
news channel YTN and economic news channel MBN were awarded a news
channel. Meanwhile, Arirang TV was given a public channel, along with
two other broadcasting companies.

PANAMSAT TO DISTRIBUTE KOREAN CHANNELS

By way of agreements with South Korea's DACOM, iSkyCom and Onse Telecom,
PanAmSat Corporation has become the platform for the international
distribution of virtually every major Korean broadcaster. The company's
PAS-2, PAS-8, PAS-9 and Galaxy XI satellites, as well as the Napa
(California) teleport facility, form the backbone of a distribution
network that broadcasts Korean programming throughout Asia and across
the Pacific to the Americas. Among the list of Korean broadcasters
delivered over PanAmSat's global satellite network are Arirang TV, KBS,
MBC, YTN and SBS. The PAS-2 and PAS-8 Pacific Ocean Region satellites
transmit the Korean programming bouquet throughout Asia and across the
Pacific to the West Coast of the United States. The company's Napa
teleport picks up the signal off the PAS-8 spacecraft for immediate
turnaround to the PAS-9 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite and distribution
throughout the Americas. ISkyCom's North American gateway in Los Angeles
downlinks the signal from PAS-2 for retransmission over the Galaxy XI
North American satellite.

SCOPUS GETS SAMSUNG CONTRACT

Scopus, a supplier of digital compression technology to the broadcasting
industry, announced June 19 that Samsung Unitel Korea is utilising a
Scopus head-end digital broadcast system for broadcasting CNN and MTV
from Seoul, Korea. Scopus is working with Dongin Satellite Network on
this project, Scopus' first major deal in the Korean Peninsula. Scopus
is providing Unitel Korea with its Codico platforms for a MCPC
application enabling it to have conditional access capabilities and to
more effectively increase the number of subscribers and channels it can
reach throughout Korea. Transmission is being carried over satellite
with capabilities to transmit Internet applications. The Scopus system
will assist Unitel Korea to keep ahead of competition and play a more
significant role as one of South Korea's leading broadcasters. For the
MCPC application, Scopus is supplying Unitel Korea with a complete
end-to-end head-end platform.

23/6/01

There should be some sports on B1/B3 tonight, B1 Should at least have the Newforce feed of the Lions vs NSW followed later by South Africa vs France 2nd Rugby Test (12367v)

Someone was sleeping on the job at Ihug, this post from the Ihug.announce newsgroup

"UNSCHEDULED: IDTV MCM Channel Is Currently Down"
"Due to errors of our upstream provider, this channel is down until further notice."

A complete nonsense message!

Ihugs IDTV service has been carrying the MCM channel. Surely they should of known it was switching off and had plans in place to replace it on Friday.

This is what Telstra Saturn was showing on its cable service Friday

From my Emails & ICQ

From Chris Pickstock via the mailing list Saturday afternoon 23/6/01

B1 12675 H Sr 6111 "Astralinks, V8 Touring Cars from WA"
B1 12336 H Sr 6980 (ABC Feed) "Aust v NZ under 21's netball"

From Bill Richards

Who has been busy on Pas 8 by the look of it

Pas 8 3950 H "Set TV" Vpid 460 Apid 461

Pas 8 3740 H "MTV Taiwan"

Pas 8 3940 H "Kttv 11 Feed" Vpid 2660 Apid 2620

From Me Saturday afternoon 23/6/01

Saturday 1.42 Syd time

B3 12363V "Horse raceing" vpid 4160 Apid 4120 (usual settings)
B3 12336V "AFL Hawthorn vs Kangas" usual settings

From the Dish

Optus B1 160E 12733 V "A TVNZ test card" has started, Sr 22400, Fec 3/4, Vpid 32 Apid 33.

Asiasat 3 105.5E 3900 V "Indus Music test card" is new here Vpid 1230 Apid 1231

Screenshot by Bill Richards

Pas 4 68.5E 3812 H "B4U Music" has started Sr 6620, Fec 2/3, Vpid 1160 Apid 1120, Middle East beam, this will be available to Australia when the change over to Pas 10 happens in August.

NEWS

SingTel extends Optus takeover bid

From http://www.timesofindia.com/today/23info7.htm

SINGAPORE: Singapore Telecommunications Ltd on Friday said that it had extended by one month the offer period of its takeover bid for Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd.

The closing date of the offer has been extended to 7:00 pm Sydney time (0900 GMT) August 3, from 7:00 pm Sydney time (0900 GMT) July 3, SingTel said in a statement.

SingTel added that it had extended the offer period "pending approval" for the takeover from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, or FIRB.

Last week, the Australian government said that the FIRB would take up to a further 90 days to consider whether it will approve SingTel's takeover bid for Optus, Australia's second-largest telecommunications operator.

The usual 30-day review period had been extended last week amid defense and national interest concerns.

SingTel launched a formal takeover for Optus on May 21, but since then the A$14 billion ($7.72 billion) friendly bid has been subject to intense scrutiny.

Australia's Foreign Investment and Review Board must approve the takeover.

The bid has been slowed by the US government approval process relating to satellites designed to carry military information.

"Detailed discussions with relevant agencies in Australia and the US continue," Lee Hsien Yang, SingTel's president and chief executive, said on Friday.

"SingTel is committed to resolving issues raised during the approval process and remains confident that the outstanding issues will be resolved," he added.

SingTel is 78 per cent owned by the Singapore government, which has caused concern in Australia and the US as completion of the Optus deal would give SingTel access to satellites that carry military data alongside telephone traffic.

Optus' independent directors have recommended shareholders accept SingTel's bid, even though an external assessment of its merits by valuer Grant Samuel & Associates concluded the terms were reasonable, but not fair.

"SingTel continues to be dedicated to acquiring Optus. The extension of the offer period process does not interfere with SingTel's commitment to providing current and future SingTel shareholders with a compelling investment opportunity," Lee said. (AP)

Government to take TVNZ's future off standby

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=196475&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

The Government is expected to end years of speculation about the future of TVNZ on Monday, by announcing that it will not be split up and will no longer be required to focus on making a profit.

The announcement, which is expected after the cabinet meets, comes after months of bitter political wrangling over TVNZ's future.

Labour was keen to set up TVNZ's transmission arm, BCL, as a separate company, to allow it to focus on making profits and eventually set itself up as a possible rival to Telecom.

Although it could not get political support for the decision, it is believed to have agreed on a compromise that will still allow BCL to act independently, but stay part of a crown-owned entity. The change means that TVNZ will no longer be a state-owned enterprise, required to focus on making money for taxpayers.

The broadcaster has warned that it is in danger of losing money next year because of a slump in advertising, higher programming costs and investment in new technology.

The sudden deterioration in its finances has prompted management to set up a team to find ways of carving $20 million from its budget in each of the next three years.

The team, due to report by the end of August, has been told "everything is up for grabs," including possible redundancies.

It has also been asked to look at how TVNZ can make more money, including charging advertisers more for limited advertising space.

Despite a less-than-successful trial of a low-ad zone, TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis confirmed the broadcaster would examine the issue.

Packer firm on shelving Indian venture

From http://www.financialexpress.com/fe20010623/news5.html

New Delhi, June 22: HFCL on Friday said its loss-making joint venture with Kerry Packer-HFCL Nine Broadcasting - was being shelved and Mr Packer was firm on not participating in the fresh bids for Doordarshan’s Metro channel.

