Sat-ND, 18.8.97

• from: owner-sat-nd@tags1.dn.net
• Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 22:10:35 GMT

 

This service is provided free of charge for personal use. It may be used and redistributed for non-commercial purposes only, provided the following notice is included:

© Copyright 1997 by Sat-ND

http://www.lynet.de/~pck/
http://www.sat-net.com/pck/

Please send contributions and comments regarding Sat-ND to

Peter C. Klanowski, email: pck@LyNet.De

Sat-ND is sponsored by TELE-satellite International

More mailing lists: http://www.TELE-satellit.com/

Satellite Charts: http://www.satcodx.com/

Editorial Note

Too bad! This issue of Sat-ND once more contains more or less just North American news, apart from a bit on a planned French sports channel. Pathetic! This is more or less starting to piss me off. Doesn't anything happen in the rest of the world? Any analogue news? And what are those Holsten pills they keep advertising on Virgin 1215 good for? Questions!

Mir? To get the latest news on the condition of the Russian space station, please consult your favourite radio or TV news channel. What they have to tell right now sounds pretty bad.

DELAY OF THE DAY

Iridium

The launch of a Delta II rocket to deploy five Iridium communications satellites was postponed [again] until Tuesday because of software problems on the ground.

Boeing has rescheduled the launch for Tuesday, Aug. 19, at 5:44:19 p.m. PDT, pending correction of the issue. Meanwhile, the satellites are safe on board the Delta II. [Well, where else should they be?]

There will be a live satellite broadcast feed of the launch. The feed will be available on SBS-6 Transponder 9. The broadcast will start at 5:30 p.m. PDT, and last approximately one hour.

CHANNELS

More money for Radio Canada

"We are guaranteeing that Canada's broadcasting voice will continue to be heard around the world," the Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps said today.

The government will continue funding for Radio Canada International, the country's international broadcasting service which last December was in danger of being closed down completely. In additions to this year's funding, Ottawa now promised an annual C$15.52 million a year beginning in 1998-99. [Other international broadcasters have budgets of around US$300 million, if I remember correctly.]

"With its funding now secure, I believe that RCI can better plan for the future, adapt to the exciting advancements in communications technologies, and thus become an integral element of Canada's international information strategy," Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy was quoted as saying.

Radio Unica set for December launch

From December 1, there will a live, program driven, satellite delivered, Spanish language radio network designed to offer Hispanic adults in the U.S. entertaining and informative long form talk shows, sports shows, and top quality news.

The network, called Radio Unica, will be available over 50 projected affiliated stations 24 hours per day. While most of the programming will be U.S. produced, Mexico's Grupo Radio Centro, is expected to supply a number of Mexico's top rated shows.

Programming is targeted at listeners between 25 and 54 and will consist of themed talk shows, sports talk, and hourly newscasts. Radio Unica will have studios and offices in two of the largest Hispanic markets in America; Los Angeles and Miami. The background, of course, is the fact that the U.S. Hispanic market (4.5 million households) is rapidly growing. For some strange reasons which may be connected to human reproduction rates as well as other parameters, that number is expected to grow to 20 million by 2010. [The last sentence was a repeat from Sat-ND, 10.3.97.]

BUSINESS

Orbital buys CTA

Orbital Sciences Corporation announced has completed the purchase of the space systems and communications services business of CTA, Inc.

The transaction became final on August 15 after Orbital received clearance from U.S. Government antitrust regulators and the transaction received CTA shareholder approval. The addition of CTA's satellite and communications product lines boosts Orbital's targeted 1997 revenues to approximately US$600 million. As a result of this purchase, Orbital also adds about 300 engineers, technicians and other employees, increasing its world-wide workforce to 3,500 people.

By combining Orbital's and CTA's satellite manufacturing divisions, the company's expanded Space Systems Group (SSG) now constitutes Orbital's largest operating unit, with approximately 1,000 employees located at facilities in Dulles, VA, Germantown, MD and Greenbelt, MD, as well as at former CTA facilities in McLean, VA and Greenbelt, MD. The company's consolidated spacecraft product line includes a wide range of low-orbit, medium-orbit and geosynchronous-orbit satellites used in commercial communications, Earth imaging, scientific and national security applications.

DIGITAL

Amaury to launch sports channel

Amaury, the French press group which owns sports daily L'Equipe and popular daily Le Parisien, is planning to launch a television sports news channel, reported financial daily Les Echos.

