31/8/00
Got my G drive back, lost what was on it (just pictures,mp3s and a cd image or 2). Keep an eye out for those Russian channels they may pop up FTA on some of the Russian satellites.
From my email
H.Spitaler reports reception of Knowledge Channel on Pas 8 with less picture breakup than before this signal may be a lot weaker than other transponders. One person in the chatroom reported it was fine on a 3.6M. Programming is in Tagalog (Philipino and English)
B.Richards supplys some screenshots of the Ebu feeds on Asiasat 2
From the Dish
Nothing to report other than the satellite at 103E has been renamed Express 9
NEWS
Russian Tower Fire
From www.tvnewsweb.com/
The fire at Ostankino television tower knocked Russia's state TV channels off the air in Moscow on Sunday. Firefighters brought the blaze under control by Monday, but by then at least three people had been killed and public channels ORT and RTR were still off the air.
Only Russia's private television station NTV broadcast the news to some 10 million Muscovites waiting to know why their screens had gone black.
NTV usually broadcasts via the Ostankino tower but was able to transfer programming to parent company Media Most's other channel TNT, which uses an independent satellite.
NTV director Yevgeny Kiselev offered the other channels the chance to broadcast on NTV's satellite. On Tuesday Media-Most suggested ORT had agreed to use NTV Plus satellite broadcasting equipment for the fee of $500,000 per annum but on Wednesday, RTR confirmed that both RTR and ORT had declined the offer.
Observers suggest that the state channels were uncomfortable at the idea of accepting a favour from NTV. NTV owner Media Most has been a stern critic of the Russian government, particularly of President Vladimir Putin.
According to Russian media reports, the Kremlin has put pressure on Media Most owner Vladimir Gusinsky to sell NTV to Russian gas giant Gazprom and negotiations for the sale have been under way this summer. Gusinsky spent three days in prison last June, but was later freed after a meeting with Putin.
RTR's Chief News Editor Alexander Abramenko confirmed to TVnewsweb an offer had come from Media-Most but it had financial strings attached: "The Media-Most offer was made but we had to pay money to broadcast with TNT and this was something the parties involved could not agree upon."
Alexander said ORT and RTR would be back on air on Wednesday evening, sharing a channel which would broadcast via the Ostankino tower. " We will have a mix of programmes from ORT and RTR on one channel - this will include news bulletins of each broadcaster. Our chief executives are meeting at the moment to discuss how we share the channel."
Technically this is possible by putting up a temporary analogue aerial at a height of 140 metres up the tower - below the area damaged by fire.
But this will transmit only one channel and its range will be less than the aerial at the top of Ostankino tower which is now out of action since the fire. As a result, some neighbourhoods in Moscow may still be without ORT and RTR for some time to come.
According to experts, it would take two to three months to erect an alternative transmission mast and restore broadcasting to the Russian capital. This may be the only realistic option. The 540-meter (1,770-foot) skyscraper -- Europe's tallest structure -- is listing visibly in the aftermath of the blaze and its long-term stability may be in doubt.
Featured earlier this month in News Talk, MIR TV is centrally involved in trying to get ORT and RTR back on air. Vladimir Suryokin of MIR TV told TVnewsweb the MIR team were already working on a more permanent solution: "We are trying to put together a digital packet which will allow five or six channels to broadcast." It is not clear how a digital transmisson solution would interface with the exisiting broadcast infrastructure across Russia, most of which is still analogue.
(Craigs note I saw this also which is of interest )
Two thirds of Russia's satellites decrepit
It's time for the annual warning issued by Russian Space Agency about the
state of the country's satellites. While the figures change from year to year,
not to the better, the general message has been the same for years: it's a
miracle that so many Russian satellites still work. Most of them are way beyond
their design life. Of 44 satellites, 34 could stop functioning at any moment,
according to an agency spokesman.
Gusinsky's NTV Plus profits from Ostankino fire
Russia's two biggest television channels, ORT and RTR, resumed limited
broadcasting in Moscow after the blackout caused by a fire at the Ostankino
television tower. In the meantime, sales of satellite dishes in the Moscow area
have mushroomed. Media mogul Vladimir Gusinsksy's NTV Plus pay-TV seems to be
the big winner as there is little free-to-air satellite TV that could be
received with small dishes.
A single terrestrial transmitter is currently operating from the tower,
broadcasting a joint ORT-RTR channel. By Monday, TV6 and NTV services are to be
restored, followed by two more channels by the middle of next week--all
operating from the lower part of the tower, which is more stable that initially
thought. From a height of 150 m, a transmitter has a reach of up to a 60-km
radius while from the top of the tower (500 m) the radius was up to 120 km.
Thus, the emergency transmitters only serve about a quarter of the area covered
by the regular ones.
Managers of NTV television have accused the authorities of giving priority to
state television, which is rather ridiculous not only because NTV Plus added
ORT to its satellite platform. The TV blackout helps NTV Plus acquiring new
subscribers for their pay-TV in an unprecedented manner, according to the
Moscow Times:
* Saturday, 26 August: 502 calls; 20 new subscription
* Sunday, 27 August: 7,951 calls; 86 subscriptions
* Monday, 28 August: 209,787 calls (of which only 2,790 could be answered);
1,000+ subscriptions.
Reportedly, factories in France and The Netherlands supplying NTV Plus
decoders switched to three-shift work.
Psychologists have said the television blackout could have negative
consequences for thousands of people addicted to daily viewing. Many Russians
spend up to five hours a day watching television, but they spend even more.
Most people who ordered NTV Plus during the past few days subscribed to its
standard package of (US$18.95 per month,) in addition to US$184 for dish,
decoder, and installation.
Prior to the Ostankino fire, NTV Plus had 140,000 subscribers, half of them
in the Moscow region.
Zee to start Rs 10 crore game show
From Indiantelevision.com
In an interview given to a business television channel, R K Singh, CEO of Zee Telefilms has said that Zee will soon launch a new game show offering Rs 10 crore as prize money to counter Star TVs Kaun Banega Crorepati. The show is likely to be aired in the same time slot as that of KBC and will directly compete with it.
The show will have a high degree of viewer interaction along with a very transparent elimination round. There will be around thirty participants who would be gradually eliminated to pick out a winner. Each elimination round is expected to reward the participants who made it till there.
Apart from the game show, Zee will be adding quite a few new shows of different genres to their channel
This move shows the pinch that Zee was facing from Star's KBC and the money that can be staked in these cable wars having fierce competition. However it is the Indian viewer who will eventually benefit from these one-upmanship moves.
* Six Indian satellites, GSLV delayed
India keeps up its satellite programme despite recently announced U.S.
sanctions. The inaugural flight of its Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle
(GSLV,) though, might be delayed until 2001 according to the Bangalore Deccan
Herald.
There are six Indian satellites to be put into orbit over the next two years:
communications satellites INSAT-3A and INSAT-3C are slated for launch aboard
Ariane rockets by the first half of 2001. Remote sensing satellites Cartosat
(IRS-P5) and Resourcesat (IRS-P6) are planned for launch during 2001-02 aboard
the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV.)