HFCL holds 48 per cent equity in the venture, with another 49 per cent with Mr Packer and the remaining three per cent with financial investors.

The total paid-up capital of this company is just over Rs 25 crore and it has been a loss-making venture since its inception a year ago.

The decision of HFCL Nine Broadcasting to shelve its Indian operations comes before its existing contract with DD Metro expires on September 10 this year.

?Packer was never interested in a satellite channel. He wanted to invest in the Indian media business only on the terrestrial front, which meant content supply to Doordarshan,” HFCL chairman Mahendra Nahata said here adding the fact that this joint venture is no longer in the fray for DD Metro slots meant it was “out of business”.

Brushing aside speculation that the venture would now “supply” content to other channels, Mr Nahata said “what we wanted to do on DD Metro is provide programming and collect the accruing advertising revenue. We are not, nor ever were, interested in setting up a channel of our own.”

Finally, Packer packs bags, says adieu to DD Metro

From http://www.timesofindia.com/today/23busi10.htm

NEW DELHI: Australian media baron Kerry Packer has decided to exit from the entertainment segment of the television business in India. Vinay Maloo-Packer promoted HFCL-Nine Broadcasting has asked its employees to look for other opportunities as its contract with Doordarshan Metro ends in September.

``It is very sad that we had to take this decision and exit from television business,'' HFCL-Nine Broadcasting CEO Ravina Raj Kohli told The Times of India. ``We are trying our best to get our employees relocated,'' she added.

However, she said that company was not shutting down and would continue with movie business. Of course, Channel Nine has the rights to produce cricket software for BCCI.

Industry sources said that Packer's Indian investments have failed to pay him off. Officials said that Packer's investments in the domestic media and information technology sectors have caused him a loss of $15 million.

Out of the total 58 people on rolls, 50 have been asked to quit. ``The staff related to DD Metro business have been given the option to look for alternative careers and remain employed till the close of contract in September,'' according to a company statement. Officials said that remaining core team will explore other opportunities.

HFCL-Nine Broadcasting, current partner of the national broadcaster, on Thursday said that it won't bid for DD Metro even after Prasar Bharati removed the floor price for the primetime slots. Nine paid Rs 121 crore last year for the DD Metro's primetime slots. The company also claimed to have spent ``enormous amount'' in promoting DD.

``We gave an excellent offer to DD. They did not listen to us,'' Kohli said. ``We promoted DD brand and increased its viewership from 15.6 million to 26.5 million. It ratings went up by 200 per cent,'' she added.

The company blamed the national broadcaster for not having a long term plan which resulted into their exit from the television business. In fact the company's projection went haywire. It incurred heavy losses during the one year period ending September 2001 when they got the rights to telecast an exorbitant cost of Rs 121 crore.

Kohli said that the company is also not interested in launching its own channel as it finds satellite channel space overcrowded. ``We did not want to continue in the television business as it is structured today,'' Kohli said.

22/6/01

Not much to say today keep an eye out for feeds this weekend and let me know what you see.

From my Emails & ICQ

From Alek via the Mailing list

Hi


For those lucky enough to see this satellite, MCM has started on Int 704
66Deg E French Telecom Bouquet 4055 R 27500 3/4 replacing TV5.

A reply received from Panamsat re Pas 10

Yes, PAS10 payload In-Orbit-testing has just been completed (as of Jul 13).
The 3790 and 4034 frequencies you mention would have been tested with a
Saturated CW carrier as part of the payload In-orbit checkout.
PAS10 has a Global C band footprint on both Horizontal and Vertical
polarizations. Coverage over Austrailia is primarily on the Southern
coastal regions (about 32 dBW). Perth is just outside the 32 dBW contour,
I'd say maybe 31 to 30 dBW.

PAS 4 C band traffic is planned to be transitioned off to PAS 10 in early
Aug, 2001.

Alek

From the Dish

Palapa C2 113E 3733 H "Singapore International TV" has started, Vpid 33, Apid 1620,14:30-15:30 UTC, time sharing with TV Brunei.(This beam visable only in Asia)

Thaicom 3 78.5E 3551 H "MKTV Sat" new pids Vpid 2066 Apid 2067 and "Radio Skopje Apid 2068"

Apstar 2R 76.5E 3826 H "Feeds here have stopped"

Intelat 704 66E 3805 R "BBC World" has started Vpid 514 Apid 644 (Encrypted).
Intelat 704 66E 4055 R "MCM Asia" has replaced "TV 5 Asie" Vpid 120 Apid 130.

NEWS

CCTV moving from Pas 2 to Pas 8 Early July

From [sat-nd] 22 June 2001

China Central Television (CCTV), the national broadcaster of
the People's Republic of China, has renewed its seven-year-old
relationship with PanAmSat for an additional five years.

HFCL-Nine to shut television activities

From http://www.economictimes.com/today/22tech01.htm

THE HFCL-Kerry Packer joint venture, HFCL Nine Broadcasting India, has announced it is shutting its television business in India. The company’s programmes on the DD-Metro channel will cease to be on air from September 10, the company has said.

This follows a decision of the company not to bid for the prime time slots on DD-Metro due to what it calls the “unrealistic non-financial terms” proposed by DD.

Nine Broadcasting, which has a current staff strength of around 60, has given notice to its employees that their services would be terminated from September 10. A core team of around 8-10 senior management personnel would look after the company’s interests thereafter.

Ravina Kohli, the high-profile CEO of Nine Broadcasting, said she was not sure whether she would continue with the company’s core team after the September 10 shutdown. Nine Broadcasting has chosen to stop its broadcasts from September 10 even though its annual contract for the two prime time slots on DD Metro are scheduled to expire on September 21 and October 16, respectively.

While Nine was shutting its television business, other projects like the film production ‘Agni Varsha’, scheduled for release by the end of the year, would continue, Ms Kohli told ET.

She said the shareholders of Nine would have to decide on what shape the company would take after the shut down of the television business. “The prospects of launching an independent satellite channel are bleak,” the Nine Broadcasting CEO added.

Nine Broadcasting said it had backed down from bidding for the new DD Metro tender because the terms were “unrealistic.” The tender terms said new media and internet rights would belong to DD and the a clause preventing reruns of progrmmes for one year after the final episode could date programes by more that two years before replay, thereby reducing value.

Nine has also objected to DD reserving the right to terminating the contract withour notice and without reason making it “a pointless contract.”

Kohli expressed surprise at DD issuing statements that it would produce its own programmes for DD Metro even before the bids for the tender had closed. She however clarified that Nine Broadcasting was willing to make a comeback on the channel if Doordarshan came to the negotiating table on Nine’s terms.

Doordarshan was forced to retender the prime time slots for DD Metro since there there were no applicants in the previous round. Unlike the previous terms, where the base price for the three-hour prime time slot was kept at Rs 97.5 crore, the second round has no base price.

Singapore accused by Stokes of snooping

From http://www.smh.com.au/news/0106/22/biztech/biztech1.html

The chairman of the Seven Network, Mr Kerry Stokes, has stepped up his campaign to thwart SingTel's takeover of Cable& Wireless Optus, warning that the Singapore Government, SingTel's majority shareholder, had a record of listening in on phone conversations of its citizens.

