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Sat Na September 8, 1997
Sa-Na
Volume Five
September, 8
1997
"Anyone who enjoys the privilege of publishing and
broadcasting in open societies should demonstrate their
unshakeable belief in the universality of free speech should
they ever seek to broadcast in societies that are closed."
Dual launch of weather and DBS satellite
Atlas Successfully Launches GE-3
PanAmSat's Global Fleet Grows With Launch Of PAS-5
DW-TV, TV 5, RAI UNO, ESC and TVM
Orbital's Indostar Direct Broadcast Satellite
Second Satellite Reaches Operational Orbit
Bloomberg Signs Agreement with Cable Co-operative
HBCO Begins 24 Hour Broadcasting in Budapest
U.S.S.B. To Offer "Music For Montserrat"
Scripps to Acquire Controlling Interest
TBS to acquire equity stake in PerfecTV
Appointments
In Brief
Upcoming Launches
Dual launch of weather and DBS satellite
During the night of September 2 to 3, 1997, Arianespace
successfully launched two European-built satellites for two
major European organisations: the Hot Bird 3 TV direct
broadcast satellite (DBS) for Eutelsat, and the Meteosat 7
weather satellite for Eumetsat.
Flight 99 was carried out by an Ariane 44LP, the
version of the European launcher with two solid and two
liquid-propellant boosters.
Lift-off from the Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French
Guiana took place at:
" 11:21 p.m. in London, September 2
" 07:21 p.m. local time in Kourou, September 2
" 06:21 p.m. in Washington DC, September 2
Provisional parameters at third stage injection into
geostationery transfer orbit were:
" Perigee: 199.3 km (+3) km for a target of 200 km,
" Apogee: 35,948 km (+150) km for a target of 35,980 km,
" Inclination: 7.02 degrees (+0.06) for a target of 7.00
degrees.
Hot Bird-3 is the tenth satellite launched by
Arianespace out of the total of fourteen that Eutelsat has
entrusted to the European launcher. Built by Matra Marconi
Space in Toulouse, France, this latest Hot Bird completes
the family of second-generation Eutelsat satellites.
Positioned at 13 East, over Africa, it will provide digital
or analogue direct broadcasting of TV programmes for all
European countries. Hot Bird 3 weighed 2,915 kg (6,415 lb.)
at launch and is equipped with 20 Ku-band transponders.
Meteosat 7, the sixth Meteosat series satellite to be
launched by Ariane will provide service continuity for
meteorological data and images through 2002. Built by
Aerospatiale at Cannes, France, Meteosat 7 weighed 915 kg
(2,013 lb.) at launch. It operates in the visible, infrared
and "water vapour" bands, and is equipped with one S-band
and one UHF-band transponder. Positioned at 0 over the Gulf
of Guiana, it will cover Europe, Africa, the Middle East,
the Atlantic and part of South America.
The next launch, Flight 100, is scheduled for September
23. An Ariane 42L will be used to place into orbit Intelsat
803, the sixteenth satellite entrusted to the European
launcher by the International Telecommunications Satellite
Organisation, Intelsat. Following Flight 99, Arianespace has
44 satellites on order to be launched.
Atlas Successfully Launches GE-3
A Lockheed Martin Astronautics Atlas IIAS rocket
successfully launched the GE-3 commercial communications
satellite into supersynchronous transfer orbit from Complex
36, Pad A, at Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS), Fla It was
the fifth successful Atlas launch of 1997 from CCAS and the
thirty-second consecutive successful flight for Atlas.
GE-3 will serve the Broadcasting Industry including the
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) which will transmit its
array of national programming and distance learning
educational services to public television stations and
audiences nation-wide. A sample of other customers from the
cable programming and communications industries include
Turner Broadcasting, Fox Sports and United Video (Spacecom).
