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Sat-ND, 19.7.96

Sat-ND 96-07-19 - Satellite and Media News

This service is provided free of charge for personal use. It may be
reproduced for non-commercial reasons only, provided the following notice
is included:
"(c) Copyright 1996 by Sat-ND, http://www.sat-net.com/pck/"
Please send any contributions and comments regarding Sat-ND to
Peter C. Klanowski, Fax +49-451-5820055, pck@LyNet.De

This issue is sponsored by TELE-satellite, Europe's Satellite Magazine 
Have a look at their homepage! >> http://www.TELE-satellit.com/ <<

*** Sat-ND summer break: August 1 to August 15 ***

EU may cut back influence of media moguls
The European Commission wants to reduce the influence of the so-called
major players on radio and television. According to new rules that may be
adopted soon, any company will not be allowed more than 30 percent
audience share in any national market. Multimedia companies would even be
limited to an average of 10 percent in the different markets such as TV,
radio, and newspapers.
The final decision is up to the European governments. Recently, the 16
German Prime Ministers had adopted a similar plan for national media
legislation  -- well knowing that there is no company that reaches the 30
percent margin yet. Nonetheless, this does not imply that the German
federal government will approve of similar measures. In fact, it has
opposed them so far, joining Britain in refusing new rules.
The Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi would be most affected by the
Commission's move, as he is estimated to reach 40 percent of the Italian
audience. The Italian government would, however, probably more than happy
for European help in their efforts to reduce Berlusconi's influence
(Sat-ND, 17.7.96)

Arabsat refuses Iraqi request
Iraq will not be re-admitted to Arabsat the satellite organisation. A
request put forward the Baghdad Television was turned down by the other
members. They want Iraq to pay back debts for using Arabsat services until
1991 first (which, of course, is the year of the Gulf War.) It is unlikely
that Iraq, which is under heavy U.N. sanctions, will be able to raise the
amount said to be "millions of dollars."

Ecuador, California Microwave announce DOMSAT
California Microwave, Inc. announced that its Satellite Transmission
Systems (STS) division had won a contract valued at approximately $4.9
million to design, manufacture and install a domestic satellite (DOMSAT)
communications network for Empresa Estatal de Telecomunicaciones (EMETEL),
Ecuador's state-owned telephone company.
The contract calls for the installation of an INTELSAT Standard "A" hub
earth station to be located in Guayaquil, with a network of five remote
sites to serve rural towns throughout Ecuador. The contract also provides
training for the operation and long-term maintenance of the system. 

Hughes supplies new MORELOS
Hughes Communications International Ltd. has won a bid to build a new
satellite for Mexico that will replace MORELOS 2 (116.8°W) in late 1998.
It will have twice the communications capacity of its predecessor and even
be ten times more powerful.

Terrestrial or satellite? 
The Ka band seems to be a promising part of the frequency range, judging
from the satellite companies that have already reserved satellite slots
for new data transmission services around 28 GHz.
Until recently, it was unclear how the Ka band would be used in the USA.
Satellite companies like Hughes, AT&T, Teledisic (set up by Bill Gates and
Craig McCaw), Iridium (Motorola), and Odyssey (TRW) need access to the Ka
band. So does CellularVision, a New York company planning a terrestrial
MMDS service. It works like cable TV, but instead of being connected to a
cable, users will just have to put a small antenna in their window.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday ended the feud
between both systems with a 4-0 vote, saying that both will be allocated
portions of the Ka band. Don Gips, acting chief of the FCC's International
Bureau, said that the move "opens the door for competition in the next
generation of two-way video and Internet services."
Licenses for the terrestrial service will be auctioned soon, maybe even
this year. The FCC hasn't yet decided how licenses for satellite services
will be allocated. Teledesic President Russell Daggatt displayed optimism
when stating that "The FCC's adoption of the Ka band plan should remove
the last obstacle to the immediate licensing of the Teledesic Network. We
anticipate that our license will be processed expeditiously*."
Using several hundred low-Earth-orbit satellites, Teledesic wants to
enable world-wide access to "fiber-like" telecommunications services such
as broadband Internet access, digital voice, data, videoconferencing and
interactive multimedia. Users will still have to live with connection
time-outs and transmission rates of just a few bytes per minute: Bill
Gates' "Internet in the sky" is scheduled to launch in 2002.
----
*quickly

Satellite Games
Peter Krause has compiled a list of satellite feed frequencies related to
the Olympic Games (which should earn him the first gold medal.) Here it
is:
21.3°W  3.719 lhc EBU Multi 1, NTSC
        3.761 lhc EBU Multi 3, NTSC
        3.887 lhc EBU Multi 2, NTSC
        3.930 lhc ARD/ZDF, PAL
        4.095 rhc EBU, NTSC
        4.055 lhc BBC, NTSC
        4.137 rhc Record TV Brazil(!), NTSC
31.6°W  4.058 rhc SABC South Africa, PAL
34.6°W 11.645 v   ARD/ZDF(?)
37.5°W 12.645 rhc Test card, NTSC
41.2°W  4.120 h   EBU Multi 4
43.0°W 12.710 h?  Feed - PanAmSat, PAL


WebWatch
By Grandpa Zheng

Bah!
This is a boring one. Don't read on.
Netscape Communications Corp. report a US$906,000 profit for their second
quarter. They have done better before, for example in the first quarter
with net earnings of US$3.6 million. But, well, those merger-related
expenses... meaning that Netscape has bought companies InSoft Inc., Paper
Software Inc., and Netcode Corporation. Of course, their net income would
have been US$5.8 million without that. Bah!


Deutsche Sender im Netz

German pubcasters ARD and ZDF have officially taken their Web sites into
service:
http://www.ard.de/
http://www.zdf.de/

ZDF is also heavily co-operating with Bill Gates and his fledgling
Microsoft Network:
http://www.zdfmsn.de/

From August 1, ARD's main news shows "tagesschau" and "tagesthemen" will
be available as video on demand over the Internet:
http://www.tagesschau.de/

Regional German broadcaster WDR announced to have incorporated its
teletext service into its Web site:
http://www.wdr.de/

Leo Kirch's digital TV package DF1 displays a test page at, guess what,
http://www.df1.de/

Hamburg's commercial local TV station HH1 has unveiled its web site at
http://www.hamburg1.de/

A radio station has just played a song you like, and you want to know the
song title or the interprets. So far, you had to call the station to get
the information. No longer, if you listen to the regional pubcaster SWF 3.
Their teletext service, coming along with S3 television on ASTRA, gives
you real-time information on page 455. Of course, this is not necessary
should you listen to SWF 3 in the digital ADR format as the same
information is displayed either on your TV screen or a bi-directional
remote control.
It's even easier with Internet access: You can look up any song played
during the last seven days.
http://www.swf3.de

Should you have stayed with us until now, here's some non-German Internet
news finally. MTV's all-music channel M2, due to launch on August 1, will
also be available on the Internet in real-time transmission. According to
press reports, it seems likely that a proprietary transmission technology
called Intercast will be used. Developed by Intel, it requires a PC card
which should be available at US$200.


========================================================
Copyright 1996 by Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved.

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