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SAT-HUNGARY 22-Mar-97




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SAT-HUNGARY  22-Mar-1997
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BYE-BYE EUROSPORT?

      It seems that Eurosport will disappear from some of the Hungarian
cable networks beacuse of some financial problems. Cable TV in Hungary
has an uneasy history. It mostly started in big block of houses, where
the cabeling was already there and they had nothing else to do just to
connect those buildings toghether, make a simple head-end operational and
the cable TV was ready. No one has bothered with quality at that time,
beacuse "block people" were just happy to watch anything else than the
two state channels and the Russian TV.

      To build a cable system with the above "technology" was simple and
very cheap for both the costumer and the builder. However as the wonder
of those satellite channels has gone, costumers begun to demand a quality
service - virtualy for the same price. Operating the cable system for the
same price for 3-4 years or so was not easy but those systems are still
working. These block of buildings has a "serial topology", which means
that the TV signal is distributed on a single cable, which starts from
the top the block house and ends at the bottom, therefore if the operator
wants to stop or change the service for one costumer they have to stop or
change it for all those viewers on that single cable.

      There is no doubt that these cable systems must to be re-build with
"starpoint topology", where every costumer has its own cable, therefore
the operator could provide only the service asked, and can stop the whole
service for that particular costumer only if the costumer is defiant to
pay for the service. Lots of Hungarian cable systems however does not
have enough background to finance such a re-build.

      In 1995 the Hungarian parliament has accepted the new radio and
television law, which also has changed the way of treating copyright
fees. This means that cable operators have to obtain rights directly from
the program provider. So operators has begun to negotiate with program
providers (such as Eurosport) to reach an agreement. Most of those
negotiations were succesful, but that does not mean that these operators
has not got to pay fees to the program providers. In April this year the
National Radio and Television Commission of Hungary will begin to
supervise the operations of the cable systems, therefore some cable
operators has decided to remove programs that they can not afford. One of
those programs is Eurosport, which will disappear on Monday.

      The microwave distribution system in Budapest, called the
"AM-mikro" will also has to remove Eurosport if they are unable to find a
solution. AM-mikro is an other system which suffers a similar problem as
those cable operators. Anyone living in or close to Budapest can receive
the AM-mikro (with the help of a cheap microwave equipment) and it is
almost impossible to control who is watching and who is paying. There are
some 50 000 subscribers at the moment but 300 000 viewers are predicted to
watch programing from the AM-mikro, which distributes programs such as
Eurosport, Sat.1, RTL, Pro7, CNN, TNT, TV5, ORF1 and lots of Hungarian
channels. NBC was removed for the same reason on 1st of January.

      Sat-Hungary will keep you informed on this subject, so do not go
too far. Removing Eurosport from all of those systems is not a popular
task, and the operators will find a solution, otherwise they have to face
a more severe financial problem as costumers are refusing to pay.

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SAT-HUNGARY  1997. marcius 22.
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VISZLAT EUROSPORT?

     Ugy tunik, bizonyos anyagi okokbol az Eurosport eltunik egyes
kabelhalozatokrol. A magyar kabelteleviziok nehez tortenelemmel
rendelkeznek. A legtobb esetben lakotelepi hazaknal inditottak
kabelhalozatokat, ahol a hazak mar rendelkeztek kiepitett
antennakabelekkel, s a halozat letrehozojanak csak az epuleteket kellett
osszekotnie, beinditani egy fejallomast es ezzel a kabelteve el is
keszult. Abban az idoben senki sem torodott a minoseggel, mert a lakok
mar annak is orultek, hogy valami mast nezhetnek a ket allami csatornan
es az orosz televizion kivul.

