Sat.ND, 25.8.97

• from: owner-sat-nd@tags1.dn.net
• Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 23:38:26 GMT

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LAUNCHES

Headline 1

A Boeing Delta II successfully delivered NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) observatory to an elliptical transfer orbit. ACE will then use its own propulsion system to establish an orbit between the Earth and the sun.

It was the ninth of ten firm launches encompassed in NASA's 1990 Medium Expendable Launch Vehicle Services (MELVS) contract with five options remaining.

The Advanced Composition Explorer will study space matter including the solar corona and galactic matter. Study of the energetic particles may contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system. ACE also will provide near-real-time monitoring of solar wind that will allow advanced warning of geomagnetic storms. From ACE's position in orbit, the observatory will have a prime view of the Sun and beyond the galaxy. ACE has a two-year minimum mission lifetime and a goal of five years.

PAS-5 update

PAS-5, the most powerful satellite built by Hughes to date and featuring state-of-the-art technologies, is scheduled for launch aboard a Russian rocket on August 28 local time.

The 10-minute window for launch aboard the ILS Proton Block DM rocket opens at 6:30 a.m. at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan (August 27, 5:30 p.m. in Los Angeles; August 28, 00:27 UTC).

The satellite will be used by PanAmSat Corp., primarily for direct-to-home television services in Latin America and other video and telecommunications services for the Americas and Europe.

With nearly 10 kilowatts total spacecraft power generated by two four-panel solar wings, PAS-5 is twice as powerful as other Hughes-built spacecraft now in orbit. PAS-5 carries 24 active 50-watt transponders in C-band and 24 active transponders in Ku-band. Six of those are 60-watt transponders, and 18 offer 110 watts. PAS-5 will operate at 58 degrees West longitude, over the Atlantic Ocean.

Orbital to launch Forte

Orbital Sciences Corporation announced that it is planning to launch the Forte (Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events) satellite for the U.S. Department of Energy aboard the company's Pegasus XL air-launched rocket on August 28, 1997.

For the Forte mission, which is being co-ordinated by the U.S. Air Force on the Department of Energy's behalf, Orbital will use the western range of Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The launch of Forte is set for 8:00 a.m. PDT with an available launch window that extends from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. PDT. The August 28 launch still depends on final preparations and testing of the Pegasus vehicle and satellite, as well as on acceptable weather conditions.

Yuri the space secretary

We've seen just about everything in space: dogs, monkeys, frogs, human beings -- but no politicians. Yuri Baturin, secretary of the Russian Defence Council, will probably the first statesman ever to go up there and maybe even do a space walk as he joins the crew on Russia's decrepit Mir orbital station.

Baturin already underwent several training sessions, but a real training programme for the secretary has still to be scheduled. He is expected to be ready for the flight next year even though space training at the Cosmonauts' Training Centre usually takes 18 months. Baturin has to hurry anyway as reports suggest Mir may be put off duty in 1998 anyway. He's not expected to stay up there for much longer than ten days, though.

CHANNELS

Disney without the Disney label

Soon, there may be even more Disney TV channels although they will not carry the famous brand name.

Walt Disney Co. bought the film company Miramax in 1993, and Disney managers are now convinced they could help them with a small problem. According to Disney Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner, "There are no brands in the movie business other than Disney." How boring for the public -- people could get fed up with the global Disney dominance that makes "(c) Walt Disney Co." the first thing new-born child nowadays sees on his or her clothing or playthings -- probably not only in the western world.

Back to movies. Eisner said that "maybe Miramax has a shot at being that kind of brand" besides Disney. Plans call for home video; television miniseries for Disney's ABC network; a general-interest magazine; a chain of Miramax stores; and possibly [heaven forbid!] Miramax-branded satellite channels around the world. Miramax' library now comprises nearly 400 titles as a result of a high-volume output of independent films bought and released in recent years. That should nicely do in order to set up some recycling channels.

BUSINESS

Thuraya contract to be awarded soon

Will they ever get on with this? The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has told Aerospatiale of France and two US rivals, Hughes and Lockheed Martin, to expect a decision this week on who will be awarded the Thuraya satellite contract.

