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Sat-ND, 11.9.97

Sat-ND, 11.9.97

Sat-ND, 11.9.1997 – Accidents will happen

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Today's Headlines

RUPERTWATCH
BBC backs down
What did you but that VCR for?
LAW & ORDER
Too many funerals lately
DIGITAL
Audionet I
Audionet II
BUSINESS
Iridium in Mexican deal?
CHANNELS
Freedom of speech
FEEDBACK
Sat-ND, 9.9.97
Operating systems

RUPERTWATCH

By Dr Sarmaz

BBC backs down

The article on the BBC's planned digital all-news channel (Sat-ND, 8.9.97) was a bit outdated. Indeed, the BBC has backed down for the time being following threats of its rival BSkyB.
The BBC plans to offer the channel, which is to be financed by licence fees, free to cable operators. Such a move could have created a 50 percent reach, in other words: a million cable households. Sky News, part of Mr Murdoch's BSkyB, was not amused – especially as it had proposed to increase its cable charges to cable operators from 46p to 49p per subscriber per month. At least one operator already thought about dropping Sky News from its network.
With BSkyB threatening legal action, the BBC asked the Culture, Media and Sports Secretary to withdraw the permission that had been given last July. In its request, the BBC said the Secretary may not have had all relevant information when he took the decision. The permission has meanwhile been withdrawn. The BBC will submit a new application next month, taking into account BSkyB's complaints about misuse of licence-payers' fees.
(Thanks to Michael Klontzas who contributed to this article.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.beeb.com/
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What did you but that VCR for?

TV viewers will soon begin to realise what digital TV is really about – and that's neither better picture quality [which isn't true anyway] nor just more channels.
It's about better exploitation of broadcasting rights, and notably the better protection of them – advantages for the service operator, but not necessarily for the customer. In effect, you will not have the slightest chance of receiving digital TV from neighbouring countries even if you were prepared to pay for them. It also means you will not be able to record anything you want on your VCR.
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has licensed Macrovision's pay-per-view (PPV) copy protection technology for inclusion in its digital video network. Under the agreement, BSkyB will implement Macrovision copy protection in its satellite uplink centres and in the digital set-top decoders. In addition, BSkyB will include copy protection control capability in its system software, and will require copy protection capability for its digital set-top decoders.
Ian West, Director – Digital and Business Development at BSkyB, explains what this actually means: "This will allow us to protect copyrighted programme material, and is designed to prevent unauthorised recording of PPV programmes."
Macrovision said in a statement its PPV technology "allows consumers to view, but not record, programs that are copy protected at the direction of system operators or program suppliers. The technology is designed to deter unauthorised home taping of digitally delivered PPV programs. This allows copyright owners to minimise cannibalisation of their home video revenues while maximising PPV system operator revenues."
Now, I don't want you to do anything illegal or to breach any contract with a digital service operator. Far from it! But you may nonetheless wonder whether a signal that can be displayed on a TV (remember, it's an ordinary, analogue video signal when it comes out of the box) cannot be recorded one way or the other.
http://www.macrovision.com/
http://www.bskyb.co.uk/
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LAW & ORDER

Too many funerals lately

India has temporarily relaxed its strict media laws after the death of Mother Teresa.
The move will allow foreign broadcasters such as CNN and the BBC to cover the the five-hour state funeral next Saturday. India's broadcast rules normally don't allow any satellite uplinks of foreign companies from Indian soil.
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DIGITAL

Audionet I

More U.S. radio stations will be carried live on the Internet – but they won't use Real Audio for a change.
At first look, the deal comprises all 71 stations owned by SFX Broadcasting, ten of which are already available on the Internet. As reported (Sat-ND, 25.8.97,) Dallas-based investment/buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate, & Furst Inc. reached a tentative agreement to acquire SFX Broadcasting. The deal will probably create the largest U.S radio station group ever as Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst [just love that name] controls two other groups of radio stations which together operate another 340 stations, including pending transactions.
Okay then, where will it happen? At Audionet (http://www.audionet.com/.) What do you need? Microsoft's NetShow 2.0. Sorry, Billy-bashers! I know, you'd like to have his money, and so do I.
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Audionet II

