MediaScan/Sweden Calling DXers 2279 Part 1
Brian K. Short
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:: MediaScan
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS
:: from Radio Sweden
:: Number 2279--September 15, 1997
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Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio
Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2279
Updated Web edition at: http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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PRINCESS DIANA'S FUNERAL
The broadcast of Princess Diana's funeral on September 6 was
transmitted to 60 countries. Broadcasters think viewers may have
totalled 2.5 billion (which is just under half the population of the
planet). (Reuters)
On British cable systems, reflecting the international coverage, the
funeral was carried by: BBC 1, BBC 2 with sign language for the deaf,
Channel 5, Live TV (with ITN's coverage), CNN, NBC (MSNBC), France's
TV5, Spain's TVE, the German RTL and Sat 1, EuroNews, and Bloomberg
TV. In addition, MTV had special programming, and the shopping channel
QVC kept off the air. (Michael Murray)
Elton John's tribute to the Princess, "Candle in the Wind 97", went
into the British charts at number 1, the fastest selling record in
history. (BBC World Service "Multitrack"). The record was beamed by
satellite to radio stations in 50 countries in Europe, North Africa,
and the Middle East before its official release on September 13. The
BBC used the European Broadcasting Union's Euroradio Satellite
Network, which provides CD-quality sound. (Reuters, AP)
Concerning the debate over press freedom versus press ethics which has
arisen because of the possible role of the paparazzi in Princess
Diana's death, it's been pointed out that France has one of the
strongest laws hindering the activities of celebrity photographers.
Now foreign journalists covering the Paris law courts for the
investigation into the death say they are flabbergasted by the secrecy
of the French justice system.
Journalists from around the world have descended on the court building
in central Paris, only to find entire days go by without a glimpse,
let alone a word, from the judges, police, prosecutors, or even the
targets of the criminal inquiry.
"The most basic facts are not being issued, so this means that the
most ridiculous rumors are taking flight without being shot down,"
says John Lichfield of London's "Independent". (Reuters)
NORDIC MEDIA NEWS
SCANDINAVIAN SKY--Yesterday, September 15, Scandinavia got a few more
satellite television channels, including a couple from Rupert
Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting.
The new Sky channels are at the Norwegian orbital position at 1 degree
West, home of Intelsat 707, TV-Sat 2, Thor 1, and the new Thor 2. Sky
News and National Geographic is at 11.773 GHz, with Sky News daily at
02:00-18:00 hrs Central European Time, followed by the Computer
Channel at 18:00-20:00, and National Geographic at 20:00-02:00 hrs.
The other new channel is called Sky Entertainment, but actually
doesn't consist of a single Sky channel, although all the ingredients
are found among those distributed in Britain as Sky Multichannels.
Country Music Television is at 02:00-10:00 hrs, followed by Granada
Good Life at 10:00-19:00 hrs, Granada Plus at 19:00-midnight CET, and
the bizarrely named Granada Men and Motors from midnight until 02:00
hrs.
The weird thing here is that Sky Entertainment is sharing an analog
D2- MAC transponder with the Danish public service broadcaster DR2, on
11.667 GHz, but only between 01:00 and 17:00 hrs. Which means Country
Music Teleivsion and Granada Good Life are the only channels avaiable
to analog receiver owners. The rest of the day, the programming is on
a digital MPEG-2 transponder on 11.228 GHz. But since there are no
digital TV receivers for sale yet in Scandinavia, nobody can watch
that part of the Sky Entertainment schedule.
VIASAT--There were some other new channels to Scandinavia that started
September 15, all part of Kinnevik's Viasat package, and all sharing
transponders with existing channels. The History Channel is sharing
the TV1000 Cinema transponder on 11.888 GHz, while European Business
News is sharing with the Sci Fi Channel on 11.912, both on TV-Sat 2 at
1 degree West. The Playboy Channel is taking over on 12.015 GHz on
Sirius 1 at the other Nordic position at 5 degrees East when TV6 signs
off every night. Travel TV is also going to join the Viasat offerings,
but when and where isn't known yet. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
SVT--Also in the "unknown when" category is Swedish Television's new
European channel SVT International. They've been advertising it on the
air, a combination of the two public service channels for Swedes in
Europe. But unlike the similar TV Finland project, which actually does
exist, SVT International is still waiting for its satellite to go into
orbit. The launch of Sweden's new Sirius 2 on Ariane has been
postponed until the end of October. So despite the current advertising
blitz, SVT International is not expected to start until December.