This new spacecraft features 36-Mhz bandwidth C and Ku-band
transponders, shaped-beam reflector antenna design, 60 watts
of Ku-band power and a 15-year service life. Service
coverage will include all 50 states and the Caribbean region
from the satellite's assigned orbital location at 87-degrees
West Longitude
PanAmSat's Global Fleet Grows With Launch Of PAS-5
PanAmSat Corporation reports the successful launch of
the PAS-5 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite, the company's
largest, most powerful communications satellite ever. PAS-5
is capable of transmitting numerous cable television
channels in Latin America, more than 100 digital direct-to-
home (DTH) television channels in Mexico and billions of
bits of video, data and other information throughout the
Americas with access to Europe.
The PAS-5 satellite, which contains 24 C-band and 24 Ku-
band transponders, was lofted into space at 6:33 a.m. local
time (8:33 p.m. Eastern Time on August 27) aboard the first
Proton rocket launch for PanAmSat. The 3,600-kilogram
satellite is the 16th satellite in PanAmSat's global fleet,
its fifth satellite serving Latin America and its third
satellite with a neighbourhood of Spanish-language
television channels for the Latin America cable market.
PAS-5 also will serve as the DTH television platform in
Mexico for Sky Latin America, the direct-to-home television
partnership of News Corporation, Grupo Televisa,
Organiza‡oes Globo and Tele-Communications International,
Inc. PanAmSat will provide a total of 48 transponders to
the partnership: 12 on PAS-5, and all 36 on the PAS-6
satellite, which was launched earlier this month.
DW-TV, TV 5, RAI UNO, ESC and TVM
SES announced that additional public broadcasting
channels from Germany, France, Italy, Egypt and Morocco are
being transmitted free-to-air via ASTRA using the MPEG 2/DVB
standard. For cost-free reception of the unencrypted
digital programmes, all that is needed is a DVB-compatible
digital receiver and a satellite dish fitted with a
Universal LNB set to the ASTRA 19.20 East orbital position.
The channels transmitted via ASTRA Transponder No. 98
(12.363 GHz; V-Polarisation) are:
Deutsche Welle TV - DW -TV broadcasts a comprehensive
round-the-clock picture of political, economic and cultural
life in Germany, presented in German, English and Spanish.
TV 5 - TV 5 is an international general entertainment
channel broadcasting 24 hours day in French.
RAI UNO - Rai Uno is the number one television channel
of Italian broadcaster RAI. The Italian language offering
covers the full content range associated with a public
broadcast channel.
ESC - ESC (Egyptian Satellite Channel) is a general
Arabic-language entertainment channel. With two or three
feature films a day, one of the main aims of the broadcaster
is to showcase film production in Egypt, which is well-known
as the number one film exporter of the Arabic world.
TVM - Television du Maroc is another Arabic-language
channel, which through its transmission over ASTRA is
targeting Arabic-speaking households across Europe
Orbital's Indostar Direct Broadcast Satellite
Orbital Sciences Corporation reports its first
geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) satellite, INDOSTAR-1 has
been shipped to Kourou, French Guiana, where it will be
launched aboard an Ariane 4 rocket this October. INDOSTAR-1
is being built and launched for PT MediaCitra Indostar of
Jakarta, Indonesia to provide high-power S-band direct-to-
home (DTH) INDOVISION television programming. Orbital's
satellite will broadcast 40 digital television channels on
five 70-watt transponders to the Republic of Indonesia's
14,000 islands when it is put in service at its 107.7
degrees East longitude GEO orbital location.
The INDOSTAR-1 is the first GEO satellite to use S-band
frequencies for a direct-to-home television broadcast
service, providing high-quality transmissions to small-
diameter antennas (70 cm.) in a region of heavy rainfall.
Similar performance is not economically feasible with
comparable Ku- or C-band DTH satellite systems since more
power is required in these bands to penetrate the moist
atmosphere. The INDOSTAR-1 satellite generates 1.5
kilowatts of electrical power and has a 12-year design life,
yet its many advanced design features results in lower
manufacturing and launch costs than other spacecraft in its
class.