CNNRadio and Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) have formed a first-time agreement whereby Cancom's Audionet Digital Skyway becomes the exclusive sales, marketing and distribution agent for CNNRadio in Canada.
This agreement marks the first formal distribution deal for CNNRadio outside the United States, providing the service with unprecedented distribution opportunities to more than 3.7 million homes. For Cancom, this agreement supports Audionet's long-term plans to provide Canadian radio with the best satellite distribution service possible. These plans also include development of an exclusive content portfolio, of which CNNRadio is the cornerstone.
Cancom is Canada's leading provider of digital satellite services. CNNRadio is a full-service network providing more than 500 U.S. and international affiliates in seven countries the latest information in news, sports and business.
http://cnn.com/
http://www.cancom.com/ (I haven't tried this but I'm sure it'll work ;-)
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BUSINESS

Iridium in Mexican deal?

Here's yet more proof you shouldn't believe everything you read.
The Mexican business daily El Financiero speculated about an alliance between Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) and the satellite company Iridium, Inc., quoting confidential sources.
The alliance would imply "an investment of around 4.5 billion dollars to launch a private telecommunications satellite operated by Telmex," the sources added. Telmex was trying to get into a leading position prior to the deregulation of local and long distance telephone services.
While all that may be true in a way, a satellite that actually costs US$4.5 billion probably yet has to be devised. Actually, the whole 66-satellite Iridium system is expected to cost that much (up to US$5 billion, actually.)
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CHANNELS

Freedom of speech

The United States will send three special aircraft to Bosnia in order to jam radio and TV transmissions.
That's the only explanation of this move as these planes, equipped with transmitters, are capable of just that (apart from flying.) U.S. media said this was a reaction to what the Department of Defense (DOD) referred to as "political agitation" allegedly broadcast by Bosnian-Serb TV stations.
The planes are normally stationed in Brindisi, Italy, and that makes the whole story even more dubious. What the f*** are they doing there – waiting to jam European radio and TV transmissions the U.S. DOD doesn't like? Apparently so. It's interesting to notice that the United States obviously do not export their very own concept of Freedom of Speech [which I do admire] to other parts of the world.
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FEEDBACK

Sat-ND, 9.9.97

Detlef J. Schmidt knows the difference between bits and bytes, unlike me. Shame on me, then!
I claimed that TWR's planned satellite system (Sat-ND, 9.9.97) offered transmission rates of up to 3 Gbytes per second. Complete rubbish, as most of what I write ;-) I also wrote the system would offer "T1 rates (1.5 Mbytes/s)."
"To my knowledge a T1-Link goes at 1.5 Mbit/sec, this is a factor of 8 below. Probably the same applies to 3 GBytes/s: my guess is it's more likely to read it as 3 Gbit/sec (which is indeed a very good value)."
Yes, you're right, I just interpreted the "GB" from the press release as "Gigabytes." Somebody by the name of Hubert who preferred to stay unnamed [oops!] sent in an email to the same effect. Thanks for the correction!
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Operating systems

Just one thing I'd like to make clear: my recent comments on the features of operating systems (or rather, the lack of such) were not intended make any readers switch to Windows.
I use Windows 95 for my daily work, and as matter of fact, it works just fine for me. I don't hate Bill Gates neither do I admire him. I thinks he earns far too much but that's a political issue. From a business point of view, he actually deserves it.
In case you'd like to know, I received reports that the HTML format is handled well by email clients under OS/2, and if I understand it correctly, it can also be displayed by Lynx on U**x systems. Well, great! I don't know about Macintosh users – that's about the only OS I haven't tried so far, simply because I'd have to buy a very expensive new computer in order to do so, and I just don't feel like that at the moment.
Any guesses that I use just Windows are false: I have also have a computer running under Linux. Hower, it's not involved with the tedious production process of this so-called newsletter.
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Copyright 09.97 by Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved.
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