Happily, Radio Sweden will be among the audio channels on SVT
International.
CANAL PLUS--All of the various Canal Plus channels (pan-Nordic and
respective Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian versions) are being
carried together with the Finnish Nelonen and Hallmark Nordic in
MPEG-2 on Thor 2 on 11.278 GHz. (Richard Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
RADIO--Denmark's P2 has replaced the Norwegian all-news channel NRK
Alltid Nyheter on Intelsat 707 on BBC Prime's 11.679 GHz. (Richard
Karlsson, "Aftonbladet")
Fifteen companies have applied for a licence for a fourth national
radio network in Denmark. The public service Danmarks Radio is one of
the applicants, the other 14 are private companies seeking to break
DR's monopoly on national radio broadcasting. Among them is Sweden's
MTG, part of the Kinnevik media empire, which owns the TV3 TV
stations, along with TV1000, ZTV, and TV6, and radio stations in
Sweden, Norway, and Estonia. The fourth national channel opens up next
year when DR's DAB tests come to an end. (TT)
ROBINSON--Swedish Television is to continue with its controversial
series "Expedition Robinson" depite a storm of protests from viewers
and in the media.
The series was filmed on an island in Malaysia, and involves two teams
who compete against each other. The controversy arises over the losing
team in each episode having to vote to choose a member who has to
leave the island and the series. The process is regarded as
humiliating, and first person to be singled out this way committed
suicide shortly after returning to Sweden.
Sweden's largest circulation newspaper "Aftonbladet" asked its readers
to call in with their opinions after the first episode aired last
Saturday. To judge from those that were printed, the response was
overwhelmingly negative, with comments like "fascist", "sadistic", and
"harassment". (There were a few favorable comments.) Media critics
wonder why a public service television channel is carrying such a
program? "Aftonbladet's" own TV columnist Annika Sundbaum-Melin has
called on SVT to cancel the series, as have many other voices in the
mass media, and the Joint Council of Artists and Writers.
The head of SVT Region Stockholm, Birgitta Karlstr”m, says in a press
release that there is no reason to cancel the series, which has 11
more episodes. The head of entertainment at SVT Region Stockholm, Pia
Marquard, says there have been many positive responses to the first
program. ("Aftonbladet", TT)
One reason for SVT's reluctance to cancel the series may be the huge
chunk of this year's entertainment budget that went into sending so
many people off to Malaysia.
The presenter of "Expedition Robinson", Harald Treutiger, has just
opened his own WWW site, at:
(Swedish "Internet World")
THE SOAP WAR--Meanwhile, satellite and cable TV rivals TV3 and Kanal 5
are battling over a soap opera called "V„nner och Fiender" ("Friends
and Enemies"). TV3 had been showing the series, but wanted to
renegotiate the contract to pay less to the production company, which
turned instead to Kanal 5. Kanal 5 waited awhile for TV3 to finish
showing the programs it had, but TV3 kept them off the air. When Kanal
5 finally decided to go ahead and show the newer episodes, TV3
suddenly started showing its remaining programs at the exact same
time, 19:00 hrs on Monday nights. ("Aftonbladet")
In an attempt to get some kind of jump on its rival, TV3 also tossed
in an episode the day before, pre-empting without warning the
next-to-last episode of its widely advertised American mini-series
"Nobel House". There was no explanation of the missing program on the
air, just a scrolling text telling viewers that a sports program later
that evening was delayed.
TV columnists like "Aftonbladet's" Annika Sundbaum-Melin have
recommended that viewers watch the newer programs, and in the ratings,
Kanal 5 was way ahead of TV3.
EUROPE
DAB--Digital Audio Broadcasting is supposed to be the new wave in
radio. The difference between DAB and FM stereo, is like comparing FM
and AM. DAB was originally marketed as the solution to fading among
the skyscrapers while driving in downtown areas. Now the concept has
gone beyond that, and DAB receivers all have little computer screens,
which can carry anything from a picture of a DJ and the name of the
song being played, to traffic informaition or a mixture of tele-text
and Web surfing.