In addition, there will be two experimental satellites: GSAT, which will be
the first GSLV's payload carrying an S-band and a C-band transponder for
digital audio and television broadcasting and Internet services. The second one,
TES (Technology Experiment Satellite,) will carry light weight solar arrays for
use in IRS satellites in future. It will be launched aboard a PSLV.
The inaugural flight of the GSLV, originally expected this year, might be
delayed according to unnamed sources at the Indian Space Research Organisation
quoted by the paper. "We are looking for a date before October and if that is
not possible due to the monsoon, then almost certainly we will launch it by the
first quarter of 2001. The final dates will be decided by the end of this
month," the sources said.
Interactive TV still showing test pattern
By Megan McAuliffe, ZDNet Australia News
From www.zdnet.com.au
Waiting for Interactive TV to launch in Australia? Don't touch that dial. Organisers are demonstrating their set-top boxes and talking up features, but there's no network, no content and no launch date anytime soon.
Oracle, SGI, ICE Interactive and Liberate Technologies are partners in a bid to introduce an interactive TV and video-on-demand - iTVoD - service. Officials claim that the service they want to launch in Australia will be the first of its kind in the world. It will provide viewers with movies on tap, interactive program guides, program recording, Web access, online banking and limited e-mail facilities.
A pilot of iTVoD is being tested by 150 homes in the New South Wales country town of Orange. However, officials are unable to provide even an estimated commercial launch date, nor can they speculate on which content providers will be turning the blank screen into an interactive one for a commercial debut.
"It is network independent so a whole range of networks can use it from cable to DSL...," Managing Director of ICE Interactive Carl Braden said. However, there is no word as to which network providers may be interested in supporting the project.
Organisers expect the iTVoD system to be available in two versions when it hits the market. One version for residential users and another for use by hotels, hospitals and multi-dwelling units. In a hotel situation, for example. interactive TV could additionally offer electronic room service menus.
30/8/00
Live chat tonight at 8.30pm Sydney time onwards (may change next week) Nothing else to report for today except my G drive has disapeared and scandisk and Nortons will not find it.
From the Dish
Thaicom 3 "CMM Network" has left 3600 H Dig. "Aastha Channel" is now 24h/day. Same boquet
"CMM Music" is on 3554 V, Dig, PIDs 512/640.
NEWS
Zee Movies to be rebranded as Zee-MGM Movie Channel
From indiantelevision.com
In a bid to revitalise the sagging Zee Movies channel, Zee TV is relaunching it as Zee-MGM by mid October. No details were made available about the deal between MGM and Zee Telefilms for the partnership, excepting that it has been labeled as a joint venture.
Zee Movies had launched in mid-March 2000 with a library consisting of a la carte movies and shows from MGM, Pearson, Diskovery, Passport, Pearson, Fremantle. But it failed to make a dent with the channel. Offering competing fare was HBO which had launched around that time with better movies and packaging.
Indian viewers also failed to buy Zee TV's foray into English language programming as it is primary perceived to be a provider of Hindi entertainment and information fare. The rebranding and association with MGM should go some way in removing some of the dissonance in the earlier branding exercise. Mainly because MGM is an international brand and has had a pretty good run in the local theatrical cricuit.
But one will have to wait and watch whether viewers will get swayed away from the attractive fare that HBO is supposed to start beaming out over its south Asia channel with all the four studios agreeing to participate in the channel after close to three months of bickering.
The MGM library mainly consists heavily of sixties and seventies products. It includes such legendary series as James Bond, Rocky, Pink Panther. Other titles include award winning and popular movies - Thelma & Louise, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Moonstruck, Silence of the Lambs, Rain Man, Fargo, Dances with the Wolves and a host of others. Zee-MGM will also showcase critically acclaimed MGM masterpieces from the Woody Allen series as well as its vast repertoire of timeless classics.
Latest Olympic game: the race to prevent Webcasts
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
August 29, 2000, 12:40 p.m. PT
NEW YORK--Olympics officials will be sprinting after renegade broadcasters who attempt to deliver video of the Summer Games illegally over the Internet, in what could amount to an unofficial sideshow next month in Sydney.
Internet broadcasts of the games have been effectively banned because Olympic broadcasting contracts prevent companies from sending video or audio signals outside of their own national or regional territory.
But in an age when anybody with an inexpensive Web camera and Internet access can send an original broadcast around the world, restrictions that keep Olympic broadcasting off the Internet are seen by some as out of date.
"I don't think realistically there's anything to prevent someone from putting a camera or taking a feed off Australian TV and--against the rules--streaming" video over the Internet, said David Bohrman, chief executive of Pseudo.com, a New York-based producer of Internet video.
"The Internet doesn't know any international boundaries," he said.
But Olympics officials will be watching next month.
"If someone has the capacity for major distribution, it's a copyright violation, and we will find some way to close it down," said Richard Pound, vice president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
"We have a pretty sophisticated monitoring system. If someone is stealing a signal off a satellite, we can find out where it's originating and take action," mostly through legal injunctions, he added.
Even then, stopping a renegade Internet broadcaster quickly could prove to be an uphill battle.
"It can be very difficult to trace back and find the person," said Andrew Toner, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers' technology-risk services division.
Demand for live access to the games will be a particular concern in some countries, such as the United States, where broadcasts are going to be delayed for many hours. For example, the women's 400-meter swimming finals will be shown by NBC on the evening of Sept. 16 in the United States--more than a half-day after they actually occur in Sydney.
This is likely to act as an incentive to hackers, who could react by sending the games over the Internet live.
Challenging intellectual property rules is nothing new for hackers and entrepreneurs. The U.S. recording industry has been locked in a struggle to quash Napster, an Internet-based music sharing service, and Hollywood and the computer industry face an increasing challenge from video and software pirates.
The IOC sells rights to about a dozen national and regional broadcasting groups, which are allowed to send signals only within their area.
The Internet has thrown a wrench in such deals; by its nature the Web can reach anyone connected to a computer, regardless of location. In recent years, local radio and TV stations have sent out select broadcasts over the Internet, using services such as Yahoo's Broadcast.com.
General Electric's NBC, the biggest spender on Olympic broadcasting rights, wants to direct as many viewers as it can to its TV broadcasts--where advertisers pay top dollar--and keep video coverage off its Internet site.
"I think when we paid $705 million for the rights to the games, you have a duty to protect it and steer the biggest possible audience toward the coverage," said Kevin Sullivan, vice president of communications for NBC Sports.
But some Internet companies say video broadcasts over the Web could enhance traditional broadcasts.
"There's a huge pie, and it needs to be looked at more closely," said Tonya Antonucci, Yahoo's senior producer for sports, news and weather. "TV only has so many programming hours. There's a huge opportunity to expand that and make more use of it, and leverage (coverage) on the Internet, where there are limitless viewing hours."
Antonucci and other Internet executives will have an opportunity to raise issues about Olympics broadcasts at a conference on new media and the games to be hosted by the IOC in December in Lausanne, Switzerland.
There, TV broadcasters, Internet companies and media experts will discuss how to incorporate the Internet into future Olympics broadcasts.
One solution is to use Internet location tracers--which work imperfectly--or to limit Web broadcasts to fixed, high-speed Internet connections, such as cable, that tie people to specific locations.
Axient Communications will be demonstrating the latter method in one of two experiments with Web broadcasting technology approved by the IOC. The other is a similar trial in Australia, said the IOC's Pound.