Over the past several months, the satellite
successfully completed the final integration and
environmental testing phase of its development. Conducted at
Canada's David Florida Laboratories in Ottawa, the final
integration process included the alignment of the
satellite's direct broadcast antennas, the installation and
testing of its solar arrays, and the completion of its
dynamic balancing. The satellite was also subjected to a
series of environmental tests that included exposure to
simulated thermal, vacuum, vibration, shock and acoustic
conditions that the satellite may encounter during launch
and while in orbit.
Under the $175 million contract Orbital assumed from
CTA, the company is providing PT MediaCitra Indostar with a
turn-key solution for Indonesia's television broadcast
requirements. Orbital is providing the complete INDOVISION
satellite television broadcast system, including end-to-end
DTH system engineering; the ground station for spacecraft
telemetry, tracking, control and monitoring; co-ordination
of activities for the Ariane-4 launch; design and
engineering management of the integrated receiver and
decoder units; subscriber management and conditional access
security systems; and complete program risk management,
system operations and maintenance, and international and
domestic regulatory management.
Second Satellite Reaches Operational Orbit
OrbView-2 has successfully reached its final
operational orbit and has collected its first test images of
the Earth. The OrbView-2 satellite was successfully
launched on August 1, 1997, aboard Orbital's Pegasus XL
launch vehicle. Initially, Pegasus accurately deployed the
OrbView-2 spacecraft into a circular "parking" orbit of 310
kilometres above the Earth. Over the past month, an
extensive series of spacecraft tests determined that the
satellite's operating systems are performing very well.
During this same period, the ground team successfully
commanded the OrbView-2 spacecraft to raise its orbit to an
altitude of 705 kilometres through a series of 32 separate
firings of the satellite's onboard hydrazine thrusters.
The OrbView-2 satellite is ready to commence its
mission to provide multi-spectral (colour) images of the
Earth's oceans and land surfaces for use in scientific and
commercial applications. These applications include
supporting the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's (NASA) Mission to Planet Earth initiative.
NASA will use OrbView-2 imagery to better understand the
Earth's carbon cycle processes and their effect on global
warming trends. Commercially, ORBIMAGE will market the
multi-spectral imagery to organisations involved in
environmental monitoring, high-seas fishing, forestry
assessment and agricultural applications.
Bloomberg Signs Agreement with Cable Co-operative
Bloomberg has signed an agreement with The National
Cable Television Co-operative allowing for the distribution
of Bloomberg Television to all NCTC member systems. The
NCTC is a programming purchasing co-operative serving over
800 small and independent cable operators throughout the
United States. The terms of the affiliation agreement
announced allow for the members of the "co-operative" which
represents 5,100 systems with over 8.5 million basic
subscribers to launch Bloomberg Television on both their
analogue and digital platforms.
HBCO Begins 24 Hour Broadcasting in Budapest
Hungarian Broadcasting Corp. has begun 24 hour-per-day
broadcasting on the AM Micro network reaching an estimated
500,000 television households in greater Budapest.
Previously, the period from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily was
used by an unrelated broadcaster. These 500,000 households
are in addition to 1,100,000 TV households that carry the
Company's broadcasting signal via satellite-to-cable
transmission.
U.S.S.B. To Offer "Music For Montserrat"
An All-Star Charity Concert Featuring Elton John, Paul
McCartney, Eric Clapton and Sting will air on U.S.S.B. Pay
Per View. The concert will raise funds for the victims of
the Soufriere volcano on the island of Montserrat. "Music
for Montserrat" will premiere Saturday, Sept. 20, 8 p.m.
EDT, with additional replays on Sept. 21 and Sept. 26 at 8
p.m., 10 p.m. and 12 am EDT on Channel 900
Scripps to Acquire Controlling Interest
The E. W. Scripps has reached an agreement to acquire
controlling interest in the TV Food Network from A. H. Belo
Corporation.
Scripps, which owns 100 percent of Home & Garden
Television, will receive 56 percent of the TV Food Network
and $75 million in cash from Belo in exchange for television
station KENS, a CBS affiliate, and radio station KENS-AM,
both in San Antonio, Texas.
