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Sat-ND, 17.8.96

Sat-ND 96-08-17 - 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
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"(c) Copyright 1996 by Sat-ND, http://www.sat-net.com/pck/"
Please send money, news releases, 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/ <<

Uwaga, uwaga! This is again a blend of today's news and just a few older
but interesting stories from the last two weeks. 

Japan's H2 launches two satellites
Japan's indigenous rocket H2 was successfully placed two satellites into
orbit today. The launch took place from the Tanegashima Space Centre on an
island about 600 miles south-west of Tokyo On board were the biggest
satellite so far built in Japan, the Advanced Earth Observation Satellite
(ADEOS, 3.5 tonnes); and the amateur radio satellite JAS2 (50 kg.)
ADEOS, which will be operated by Japan's National Space Development Agency
NASDA, is equipped with five Japanese, two American, and a French sensor.
From the satellite's sun-synchronous orbit, they will monitor ocean
temperatures, wind speeds, greenhouse gases and the earth's ozone layer.
The ADEOS project's operating costs are almost US$1 billion, NASDA official
said.
It was the fourth successful launch of the H2 since 1994. Japan's space
ambitions recently suffered a few setbacks: two satellites didn't function
correctly and were lost, and a small space shuttle model plunged into the
Pacific Ocean during its flight. The biggest problem for , however, is the
cost of an H2 launch – US$145 million, or twice as much as an Ariane
launch.

Med-TV is back
Kurdish TV channel Med-TV has officially been relaunched on INTELSAT 515
(18°W) according to a press release issued on Wednesday. Broadcasting on
11.075 GHz v, Med TV says it now has extended its airtime to 8 hours a day.
The channel which used an uplink in Poland was forced off the air by the
Polish government in July, allegedly following pressure by Turkish
officials. In a press release, the station claimed it would "maintain [its]
impartial and democratic broadcasts" while at the same time expressing
their disappointment that "many countries which declare themselves as
democratic have supported Turkey in its efforts to close MED TV down.
Certain companies supplying satellite space breached their contracts with
MED TV because of their own country's political stance. This goes again the
idea of free trade and freedom of expression. [...] we will no longer be a
party to these tactics. For this reason we will be moving onto the Intelsat
satellite provider for the continuation of our transmissions."
Special thanks to Chris <chris@channel9.demon.co.uk> who sent me this press
release.

USA: Still more people than TV sets
The average household in the USA now has 2.7 people – and 2.3 television
sets. 71 percent of TV homes have more than one set, over a third have at
least three, and 16 percent own even four. Nonetheless, a recent survey has
shown no evidence that Americans watch more TV than before, even though
they haven't just more TV sets but also more TV channels to choose from.
Instead, individual viewing is becoming more popular, much to the dismay of
family-oriented channels.

BBC may team up with TCI subsidiary
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) might take over the satellite
channels UK Gold and UK Living in a joint venture with Flextech. The
company, a subsidiary of the US cable company TCI, confirmed it was "in
discussions with Pearson and Cox Communications about acquiring their
interests in UK Gold and UK Living." Flextech also announced it was "in
preliminary discussions with the BBC concerning a possible joint venture"
that might comprise six satellite TV channels.
Flextech is the main owner of most non-Murdoch pay-TV channels in the UK,
amongst others TCC, Playboy Channel, and Bravo. A joint venture with
Flextech may give the Beeb also access to the North American TV market. All
the new channels will definitely be pay-TV and very likely be broadcast
digitally.

Nigeria again
Sat-ND reported on the country's efforts to set up a world-wide satellite
TV channel a few times (first on May 25, 1996.) Will it ever be launched?
The Nigerian broadcasting commission has now revoked licences granted to
six private firms to run television stations because they "showed no
serious sign of going on air." The two licenses for satellite TV do not
seem to be involved. One of the franchise holders, millionaire Raymond
Dokpesi, told a domestic newspaper that his "African Independent
Television" will " by the grace of God beam Africa and African affairs to
the rest of the world dispassionately."
Before you're watching out for the Nigerian World Service on TV (it's not
on air yet) you might as well check out these URLs to get a glimpse of what
kinda country this is:
http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/~muench/HUMAN_RIGHTS/humanrights_nig.html
http://ethel.as.arizona.edu/~pathall/951201.html
http://www.usis.usemb.se/human/nigeria.htm
http://link.lanic.utexas.edu/menic/oil/biblio/1996/0118.html
http://link.lanic.utexas.edu/menic/oil/biblio/1996/0120.html
http://www.derechos.org/nigeria/central.html
http://www-usacs.rutgers.edu/~mcstevo/nigeria_kenya.html
And, of course, you might also want to get a copy of the latest issue of
TELE-satellit, where Dr Dish is revealing how criminal financial practices
are carried out from Nigeria – and how you can follow them via satellite.
Investigative journalism you won't find in any of the mainstream media.

SESAT launch confirmed
Russia's Space Agency RKA has confirmed the launch of EUTELSAT SESAT in
1998 on board a Proton rocket. SESAT will provide television and
telecommunications services for Europe, Siberia and the Middle East from an
eastern orbit position. Russia has been a EUTELSAT member since 1994.
http://www.eutelsat.org/about/sesat.html

Announcement
On Sunday, CHINASAT 7 will be launched b a Chinese Long March 3 rocket from
Xichang space centre. The satellite, an HS 376 model built by Hughes Space
and communications, has 24 active transponders and is expected to be
operational for ten years. There are two launch windows at 1025 and 1254
GMT.