Phoenix-based Axient will deliver 10 minutes of Olympics video coverage from the previous day's NBC video feed to high-speed Internet users who subscribe to specially licensed U.S. Internet service providers.
But even if compromises can be ironed out among some broadcasters at the December discussions, any one of the broadcasting partners from around the world can effectively block changes that allow for Internet broadcasts, Pound said.
Contracts that ban Internet broadcasts are in effect until 2008, the Olympics official added.
Still, officials will continue to evaluate how new technologies change the rules of the game and make it possible to satisfy a variety of audiences.
"On the basis of what we learn from our experience in Sydney, we'll try to devise a strategy for the Internet that will allow us to make the maximum use of an exciting new medium," Pound said.
Story Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Seven Breach Copyright?
Reuters Television may consider taking legal action against Australian broadcaster Seven Network over an alleged breach of copyright.
Both parties confirmed to TVnewsweb that the material in question is footage of a shark attack shot in South Africa. Reuters Television claims these pictures were used without its permission by Seven Network.
As the matter is still under discussion, Reuters and Seven Network would only comment further in general terms. Neither side confirmed one hundred percent that legal action would ensue.
Phillip Melchior, Managing Director of Reuters Media, told TVnewsweb "Reuters takes the protection of its intellectual property very seriously and in any instance where it appears our property is being used outside the provisions of a contract, we can be expected to pursue redress against whoever is using our material outside the provisions of a contract."
Seven Network's top lawyer, General Council Michael Lloyd-Jones confirmed to TVnewsweb that discussions with Reuters on this issue have taken place. He said "We have had discussions with Reuters but we weren't aware of any further legal proceedings outside of these discussions."
Michael said Seven Network was waiting for Reuters to make the next move: "The next step has not yet been defined, the discussions are ongoing and we are waiting for Reuters to come back to us."
Phillip said Reuters was increasingly concerned by breaches of copyright, with areas like the internet being difficult to police: "This has been of concern to us for some time in a variety of different areas - for example the way in which the Concorde crash picture was used outside contractual provision. Another example of this was Channel Seven's use of the shark attack footage."
29/8/00
Site update was delayed due to a weird crash on my pc when I rebooted after leaveing it downloading overnight. Has anyone checked the russians sats? There may be some channels shifted to satellite due to the big tv tower fire they had over there. A Digital camera has just turned up at my place on loan. Expect some pictures of sheep to appear soon on the site.
Main Television and Radio Broadcasting Centre
http://www.tvtower.ru/2_Razdel_TotalInfo/eng
From my Email
D.Holbrook supplies some screenshots of the new Testcards appearing on Pas 8
From the dish
Apstar 1A 134E "CETV 2" is back with regular transmissions on 3900 V PAL, 6,60 MHz.
Express 6A 80E "ORT" (+4h) has started on 3875 R, SECAM, 7,50 MHz.
Thaicom 3 78.5E "CMM Network" has started on 3554 V, Dig, PIDs 512/640. makeing this much harder for any one in Australia to receive without a huge dish
NEWS
* Moscow without radio and TV
The blaze in Moscow's Ostankino television tower certainly is a tragic event
that claimed the lives of several people. Notwithstanding, as a side-effect one
of the greatest social experiments of our time was launched: millions of
households might be without almost any television and radio for months.
15 TV channels were broadcast from the tower in addition to 14 stereo radio
channels, each requiring a transmitter of its own. According to the Main
Television and Radio Broadcasting Centre, transmitters of up to 60 kW of power
were installed.
The tower also was a central hub for radio and TV lines, which explains why
electronic media in other parts of Russia were also briefly off the air. Links
could be re-established using satellite feeds, but the region within a radius
of up to 120 km around the tower is left virtually left without terrestrial
radio and TV channels, affecting up to 10 million people (at least those without
access to cable or satellite.)
Reportedly, only two TV channels can currently be received in Moscow. Alexei
Malinin, deputy head of NTV, told one of those stations that "Unfortunately our
forecast right now is not optimistic. We will not be able to establish regular
broadcasting, by my forecasts, for several months."
Emergency transmitters could be set within two or three week's time, but they
will at best reach only one third of the audience in the Moscow region.
The fire seems to have been started by a short circuit and then spread along
the cabling--something that actually could have been prevented by higher safety
standards (which were known in Eastern Europe at the end of the Sixties, and
applied for instance in the design of the East Berlin television tower.)
Moscow tower fire out
By OLGA NEDBAYEVA
MOSCOW
Tuesday 29 August 2000
From www.theage.com.au
Firemen managed finally to put out the flames ravaging Moscow's high-rise Ostankino media tower late last night.
But Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said he feared three people trapped since yesterday in a lift inside the tower were now dead.
The tower is Europe's tallest structure and ranked second in the world after a similar needle-point in Toronto.
Nearly 24 hours after the fire broke out, disrupting television and radio broadcasts to the Moscow region, police reported that the flames had been extinguished.
"The fire has been put out. It is now only smoldering," Marat Syrtlanov, deputy head of the Russian interior ministry press service, said.
He confirmed that three people, one fireman and two civilians, were known to be missing.
The 540-metre concrete and metal structure, twice the size of the Eiffel tower and a once-proud landmark on the Moscow skyline, was listing slightly but visibly.
President Vladimir Putin admitted that the blaze had underlined the desperate state of the nation.
In the wake of the emergency, and following the Kursk submarine tragedy that killed 118 seamen earlier this month, the Russian president said it was no longer possible to conceal that the country was in shambles and could only re-emerge by rebuilding its economy.
"This new emergency situation shows what state our most vital objects, and the country as a whole, is in," Putin told ministers.
Rescue workers said that more than half of all inside cables that support the 33-year-old tower - which also boasts a restaurant - had ripped.
Firemen said that the top third of Ostankino had been destroyed.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said restoring television was the government's chief priority.
"By the end of the day it should become clear how much work will have to be put into this," Kasyanov was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Moscow prosecutors launched a criminal probe, citing an article of the criminal code which covers damage to property as a result of negligence.
Both Interior Ministry officers and Federal Security Service (FSB, ex-KGB) investigators were on the scene to inspect damage to a tower that was also reportedly the base for some of Russia's most important intelligence-gathering devices.
Although mobile telephones functioned today, several of the city's main paging services were no longer online.
Some 250 firefighters with 40 fire engines and a helicopter were deployed to the tower by mid-day yesterday when the blaze went off, apparently sparked by a short circuit in the wiring.
The blaze knocked 12 television stations off the air and disrupted radio and video transmissions.
Journalists at the scene have been offered only scant details of the accident and advised to move hundreds of metres away from the tower in case it came crashing down.
Authorities had ordered the evacuation of a zone 500 metres around the tower. No residential buildings were situated within the circumference.
"It's theoretically possible that the tower could collapse," said Nikolai Saradzhev, head of Moscow's fire department.
Experts sounded more optimistic, saying they thought the structure would withstand the extreme temperatures.
Luzhkov, the Moscow mayor, was one of the first to rush to the scene and quickly conceded that Ostankino, a tourist attraction known for its view of the city, could never be rebuilt.
In a sign of the seriousness of the effects of the television blackout, Putin also met Communications Minister Leonid Reyman to discuss ways to resume broadcasts through reserve antennas, news agency reports said.