Unfortunately, unlike AM, FM, and TV, DAB is not universal. It was
developed in Europe, and apparently the "not invented here" syndrome
led the National Association of Broadcasters in the United States to
reject the technology in favor of an as-yet undeveloped American
version. Canada, on the other hand, has chosen DAB.
The first regular DAB transmissions in the world were started by the
Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC on the same day two years
ago. Many other countries, mainly in Europe, have started regular or
test broadcasts. The problem is that there haven't been any receivers.
That hold-up was supposed to disappear during the recent giant IFA
Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin. The first consumer receivers for
DAB were to be unveiled. Well...there hasn't been much a splash
outside Berlin. In today's program I'm joined by Swedish Radio's DAB
guru, Christer Grewin, who was part of the delegation at IFA. Christer
explains that the DAB receivers in Berlin were still prototypes, and
the launch of the consumer models in stores is still a couple of
months away. This, he says, just means program producers, like Swedish
Radio's new P7 service in Finnish, will just have a little longer to
test and practice before large numbers of listeners can tune it.
ASTRA--Sky News in MPEG-2 has replaced Astra Vision on transponder 57.
("SATCO")
NBC is broadcasting in MPEG-2 on transponder 94. It's uncoded, but is
expected to be encoded in Mediaguard. (Richard Karlsson,
"Aftonbladet")
Starting September 15, the French digital TV service AB Sat is
relaying its AB Descouverte channel package on Astra. The package
includes: La Chaine Histoire (history), AB Animaux (wildlife),
Encyclpedia (documentaries), Automabile (cars), AB 1 (series and
fiction), Escales (travel), and XXL (adult). The move is part of the
Simulcrypt agreement signed with CanalSatellite last March. This
allows subscribers to receive both packages with one set-top box.
However, CanalSatellite subscribers whose dish was aimed at Astra
could not, until now, receive the AB Sat signal. (AB Sat)
INTELSAT--Intelsat says there is an anomaly in its Intelsat 605
satellite at 24.5 degrees West. An Intelsat 7 series craft is to be
moved to 27.5 degrees West, freeing Intelsat 601 to move to 34.5
degrees West. From that position, Intelsat 603 will be moved to
replace the malfunctioning satellite at 24.5 degrees West.
("Tele-satellit News")
LAUNCHES--Ariane's 99th launch on September 2 has placed into orbit
two European satellites. The television satellite Hot Bird 3 will be
co- located by 13 degrees East with Eutelsat II-F1 and Hot Birds 1 and
2.
The weather satellite Meteosat-7 will be placed in geo-stationary
orbit over the Greenwich meridian at 0 degrees. (AP and Reuters)
ITALY--Italy's RAI will be starting its three new thematic TV channels
on September 29. They will be carried over Hot Bird 2 on 11.804 GHz in
clear MPEG-2. They will be called RaiSat 1, RaiSat 2, and RaiSat 3.