TBS to acquire equity stake in PerfecTV
Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. will acquire a 10%
equity stake in PerfecTV Corp., becoming the first
broadcasting company to invest in Japan's first digital
satellite television broadcaster, which started the service
last October.
TBS said the acquisition will be made when PerfecTV
doubles its capital to 20 billion yen at the end of this
year. The move followed a similar one last week by Fuji
Television Network Inc.
Appointments
Jim Ramo Joins TVN Entertainment As President and Chief
Operating Officer
TVN Entertainment Corporation reports that industry
veteran James B. Ramo has joined the Company as its
President and Chief Operating Officer.
Ramo, 50, was most recently executive vice-president of
DIRECTV, a Hughes Electronics subsidiary, where he was a
principal executive of the nation's first high powered DBS
service. He was responsible for marketing, sales,
programming and customer service. Ramo will assume
principal responsibility for the national roll-out,
marketing and distribution of DCTV service.
Loral names Harry Masoni vice president
Space Systems/Loral reports the appointment of Harry J.
"Rick" Masoni as vice president, strategic ventures. In this
position, Mr. Masoni is responsible for all development and
planning of strategic new venture opportunities. He reports
to Robert E. Berry, SS/L president, and replaces Dr. Ronald
C. Maehl, who was recently named president of CyberStar,
Loral's next-generation global, broadband, multimedia
communications and information distribution system.
Mr. Masoni, 49, is a veteran telecommunications
executive with more than 25 years in the industry. He was
most recently program manager for ICO at Hughes Space &
Communications, which is building 12 medium-earth-orbit
satellites for ICO's mobile communications service slated to
begin in 2000.
Valerie Larson GlobeCast's new Midwest regional sales
manager
GlobeCast North America announced that Valerie Larson
has joined the company as Midwest regional sales manager,
based in its newly established Dallas office location, and
is responsible for a 20-state Midwest region.
A native Texan, Larson comes to GlobeCast following
eight years at Dallas/Ft. Worth Teleport, where she held the
position of director, business development. Larson holds a
bachelor of business administration degree, with a
concentration in economics, from the University of North
Texas. She will complete her master of business
administration degree in April 1998 from the University of
Dallas, with an emphasis in telecommunications management.
Galaxy Latin America Names New Sales and Marketing
Galaxy Latin America reports that Evahyr Lyra will be
the new vice-president for sales and marketing.
In Brief
" TRW Inc. filed a license application with the FCC for a
global satellite system capable of simultaneously
transmitting and receiving digital data. TRW's global EHF
satellite network will provide fixed satellite services
world-wide in the frequency spectrum between 37.5 gigahertz
and 50.2 gigahertz.
" Japan Satellite Broadcasting Inc. will provide
television programs for three channels on the digital
satellite broadcast platform DIRECTV. WOWOW will provide the
contents for two movie channels and one music and sports
channel
" Bloomberg Television announced it has signed a carriage
agreement with Tele-Communications, Inc., the nation's
leading cable operator. The terms of the affiliation
agreement allow Bloomberg Television the opportunity to
launch on systems owned by and affiliated with TCI.
" The music television channel Much Music is to dedicate
a facility at Buenos Aires, where it invested US$300,000.
Much Music is 40% owned by Chum City International, and
Argentinean private investors. It signal is transmitted via
Multicanal, Cablevision, and VCC, but the company wants a
wider audience, and is negotiating with Imagen Satelital to
transmit its signal via PAS 5 throughout Latin America.
" ESPN Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire Classic
Sports Network. Subject to regulatory review and approval,
the transaction is expected to be completed within two
months. Classic Sports Network will become a wholly owned
subsidiary of ESPN
" DIRECTV has added the Game Show Network, a channel
exclusively dedicated to game playing and game shows, on
channel 257.
Next Ariane Launch Next Atlas/Delta Launch
Intelsat 803 -September 23, 1997 Echostar 3 - September 29, 1997
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