Tee-Comm's double whammy
The confusion about Canadian digital satellite TV seems to have reached a
new climax. Tee-Comm Electronics said its AlphaStar Canada Inc. unit filed
an application with the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC) to provide a digital direct-to-home satellite television
service. According to the company, this was "a separate initiative" from
ExpressVu, where Tee-Comm is also participating. There have been problems
with the receivers supplied by Tee-Comm for ExpressVu – they didn't meet
the other shareholders' quality standards. Meanwhile, the project is more
or less on halt anyway owing to Canadian restrictions of allowing too much
US programming being beamed into the country.

What about the latest Ariane launch?
Just in case you want some details on the recently launched satellites
ITALSAT F2 and TELECOM 2D – here they are.
Developed by Alenia Spazio for the Italian Space Agency (ISA), ITALSAT F2
is Italy's second telecommunications satellite. It is equipped with 9
Ka-band transponders, and weighed 1,990 kg (4,378 lb) at liftoff, with a
design life greater than seven years. ITALSAT F2 will round out the
services offered by Italsat Fl from Telecom Italia: telephony, data
transmission and digital TV broadcasting. Aside from its main payload,
ITALSAT F2 will carry the EMS (European Mobile Services) mission dedicated
to terrestrial mobile communications for the European Space Agency.
TELECOM 2D, France Telecom's seventh satellite, is also the seventh
launched by Arianespace, starting with TELECOM 1A, placed into orbit by
Flight 10 on August 7, 1984. Built by Matra Marconi Space and Alcatel
Espace in Toulouse (Southwest France), it weighed 2,260 kg (4,972 lb.) at
liftoff and has a design life of more than 10 years. Telecom 2D is equipped
with 10 C-band transponders, 5 X-band transponders and 11 Ku-band
transponders. Positioned over the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean), it will
provide telephone links, TV program transmission, and business
communications, both in France and between France and French overseas
departments. TELECOM 2D will also ensure French armed forces and government
communications.


Web Watch
By Grandpa Zheng, unless otherwise noted

"This is a joke, isn't it? People can't be that stupid?"
This is how a reader reacted to yesterdays story about the access to
Internet user data by state authorities in Germany. Well, German lawmakers
can be that stupid, they've proven it many times. The following story might
change their minds, although it seems unlikely.
Even without any secret and automated interfaces, it seems pretty easy to
get access even to government computers. Whoever visited the Web Site of
the US Justice Department this morning, actually saw the home page of the
"United States Department of Injustice" It carried Nazi symbols, a picture
of Adolf Hitler (as Attorney General,) links to anti-Clinton as well as
anti-Dole sites, subversive texts, and quite a few obscene pictures. A
spokesman had to admit that "somebody did get into the web page at the
Justice Department."
Pretty obvious, if you read something like this: "As the largest law firm
in the nation, the Department of Justice serves to punish all who don't
agree with the moral standards set forth by Clinton. Anything and anyone
different must be jailed [...] It is hard to trick hundreds of millions of
people out of their freedoms, but we should be complete within a decade."
Maybe.
http://www.usdoj.gov/
(Hey, don't expect to be the obscene pictures to be still in place!
Actually, the server was still down at the time I'm writing this. Seems the
hackers have done their job pretty well.)

CLT count their channels on the web
Luxembourg based CLT (Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion)has
unveiled a Web-Site offering broad information about its activities in a
particularly pleasing layout.
The company's key figures are presented clearly arranged and permit easy
comparisons, which emphasise the considerable growth of the company during
the last years. Furthermore the presentation of all the participation
shares of the group can be consulted. These are fitted out with the
management hierarchy, the mail, email and web addresses. A company portrait
and press releases round up the WWW-offer.
http://www.cltmulti.com
edmond.siebenaler@ci.educ.lu (Ralph Siebenaler)
Thanks very much! Finally, we're now always up to date with the number of
CLT channels: 18 radio stations and 14 TV channels in 9 countries as of
this morning.

Internet and alcohol
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh claim that the Internet can
be as addictive as alcohol. Come on, not at the present data transmission
rates – they're as addictive as mineral water. (Downloading Microsoft's IE
3.0, typical installation, from a domestic ftp site took me 71 minutes –
via ISDN!)
Okay, and this is the catch: that survey isn't representative anyway.
Instead, the researchers were actively going after people who already felt
they were preoccupied with the Internet or with online services such as
AOL, CompuServe, etc. I'll spare you the stories of the 17-year old boy who
was sent to a rehabilitation hospital or the perfect housewife that
suddenly neglected home and family because she became Internet addicted.
Actually, there is a big surprise in the study: most of the Internet 396
addicts are women (239 opposed to 157 men.) The second surprise is that the
women were significantly older (43 years in average) than their male
counterparts (29 years.) This is, of course, quite different from
everything we know about the average Internet user. The study gives no clue
why the Internet has such an enormous impact on at least *some* elderly
women. But at least it has made clear that most Internet addicts get caught
in endless chat or role play orgies than in surfing the Web or writing news
services like this one :-)
"We discovered that the use of the Internet can definitely disrupt one's
academic, social, financial and occupational life the same way other
well-documented addictions like pathological gambling, eating disorder and
alcoholism can," said one of the researchers. And what about TV?

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

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