AstraPlus movies

[Greg Murrell]

Hi all,

It is not my fault for being late with the movie lineup for this
week on AstraPlus. I simply cannot access the web site for the pages
at http://www.astrasat.co.za/

I have emailed the guy that prepares the pages for AstraSat (Greg
Mallett at mall...@astrasat.co.za) but have had no reply. I have
called the AstraSat helpline and reported the fact that these pages
have been offline for over four days now, but nothing appears to
have been done to fix the problem. So for now we have no way of
knowing what movies are on offer on AstraPlus :-(

If these pages become available, I will post the movie lineup in
here right away.

SeeYa!
Greg
--
| gr...@fc.co.za WWW Site: http://pluto.iafrica.com/~friendly/
| Telephone: Voice +27-41-51-3561 Fax/Data +27-41-51-1185
| Friendly City BBS Port Elizabeth South Africa 27-41-511185

[Michael Cookson]

In Message-Id: <32c9f67f...@news.iafrica.com.na>,
natr...@iafrica.com.na (Robin Tyson) wrote:

N> "Let's not publish ANY details in the newspapers" (Somebody wrote here
N> the other day that it is now SABC policy NOT to release ANY
N> information about their channels for fear of upsetting "sensitive
N> negotiations"! - leaving the way wide open for wild speculation such
N> as I'm making now!), "Let's not tell any other SABC terrestrial
N> channels or SABC radio about our schedules, in fact let's choose the
N> most obscure and still unknown medium, the internet, to release our
N> schedules, and, when we do, let's give them the MINIMUM amount of
N> information - no actors, no director, no plot, nothing except a
N> cryptic title. Oh, and, by the way, let's knock down the web site now
N> and again and let's not even let ole Greg in PE have our schedule
N> ..... he he he"

I agree with everything you say, and it was me who posted the fact
that because previous "sensitive" negotiations had been thwarted,
the SABC had decided to "go underground" until everything was
finalised. The AstraSat you are presently watching is purely
"test broadcasts". The last "official" word was that there would
be eight AstraSat Channels eventually. Two existing SABC channels,
SABC 2 and 3, with SABC 1 being dropped until the launch of PAS-7
at which point SABC 1 would be flighted again (due to a shortage of
transponder space on PAS-4). These three channels will never be
encrypted, and will always be free-to-air.

The remaining six channels would consist of:

1) A general family entertainment channel (kids programs etc).
2) A news channel, consisting of International and local news.
3) A music channel.
4) A general entertainment channel.

One of these channels would "contain" an Afrikaans segment, which
would run for four hours daily. To receive this "segment" would
cost R 35.00 a month (something like EastNet works on M-Net)

The above four alone will cost R 80.00 per month (without the
Afrikaans segment).

5) A 24 hour movie channel.
6) A 24 sports channel.

If you wanted the extra two, your subscriptions would be R 120.00
a month for all six plus the two SABC channels. If you wanted the
Afrikaans "segment" as well that would give you a total monthly
subscription of R 155.00 a month.

As you can see, the name "AstraPlus" is probably temporary.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since these details were
released, and no doubt a lot of ideas have changed. There were
serious negotiations with News Corp, but those seem to have gone
awry, the decoder earmarked for use are manufactured by VTech
technologies in Hong Kong, and I believe that there are problems of
some description with those. Boland Bank were apparently involved
in negotiations with the SABC about the Afrikaans channel - I've
no idea what happened there... All I've been told officially is;
"no more news until things are nailed down".

On the plus side, I've heard (just recently) that the Afrikaans
channel is going to be called "PrimaSat". That the existing AstraSat
as we see it now; "is going to be improved in January". Word from
the technicians who are building the final control and the studios
is that they have just finished the "Sports Studio". BOP TV is busy
moving into the same premises, with new studios, and erecting their
"Scientific International" uplink dishes.

All the above, plus the fact that the SABC have not sold any of their
existing transponder leases, leads one to believe that the axe is not
about to fall on AstraSat as Norman John Calmeyer and the newspaper
press would have us believe. However, it seems that despite the
SABC's admirable attempts to start an analog satellite TV bouquet -
where the cost of the receiving equipment is only a fraction of the
price *TO THE CONSUMER* compared to its digital counterpart, the
cost of the bouquet to the broadcaster is approximately six times
more expensive (one satellite transponder = one channel with analog,
but six channels with MPEG compressed digital), it's all up to Jay
Naidoo and Parliament now. It seems that without some financial
assistance from the Government, the AstraSat bouquet will go the
same way as ASEC.