During 1998 RAI will start RaiSat 4 (news), RaiSat 5 (sports), and
RaiSat 6 (multi-ethnic). ("Tele-satellit News")
SPAIN--The digital TV service Via Digital started on September 15, by
offering its service free of charge until December. Via Digital is
owned by the Spanish telecoms group Telefonica, the state broadcaster
RTVE, and Mexico's Televisa. It has the support of the Spanish
government against rival CanalSatelite, which is owned by France's
Canal Plus and Spain's Prisa group. Via Digital Chairman Pedro Perez
says the company is still in talks with Hughes DirecTV about the
American company acquiring a stake in Via Digital. (Reuters)
On September 12, the Spanish government modified the law regulating
digital television, in an effort to bring it more in line with
European Union legislation. The European Commission objected to the
original law, which would have required all digital-TV operators to
use the Via Digital decoder system. (CanalSatelite, which has been on
the air since July, would have had to provide new decoders for its
125,000 subscribers.) The law has now been changed to say that
decoders must be "open and compatible" systems. ("Wall Street
Journal")
BOSNIA--The US military says it is sending three EC-130 electronic
warfare planes to Bosnia with the ability to disrupt the hard-line
Serb radio and television broadcasts. They will also broadcast
information in favor of the Dayton peace accords. The United States
charged earlier than radio and TV broadcasts controlled by supporters
of the indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic had not toned down
broadcasts as previously agreed. (Reuters)
AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST
WORLDSPACE--Senegal's Sud FM has signed an agreement to broadcast
news, information, and musical entertainment on the coming WorldSpace
digital direct satellite radio system. Sud FM is the first francophone
African broadcaster to sign on with WorldSpace. It will broadcast on
the AfriStar satellite, due to launch in June, 1998. (Curt Swinehart)
ASIA/PACIFIC
INTELSAT--Intelsat 701 has replaced Intelsat 511 at 180 degrees. All
channels remain on their old frequencies. ("SATCO")
PHILIPPINES--Agila 1 is now in orbit at 144 degrees East. Commercial
operation is expected to begin in October. ("SATCO")
JAPAN--DirecTV Japan has applied for Posts and Telecommunications
Ministry approval for its 91 channel digital satellite TV service, set
to begin test broadcasts at the end of November. DirecTV Vice
President Akira Yoshigi says the service will include more than 30
channels not aired by rival PerfecTV. DirecTV will carry movie
programming on 8 channels, and will also provide 7 music channels,
which PerfecTV does not carry. (Kyodo)
NORTH AMERICA
GE--Microspace has started a digital MPEG-2 package on the GE-1
satellite on 11.940 GHz, encoded in Nagravision, with this line-up:
WRAL-TV, Serbian Satellite TV, TV Polonia, National Pharmacy TV,
TechNet/Signature Network TV, and Caliber Learning Network. ("SATCO")
Deutsche Welle and GE Americom have signed an agreement to relay DW on
GE-1. Deutsche Welle TV has already started on C-band transponder 22
in clear NTSC. Transmissions on Satcom C4 C-band transponder 5 will
cease on October 31, 1997. ("Tele-satellit News" and "SATCO")
The GE-3 satellite launched on an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral on
September 4. Once in final orbit at 87 degrees West, it will be used
for TV relays from Fox, PBS, CNN Financial News, CNN Sports
Illustrated, and others. ("Tele-satellit News", AP and Reuters)
BARRY DILLER--Slamming the homogeneity of network news, media maverick
Barry Diller last week sketched a plan for a loose nationwide network
of alternative TV news. Eleven new stations - currently referred to as
CitiVision - would aim to unravel the conventions of TV, fashioning a
more woolly variation with homegrown talent, opinionated news, and
programming organized like sporting events, sprawling out of its time
slots as necessary.
Diller, creator of Fox Television and now chief of the Home Shopping
Network, says that in the spirit of public access with a professional
gloss, the stations will be a direct attack on the conformity of most
programming.
"Most TV is McTV - pre-processed fast food coming out of national
networks from 3,000 miles away," said Doug Binzak, executive vice
president of broadcasting for Home Shopping Network subsidiary Silver
King Broadcasting, which is producing the channels. "We'll be doing
true local broadcasting with a sense of place."
CitiVision will debut in Miami in March, with a roll-out in 10 other
markets, including Chicago, New York, Dallas, and Boston, every other
month thereafter. The channel will be available without cable and will
bump the Home Shopping Network, which currently runs in the broadcast
spectrum, into cable. The Miami pilot will feature eight to 12 hours
of original programming, including news, talk shows, sporting events,
and even some forays into semi-dramatic series.
Urban alternative newspapers are the model for the journalism the
stations will practice, Binzak said. Talent for the programs will be
locally harvested, including recent college graduates and newscasters
stuck doing local news for network-affiliated stations, Binzak said.
As original as Diller might think CitiVision is, the fact is that many
cities across the United States already have (or will soon have)
homegrown news stations on cable. Linda Moss, programming editor at
cable industry journal MultiChannel News, estimates there are 40
regional news channels already. Some, like Time Warner's New York One
with its 24-hour schedule of metro newscasts, already wield
significant brand power.