The fire initially knocked out the broadcasts of only six stations, NTV, TV-6, STS-8, M1, TV-Centre and the cultural channel, Kultura.
But, shortly afterwards, interruptions started to cut into the main channels such as the semi-public ORT and RTR, both of which finally blacked out entirely with all other stations at 6pm yesterday.
Rationale for TV laws flawed, says `godfather'
By JANE SCHULZE
Tuesday 29 August 2000
From www.theage.com.au
A self-styled "godfather" of Australian broadcasting regulation, Mike Hutchinson, has publicly disputed the underlying concept of our broadcasting regulation - that Australia has the best TV in the world.
Mr Hutchinson, who oversaw the the partial privatisation of Telstra and was deputy secretary of the Department of Transport and Communications in the late '80s, said he never doubted the competitive restrictions on the TV industry was aimed at protecting TV network profits.
He said that rationale, which stems from the idea that we have the best TV in the world and the industry needs oligopolistic profits to maintain that standard, was flawed.
"We do not need to underwrite oligopoly profits to require licensees to observe mandated community standards," he said.
He gave the analogy of a restaurant being protected from competition, enabling it to earn oligopolistic profits so it could afford to comply with public health and hygiene regulations.
Mr Hutchinson was speaking at the end of a conference on regulation of the broadcasting and telecommunications industries as they converged.
He argued that companies able to bypass the current restrictive broadcasting regulations should not be suppressed by further regulation.
According to his speaking notes, he disagreed with the policy approach based on the argument that the local TV industry was the best in the world.
"Jingoism is usually a poor basis for much public policy," he said. "We also know that, other than perhaps in technical picture and sound quality, the statement is at best improbable and at worst demonstrably false as a generality."
Mr Hutchinson said some aspects of Australian television could be considered the best in the world, such as the sports coverage.
"But the worst is almost certainly among the worst in the world. The overall balance is - personal view - pretty mediocre," he said.
He described as "extraordinary" the decision to protect TV networks from competition until 2006.
Mr Hutchinson said the existing political system did not accept that the market will meet community needs in relation to broadcasting.
"The urge to protect citizens from themselves and their own free choices seems increasingly pervasive in segments of our political system," he said.
"We should all be deeply worried about the national harm that is now flowing from the repeated signals of lack of confidence in market mechanisms that are coming from our national leadership institutions."
But he argued that converging industries should not be subjected to further regulation.
"Just because an emerging service appears to lie outside regulation is no reason to extend that regulation," he said. "Regulation is addictive and contagious and largely debilitating."
Although intrusive regulation was a corollary to the broadcasting sector's economic protection, he said it should be quarantined to that industry sector.
"If innovators can create a bypass to this protection and this regulation for new services then good for them," he said.
He described the convergent industries as a high-wire act.
Pay TV has short lead over free-to-air
By JANE SCHULZE
Tuesday 29 August 2000
From www.theage.com.au
While pay TV will gain a jump start in interactive TV, the free-to-air TV industry's mass reach will allow it to quickly catch up, according to a new survey.
Digital Business Consulting principal Tim O'Keefe and Webb Consulting's Peter Webb were commissioned by interactive TV group ICE Interactive to conduct a survey of companies with stakes in the interactive TV future.
They concluded that most believed the introduction of interactive TV would be an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary process, but it could eventually become an important vehicle for e-commerce in homes.
They found there were two approaches to interactive TV - connected iTV (which has a two-way link) and unconnected iTV (where information is stored on theset-top box).
Mr Webb said pay TV companies were in the best position to provide connected iTV services due to their cable or satellite links, and existing population of set-top boxes, while the free-to-air broadcasters believed unconnected iTV may initially help them offer program enhancements.
"They appear to view unconnected iTV as being the forerunner to connected iTV," he said.
28/8/00
Live chat tonight 8.30pm Sydney time onwards, yes I know about the Daylights saveings time we will see how it goes and Wednesday or next Monday adjust the time forward 30-60mins. Thats going to mess up a lot of tv guides and program times! D. Holbrook has sent me some screenshots and I have done changes to the Asiasat2,3,Pas 8 pages and gallerys adding new shots of channels like Urdu tv and Ekushey etc plus a lot of the missing ones. Sattrader page updated with new advert also (this page will go once the new design is finished)
I have got my hands on a copy of Adobe Golive 5, a newer version of the software i use to do the site with so hopefully that will go ok when I install it later. The old version 4 has a few annoying bugs which can cause crashes when I update the page also the ocasional glitch where it puts ? instead of " in sections of text.
From my email
Mixo reports Mega working again on Thaicom 3!! Data table is back with the signal and all is well again with the Strong 4600
Advert
For sale! Prices are in NZ$ and don't include postage
12' Mesh dish (new) Horizon/Horizon mount $1500.00
18" and 24" Jacks offers
3.4m Mesh dish (new) Polar mount $1000.00
3.8m Mesh dish, polar mount with 24" jack (slightly used) $650.00
Yuri analogue receiver
Echostar analogue receiver
The Antenna Man
Craig Julian
Ph 06-758 1633
antenna.man@xtra.co.nz
From the Dish
Panamsat 2 169E "One TV" (South Korea) is back on 3980 H SR 4413, FEC 3/4.
Panamsat 8 166.5E "Bloomberg TV Asia" has left 3940 H a TV test card for Rav TVand an Olympics Data Channel test card have started in this Boquet.
Thaicom 3 78.5E "Mega Cosmos" Data table is back in channel stream
NEWS
Hong Kong to Decide on Digital TV Standard
From www.satnewsasia.com
/Satnews Asia/ -- Hong Kong is expected to announce by year-end its transmission standard for digital terrestrial TV. According to Samuel Lui, assistant secretary at the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau (ITBB), the department is currently working on a consultation paper, which will also map out DTV legislation and roll out schedule.
There are no details, though industry experts point out that Hong Kong?s selection would depend very much on greater China. ?From an economic point of view alone, Hong Kong would benefit from selecting the same standard as China?, said Tim Kelly, controller of engineering at TVB, a local terrestrial broadcaster. He said that the proposed launch date is beginning of 2003, at the earliest. A committee set up by TVB, ATV (another terrestrial broadcaster) and ITBB completed a one-year test at the end of 1999.
The test was conducted using ATSC, DVB and ISDB standards. The current school of thought is that Hong Kong may go for a hybrid of DVB and Japan?s ISDB standard - but it is highly unlikely that it will pursue the US? ATSC.
Last October, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, K C Kwong, stated at the 1999 Asia Pacific Electronics Symposium and Intelligent Transportation Technologies Forum that following the completion of the 1998 Television Policy Review, the Government decided to proceed with a technical trial with a view to determining the most suitable DTT standard for adoption in Hong Kong. The Government has since established a government-industry steering committee to coordinate the trial.
The Government is well within their time frame since their target was to commence DTT broadcasting within two years on satisfactory completion of the trial. Kwong said that but the government will allow simulcast of analogue and digital television broadcast in Hong Kong in the initial stage. On radio broadcasting, Mr. Kwong noted that countries all over the world were at various stages of testing or launching digital broadcast services. And Hong Kong is no exception.
