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TS News - Japan Learns More About DirecTV

TELE-satellit News, 2 July 1996

Japan Learns More About DirecTV
  TOKYO, Japan, 96/07/02 (TS) -- Japan has learnt more about the DirecTV
service that will start here in a few months. The test transmissions are
already going but few have seen them, no equipment had been launched.

  On Monday NEC began selling a reception unit and last week Toshiba and
Hitachi announced they would follow with models.

  Also on Monday the financial TV news service of the Nikkei Shimbun,
Japan's most influential business newspaper, relaunched its NSN - Nikkei
Satellite News channel and announced it would be part of the DirecTV package.

  Despite the re-launch, NSN, like most Japanese satellite and cable TV, is
far from the polished European and American cable channels that are now
invading Asian skies and can be compared with European satellite TV five or
ten years ago. The new digital services look set to change this with new
channels and, most importantly, new viewers who want more TV but are unable
to access cable.

  The one big success is state broadcaster NHK's DBS service. Over 10
million homes now receive the free-to-air BS-1 and BS-2 channels and 2
million also subscribe to Wowow, a pay TV movies channel on the satellite.
The bird is also home to NHK Hi-Vision, a channel broadcasting high
definition TV in the Japanese analog format. BS tuners can now be found as
standard in most TVs and video recorders.

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