"I am not going to tell them how to run their country but their way is totally foreign to our way,' he told the Herald.

"To my mind, SingTel sounds good as a company but SingTel is not a company, it's a government," he said.

"Singapore doesn't have the the best of human rights records. It does have different standards to Australia. It doesn't believe in free speech; it doesn't have a transparent democracy, all of which are fundamental to the way we do business and the way we conduct ourselves." he said.

Mr Stokes said it had been reported that the Singapore Government eavesdropped on phone calls and interrogated computers.

He also pointed to a Fortune magazine article which reported that General Lim Chuan Poh, Singapore's top soldier, and the number two bureaucrat in the Singapore Ministry for Communications, were on the board.

Mr Stokes has already lodged a submission with the Foreign Investment and Takeovers Board opposing the takeover.

But following public statements in the past few days by the Minister for Defence, Mr Reith, suggesting that national security concerns raised by his department would not be an obstacle to the deal going through, Mr Stokes has stepped up his campaign.

As a result, Mr Stokes has come in for criticism himself, with some close to the deal accusing him of being motivated by his own commercial interests.

A source close to the deal said yesterday that Mr Stokes was behaving "like desperate man".

"He sees Australia set in the 1950s and fails to see the difference between public policy and his own commercial self interest," the source said.

The future of Seven's pay TV sports channels, C7, which is carried by Optus, is uncertain beyond the end of this year, when it loses the AFL rights.

Seven's mobile telephony business, B Digital, also resells the Optus network.

"Tell me what I win out of this?" Mr Stokes asked when the suggestion of a commercial motivation was put to him.

"There is no commercial advantage for us.

"What I have been concerned about is that B Digital has 185,000 subscribers, who use the Optus network and they will have no say in a foreign government controlling their phone calls. The same goes for Optus subscribers."

Mr Stokes said he had been moved to action because he hated doing business with governments.

Cloud 9 Announces TV Channel Venture With TelstraSaturn

NDTV World launch postponed

From http://www.timesofindia.com/today/22busi25.htm

NEW DELHI: Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV has postponed the launch of its much talked about entertainment channel NDTV World.

The channel, which was expected to debut around September 2001, will now go on air later, perhaps a year later. The 24-hour bilingual channel in English and Hindi is targeted at the Indian diaspora -- especially in the UK and the US markets.

``There was no fixed date for the launch of the channel,'' NDTV president Prannoy Roy clarified to The Times of India. He said that company is in the process of working out ``several JVs and tie-ups'' before launching the channel.

In April, NDTV director KVL Narayan Rao had indicated that the entertainment channel will be launched around September. In December 2000, NDTV floated a 100 per cent subsidiary company NDTV World to enter into the broadcasting sector. An ICICI group company has picked up between 10 and 20 per cent equity stake in NDTV World.

NDTV currently provides content for STAR's 24-hour news and current affairs channel. The contract with Star is to lapse by early 2003.

It is learnt Star wants to launch its own production house to create programming in future. In order to create a library, Star is all set to open its production house to prepare content for Sky News which is slated to be launched in India. They have decided to form an independent editorial board.

With stories doing the rounds of its top anchors leaving the production house, there is an increasing sense of uncertainty among NDTV's 600-odd employees.

BSAT-2b arrives at Kourou

From [sat-nd] 22 June 2001

BSAT-2b, the second of three geostationary (GEO) satellites
that Orbital Sciences plans to deliver to customers in 2001, has
been shipped to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. From
Kourou, the satellite will be launched in July aboard an Ariane
5 rocket into a geosynchronous orbit at 110 degrees East.

The BSAT-2b satellite is the second spacecraft built by
Orbital for Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-
SAT) and will serve as an in-orbit spare designed to deliver
direct-to-home digital television broadcasting throughout Japan.
The BSAT-2a satellite, which was launched in March, is now in
commercial service, having successfully completed its extensive
in-orbit testing and check-out procedures.

The BSAT-2, N-STAR-c and PanAmSat satellites are all based on
Orbital's "STAR" family of smaller GEO satellite platforms,
which are able to accommodate most types of commercial
communications payloads. The STAR satellites are smaller and are
significantly less costly to acquire and launch.

Shin Satellite launches iPSTAR service in Singapore

From [sat-nd] 22 June 2001

Shin Satellite Plc president Dumrong Kasemset said the company
launched its iPSTAR services in Singapore. In a statement,
Dumrong said the company's satellite-based Internet service will
be offered using existing satellites prior to the launch of its
iPSTAR-1 spacecraft in 2003.

The first generation system can deliver a forward link of up
to 128 Mbps on a 54 MHz Ku-band transponder and up to 8 Mbps per
terminal, while the return link can deliver up to 66 Mbps per
transponder and up to 2 Mbps per modem.

When iPSTAR-1 is launched in 2003, the maximum data rates will
be 11 Mbps downlink and up to 4 Mbps uplink per modem.

Kasemset said the cost per satellite modem will be competitive
with existing terrestrial broadband solutions--around US$1,000
per unit. "Once we achieve critical mass, this cost will
decrease substantially," he added.

21/6/01

More new articles on the restart of Australia's satellite tv service.

Following pages have been updated

B1, B3, Palapa C2, Pas 2, Pas 8

The latest from the Dr Overflow website

"Is it time for a new receiver?

No, it is time for new software!

At theese days, most important parts of DVB2000 are programmed completely new. Because I need some more days I will keep you informed on this website.

In final phase there are a lot of public beta-releases to come. Everybody who likes to test, may join us try those releases. Since there are a lot of different hardware-versions of our mediamaster we need those tests to make it work stable on most machines."

From my Emails & ICQ

Via the Mailing list From Chris Pickstock 21/6/01

Signal on B1

Right now, 3.40 pm EST, 12515H with a sr of a low 1500 a station loads as "TEST" It loads up as a radio station and has Apid of 256. No sound seems to be transmitted, but I do get a good signal strength.

Also, have a look around 12320V. I get some signal, but not enough to lock on anything. It could just be interference my end, or it could be a signal that I just can not get on my 1.2


Chris


Craig,

I have noticed an American Forces Network feed on Pas 2 3804 v Sr 6620
video pid 1110 audio pid 1211.

it is a light news program, human intrest stories etc. It's not great
viewing but I have not seen any other feeds from the AFN.

This seems to be daily at 4.30pm Melb. time

Colin Ferris

From the Dish

Pas 2 169E 3769 H "KBS TV 1" has encrypted.
Pas 2 169E 3901 H "MTA International" has been replaced by a test card.

Optus B1 160E 12483 V New SR for "Saturn Weather Channel" Sr 22500.

Palapa C2 113E 10972 V "Tzu Chi TV, Mega Movie, Rainbow Channel 2 and Channel X" Encrypted
Palapa C2 113E Almost all channels on 11108 V and 11132 V are encrypted again.

Asiasat 3 105.5E 3660 V "Urdu TV Network has started" analogue (as mentioned last week).

Asiasat 2 100.5E 3640 HRadio Cairo has replaced El Sharq on Apid 665.