"We are making good progress towards paving the way for the early introduction of such services," he said, adding that since the end of last year, the three local radio broadcasters had been conducting a technical trial of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) with a view to establishing the feasibility of territory-wide coverage of DAB signals.
The technical trial has just been completed and the results are generally positive and assuring. Apart from examining the technical aspects, the Government has commissioned a consultancy study to examine the market and regulatory issues concerning the introduction of DAB in Hong Kong.
Worldspace, Malaysia's Asiaspace.Com Discuss Broadcasting Deal
From www.satnewsasia.com
/Satnews Asia/ -- World Space Corporation of Washington DC and Asiaspace.com are currently negotiating to co-promote satellite-based digital audio and multimedia broadcasting services in Malaysia.
Early this month, the All India Radio (AIR) commenced broadcast of programs to countries in West Asia and north-east Africa in digital mode to ensure greater clarity in reception without distortion or fading effect using WorldSpace Communication's facilities, Afristar with uplinking facility in Johannesburg.
WorldSpace is a pioneer in direct-to-receiver satellite audio service, initially implementing its digital audio technology in Africa last year via the Afristar satellite, and Asiastar, launched in March 2000.
After the successful launched of AsiaStar in March this year, WordSpace is now making its debut in Asia, Dr. MG Chandrasekhar, executive vice president and co-chief operating officer of the corporation announced last week.
AsiaStar is located at 105 degrees East and will provide the continent of Asia with high quality digital music, news, information, and educational audio and multimedia services.
Noah Samara, Chairman and CEO of WorldSpace said, "In parallel with the launch and acceptance of the AsiaStar satellite, we have been working very closely with broadcasters and government administrations in several countries to bring the very best mix of programming to the people of Asia."
The AsiaStar satellite is the second of a three-satellite global digital radio system pioneered by WorldSpace, a company founded by Mr. Samara in 1990. Worldspace's satellite network will consist of three geostationary satellites. The third satellite, Ameristar, is scheduled to be launched in second quarter of 2001. Each satellite has three beams with each beam capable of delivering more than 40 channels of crystal clear audio and multimedia programming directly to portable receivers.
Once fully completed the WorldSpace system will usher in a new era of digital radio broadcasting via satellites. This global satellite services will transmit information, education, lifestyle and entertainment programs to a service area that includes 4.6 billion people, Chandrasekhar said. Listeners will use special receivers needed to receive the WorldSpace service. WorldSpace has worked with Hitachi, JVC , Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sanyo to produce receivers that range in price from US$250 to US$400.
AsiaStar, like its sister satellite AfriStar, has three large downlink beams. These beams cover the entire continent of Asia, including a part of Eastern Africa. Anywhere in its coverage area, portable WorldSpace satellite receivers will have access to over 40 high quality broadcast channels. These channels can be broadcast from anywhere within Asia and neighboring regions within the uplink beam covering one-third of the earth. Currently, two uplink stations are in operation at Melbourne and Singapore and additional stations are planned. The service offerings include regional and global news and music channels, global and Closed User Groups (CUG) multimedia and real-time data broadcasts.
WorldSpace has built an uplink facility in Singapore at which the majority of Asian regional content providers will send their programs to the AsiaStar satellite for broadcast to Asia.
Only recently, the company has entered into joint venture agreement with Media Citra IndoStar of Indonesia that will help install and operate a feeder link uplink station, and with the state of Gujerat in India to provide fishermen with receivers to broadcast cyclone-warnings and other weather data to warn fishermen of dangers in the deep seas.
AGIS and MIH International to Develop DTH in Indonesia
From www.satnewsasia.com
/ Satnews Asia/ -- Listed Indonesian company Artha Graha Investama Sentral (Agis) will expand its media business by bringing in a strategic investor South African multi-media company called MIH International to develop DTH services for Indonesia, according to Television Asia.
According to the publication's sources, the project has a total capital projected of US$40 million and services is expected to commence as early as the end of this year.
Agis is the largest electronic chain store in Indonesia with 1,500 agents all over Indonesia. Just recently, Agis became the sole distributor of electronic home appliances for US General Electric after entering an alliance with General Electric (GE) Capital.
MIH is an international pay-television, internet and interactive technology group. It operates in over 50 countries delivering services and entertainment to millions of people on a business to business basis and to consumers via the television or the Internet. Supported by a network of high profile and influential partners MIHL has grown into a multinational provider of entertainment, interactive and e-commerce services. MIH was one of the first pay-television companies in the world to provide digital satellite service and it has remained at the forefront of technology development ever since.
The MIH group manages leading internet operations in Africa and Thailand and has begun investments in internet operations in China. It currently owns a 16,85 % interest in M-Web Holdings Limited (M-Web Africa), the leading African online service provider. Utilizing the MCA digital satellite television platform and its own broadband satellite service, M-Web Africa is well positioned to bring the internet to 41 countries on the African continent.
Indonesia is a substantial and attractive market for DTH services. Indonesia has an estimated 50 million homes, of which around 25 million have television. Television broadcasting had been provided exclusively by the government for 27 years, until in 1988 the government issued the first license to broadcast commercially. Commercial broadcasting is now a competitive industry operating on a national basis.
Today, only Indovision provides Indonesia with DTH satellite television service, featuring 20 channels, both national and international. Indovision is a joint-venture between Datakom Asia and Rupert Murdoch's Hong Kong-based STAR TV.
27/8/00
A view screenshots today. Not a lot else happening. Crickets probably on Ekushey tv right now, perhaps 701(180E) 4060R SR5632 fec 3/4 Apid 256 Vpid 308 PCR8190 again.
From my Email
H.Spitaler asks if anyone can still receive Lakbay tv from Pas 8 or Knowledge Channel also on pas 8 Cband?
Pete (In the U.S.A) needs a analog signal on I701 to peak his dish with if you spot a analog signal there give him a buzz on icq 20244951 if you see one.
From the Dish
Asiasat 2 100.5E 4085V SR1065 Fec 2/3 "Football Feed"
HTB 130E
THT 130E
26/8/00
Problems with power levels at Napa? Ihug in there message of the day wrote
UNSCHEDULED : Satellite carriers interrupted.
Sat Aug 26 13:16:42 2000
Ultra DBS users will have experience a brief interruption to service due
to a problem with power control at the uplink site in the United States.
Other users may have experienced some international connectivity problems
as traffic would have switched to ground links.
The problem has now been resolved and we apologise for any inconvenience
caused.
Ihug uses Pas 2 and Pas 8
From my Email
Hi,
In response to your request on Mega TV reception via Thiacom3.
I can confirm that my Nokia 9200 loaded with DV2000 software will only load Mega TV video when it is specifically selected through PID input but NO AUDIO. The video also blanks out every 5 - 10 sec, so it is not reliable. it will acknowledge that the service is there when doing an Auto search BUT comes up with PAT Error.
My Strong 4800 will not load the 3640 transponders in Auto search, BUT when you do a channel copy through the crude ch editing system and load all the PID's you do get Mega TV both with Video and Audio.
I hope that helps.