The idea was inspired by the launch of the CNNSI channel by Time Warner's Cable News Network (CNN) last February. Accordingly, Jerome Bureau, director of L'Equipe and L'Equipe magazine, said the planned channel "is not a channel re-broadcasting sporting events like Eurosport, but a project based on the model of L'Equipe dealing with all sports."

Bureau said the sports news channel was being developed jointly by L'Equipe and Amaury Sports Organisation, which distributes sports television pictures including that of the Tour de France. Not a complete surprise, as that sporting event actually is organised by them.

The channel has been offered to all three French digital satellite television services, TF1's Television par Satellite (TPS), Canal Plus's CanalSatellite and AB Productions' AB Sat. What the channel will actually look like, and what it will cost, will depend on their response. The initial budget will be around FF80 million, but this could change depending on the responses from the respective digital TV operators. However, Amaury does not plan to offer the channel exclusively to any of them.

Honolulu ATV

KITV-TV, an ABC affiliate in Honolulu, will in December move into what is believed to be the first facility in the U.S. designed and built from the ground up as an entirely digital television station and will, at that time, begin transmitting Digital Advanced Television (ATV).

Pending the receipt of all necessary permits, the Hawaii stations will begin transmission of a digital-quality television signal on Dec. 1, 1997. The stations will offer digital high-definition television (HDTV) as soon as the ABC network can deliver a high-definition signal.

Mike Rosenberg, general manager of KITV, also promised "high-speed Internet and other data services during most of the broadcast day and a superb, theatre-quality picture during prime time." [Internet only during office hours? HDTV only in the evening? Is that the digital terrestrial future?]

KITV has made an investment of US$15 million and more than two years of research and planning to enhance the station owned by Argyle Television, Inc. Subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, Argyle and the Hearst Broadcasting Group, will merge to become Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. If approved at the Argyle stockholders' meeting, scheduled for Aug. 28, 1997, the transaction is expected to close on Aug. 29, 1997.

Satellite slot juggling

After its announced deal with Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, some questions remained about the future of PrimeStar's satellite services in the U.S. The partnership, which will become a fully merged, publicly traded company late this year, is currently juggling with two geostationary positions, 110 and 119 degrees West.

PrimeStar has claims on eleven channels at 119 degrees (from TSAT) as well as 28 channels at 110 degrees (from MCI, Mr Murdoch's ASkyB partner.) PrimeStar's preference is clear: rather 28 than eleven channels, but if the government doesn't mind, they would like 'em all. In that case, the 119 degrees slot would be used for a supplemental business, and possibly offer niche or data programming after shifting its high-power DBS subscribers from 119 to 110 degrees.

However, PrimeStar is currently moving ahead with plans to offer a 120-channel, high-power from 119 degrees.

Interestingly, PrimeStar has not yet taken ownership of Tempo 2 (119 deg. W) that was launched in March. It is negotiating with Loral Space Systems over adjustments needed because a solar event knocked off tow of the satellite's 16 transponders earlier this year. TSAT back then reserved the right to back out should the problem turn out to be bigger than expected. [Well, is it, then?]

Ultimately, PrimeStar plans to move all of its current subscribers over to a high-power service at 110. In the transition from medium- to high-power, consumers would need a new integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) and a new LNB. The current 70-cm dishes would not have to be replaced, just re-aligned to the new orbital position. New subscribers will need only a 45-cm dish.

What about that Rupertsat which launch was originally planned for September? It's delayed until December, and there's even a backup launch date next spring. [By the way: so far, I can't remember that the two planned satellites for MCI's 110-degrees license have been given any names yet. Does anybody have an idea? Or should I simply consult my archive?]

DirecTV to replace AlphaStar in U.S. hotels

DirecTV, the leading U.S. direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service, will provide free-to-guest programming to more than 200 hotel properties in the United States that previously received satellite television programming from AlphaStar.

AlphaStar's television service ceased transmissions on August 8, 1997, as a result of the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings of AlphaStar parent Tee-Comm Electronics. DirecTV, in conjunction with Skylink, will offer a selection of popular news, information and entertainment channels in guest rooms at no additional cost to hotel guests. DirecTV free-to-guest programming includes networks such as ESPN, Headline News, Cable News Network (CNN), Turner Network Television (TNT), Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and The Weather Channel.

• Prev: Sat-ND, 19.08.97
• Next: Sat-ND, 17.08.97
• Index: SAT-nd mailing list