Thaicom 3 76.5E 3467 H ETC and ETC Channel Punjabi have left

NEWS

ABC wins $15m for foreign service

From http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,2154217%255E1702,00.html

THE ABC would receive $15 million a year over five years to provide Australia's overseas television service, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Mr Howard said the broadcaster had won the tender to provide the service after a proper selection process.
"I'm pleased to announced that today the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Alexander Downer) has indicated the ABC has been awarded the tender for the provision of Australia's overseas television service," he told parliament.

"After a proper process to select the most appropriate ... the government will provide $15 million a year over five years."

$75m gets ABC back into Asia

From http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,2159141%255E601,00.html

THE ABC will become Australia's new face in Asia after winning a $75 million federal government funding package to revive the twice-failed Australia Television service.

But the ABC coup may trigger legal action against the Government, with David Hill, former ABC boss and rival bidder for the Australia TV service, angrily describing the process as "crooked".

The new satellite television station, likely to be launched later this year, will be a subsidiary company of the ABC and carry advertising and sponsorship as well as news, current affairs, education and entertainment programs.

The five-year contract, described as a "back-flip after bungling" by Labor, is worth $25 million more than the original $50 million package offered last year to any group willing to revive Australia TV.

It also represents a turnaround in the Coalition's attitude to international broadcasting, after an unrealised plan to close Radio Australia, the sale of its Cox Peninsula transmitters near Darwin and the handover of Australia TV from the ABC to the Seven network in 1997. ABC managing director Jonathan Shier said he was "delighted" to win the contract, a job he has previously said was too risky for the ABC.

"There is no other media organisation in Australia capable of providing the level of quality programming necessary to make this service viable and successful," Mr Shier said.

But Mr Hill, who has been advising Australian Vision International, said the ABC had gained an unfair advantage and had bid only after the official deadline.

The Government is believed to have asked the ABC to make a bid in April, after an earlier proposal by the Seven network and SBS collapsed and the Government had begun negotiations with Mr Hill's group.

Seven pulled out of the running in March after it suddenly shut down Australia Television.

Despite Mr Hill's Labor connections, AVI boasted a Liberal Party pedigree in board members Lloyd Lange, Warwick Smith and Brian Wilson.

Mr Lange was a Liberal member of the NSW Parliament between 1974 and 1986; Mr Smith, a former Liberal minister, is now a Macquarie Bank executive director; and Mr Wilson is national chairman of law firm Clayton Utz and a friend of John Howard.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer rejected Mr Hill's complaints last night. He said he had not been happy with any of the original offers, including Mr Hill's, while earlier versions of Australia TV were "not really very good".

"I have not been happy with what the ABC used to do, and I was not happy with what Channel Seven did. I really want to see it as a class product of Australia and Australia's values around the Australia-Pacific region."

Mr Downer said the Government would partly fund the service because "a regional television service which projects accurate images and perceptions of Australia is in the national interest".

But the ABC will have to find advertising and sponsorship for the still unnamed channel, something permitted by its charter.

The new service will be delivered by digital satellite, and is likely to target English-speaking Asian audiences, rather than expatriate Australian audiences.

The ABC hopes to broadcast north into China, but its coverage into the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas will depend on negotiating satisfactory satellite contracts later this year.

Craigs comment, Thaicom 3 global beam , Palapa C2 H beam, and a service via Mediasat is what they should aim for.

20/6/01

MCM the French music channel is leaving Asiasat 2 as reported a few days ago. Telstra Saturn in NZ has this channel on their service and several NZ regional channels use this service as overnight filler. I think it only leaves the Canal+ service with MCM in our region. Reception to NZ is pretty poor from I701 Canal+ so I don't know what they will use as a future source they may have to drop this channel. Some good news in the news section the ABC will be taking over and restarting Australia TV. I would like to see Mediasat transmit this channel on B3 surely it's more of interest than RTPI.

See from the Dish section for up to date details from Telstra/TVNZ tests on B1

Saturn Weather Channel , testing on B1, NZ BEAM

From my Emails & ICQ

From my email

HI CRAIG

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF IT IS POSSIBLE TO OBTAIN MALAYSIAN FTA ON THE GOLD COAST, QLD,AUSTRALIA .

I HAVE A CLIENT LOOKING FOR TV3 MALAYSIAN AND CAN ONLY GET CNBC & CNN OF HIS DISH , I THOUGHT THAT POSSIBLY THE SIGNEL HAS GHANGED TO DIGITAL

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP
[email protected]

Craigs reply, Tv3 Malaysia is on Measat 1 91.5E but digital encrypted. If your client is lucky he may be able to get RTM TV1 in Analog from this satellite. From the sound of it your clients dish is pointing at Palapa C2. If you go with a very large KU rated dish at least 5M + you may have success with the digital Astro service which has the Malaysian channels including TV3 fta. I don't like your chances though, Try finding Measat 1 and see what kind of reception you get from the analog RTM station. Let me know how it all goes.

See the Measat 1 footprint here http://www.measat.com/html/system2.html

From "D" via the mailing list

Optus B3 on BTV3 16 x 9 chan 9/telstra test card at 2.40pm aest

Craigs note, they had some other cards there last night, all I got when I checked was this.

Bill Richards comes up with a screenshot from the "Lions vs Australia A" match that was on Optus B1 last night

Jeff Bannister suplies info on the 64E signals mentioned yesterday by Alek

at 64deg at 4081 . 3678 2/3 is AFRTS loads 4 channels..

1 = newsports/voice
2 = atlantic/uivoice
3 = atlantic stereo
4 = atlantic stereo..
encryption is scientific atlanta..
getting it at 50% on a 3m KTI mesh with dual feed on my nokia D box..

regards jeff bannister...lower south west of WA

From the Dish

Pas 8 166E 12726 H "ESPN and Animal Planet Australia & New Zealand" still FTA
Pas 8 166E 3850 H "Set TV" started Vpid 460 Apid 461

Optus B1 160E 12728 V "The occasional 9 Network feeds" Analogue have left (Where has Channel 9 taken its feeds, reports needed please)
Optus B1 160E 12483 V "Saturn Weather Channel" has started on Vpid 289 Apid 290. (This beam NZ only but may be receivable in South Australia on a big enough Ku dish, note they are using Irdeto)
Optus B1 160E 12390 V "Lions vs Aust A" seen here 19/6/01 Analogue.
Optus B1 160E 12367 V "Lions vs Aust A" 19/6/01 "Newsforce feed" Sr 5632, Fec 3/4 Vpid 308 Apid 256

TVNZ Telstra Saturn is testing on B1 heres the latest details

Optus B3 156E 12376 H "The Austar Interactive TV promo" has left

Apstar 1A 134E 3840 H "CCTV 7" has new pid Vpid 514 Apid 670

Palapa C2 113E 3760 H "MMBN service are all FTA again"
Palapa C2 113E KU "All MMBN services are FTA again, except channel A

NEWS

Asia Pacific television service to be re-established

From http://www.abc.net.au/news/2001/06/item20010620122301_1.htm

An Australian television service for the Asia Pacific region is to be re-established.

The Federal Government has announced it will fund the ABC to set up the service.

The Government says the Asia Pacific broadcasts will include news and current affairs programs and build on existing ABC and Radio Australia Internet services.

A statement from the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says the service will also be expected to generate additional commercial support.

Mr Downer says the Asia-Pacific television service will be part of a cross media strategy involving ABC websites and the international broadcaster, Radio Australia.