Alek
H. Spitaler reports problems with picture breakup on the "Knowledge channel" this is on pas 8 cband
Problems also reported by R Anthony with the Jedi channels on Pas 8 KU
(update R Anthony reports Pas 8 TVB power back to normal)
From the Dish
Palapa C2 113E "Open TV" has left 3916 H Dig
NEWS
Race on for the Sri Lankan cricket rights
from indiantelevision.com
The race is on to bag the rights to telecast Sri Lankan cricket in India. The major players in the running are Sony Entertainment Television's Set Max channel, Zee Sports, ESPN-Star Sports and other production companies.
Set Max, which had acquired the telecast rights for all the cricket matches played in Sri Lanka in the previous season, had paid a sum of $7.75 million to the Sri Lankan Cricket Board. Channel bosses have been making a pitch to bag the rights over the past two-three weeks. Sony Entertainment's Anand Desai is believed to have made a pitch, as also ESPN-Star's Manu Sawhney. Sony apparently has the first right of refusal for the rights.
The Sri Lankan board is hoping to make an announcement soon. Zee Sports is in desperate need of good cricket product for its Zee Sports channel as is Sony for Set Max. If ESPN-Star bags the rights it will be in the drivers' seat in the Indian market as it will have wrapped up all the major telecast rights for cricket for cricket mad Indian audiences. Stay tuned.
MTV India will join the pay-TV clan; to be encrypted soon
from indiantelevision.com
Riding on the success of it's music channel, MTV has decided that it is the time when it can exploit its potential as a strong brand an take the pay-TV route.
Speaking to The Economic Times, MTV Networks Asia president Frank Brown announced that the channel will be encrypted at the 'right opportunity'.
The decision to go from free-to-air channel to pay-TV is fueled by the findings of a recent study conducted by MTV to judge its performance throughout the various countries it is aired. India was the fourth in terms of growth of the channel next only to MTV strongholds Brazil, the US and Italy. Even in terms of revenue earnings in Asia, India was somewhere on the top of its list.
Also, close on the heels of launching MTV clothing and other branded merchandise in India, MTV will be taking the air waves by storm and will enter the radio broadcasting business. This would mean that music aficionados can tune into the FM radio channel and listen to their favourite music from MTV. This is part of MTV's strategy to become a 360 degree brand and extend the brand in other possible youth products.
Packer has a thing for the Big B
From indiantelevision.com
If there is one person who seems to be smitten by the Big B's charisma then it has to be Kerry Packer.
The Australian media tycoon, whose broadcasting company Channel Nine, has bagged the rights for the prime time slot between 7 pm to 10 pm on Doordarshan's Metro (DD-2) channel is actively wooing Amitabh Bachchan. Rumours are that James Packer wants him to quit the tremendously popular game show on Star Plus Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) and move onto anchor the show Greed which it plans to introduce on the DD-2 channel for which Packer has the rights for prime time slots.
Amitabh Bachchan is said to have signed an agreement with Star TV which restricts him from anchoring any show with a similar format on any of the satellite channels. Star says that it has extended the contract with AB from 130 episodes to 450.
However, DD-2 is a terrestrial channel and Packer might be eager to exploit this loop hole if Star TV has not plugged it already. The show, Greed, is apparently a take off on the popular ABC show Who wants to be a millionaire on which KBC is based.
Kerry Packer has offered sops to AB such as showing an interest in picking up a stake in the beleaguered A B Corp, formerly known as ABCL or Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited.
Recently restructured, A B Corp has decided to restrict its scope of activities to producing and distributing movies after burning its hands in many other ventures like organising the Miss Universe contest.
Sony and Sky launch digital satellite set-top box
200,000 units to be produced by end-2000
Sony United Kingdom Limited is to launch its digital satellite set-top box on 1 September, bringing a wider choice of reception equipment than ever before to Sky digital subscribers and other digital satellite viewers. The new decoder is characterised by a unique, slimline design that is expected to appeal to image-conscious consumers and strengthen digital satellite television's position as the UK's leading digital TV service.
Production of the Sony set-top box is already well underway, with shipments to retailers having begun in the week ending 26 August. Sony, the sixth manufacturer of digital satellite set-top boxes, is committed to producing in excess of 200,000 units by the end of this year.
The new unit will form part of Sky digital's free digibox and minidish offer, which is helping millions of viewers to join the digital television revolution. Under the offer, viewers receive a free minidish and digibox from Sky, paying only for installation of the equipment.
Richard Freudenstein, BSkyB general manager, said:
"Sky is delighted to welcome Sony's leading-edge design to the existing range of digital satellite set-top boxes. This initiative extends choice for Sky digital viewers and further demonstrates Sky's ability to meet continuing strong demand for digital satellite television, especially in the lead-up to the key Christmas sales period."
Steve Dowdle, deputy managing director and head of consumer products group, Sony United Kingdom Limited, said:
"Sony is pleased to announce the development of its digibox. Sony already has a vast range of digital terrestrial products and this digibox is the first of many products we expect to launch for digital satellite."
Mr Dowdle continued:
"The Sony set-top box is the first digibox to feature a digital audio output (DAO). This feature allows digital audio recording of most channels, including the many audio channels now available, and is ideal for downloading directly to your MiniDisc. The DAO of Sony's digibox features the SCMS copy protection system."
Sky and Sony are working together to develop integrated digital television sets (iDTVs) that can receive both digital satellite broadcasts and free-to-air digital terrestrial channels. The iDTVs are expected to come to market in summer 2001.
Both companies are also co-operating on future developments in home networking technologies such as the IEEE1394 standard, "i.Link". This technology offers a vision of the digital future, seamlessly interconnecting household appliances and audio and visual equipment via a high-speed digital connection.
25/8/00
Was up untill 4.30 a.m due to a windows crash my fault i installed the wrong software for the usb-usb transfer cable mind you on the site it was labled usb-usb-networking software. Stupid pc would not even boot in safe mode after and of course windows crashed in the middle of reinstalling all fixed now though. Crickets on now NZ not doing well as usual.
from my email
For Sale hyndai hsc100
does everything except mega!
Can see working if you live in Melbourne!