State-controlled telecommunication company Etisalat, the main shareholder in the mobile communications satellite venture, said it would announce its decision on Wednesday after a final study of the bids. "We will select the winning bidder on Wednesday and the [US$-850 million] contract will be officially awarded next month," an Etisalat official was quoted as saying.

Thuraya, the first mobile phone satellite in the region, will cover the Middle East, India, Turkey, North Africa, Italy, France, Germany and other parts of Europe. Shareholders in Thuraya are Etisalat, Arabsat, the government-owned Abu Dhabi Investment Company, the state telecommunication firms of Kuwait and Qatar, other Arab investors as well as companies from Turkey and Germany.

France to sell movie rights

French banking group Crédit Lyonnais (CL) has been known for centuries as a premier address for movie financing. In the eighties, the bank went to Hollywood, randomly bought film rights in vast numbers, even acquired Metro Goldwyn Mayer for US$2.5 billion -- and then, CL's Hollywood activities came to a grinding halt.

Some years ago, the whole thing broke down for reasons beyond the scope of this so-called newsletter. [Read: I'm too lazy to research that right now.] Anyway, the adventure ended in the French state being owner of MGM for a while. To be exact: Consortium de Réalisation (CDR,) an entity set up two years ago by the French government, was transferred some of the state-controlled bank's assets in order to sell them.

Thing is that, even though MGM has been sold [has it?,] there still is a library of some 1,000 films owned by CL that reportedly now is up for grabs. The movies for sale include The Graduate, Platoon, When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers and Honeymoon in Vegas. New fuel for Europe's fledgling digital pay-TV companies, for satellite and cable channels anyway? CDR expects t least 20 companies to be interested in the archive.

You bet, even though those companies restrain from public comments for the time being. A spokesman for PolyGram NV, reportedly a possible buyer, declined to comment the issue. "We look at anything that comes up, but it all depends on the right price and a number of other issues", he said.

But prices are rising, owing to growing demand as new channels and digital bouquets seem to be mushrooming almost around the globe. [It's a totally different question what will remain of them once the gold rush is over, but I'm afraid it won't be too much.]

Another problem is that the exact nature of the rights still needs to be cleared -- as you may know, there are many different kinds of them: pay-TV, pay per view, free to air... An industry source was quoted as saying the CL catalogue comprised 150 rather than 1,000 films, but obviously that depends on what rights you're after. There seem to be enough pay-TV rights -- Vincent Grimond, in charge of French pay-TV giant Canal+ subsidiaries, was quoted as saying that "the CDR catalogue is good and many people will be interested".

[Many thanks to Michael Klontzas who contributed to this article.]

Scary! Dracula would watch Transylvanian cable

What a bombastic sentence to start a press release! "Metromedia International Group Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary, Metromedia International Telecommunications Inc. ('MITI'), announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Cable Satellite Communications Inc. ('CSC') has acquired 100 percent of S.C. Telesatco, SRL ('Telesatco'), the largest wired satellite television network operator in Tirgu Mures, Romania, the Regional Administrative Centre of Transylvania.

The deal in effect concerns a cable network that passes 40,000 homes and has approximately 31,000 subscribers. CSC will continue to provide existing TV channels, including, among others, Eurosport, TNT, Cartoon Network, and BBC World, and it will add a number of channels which are currently being dubbed or subtitled in Romanian. Great!

There's more bombast to come at the end of the press release that didn't contain much more than what I re-narrated in the paragraph above.

Metromedia International Group is a global communications and media company which, through its Communications Group, is engaged in the development and operation of communications business, including wireless cable television systems, FM and AM radio broadcasting, radio paging services and various forms of telephony services including wireless local loop telephone services, GSM cellular telephone services, an international toll-calling service and trunked mobile radio services in Eastern Europe, the republics of the former Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and other selected emerging markets. Even greater!

Hicks Muse Tate & First -- a name to keep in mind

Since the U.S. Federal Communications Commission deregulated the number of stations a single company can own, more than 2,100 radio stations have changed hands in deals worth US$15 billion. The latest deal, however, will probably create the largest U.S, radio station group ever.