"I think the ABC will put up a very good show, I think it will be well watched throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

"I think it will be of great benefit to Australia in the projection of a strong national image."

The commercial broadcaster, Channel Seven, closed Australia Television (ATV) in March, saying it was not a viable business.

Seven bought ATV from the ABC in 1997.

NT Govt happy

From http://www.abc.net.au/news/2001/06/item20010620122301_1.htm

The Northern Territory Government is welcoming the decision to re-establish an Australian television service for the Asia-Pacific region, but says it must be done properly.

The Asian Relations and Trade Minister, Daryl Manzie, was critical of the Channel Seven service, saying viewers had been subjected to irrelevant programming and old re-runs.

He says he hopes the national broadcaster will improve the service.

"It needs to be something that is in sympathy with South East Asia and which meets the needs of our country as well as being appropriate for transmission into South East Asia and a place like Darwin being located geographic is really an ideal place for such a service."

An ABC spokesman says Australia Television will not necessarily return to Darwin.

19/6/01

Live chat tonight 8.30pm Syd time onwards in the chatroom hopefully its fixed it wasn't working Sunday night or last night. I checked at 4.30pm NZ and it was working fine.

I starrted adding some icons to the Thaicom 3 sat page as a test. It will take a while to add them to the rest of the pages. But it will tidy up the look of the pages, I just have to find a few more suitable Icons

From my Emails & ICQ

Chris Pickstock reports some activity on B1 18/6/01 Monday Night

On 12367V sr 6111, I am getting a very strong signal. It loads as "Astralinks" with Vpid 308 and Apid 256. However my unit reports "Bad Signal" which is what it does when I get internet data. I have not come across any Astralinks internet data yet so I was wondering if anyone else has had a look at this freq?

Bill Richards supplies furthur info on it,

"They were using NTL encryption."

Alek reports via the mailing list

I have just scanned 57-66 Deg E and note a very strong digital carriers
around 64Deg aprox at 4088 L and 3632 aprox, If there is anyone else who
can view the satellite could they confirm, AFTS does not load with the
parameters from Lyngsat, Has it changed?

Alek

From the Dish

Pas 8 166E 12400 V "CTN Zhong Tian, CTN Dadi, Sun Movie, Ufo TV, CTV Satellite Channel and Tzu Chi TV" Encrypted (these ones Asia only)
Pas 8 166E 12726 H "ESPN and Animal Planet Australia & New Zealand" encrypted.(Anyone confirm this?)

Optus B1 160E 12508 H "ocasional feeds for 9 Network have left (analogue, try 12512 H Dig)

Agila 2 146E 4080 H "ESC 1, Radio Kool and Radio Power" have left. (Asia beam)
Agila 2 146E 4080 H "ABC 5, RPN 9, IBC 13 and KSBN News" are now encrypted.

NEWS

Nothing for today

18/6/01

I am not in a good mood today, depressed about the state of my dish and how its taking so long to get anywhere with it, I am not capeable of assembling it. If I did I would probably build it inside out ;-) I am just not skilled with tools, give me a hammer and nail and I will break the hammer with it some how. It didn't help that in the rush to partly assemble the dish it ended up being built without the center splice plate :-( So I have to pull the whole thing to bits again at least I have some better instructions off the net than the ones that came with it.

Mundine fight tonight? possibly on Mediasat B3.

From my Emails & ICQ

From Dave Ross last night via email

PAS2 3929 V Sr 10850 Fec 3/4 "500 G.P motorbikes" Feed as at 8.50pm Syd time

This via ICQ

Subject: Youth W CUP soccer

FYI
Available at Thaicom 2 78.5E on BBTV Channel 7

3751 H PAL Audio 6.60 7.20 Analog only.. Sorry..Australia footprint is not coverage.

This from George

Craig have you noticed MTA international in the BBC , Bloomberg mux on Pas 2
has been replaced by a Panamsat Napa test card

George
Thailand

From the Dish

Pas 2 169E 4058 V "TVB Mux" has a new Sr 13238 (Encrypted)

Optus B3 156E 12407 V "Optus Business TV 3" Currently FTA

Asiasat 2 100.5E 3736 V "Occasional feeds" Sr 6250, Fec 3/4
Asiasat 2 100.5E 3660 V "MTA International" New pids Vpid 2432 Apid 2433

Insat 2E 83E 4005 V "ETV Telugu, ETV Bangla, ETV Marathi and ETV Kannada" have been replaced by Testcards

NEWS

T S I C H A N N E L N E W S - Number 24/2001 - June 17 2001 -

A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by Tele Satellite International
Editor: Branislav Pekic

Edited Apsattv.com Edition

A S I A

CHINA - HONG KONG

GALAXY PAYS LICENSE BOND

According to a Bloomberg report, Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Ltd., the pay
television unit of Hong Kong’s dominant broadcaster Television Broadcasts Ltd.,
paid an overdue license bond, ending a confrontation with the government. The
broadcaster paid a HK$88 million performance pledge originally due in March,
and must pay a late charge, the Broadcasting Authority said. Galaxy had asked
for a six-month extension, citing “changing market conditions.”

INDIA

ZEE TELEFILMS TO CHARGE FOR ZEE TV

Zee Telefilms, one of India's leading private television networks, has
converted its free, flagship channel Zee TV into a pay channel, a senior
official said on June 13. The firm expects the conversion, which has been long
pending, to boost its profitability. Sunil Khanna, Zee's vice-president in
charge of distribution, told Reuters that the general entertainment channel
became digitally encrypted from June 10 and will start charging cable operators
only from June 15 onwards. While advertising revenue currently comprises over
60 per cent of Zee's income, the company hopes pay revenue will rise
significantly going forward. "For our most popular bouquet of channels, cable
operators will now have to pay 25 rupees a month from 13 rupees earlier,"
Khanna said. This package comprises Zee Cinema, Zee MGM, one regional channel,
Zee News and Zee TV. The prices of various packages depend on the number of
channels included. In all, Zee operates 12 channels in India, which are a mix
of general entertainment, music, movies and news channels, in a variety of
Indian languages. The network posted a net profit of 1.83 billion rupees in
the year ended March 2001 on income of 10.16 billion rupees.

JAPAN

ANALOGUE BROADCASTS TO END IN 2011

The Japan Diet revised the Radio Law, mandating the abolition of ground-based
analogue TV broadcasting by the end of 2011. The revision came with promises of
funding to help people convert to digital broadcasting. Once conversion to
ground-based TV broadcasting to digital is complete, the government intends to
assign newly freed-up frequencies to cellular phone and other communications
media now experiencing frequency shortages. During the transition period, which
begins in Tokyo and two other major regions in 2003, the government will help
pay for viewers’ antennas and set-top boxes and facilities at broadcasting
stations.

NEPAL

INDIAN CHANNELS BLACKED OUT

Following the massacre of King Birendra and other members of Nepal’s royal
family just over a week ago, the country’s government has imposed a ban on the
transmission of Indian channels, including Zee News, Star News, Aaj Tak and the
national broadcaster Doordarshan. The government said it moved to ban the news
channels, especially Zee TV, because they were pointing an accusing finger at
Prince Dipendra, who allegedly killed his father King Birendra, mother Queen
Aishwarya and other royals.