$$300
mixo66@hotmail.com
Another for sale
Satellite / CATV Equipment For Sale (New & Used) Price in $NZ
Name: Steve Johnson
Location: Pukekohe, Sth Auckland
Contact: (09) 238 3083
1 Paraclipse 3.8m eclipse mesh antenna (polar mount) 750.00
1 Patriot 3.1m solid antenna (polar mount) + custom made tripod mount 1400.00
1 Andrews 3.0m solid antenna + custom made mount (needs finishing). 850.00
Currently mounted on custom built tandem trailer (needs finishing) 3000.00
1 Cal-Amp C-band LNBF (3.7 – 4.2 GHz / 25 K) new, in box 140.00
1 Zintech C-band LNBF (3.4 – 4.2 GHz / 20 K) new, in box 85.00
1 Cal-Amp CP400 C-band feed (linear/circular, f/d .285 to .335) 200.00
1 Chaparral C-band micropak feed + mounting ring (3.7 – 4.2 GHz) new, in box 120.00
1 Scientific Atlanta 9223 Power Vu receiver (authorised for CMT) 1750.00
2 Strong SRT-4600 digital receiver (new in box) 485.00 each
1 Palcom SL-7900RP analogue receiver with positioner 180.00
1 Echostar LT-5300 analogue receiver with positioner 150.00
1 Von Weise 24" actuator100.00
1 Von Weise 24" actuator (as new)200.00
1 Von Weise 18" actuator (as new)150.00
1 CDM-600 Standards converter (PAL, NTSC & SECAM) 200.00
1 Spectra Explorer spectrum analyser (uses TV as a monitor) 200.00
3 Winersat WCM-300 RF modulator (Ch E6, S11 & S12) 19? rack mount 100.00 each
2 PDX PSA-1060S CATV sine wave power supply (60V AC / 10 amp) 250.00 each
1 PDX CATV line extender amplifier (model: LA-750 MHz) – as new 200.00
2 PDX CATV line extender amplifier (model: LA-750 MHz) – new in box 280.00 each
All equipment + GST except for Australian buyers
Genuine enquiries to: Steve Johnson (09) 238 3083 New Zealand Phone Number
From the Dish
Possible feeds this weekend
Saturday 26th August
4 a.m Syd Golf Nec Invitation
9.am Syd Baseball Little League World Series (Pas 2 maybe)
2.pm Syd AFL
Sunday 27th August
7.30 am Syd Golf Senior Pga Tour
1.30 pm Syd NRL Grand Final B1/B3 or mediasat
2.30 pm Syd AFL
NEWS
Home Box Office movie channel operations from September 1
RECORDER REPORT
from www.brecorder.com
LAHORE (August 25) : The Home Box Office (HBO) the world's famous movie channel, is to launch its operations in Pakistan from September 1 as part of the newly-formed HBO South Asia venture.
This was announced by James Marturano, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing HBO, South Asia, in a press conference here on Thursday.
.He said this 24-hour channel would air English language blockbuster movies from four major Hollywood Studios, -- Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The subscribers in Pakistan will be able to enjoy blockbuster movies from the top Hollywood studios, he said.
"We expect HBO will be welcomed by the cable operators and subscribers alike throughout Pakistan," James said.
.He further stated that LEO Communications had been awarded the exclusive rights to distribute the HBO service in Pakistan.
.To a question he said: "We understand that Pakistan is a lucrative market for TV cable business and HBO channel will receive a tremendous success here."
.Qaiser Khan, chief executive officer, Leo Communications, said that the HBO was the leading English language subscription movie channel having 37 million subscribers throughout the world...The affiliation between the LEO Communications and the HBO represents the start of a revolution in the emerging cable TV market. The HBO will set a standard for further entrants into the Pakistani market, he said.
The HBO South Asia operations will be managed through HBO Asia in Singapore, he said.
24/8/00
Cricket 11.45a.m tommorow NZ vs South Africa winner plays in Sundays Final vs Pakistan, on Ekushey Tv As3 and probably on I701 again Intelsat 701(180E) 4060R SR5632 fec 3/4 Apid 256 Vpid 308 PCR8190
Knowledge channel new on Pas 8 see below. Screenshots posted soon.
P.S my Laptops here :-)
From the Dish
Pas 8 166E "Knowledge Channel" has started on 3706 V , sr 3200, fec 3/4, SID 10, PIDs 4090/4091.
Asiasat 3 105.5E "Zee Music" has encrypted (still fta on Aurora Zee though)
NEWS
Optimism grows for interactive TV
KATE MACKENZIE of australianIT.com.au
PROSPECTS for interactive television in Australia improved today with the launch of software for set-top boxes.
OpenTV, a Nasdaq-listed company which has deployed its technology in 50 countries, today launched its Sydney offices with Communications Minister, Senator Richard Alston.
Set-top boxes are devices which can be attached to a standard television set, and use a modem chip to access interactive content via a standard phone line.
The future for Australian interactive television in appeared volatile when the Federal Government's digital television legislation, passed by the Senate on June 29, placed restrictions on the type and amount of content which could be transmitted via datacasting.
However OpenTV's Australia and New Zealand business development director, Miranda Dyson, believed interactive television was going to be "absolutely huge" in Australia.
Ms Dyson said interactive television would address geographical problems for regional Australians who missed out on access to services such as banking.
"They may not even have a computer, but they all have TV, and they'll be able to email, do their shopping, and banking et cetera through TV - we think this will be popular for everyone," she said.
Ms Dyson said the restrictions on datacasting content would not hamper the take-up of interactive television, because of the range of services that would still be available.
"Even under the legislation, HDTV only has to be broadcast for 20 hrs per week, which means there's a huge chunk of bandwidth the free-to-airs can use for interactive services," she said.
Austar has already deployed OpenTV's technology while Foxtel, Optus Satellite and SkyNZ have committed to using it.
There are several initiatives towards developing an open standard for web content on television.
The leading options are the Java-based Multimedia Home Platform (MHP), and an extension of the existing HTML standard.
Ms Dyson said globally, terrestrial broadcasters seemed to prefer MHP while cable-based companies preferred the HTML solution.
OpenTV offers both, as well as its own proprietary version, and technology for deploying content in a wide range of formats.
Interactive TV, of a sorts, comes to Australia
From www.it.fairfax.com.au
By JOE HILDEBRAND, AAP
SPORTS lovers who want to follow their favorite player around the field or home chefs who need an instant recipe will soon never have to leave their lounge rooms.
Australia's first interactive TV software was launched in Sydney today, signalling an end to the passive couch potato and a beginning for the "active viewer''.
The software is used in a set-top box, a device which can be connected to any standard television to provide "enhancement programs'' or "virtual channels''.
Communications Minister Richard Alston became one of the first Australians to send an e-mail via television when he opened the Sydney office of OpenTV.
Senator Alston said interactive television, which allows the viewer to choose camera angles at a sporting event or see extra information on a lifestyle show, was a dream come true.
"I think we're going too find this technology offers us something we've only ever dreamed about and today is a very big step forward in terms of that digital reality,'' he said.
Senator Alston said that advertisers in particular would find the medium far more useful, immediate and accurate than conventional television.
"These sorts of platforms are going to provide endless opportunities for providing products that people really want,'' he said.
"It will have enormous opportunities for advertisers who still rely on some of the bluntest instruments available.''
Using interactive television a viewer can order a product from the screen at the exact moment it is being advertised simply by entering a pin with the remote control.
OpenTV's Australian and New Zealand business development director, Miranda Dyson, said that within two years half the Australian population would be using digital TV following its introduction on January 1, 2000.
"We would see up to 50 per cent of Australians regularly using interactive services once the free-to-airs have fully deployed an interactive solution,'' she said.
The set-top boxes are expected to cost around $300 but it is possible that pay TV networks may incorporate this cost into their subscription as BSkyB has done in the UK.
"It really depends because it's going to be down to the network to decide how they launch their business model,'' Dyson said.
The company is already providing its software to the Foxtel, Austar and Optus Satellite networks however it has yet to receive a commitment from the free-to-air channels.
SONY: THE BIG PICTURE
from www.indiantelevision.com
It was really a latecomer in the Indian cable & satellite television business. But today, it has shot ahead in the viewership sweepstakes. Sony Entertainment Television was set up as ACE by seven Indian promoters who later managed to interest the Japanese mega corp to take an equity stake in the company. Today Sony Pictures owns 65 per cent of the company and the Hindi entertainment channel is ruling the roost with 22 of its shows ranking among the Top 50 according to TAM-AC Nielsen peoplemeter ratings. Once market leader Zee TV is yards behind with just eight top 50 shows.