Dallas-based investment/buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate, & Furst Inc. announced a tentative agreement to acquire SFX Broadcasting for about US$1.2 billion in cash and the assumption of US$920 million of SFX's debt.

SFX owns 71 stations in mid-sized markets while Hicks Muse already operates two large station groups which, including pending deals, comprises 340 stations.

Together, Capstar and SFX will rank as the third largest radio broadcasting group based on revenues and No. 1 based on station count.

The radio deal comes, by the way, less than two weeks after Hicks Muse announced that it was planning to acquire nine television stations.

DIGITAL

Microsoft director reveals truth about "convergence"

YES!!! Finally somebody has had the guts to utter the simple truth, so let's print it in red and really big:

TVs and PCs are not going to converge.
They're not going to become one box.

[Cut it out and hang it on your wall.] And, hey, the guy who said that even works for Microsoft! Can you believe that? He's called Pierre de Vries and is director of advanced projects in the company's consumer platforms division. He made his remarks during a Digital Television Summit in New York held by Paul Kagan Associates Inc.

Other representatives of the Redmond-based software giant were also present, explaining the company's foray into cable television ("We're not trying to take over anybody's business;") philosophising about the still unsettled issue of scan lines on future digital TV services in the U.S. ("We're going to be pushing very hard on 480 progressive, 480 interlaced and 720 interlaced;") and demanding the vertical blanking interval to be used to deliver "more visually stimulating" Internet content. Phew!

Anyway, because it's really important, allow me to repeat this [because I've been preaching this for months or even years. I might even include it as a ceterum censeo with every future issue of Sat-ND:]

TVs and PCs are not going to converge.
They're not going to become one box.

Canal+: More digital subscribers than expected

French pay-TV group Canal Plus SA's digital satellite service is likely to surpass its target number of 500,000 subscribers by year end by some 20 percent, expects CanalSatellite President Bruno Delecour: "We're on our way to reaching 600,000."

Canal+' digital bouquet CanalSatellite was launched in April 1996 with 20 channels. As of this autumn, it will have 46 channels. Four new channels will be launched between now and the end of November: a domestic news and service channel, a comedy channel, and two U.S. offerings -- Fox Kids, and 13th Street, a recently announced Universal Studios venture showing suspense, action and horror films.

U.S. cable giant TCI has an option to purchase a 10 percent stake in CanalSatellite which would cost them around US$700 million. Delecour said the U.S. group had not said whether it would exercise its option, but that it would decide by the end of the year. The sale would help inprove CanalSatellite's financial situation as the service is expected to make losses this year.

Nonetheless, new subscribers will be given a satellite dish for free starting this week as reported (Sat-ND, 19.8.97.) . Mr. Delecour said market studies showed the single greatest psychological obstacle to potential subscribers was the satellite dish. Quite a ridiculous notion, of course, as the dish's price is a mere trifle compared to the sum any pay-TV subscriber shells out during the average seven years he stays with such a service. And, by the way: while the dish may be free, subscribers will still have to pay to have it delivered and installed. [What do we learn from this? Applied psychology beats even the simplest mathematical calculations because most people are unable to perform them. Sigh.]

CanalSatellite'main rival, TPS, is still lagging behind in subscription numbers, but the competition is heating up as the French pay-TV market is expected to generate US3.5 billion in 2005. TPS is expected to introduce some kind of a free offer or rebate coupons for reception equipment soon.

FEEDBACK

Where is Dieppe?

Stephane Mabille told me that Dieppe is a port in France, not in Belgium as I assumed in Sat-ND, 20.8.97. I was wrong, as I expected. Ferry passengers, citizens of Dieppe, peoples of Belgium and France, please accept my sincere apologies ;-)

Fortunately, I'm not the only ignorant when it comes to geography. [I confess I'm geographically challenged! Does that entitle me to apply for U.S. citizenship?] Anyway, a leading German computer magazine claims in its latest issue, whilst examining the effects the Internet has on the world, that "European countries such as France, Canada and Italy" were taking measures against being americanized [in this case I write that even with a 'z'.] Welcome to Europe, Canadians... Yikes! What a bloody mess!

Editorial Note

Now that wuz a good one for a change, wuzn't it!

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