However, I do believe that the three SABC terrestrial channels are
not up for debate, and in order to offer complete and *equal*
SABC television coverage to all South Africans, there will always
be SABC 1, 2 and 3 off PAS-4. However, consumers need choice. The
AstraSat bouquet will be our best bet. Imagine life stuck with no
choice - only DStv - being able to show what they wish, when they
wish, charge what they wish, complete with artefacts and all the
other problems associated with this "johnny-come-lately" expensive
digital technology. :-(

WRT the other points you raised. I have discussed them all with
David Niddrie (AstraSat's GM). Some have already been implemented.
Two points I recently mentioned:

1) Often a promo on SABC 1, 2 and 3 will say; "tonight on SABC 1
we are showing "X", and on SABC 2 we are showing "Y".... etc.
Why can't they say what is on AstraPlus? The latest fare on
AstraSat has been nothing to be ashamed of...
2) On the AstraSat WWW page (where I get the guide), the people
who post the guide there go to a lot of trouble updating it
all the time (they always change the page to show what is
currently showing)... Can't they just please add a *few* details
to the movies being flighted? I know that when 99% of the public
just see the name "Narrow Margin" they have *no* idea that it
was one of Gene Hackman's best movies. If they could just include
the date, and who is acting - it would be sufficient to attract
peoples' attention. I have written to both webmasters and asked
them to do this to the AstraSat WWW page, and they don't even
bother to reply. :-(

On last Saturday night (just before Star Trek), my suggestion number
1 was done - it was the first time I'd heard it, but the announcer
did mention what was showing on AstraPlus that evening after
mentioning what was on SABC 1, 2 and 3...

My item 2 has been suggested by everyone - still nothing. I once
wrote:

: It is not too much effort (they can always get the information right
: of the Internet at IMDB - as long as they know the year the film
: was released). Hell's teeth, if they are incapable, I offer to do it!
: I am a movie aficionado, and I can usually write a resume just by
: seeing the title (as long as I know the year of production - so that
: I don't confuse it with a remake)... Just give me access to the WWW
: site, and I'll gladly do it if they can't. I write HTML and WWW pages
: for a living, so I do know what I am doing. I could then follow this
: up with a personal post of "highlights" in the newsgroups...

So, I've even offered to do it - NO response! If you feel strongly
enough e-mail: astr...@astrasat.co.za - it will find the right
person. I've been asked *not* to give out David Niddrie's e-mail
address, but his secretary Amanda will get the above.

N> Does the SABC actually possess a ProLogic hi-fi in their control
N> rooms? It's unbelievable if they don't, because you can get little
N> systems (perfectly adequate) from Techncs/Sony for less than R5000.
N>
N> If they do I don't believe they switch them on. Often there is no
N> stereo at all, and when there is it is often out of phase and
N> unlistenable.

I wrote to David about this just before Christmas:

: You are about to broadcast the blockbuster movie with Arnold
: Schwarzenegger in "Total Recall" on Christmas Night (the 25th at
: 20:30), followed by "The Big Easy", "Plenty" and "Sophie's Choice".
: Please, I beg of you, all these films are in Dolby Surround, and
: are all in the Internet Movie Database's top 250 movies of all
: time - just ask the technicians to simply take a *little* care in
: how they broadcast them. I need your assurance that they will be
: flighted in Dolby, and I'll go on to the 'Net and "announce" them
: as "got to see" movies - MultiChoice's program fare over the same
: period is pathetic.

Unfortunately I got no response - which is very unusual. Could be
that the e-mail got lost, or that Mr Niddrie was on leave...

I don't know anymore. I'm starting to get despondent. We'll just
have to wait and see...

- Mike

-- SPEED 2.00 #1090: Dataverters WWW: http://www.iafrica.com/~datavert/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Use of my e-mail address for solicitation is strictly prohibited <<
Michael Cookson (M.SAIETE, M.SAIMC) E-mail: mi...@dv.co.za
Editor (Africa): TELE-satellit Europe's Satellite Magazine
Member: Satellite Communications Data Exchange: SATCO DX inc
Member: Satellite Communications Association of Southern Africa: SCASA
Member: Dataverters CC - Electronic Engineering +27-31-765-5551
Dataverters CC: P O Box 275, Gillitts 3603, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
-----------------------------------------------------------------------