186 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
186 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
Skyguide Issue 031
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-------------------------------- SKYGUIDE UK ---------------------------------
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| Your digest of the latest news in the world of Satellite & Cable TV |
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---------------------- Week Ending Sun January 9th 1994 ----------------------
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* WELCOME BACK
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Happy New Year to all Skyguide readers!
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* VH-NONE
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Music channel VH-1 will now not launch until May, rather than February as had
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been previously expected.
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The revised launch date is likely to coincide with the scrambling of its
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sister channel MTV as part of the Sky Multi-Channels package. The possiblity
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of MTV also joining Filmnet's Multichoice Kaleidoscope package, along with
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Discovery, CMT Europe, The Children's Channel and now The Family Channel, has
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not been ruled out.
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VH-1 is likely to use Astra transponder 15, leaving MTV with transponder 22.
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* FURTHER DELAYS
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Sky Sports 2 has now been officially put back until September 1994.
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* IT'S BETTER TO TRAVEL
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The Travel Channel is set to launch on February 1st on the Intelsat 601
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(27.5'W) satellite. The service will initially be for cable operators only,
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and will broadcast from noon to midnight. The service will broadcast in the
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clear.
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The channel has expressed a desire to broadcast on Astra 1D when it is
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launched in September, and it now seems unlikely that it will attempt to buy
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space on the existing Astra satellites. Currently the only time available is
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the 6am to 7pm time on Transponder 24, vacated in September by The Children's
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Channel.
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* CONFUCIUS PROBABLY SAID SOMETHING ABOUT KEEPING ONE'S BIG MOUTH SHUT...
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Gary Davey (deputy MD at Sky) has stepped in as Chairman of the now
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Murdoch-owned Star TV following the mystery departure of existing chairman Jim
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Griffiths.
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Part of the problem may have been due to Mr Murdoch saying that Star TV could
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encourage political change in the region. The Chinese Authorities were having
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none of that, and promptly banned satellite dishes and foreign broadcasters,
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thus denying Star the opportunity to cause any change at all in what was a
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potentially lucrative market.
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Star TV is now likely to concentrate its broadcasting towards India. In other
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news, Rupert Murdoch has just bought a stake in the Indian satellite
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broadcaster Zee TV.
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* UPLINKS FOR ALL
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Broadcasting to Europe could be cheaper than you think. The following message
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was broadcast on Intelsat 601 recently:
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(The # symbol denotes a UK Pound sign)
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Special New Year Satellite Rates From BT
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Intelsat West Spot Capacity
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24 hr a day European Coverage #5 per minute.
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ADHOC EUTELSAT RATES
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24:00-08:00 #5/Minute
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08:00-10:00 & 22:00-24:00 #10/Minute
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10:00-22:00 #15/Minute
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Minimum Transmission 15 minutes
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(Excluding 5 minutes Link Up Time)
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Call Us Now on +44 71 728 5522
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* SORTED
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Chinese News and Entertainment is now back on Astra Transponder 35 having
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been off the air for a few days in December.
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The problem was due to a disagreement between SES and The Family Channel, now
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sorted out. A dispute is thought to have emerged over TFC sub-leasing the
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airtime without SES's involvement. A similar problem occured last year when
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Sky sub-leased evening downtime on Nickelodeon to TV Asia.
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* HA HA HA HA HA!
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The Family Channel has purchased 11 episodes of "Jeux Sans Frontieres", a
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popular European game show that has not been seen on British Television for
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twelve years. The BBC stopped screening the show in 1982.
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The show went on, however, with Welsh broadcaster S4C taking the BBC's place.
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Jeux Sans Frontieres, titled "It's a Knockout" for British Viewers, was
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presented by Stuart Hall, who will re-narrate the episodes for The Family
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Channel. The show will screen at 5pm UK Time on Sunday evenings.
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* NOT ON SKY
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Sky News presenter Stephen Cole has defected to CNN, to present "World News".
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He will join Sonya Ruseler and Riz Khan on screen from February.
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* EAGLES CIRCLING OVERHEAD...
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German Broadcaster VOX may close shortly unless ratings improve. The channel,
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originally intended to be Germany's third national channel has soaked up 300
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million pounds of investment capital, but has achieved consistently poor
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ratings.
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The channel is now in a desperate struggle for survival, attemping to get
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viewers at any cost. Over the months Vox has been screening sports events and
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even adult movies in a last-ditch attempt to stay on air.
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If (although according to some reports it is more a case of when) the channel
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closes, it now seems certain that NBC Super Channel (apparently absolutely
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desperate to get on Astra, in marked contrast to its previous management)
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will take over the transponder. VOX itself took over the transponder when UK
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Women's channel "Lifestyle" closed down, one year ago this month.
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* AND SPEAKING OF WOMEN'S CHANNELS...
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Latest ratings show that UK Living is currently reaching around one third of
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the number of viewers that Lifestyle used to get. While some reports have
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suggested that the channel is in trouble, this is unlikely while it is
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receiving slightly under half a million pounds a month in subscription
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revenue (as part of the Multi-Channels package) irrespective of whether
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anyone is watching it or not.
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* ARD PLUS!
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ARD is currently transmitting PAL Plus testcards throughout the night, and on
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Wednesday (January 12) will broadcast a black and white PAL Plus test film at
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midnight CET. (11pm UK Time)
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* THE CLOSING HEADLINES
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Bravo has purchased all 136 episodes of cult series "The Avengers". Episodes
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will screen at 8pm on Mondays from February.
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Sky One has purchased all 255 episodes of "M*A*S*H". Episodes will screen
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daily at 7.30pm from January 14th.
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Deutsche Bundespost Telekom and SES have announced that they are to form a
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partnership to develop digital equipment for television reception.
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Trainer manufacturuer "Fila" will sponsor MTV Unplugged during 1994.
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Charles Andrew, Senior product manager at Warner Home Video has been
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appointed Marketing Manager of UK Gold.
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"Ren and Stimpy" begins its UK transmissions on BBC2 on Monday, in the DEF II
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6.25pm slot. Episodes will air weekly, and will also be repeated on Friday
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nights.
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Skyguide received no messages at all about a Faxed version of Skyguide, so we
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can safely conclude there is no interest at all. :-)
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Skyguide Issue 31 Edited by Ant Purvis
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Skyguide is usually published fortnightly, but may occasionally publish weekly
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depending on news availability. You can find it on London's CIX system in the
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Skyguide conference, Fidonet's Satelite TV echo, the Packet Radio Network, and
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on internet in the alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup.
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Skyguide is not a commercial publication, nor is it a cut-down version of a
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printed journal. Nonetheless, it is copyright, and is not to be redistributed
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in any form without consent. (Just ask!)
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Errors and Omissions expected. If we get something wrong, let us know and
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we'll put it right!
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Back issues can be mailed to internet mailboxes on request.
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Comments, suggestions, stories and monetary donations are always appreciated!
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You can contact Skyguide in the following ways:
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CIX : mail to bignoise, or use the Skyguide/comments conference.
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Fidonet : Leave a message in the Satellite TV echo
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Internet: bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk
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