TAIWAN

TV NETWORK TO START BROADCASTING NEWS FROM CHINA

Next month Phoenix Satellite Television, which is based in Hong Kong but
controlled by interests from the Chinese mainland, will begin broadcasting
CNN-style news about China. If Taiwan gives final approval, Phoenix Satellite
Television will begin broadcasting its Chinese-language news channel here as
early as July. Phoenix is run by a former People’s Liberation Army soldier, Liu
Changle, in a partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV. Because of history and
legal restrictions, media companies in China and Taiwan have rarely tried to
sell their wares in each other’s markets. Recently, however, Phoenix jumped the
legal barrier, winning preliminary government approval to distribute its
channel on cable systems here. For several years, China’s state- owned
television network, China Central Television (CCTV), has been available on
Taiwan’s cable systems, but it is watched by a small audience of mostly older
viewers in China.

MediaStream's Unit Awarded a Singapore Satellite Broadcasting License

From www.satnewsasia.com

Digital One Pte Ltd, a company 40 percent owned by MediaStream, was awarded a satellite-broadcasting license by the Singapore Broadcasting Authority. The license takes effect this December 1.

DigitalOne will operate an international satellite television broadcasting channel, uplinking from Singapore. The company is in the business of creating and developing digital content for television broadcasting.

MediaStream said Digital One will launch its first channel in the first half of next year. It will operate the international satellite television broadcasting channel in English and Chinese.

The international channel will initially be broadcast to countries in Asia, excluding Singapore.

Teleglobe to Provide High Speed Internet Services to ChinaSat

From satnewsasia.com

Teleglobe, one of the world's largest providers of Internet access via satellite, said it had entered into an agreement to provide high-speed satellite-based Internet access services for customers of China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corporation (ChinaSat).

Teleglobe will use its DVB/IP (Digital Video Broadcast/Internet Protocol) satellite service to supplement and extend ChinaSat's national backbone network and provide the main connectivity between North America and China for ChinaSat's customers. Both Teleglobe and ChinaSAT will work together to develop and deploy new Internet-based services.

Teleglobe's said that its DVB/IP service will enable ChinaSat to bring Internet access to a vast area of China in a faster and more cost effective way, particularly to the western parts of the country where cable access is less of an option.

Lily Zhang, managing director of Teleglobe's Beijing office added that ChinaSat will also use its DVB/IP service to deliver the next wave of Internet-based content distribution services such as multicast streaming, data distribution and caching for their customers."

Yu Cheng, general manager of ChinaSat's Telecommunications Development Business Division, stated that Teleglobe's DVB/IP satellite service will provide its customers with a better Internet experience and build its business in and out of China.

Teleglobe's DVB/IP satellite service speeds the delivery of Internet content to ChinaSAT, with a direct satellite connection to Teleglobe's Internet backbone, bypassing any congestion on ChinaSat's terrestrial circuits.

ChinaSat was established in 1985 and is the first state-owned enterprise to manage the telecommunications satellite business and provide satellite telecommunications services in China. It is now under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

ChinaSat is one of 10 ISPs licensed by the government to provide international connectivity to China's Internet customers. ChinaSat provides domestic satellite telecommunications broadcast services, operates several VSAT systems and manages the government's domestic mobile satellite telecommunications business.

Teleglobe is one of the world's largest international Internet backbones serving a broad base of enterprise, ICPs, ISPs, ASPs and carrier customers.

17/6/01

I did some testing with the Nokia last night recording video to the hd. (IDE) I usesd a very simple program called DVB2000 Video recorder. It worked quite well with 3 minutes of 704x576 MPG2 video taking up 125 megs! With the addition of a couple of very small MPG2 plugins for Windows mediaplayer I was soon viewing the MPG2 stream. My poor old 4 meg PCI graphics card choked on attempts to play back in Fullscreen but handled %50 scaled playback fine. A modern 32 bit AGP card with tv out should handle it a lot better. The other factor is I am useing an old ISA scssi card which is fairly flaky, my Harddrive while being one of the latest fast 7200 rpm models is only running on the udma 33 connector, udma 66 would enable much better performance. I also tryed the latest version of Universal Scssi which seemed a bit flaky though i did get it to work a few times. Let me have some feed back on how you go if you try it out.

The latest info on DVB2000 the next version.

This from http://www.dominance.net/overflow/

"After complete new implementation of NIT scan, I decided to support NVOD and time shifted services.

This is not an easy task. It is simply not that what we hobbyists want:

For example you scan a unknown transponder you simply want to see what happens on THIS transponder. But this is not what the standard says. You might get an SDT with links to different transponders but not one single signal since those channels are NVOD signals with no name (sent on this transponder).

I will try to add both modes. The old mode thats prompts all active signals on the transponder and a new mode compatible to DVB-standard and other receivers with SDT priority.

I guess the new mode will become standard. It will find 5 Cinedoms only and prompts for start-time selection.

Need a little more time to finish this new (really great) stuff".

Some parts of DVB2000 were made when I did not even knew about ETSI and ISO and those documents were not available for public download. For example our NIT-parser is more an awfull hack than a parser. All information this code is based on was the hexdump. Time has come to make this code completely new.

Of course we are very late to do this. But you all know about all those requests and there was much more interesting stuff to play with.

I allready improved the NIT-Parser and the extended_event_information (have a look at the picture above).

From my Emails & ICQ

From Me 17/06/01 seen Sunday Afternoon

Optus B3 12363 V "NRL, Knights vs Bulldogs" usual settings

From Me 16/06/01 seen Saturday night

Optus B1 12357 V "Lions vs Reds, Rugby" Sr 5630, Vpid 308 Apid 256 Fec 3/4
Optus B1 12367 V "South Africa vs France, Rugby" Sr 5630, Vpid 308 Apid 256 Fec 3/4

From Chris Pickstock 16/06/01 seen Saturday Night

Optus B1 12336 H "ABC Netball" Sr 6980, Vpid 3160 Apid 3120

From Chris Pickstock 17/06/01 seen Sunday Afternoon

Optus B1 12665 H "ASTRALINKS," Sr 6111, Vpid 308 Apid 256

"This is a feed for Network Ten of the Australian Rally Championship from Imbil in Queensland. Some action awhile ago, colourbars at the moment."

Optus B1 12357 V "NRL, Storm vs Dragons" Sr 5632, Vpid 308 Apid 256
Optus B1 12411 V "NRL, Knights vs Bulldogs" Sr 6620, Vpid 308 Apid 256

From the Dish

Optus B1 12411 V "Feeds" Sr 6620, Vpid 308 Apid 256
Optus B1 12420 V "Feeds" Analogue!

Agila 2 146E 4080 H "KSBN News" is back Vpid 1560 Apid 1520. (northern Australia and Asia)

Palapa C2 113E 10972 V "Tzu Chi TV" is now encrypted.
Palapa C2 113E 11008 V & 11132 V "MusicCountry Pacific Rim", is encrypted again

Asiasat 3 105.5E 3660 V "Zee TV Asia" info card has left, (Keep an eye on this channel)

Asiasat 2 100.5E 3660 V "MTA International" has new Pids, Vpid 2560 Apid 2561

Thaicom 3 78.5E 3467 H "Etc Channel" Sr 6060 Fec 2/3 Vpid 512 Apid 640 Sid 1 (Global Beam)
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3467 H "ETC Punjabi" Sr 6060 Fec 2/3 Vpid 513 Apid 641 Sid 2 (Global Beam)

NEWS

Sorry none for today

16/6/01

Lots of news and pictures today. Something that may show tonight, B1 12357V or 12367V France vs South Africa Rugby, could be on the Newsforce feed. It would start 1 a.m Syd time

A new version of DVBEDIT is out, use the update button in its menus to download it.