Time Warner plans to start news channels in Orlando and Tampa Bay,
Florida, this fall. Another big player is New England Cable News, a
service for the Boston area that has a subscriber base of some 2
million.
With some two-thirds of America's households already getting cable,
says Yankee Group analyst Bruce Leichtman, the fact that Diller's
stations will be locally broadcast is not really significant. "He's in
a very crowded field," Leichtman said. ("Wired" via Pointcast)
MONITORING AND SCANNING--Concerning the report last time about the
Tauzin "Privacy" Bill in the US Congress, Larry Magne, editor and
publisher of "Passport to Worldband Radio" offers "a few additional
points that bear on shortwave listening":
First, it would prohibit reception of Maritime Mobile bands, which
includes the band which starts at 6200 kHz.
Second, it would prohibit sale of receivers which can be modified to
receive "forbidden" bands, including of course Maritime Mobile.
Third, in fine Newspeak it refers to "electronic eavesdropping
devices." Our grandparents called them "radios."
Fourth, there is no grandfather clause, so existing radios would be
included, including grandmother's vintage Philco and even boomboxes
with SW coverage.
Fifth, the penalties include several years in the Federal slammer and
up to a half-million dollar fine....
What would this mean to listening to shortwave broadcasts?
First, no analog shortwave radios would be valid. To begin with, to a
greater or lesser extent they are general coverage. But even those
that aren't invariably, because of the loose nature of analog
alignment, going to pick up bits of the spectrum above 6200 kHz if
they are to pick up SWBC's most important band, 49 meters. Finally,
even if they could completely exclude reception of Maritime Mobile,
any analog receiver can be tweaked to change its reception range
somewhat, making it illegal.
Second, although digital receivers could be set up to skip "forbidden"
bands, they would have to be made strictly for the United States
market. Few manufacturers would bother, except for perhaps a handful
of models. Digital receivers with such sophistication are inherently
costly, and with the vastly reduced competition they would almost
certainly be costlier, yet.
So while SWBC wouldn't be prohibited entirely and explicitly, the end
result would be a de facto prohibition, as all but a tiny percentage
of the normal listening audience would bother or be able to afford the
few legal receivers.
The United States and other Western countries have fought for decades,
notably during the Cold War, to have the free access to international
broadcasts to be treated as a human right worldwide. Back then, many
Western broadcasts were being jammed, so the argument was immediately
relevant.
Although the Cold War is history, other disputes will arise down the
road, and where the battlefront is based on democracy and other
ideals, the unfettered transmission of those concepts and related news
is central.
Imagine Western nations trying to make that same argument later on,
when the chief nation among them has laws against shortwave listening
that are comparable to those of only one other country, North Korea!
(Larry Magne)
SHORTWAVE--World Harvest Radio has begun testing of its new KWHR Angel
4 transmitter. The schedule is:
13:00-19:00 hrs UTC on 6020 kHz
19:00-07:00 hrs on 17555
07:00-13:00 hrs on 11565
(Cumbre DX)
LAUNCHES
INTELSAT--Intelsat 803, scheduled for launch on September 23, is to
replace Intelsat 515 at 21.5 degrees West. The new satellite will have
better coverage and significantly higher power, and Intelsat says it
will offer the greatest coverage by any spacecraft of Africa. C-band
reception will be possible with antennas as "small" as 1.8 meters.
There are programming commitments from Discovery, TV5 Afrique, MCM
Africa, CFI, Canal + Horizons, RTP International, aand RTP Africa.
Others planning on transferring to the 803 include the Portuguese
broadcasters RTP1, RTP2, SIC, and TVI. (Intelsat)
CHINA--China is to launch the Apstar 2R satellite for Hong Kong's APT
Satellite Holdings in early October. The satellite is capable of
covering more than 100 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, as well
as parts of Europe and Africa. (Reuters)
ECHOSTAR--EchoStar announced on September 15 that the EchoStar 3
satellite had arrived at Cape Canaveral for launch with an Atlas
rocket on October 6. EchoStar 3 will be located at 61.5 degrees West,
and will include programming complementary to that offered by the DISH
Network on EchoStars 1 and 2, including expanded educational and
business television. (Curt Swinehart)
Continued in part 2