     A kabelhalozat ilyen modon torteno megepitese egy egyszeru es olcso
modszer volt az elofizetok es a halozat epitojenek szamara egyarant.
Azonban ahogy a muholdas musorok csodaja eloszlott, az elofizetok a
minoseget is kezdtek kovetelni - gyakorlatilag ugyanazon az aron. Egy
ilyen halozatot uzemeltetni 3-4 even keresztul valtozatlan aron nem volt
egyszeru, de az ilyen halozatok meg mindig mukodnek. Ezek a lakotelepi
hazak "soros felfuzesu" rendszerrel rendelkeznek, ez azt jelenti, hogy
a teveadasok jelei egyetlen kabelen kerulnek elosztasra, mely kabel a haz
tetejen indul, s a haz aljaig tart, igy ha az uzemelteto valtoztatni akar
a szolgaltatason, vagy meg akarja azt szuntetni egyetlen elofizetonel,
akkor az osszes elofizetonel meg kell valtoztatnia, vagy meg kell
szuntetnie.

     Semmi ketseg, hogy ezeket a halozatokat at kell epiteni
"csillagpontos" rendszerekke, ahol minden elofizetohoz kulon kabel megy,
igy az uzemelteto csak azt a szolgaltatast nyujtja, melyet az elofizeto
kert, ill. meg tudja szuntetni a szolgaltatast annal az elofizetonel, aki
vonakodik fizetni erte. A legtobb magyar kabelhalozat azonban nem
rendelkezik megfelelo anyagi hatterrel ahhoz, hogy atepitse rendszeret.

     1995-ben a magyar parlament elfogadta a radiozasrol es
televiziozasrol szolo torvenyt, mely tobbekkozt megvaltoztatta a jogdijak
fizetesenek modjat is. Ez azt jelenti, hogy a kabelhalozatok
uzemeltetoinek kozvetlenul a musorszolgaltatotol kell megszerezniuk
a tovabbitas jogat. Ezert az uzemeltetok targyalasokat kezdtek a
musorszolgaltatokkal (mint pl. az Eurosport), hogy szerzodest kothessenek.
A targyalasok tobbsege sikerrel zarult, de ez nem jelenti azt, hogy az
uzemeltetoknek nem kell fizetniuk a musorszolgaltatok fele. Aprilisban az
Orszagos Radio es Televizio Testulet szuroproba szeruen elkezdi
ellenorizni a kabelhalozatok tevekenyseget, ezert nehany uzemeltetonek el
kell tavolitania azokat a musorokat, melyekert nem tud fizetni. Az egyik
ilyen, mar hetfon tavozo musor az Eurosport.

     A budapesti AM-mikro rendszerbol ugyancsak kikerul az Eurosport, ha
nem talalnak valamilyen megoldast. Az AM-mikro is hasonlo gondokkal kuzd,
mint a fent emlitett kabelhalozatok. Barki kepes a megfelelo mikrohullamu
berendezes segitsegevel az AM-mikro adasat venni, aki Budapesten es
kornyeken el. Az AM-mikro jelenleg 50 ezer elofizetovel rendelkezik, de
becslesek szerint 300 ezren nezik, s szinte lehetetlen ellenorizni, hogy
ki az aki fizet, s ki az aki csak nezi az adasokat, melyek kozott ott
talalhato az Eurosport, a SAT.1, az RTL, a Pro7, a CNN, a TNT, a TV5, az
ORF1 es szamtalan magyar musor. Az NBC januar elsejen hasonlo okokbol
tavozott.

    A Sat-Hungary hirlevel folyamatosan tajekoztatja majd Onoket errol a
temarol, igy ne menjenek messzire. Az Eurosport levetele ezekrol a
rendszerekrol nem egy nepszeru feladat es az uzemeltetok meg fogjak
talalni a megfelelo megoldast, ellenkezo esetben komolyabb anyagi
problemakkal szembesulnek a nem fizeto elofizetok miatt.


                        FOR YOUR REFERENCE
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Sat-Hungary is a mailing list with regular news from the Hungarian
satellite, television and cable industry. It is sponsored by
Tele-Satellit (http://www.Tele-Satellit.com).
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A Sat-Hungary egy levelezesi lista rendszeres hirekkel a magyar
muholdas, televizios en kabeltelevizios szakmabol. A listat a
Tele-Satellit szponzoralja (http://www.Tele-Satellit.com).
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