From my Emails and ICQ

From John McDermott

Optus B3 Digital Test?
Tonight Sydney time,15/6/01 I observed the following


Optus B3 12310 H SR 29473 FEC 3/4
No channels load, maybe testing???

Any ideas let me know

Cheers
John

Chris Pickstock reports via the mailing list Saturday afternoon

Optus B1, 12420 V "Nth v Uni Rugby Union" analogue.C7 feed. No sound
Optus B3, 12363 V "AFL" Sr 6111

Chris

From Bill Richards

NEW ETV Services, on Insat 2E

00211UTC
Thaicom 3 78.5E 3467 H "Etc Channel" Sr 6060 Fec 2/3 Vpid 512 Apid 640 Sid 1

Thaicom 3 78.5E 3467 H "ETC Punjabi" Sr 6060 Fec 2/3 Vpid 513 Apid 641 Sid 2

Thanks to Stu McLeod for this update on Optus B1 TVNZ Testing


12456V
12483V
12706V

All have 1 service "TVNZ TEST"
Sr 22400, Fec 3/4 Vpid 32 Apid 33

From the Dish

Pas 2 169E 3872 "NBA Feed" Sr 6620 Fec 2/3

Pas 8 166E 4194 "NBA Feed" Sr 6620 Fec 2/3

(NBA is on CCTV 2 as well as ESPN and one of the Indo Channels)

Optus B1 160E 12456 V "TVNZ Tests Snell Willcox Card, TV1 Audio"
Optus B1 160E 12483 V "TVNZ Tests Snell Willcox Card, TV1 Audio"
Optus B1 160E 12706 V "TVNZ Tests Snell Willcox Card, TV1 Audio"

All Sr 22400, Fec 3/4, PIDs 32/33.

Palapa C2 113E 3760 H "Tzu Chi TV" Encrypted
Palapa C2 113E 4000 H "SET International, Mega TV promo, Savoir Knowledge Channel, FTV News Channel, Scholar Movie Channel and RAI International 1" all encrypted

Asiasat 3 105.5E 12595 H "Five Star Media mux" has a new Sr 13185, Fec 1/2

NEWS

TVNZ awaits go-ahead for interactive TV

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,823795a1896,FF.html

Television New Zealand launches a digital simulcast of its programming from October 1 but has no mandate from the Government to market interactive TV.

What launches on October 1 is merely a simulcast of TVNZ's broadcast, so that TV1 and TV2 programming goes out in digital as well as analogue format.

People will need to buy a set-top box, costing about $800, to receive the digital signal.

TVNZ general manager strategy James Munro says TVNZ is focused on getting a mandate from its shareholder to market interactive television.

He says his main aim at the moment is "simply to get people to convert" from analogue to digital.

Digital will attract those with poor reception, though only "a few hundred" subscribers are expected by the end of the year when nationwide rollout is completed. The service will probably have between 10,000 and 50,000 customers by the end of 2002, he says.

TVNZ will eventually switch off its analogue broadcasts, though the exact date of switch-off, many years into the future, is not known. The SOE aims to have migrated the vast majority of customers to digital by then.

Depending on shareholder approval, some interactive features will be launched early next year, Mr Munro says, and are needed to create the "material difference" between digital and analogue TV that will prompt people to switch. Access to the Internet and e-mail are likely choices.

The SOE's television content side is close to break-even, he says, with entire group ebit profit in the last six monthly reporting period of $25 million.

Advertising revenue is down 5 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year. But Mr Munro says 2000 was TVNZ's best-ever year, and if compared to two years ago, advertising revenue is up 2.5 per cent.

He says digital television will not generate any revenue for TVNZ in the next three years. In three to seven years' time it should cover costs.

Mr Munro says TVNZ's focus will remain on its free-to-air content.

While TVNZ does not want to "go near" becoming a pay television channel, it might look at pay-per-view, such as paying 25 cents to watch yesterday's episode of Shortland Street, for example.

New technology called personal video recorders (PVRs) let people watch any programme that has already screened, also giving the ability to pause or rewind the programme being watched and to skip ad breaks.

Mr Munro says PVRs need broadcaster support, in providing the metadata that signals program details and the placement of advertising. He says PVRs will come into New Zealand next year, probably costing about $2500, and TVNZ is looking at supplying them.

For its digital service, TVNZ has chosen software from British-based interactive television company Open TV software to interface with the set-top box.

Mr Munro says TVNZ's talks with Sky are progressing well, and he is confident an agreement will be reached within the next year. He wants to sign some sort of set-top box open access deal with Sky.

While pay broadcasters provide TVNZ's two free-to-air channels through their decoders at the moment, they will not be able to do this with TVNZ's encrypted digital signal.

TVNZ's set-top box will have enough memory and processing power to run Open TV middleware.

TVNZ has drawn up a shortlist of less than five set-top box manufacturers, and will select a single vendor in a few weeks.

Under the deal between TVNZ and TelstraSaturn, the telecommunications company gets access to TVNZ's satellite capability, and will be able to bundle a range of its services to customers previously out of reach.

TVNZ gets a partner with whom to bid for content and the ability to take advantage of TelstraSaturn's existing digital infrastructure. This means TVNZ will use TelstraSaturn's uplink facilities to get signal to the satellite, piggyback off its call centre team to sell the boxes, and use its installers.

There is also provision for a joint venture in the future between the two organisations to develop interactive contact.

TVNZ has three people in its interactive team full-time, with another eight to 10 employees from other parts of the business also working on digital TV.

Digital coming, but same old channels

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,828639a1701,FF.html

TVNZ will begin transmission of high-quality digital TV on October 1 - but next to nobody is expected to want it even by the end of the year.

Competitor CanWest Global Communications, owner of TV3 and TV4, rejected yesterday an invitation from TVNZ to be part of its digital transmission venture. TV3 and TV4 are already broadcast on Sky Television's digital service.

There will be none of the multiple channels, e-mail or Internet access that digital access is capable of because TVNZ is still awaiting Government approval to implement interactive TV. This is expected to be approved, however.

From October 1, even if a person forks out about $800 for a digital decoder and a satellite dish, the only TV channels likely to be seen will be TV One and TV2 - the same as now.

TVNZ's general manager (strategy) James Munro said going digital was a staggered launch. It wasn't expecting large numbers of people to migrate to its digital service. Likely users are expected to mainly be the few hundred people who don't get clear reception. In contrast to Sky subscribers, users won't have to pay a monthly subscription.

Interactive TV and additional channels are expected to be unveiled next April.

This could lead to a weather channel, a Maori channel - depending on how negotiations with Maori broadcasting bodies progress - children's TV, games, a music channel, and even a parliamentary channel.

