New NHK Services To Launch Tomorrow

• from: owner-ts-asia@tele-satellite.com
• Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 16:20:07 +0900

New NHK Services To Launch Tomorrow

Tokyo, Japan, 31 March 1998 (TS-ASIA) -- NHK will launch two new Asian TV
services tomorrow, offering both free-to-air and pay TV programming. One
new channel, NHK World TV, will provide free-to-air programming which
anyone can view, while a separate protected channel - NHK Premium TV - will
establish pay services to authorized viewers.

Both services will use Scientific-Atlanta'a PowerVu digital video
compression and distribution system. "To effectively deliver our new
channels to our customers we needed a system that supported both PAL and
NTSC reception," said Mr. Tomio Shimoyama, deputy director, international
planning for NHK. "In addition to meeting that requirement, the PowerVu
system also provides the high-quality digital video signal and secure
conditional access capabilities that are essential to our successful launch
and delivery of the new channels."

The PowerVu uplink system will be installed at the Otemachi facility of
KDD, Japan's international telecommunications carrier/provider, in Tokyo.
A PowerVu Telco Interface Unit will allow the transmission of three
multiplexed channels over a DS3 line to KDD's Ibaraki facility for
satellite uplink via PanAmSat-2.

Beginning in October 1998, NHK plans to use its PowerVu system to expand
the availability of its programming by re-uplinking its signal from
Singapore for distribution to the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.
Additional plans call for another uplink of the signal from California to
serve Latin America.

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