Sat-ND, 15.8.97

• from: owner-sat-nd@tags1.dn.net
• Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 22:37:47 GMT

 

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DELAY OF THE DAY

PAS-5 antenna damaged

The launch of PAS-5, originally planned for August 23, has been postponed by several days. A new launch date has been set to August 28.

News agency Itar-Tass reported that one of the satellite's antennas had been damaged and needed to be replaced. A team sent from the USA by the satellite's manufacturer, Hughes, today took up their efforts to repair the spacecraft. The repairs are expected to take no more than five days.

PAS-5 is to be put into orbit by a Russian Proton-K rocket utilising a DM3 acceleration block (in effect acting as a fourth stage.)

LAUNCHES

Kosmos 2345 launched

The Russian Military Space Forces have launched a military satellite from Baikonur aboard a Proton-K rocket.

Kosmos-2345, as the spacecraft is called, will be transferred to a geostationary orbit. It was the 285^th Proton launch.

DIGITAL

U.S. DTH subscription numbers

The U.S. DTH service PrimeStar has attracted just 9,000 customers last July which as a consequence turned out to be one of the company's worst subscriber acquisition months.

The medium-powered service, presently undergoing a restructuring from its loose partnership scheme into a single, publicly-traded entity, now has more than 1.9 million subs, according to data inside the August SkyREPORT newsletter.

Others do better: EchoStar's Dish Network reportedly finished July with 50,000 new subscribtions and now has a total of 640,000 customers. Market leader DirecTV was estimated to have finished July with more than 70,000 new subscriptions, pushing the service over the 2.7 million mark.

RUPERTWATCH

By Dr Sarmaz

BSkyB profits soar

Oh yes, and then there was this extremely lengthy press release from BSkyB. Here are the main points:

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc, the UK-based pay-television broadcasting group, today announced results for year ending June 30, 1997.

• Revenue reaches 1,270 million pound(US$2,121 million) as turnover rises 26%
• Operating profit up 19% to 374 million pound(US$625 million)
• Profit before tax up 22% to 314 million pound(US$524 million)
• Total paying subscribers up 878,000 to 6,372,000
• Advertising revenue up 36% to 150 million pound(US$250 million)
• UK digital plans further advanced following creation of British Interactive Broadcasting

• Multi-platform distribution strategy enhanced by programming supply deal with British Digital Broadcasting

Chief executive Sam Chisholm nonetheless warned that this year's profit performance would be difficult to repeat next year because of the investment burden of digital start-up. "If we do what we plan to do and maintain profits, it will be a Houdini-type performance," he said. Of course -- the digital set-top boxes needed for reception will in fact be heavily subsidised. BSkyB deputy managing director David Chance expects the suggested retail price of just £200 would "have a significant impact."

Both Chisholm and Chance will give up their current positions at BSkyB for health reasons. So, what does Mr Chisholm think about BSkyB? "It has been an overwhelming force for good, in my view, in British broadcasting.

Well, what did you expect?

Flextech reduces losses

The following is somewhat related. Flextech Plc, the British television programming subsidiary of U.S.-based Tele-Communications International Inc (TINTA) said it reduced its losses in the six-month period to June 30, 1997.

The company's operating losses before exceptional items fell to £4.7 million from £8.5 million in 1996. It incurred exceptional costs of £5 million in launching Trouble and repositioning Bravo. Flextech spent another £1.6 million in launching Challenge TV. Subscription revenue rose 67 percent to £22.4 million while advertising revenue more than doubled to £5 million. Revenue from home shopping business rose to £8 million from £4.6 million.

Flextech operates a variety of cable and satellite channels in the UK including UK Gold, Bravo TV, Playboy TV, Trouble, Family Channel and Challenge TV, probably using the Mr Murdoch's Sky Multichannels pay-TV platform (if that's what it's still called.)

CHANNELS

Ask Telekom first

German media authorities have to ask the country's cable giant Deutsche Telekom first before allocating any analogue cable channels.

The problem is easily recognised: German cable networks offer space for 31 analogue channels while some 50 channels, an estimated half of them from abroad, would like to be distributed. Access to cable is organised on a regional basis, controlled by 15 media authorities. In recent months, they have come under growing pressure to allocate channels in accordance with the viewers' wishes -- several regional media laws have already introduced such rules.

However, a court in Berlin has ruled today that the media authority for Berlin and Brandenburg (MABB) must not allocate cable capacity without asking permission from the cable operator, in this case Deutsche Telekom. The court gave a rather strange reason for its decision: Only the government could force Telekom to carry any channels against their will. The media authorities are officially totally independent from any government. The federal government, on the other hand, has (in theory) no say whatsoever in media issues.

Microsoft TV marathon

It was brought to my attention that Microsoft will launch a world-wide "five-hour live Intelsat broadcast extravaganza" next Thursday, August 21 (in the evening hours, European time.)

The subject will be "Internet Explorer 4.0 -- The Web the Way You Want It." [Oh no! That's not the way I want it, judging from those two preview versions that were made available to the public so far. Pathetic!]

So, in case you haven't got anything better to do, search all the Intelsats you can get hold of, but I'm afraid it's going to be digital anyway.

Interestingly, Microsoft TV makes no mention of that broadcast on their Web site at

http://www.microsoft.com/mstv/ -- so I don't have any details on that. [But would you really watch a five-hour broadcast by Microsoft or anybody else for that matter?]

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