Meanwhile, Sky is on target to provide interactive TV later this year. Viewers will soon be able to get statistics from sports events, use it for shopping from home, and avail themselves of e-mail facilities - but they won't all arrive at once.

TelstraSaturn, TVNZ's digital partner, will introduce its nationwide digital service later this year ahead of the All Black tour in November to Ireland, Scotland and Argentina.

Time for TVNZ to kick-start move to digital

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,823806a1983,FF.html

TVNZ's argument that it must go digital "because everyone else is" has more sense than you might at first think, according to Amanda Wells.

Australia may be switching off analogue transmission in 2008 and Italy in 2006. Other countries are working to similar time-frames.

TVNZ general manager of strategy James Munro says if TVNZ persists with analogue after the bulk of countries have switched, it will be increasingly difficult to replace transmission equipment.

People would also have trouble buying new analogue TV sets. Though not yet in the New Zealand market, digital television sets will become ubiquitous once the world's hi-tech manufacturers crank up the production lines.

It hardly seems sensible for New Zealand to forge a path counter to the rest of the world. If the change to digital is inevitable, then it should be made as painless as possible.

When TVNZ launches its digital simulcast on October 1, you'll need to buy a set-top box to receive it.

Few households will be prepared to stump up the necessary $800 for something that offers no clear advantage over TVNZ's existing (and free) analogue service.

Mr Munro says TVNZ has no plans to subsidise the set-top box cost, though sweetens this by saying the price will drop over time.

VCRs were prohibitively expensive when introduced but now everyone has one, he argues. DVD players are heading in the same direction.

The analogy is not altogether apt.

VCRs offer a service totally different from a television set, and were not seen as a replacement for them but a necessary companion. A set-top box might soon be a necessary companion to a TV set, but it's not offering a new service, only an enhancement of what you get now.

So TVNZ must offer a few "whizz bang" enticements to make digital sell, to move people to digital, so that it can continue to be viable as a broadcaster.

The SOE's problem is that the Government has not, as yet, embraced this logic.

Till it does, TVNZ is hamstrung.

Its digital strategy at the moment is half-hearted at best.

Mr Munro says a large part of his "team" work full-time in other areas of the business, putting in odd hours on digital work.

For the digital strategy to succeed, it needs a strong dedicated team and adequate resourcing.

Mr Munro says he takes a 15-year view when creating digital strategy. But it seems almost impossible to look that far ahead with any clarity.

SingTel says delay in Australian takeover no surprise

From http://www.economictimes.com/today/16tech25.htm

SINGAPORE Telecommunications said on Friday a 90-day extension of an Australian government review of its bid to take over Australia's second biggest telecoms company "was not unexpected."

The Australian government announced on Thursday that the 30-day review period had been rolled over to consider the bid.

SingTel launched a formal takeover for Cable & Wireless Optus on May 21, but since then the 14 billion Australian dollar ($7.72 billion) friendly bid has been subject to intense scrutiny on defense and national interest grounds.

Australia's Foreign Investment and Review Board must approve the takeover.

"This extension is not unprecedented and was not unexpected by SingTel," SingTel said in a statement.

The bid has been slowed by the US government approval process relating to satellites designed to carry military information.

SingTel is 78 per cent owned by the Singapore government, which has caused concern in Australia and the United States as completion of the Optus deal would give SingTel access to satellites that carry military data alongside telephone traffic.

The last time Australia extended its review of a takeover by a foreign company was when Royal Dutch/Shell made a bid for Australia's Woodside Petroleum earlier this year.

Treasurer Peter Costello ultimately blocked that bid in April, saying it was against the national interest.

Optus Networks, operating separately from C&W Optus, has a joint venture partnership with the Australian Department of Defense, which plans to launch a 500 million Australian dollar ($276 million) C1 satellite in the first half of 2002.

The C1 satellite is designed to carry military and civilian information.

Seven Network, an Australian television broadcaster, lodged a submission in June detailing its objections to the bid.

Seven Network's main business is its free-to-air broadcast operations. It provides a pay-television channel, C7, on the C&W Optus pay-television service. Seven Network also controls B Digital, a mobile phone concern that resells on the Optus network.

Seven Network is worried about a company under foreign government control taking over what it calls a "significant" Australian asset. (AP)

Indian DTH hype fizzling out as top players lose interest

From http://www.economictimes.com/today/16tech11.htm

THE PROSPECTS of the much-touted and hyped DTH broadcasting appears to have fizzled out. While several players including Zee, Sun TV, VSNL and Star had evinced keen interest in setting up their platforms, nobody seems to be coming around anymore.

The industry is abuzz with disenchantment over the lack of progress made by the players who had first evinced interest in this broadcasting technology. The prevailing mood is such that the first mover advantage is no longer attractive and none of the players want to risk the first plunge.

The interested players have cited several reasons for the lack of take-off including the lack of flexibility for the broadcasters in the regulatory framework and the open-architecture set-top boxes.

According to channel sources, the risks when weighed against the prospective profits and penetration in the first five years into operations are too high.

"We have to bear in mind the costs involved in subsidising the set-top boxes for 3-4 million households. The risks seem steep when one considers that the policy requires open-architecture set-top boxes and not encrypted types," a Zee source said.

Most of the players are wary of the open-architecture set-top box model as this allows a level-playing field for all the channels who either form a platform or those who want to beam into the consumer households by merely joining a DTH platform.

An industry observer points out that the broadcasters and the non-broadcasters, keen on setting up the platforms, will have to subsidise the set-top boxes for the first 2-3 years as has been the case in countries like the UK and US.

Star and Zee officials told the Economic Times that the rigid regulatory framework is the prime reason for the delay in the roll-out of their DTH platforms.

The industry is still harping on the 20 per cent equity participation clause which places an entry restriction on any broadcasting or cable television entity beyond 20 per cent of the total equity in a DTH project.

Star sources also pointed out that besides the regulatory framework and the infrastructure costs which run into at least Rs 700 crore, there are other issues related to the business plan.

These factors are pertaining to the revenue sharing with the government, carriage fees to be charged by platforms for stand-alone channels and a feasible revenue model on the whole.

Stand-alone channels like Discovery and Aaj Tak have already said that they will like to join a platform, however, even they are circumspect about the formation of a DTH platform in the near future.

These stand-alone channels are keenly awaiting favourable offers to roll-in from the DTH players. "We want to join a DTH platform, but where is one? None of the plans seem to working as everybody except Star are playing the waiting game", an official said.

According to several industry analysts, Star looks to be the only one who may go ahead with it. According to sources, Star network is conducting hectic parleys to finalise some sort of a framework for an imminent launch.

There are also reports that the channel major held some meetings on Friday for discussing the transponder leasing terms and other infrastructure cost-related issues. Meanwhile, Zee still wants play a wait and watch approach.

Hallmark introduces programme in Hindi

From http://www.economictimes.com/today/16tech13.htm

ASIA'S premier channel Hallmark has decided to localise its programme with the dubbing of the popular children's programme, Clifford, in English and Hindi.

Clifford -- which targets children between the age group of three to seven years -- focuses on educating children through entertainment, according to a release on Friday.

The decision to dub the programme in Hindi is part of the channel's new policy to innovate programmes based on consumer research and operator feedback received by the channel in recent times, vice-president and managing director Asia Pacific Terence Yau said. (PTI)