What's more Sony Entertainment Television is slowly but steadily cobbling together a bouquet of channels which it can bundle together and retail to India's 30,000 or so cable operators. It has branched out overseas with its television channels. And it is getting ready to foray into theatrical distribution and production of mainly Hindi movies.
Says CEO Kunal Dasgupta: "I am looking for business growth in three major revenue streams: free to air television advertising sales, pay television subscription and theatrical distribution and production of films."
Its first major foray outside its core television business and into Hindi movies is commencing with the launch of Mission Kashmir - a film it is distributing internationally. The movie is slated to premier in October 2000 in both New York and London. Two other movies are in the process of being signed on.
"We would like to produce 10 films a year," says COO Rajesh Pant whose been given the responsibility of steering Sony Entertainment into new businesses, the foremost of which is theatrical distribution.
Dasgupta says that the Hindi movie business could end up being as big as Sony's television business is today. "It would be in the region of Rs 3-4 billion a year. We have to ramp up to this level."
The company does not have a presence in cable TV, as compared to the market leader Zee TV which owns Siticable. But Dasgupta does not believe that it is a disadvantage. He has cobbled together a bouquet of channels, which are being distributed by Sony Entertainment in order to create a pay TV package and make India's errant cable operators pay.
Currently, it is chalking up revenues of $10 million per annum from its pay TV business. In the bag are channels such as CNBC India, AXN, Set Max. It is handling both the distribution and ad sales for the three channels, a kind of model which it maintains it will follow.
Set Max, an events, sports and movies channel is the most recent of its additions as it was encrypted in July 2000. Some 1,700 decoders have been placed in the marketplace giving it a penetration of 2.3 million homes. "We want to take this up to 4,000 boxes within the next couple of months," says Dasgupta.
AXN on the other hand has a claimed 2.5 million paying subscribers - that is cable operators are claiming that figure as their subscriber base when they are making payments to the Sony distribution team. CNBC has a penetration of 1 million with cable operators paying between Rs 3 and Rs 5 depending on the subscriber base they are disclosing, reveals Pant. 720 boxes for the business channel have been activated.
"We are working on our pay TV plans hard and are in talks with several programmers," says Dasgupta. "The market for international product is opening up in India. We see another three or four channels joining our package," adds Pant.
He expects pay TV operations to pitch in with Rs 1.5 billion in revenues in the next three years.
Currently, both Sony and Star TV India are believed to be the front runners to distribute the Disney channel in India. Disney has been hovering around on the sidelines of the Indian television market for nearly half a decade without talking the full plunge with a 24 hour channel.
Recently, it terminated its programming contract with Zee TV on which it used to air two hour long morning and evening animation programming bands. It opted for Sony Entertainment Television instead. The network is looking at really creating a lot of hype around these two bands in the next two months, and will even fly viewers to Disneyland every week should they win the contest. "Disney animation is extremely popular in India and we are serious about taking the maximum out of it and make it a big viewing option," says Dasgupta.According to him the standoff for the Disney distribution contract is sometime away but he is going to ensure that Sony will be at forefront when it happens.
On the international front, Sony Entertainment is looking at foraying into newer markets teeming with pockets of people of Indian origin. It already has a presence in the UK, is getting ready for a launch in the US, is aiming for Africa, is already viewed in Malaysia. On the roadmap are possible forays into Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji.
Pant says the stellar performance has been in the UK, where it is being sold along with Bollywood music and film channel B4U as a package on the BskyB platform and on cable systems. "We are at 12,000 subscribers last year around this time and we were falling," he says. "This year we are at 62,000 and climbing rapidly. It has been phenomenal growth." 25,000 subscribers are on cable and 37,000 on the DTH package with B4U. As against this Zee is at some 130,000 subscribers in the UK.
While some people credit the super showing to the slick new movies that B4U brings to the table because of co-promoters Kishore Lulla and Bharat Shah, Dasgupta says Sony is attracting audiences too because of its well-packaged programming.
The channel is expected to do a soft relaunch in the US in September on the Echostar platform after the Ethnic American Broadcasting Corp went bust. "We have been freed from EABC and now are on our own and being distributed with Zee TV, TV Asia among, other channels as part of the Asian package," says Pant.
A foray is expected into south Africa too on the Multichoice platform. In Malayasia, it is on Measat's Astro service and Pant, says Sony should sing up 20,000 subscribers at about $3 each to start with. "We would like to build it up to 100,000," he points out.
Dasgupta and Pant and his team will have to work hard on building up the mother channel Sony Entertainment Television. The channel which had been leading the viewing sweepstakes until June has slipped to the number two spot after the stellar success of the Indianised version of Who wants to be a millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorerpati -KBC) on Star Plus. The show has raced to the top of the ratings chart. And it is attracting viewers to soaps before and after it as they are getting in and staying on to munch on the fare.
Agrees Dasgupta: "KBC has been a major success. We are cutting back our revenue target to Rs 6.5 billion from Rs 7.5 billion set earlier. Imagine how much it will impact Zee TV."
Nevertheless, he is doing something about it. A couple of new game format shows are to be launched before the year is out. "Game shows had not done well in the country before until Star Plus showed what they could do with KBC," reveals Dasgupta. "We did not want to take the risk then. We will take the plunge soon."
But more than that Sony will sport an entire new entire fixed point chart come September. Seven new series have been announced - ranging from comedy to soaps mythological shows (Shree Ganesh produced by Creative Eye on the elephant God).
The 9 pm to 10 pm slot has almost been vacated with lesser known series being aired then. A revamp of the Indianised Jay Leno Movers and Shakers is also on the anvil. The time slot has been pushed back to 10:40 pm. "There will be bigger stars on the show, the sets will be bigger," says Dasgupta. "This is going to be a show to watch."
The channel is also upping its promotional budget to about Rs 250 million this year. "Our marketing spends are going to go up," says Dasgupta. "We've got our programming line up in place. From matinee soaps through the day, we move on to the kids band in the evening then onto light entertainment late evening and finally heavy entertainment late at night. Our viewers are loving the channel. Yes we were No 1 in ratings, and now Star has moved us back to the No 2 spot, but we will fight back."
Dasgupta reveals that the network is also on the verge of signing on a programming head to replace Ravina Raj Kohli who left to head Kerry Packer's Channel Nine India operations. The buzz is that it could be a former agency creative director who had made a mark with her focus on linguistic copywriting. The channel has also lost close to 40 employees in recent times. "But we have also hired strongly on the creative front. And we have built up a strong management team on top," says Dasgupta.
The Internet strategy for the Indian operations has been scaled back. Earlier, Dasgupta had talked of acquiring portals and building up a strong Sony India Web frontier with lots of investments being poured in. Now the decision has been taken to put minority investments in the business and only as part of the overall Sony Worldwide portal.
"I'm very bullish," says Dasgupta. "We are going to do well. I'm looking at a revenue of Rs 10 billion by 2002, going up to Rs 30 billion by 2005. Sony Entertainment will be an Indian entertainment powerhouse then."
23/8/00
FEED ALERT, P.EADES found the cricket FTA feed If you prefer your cricket without ads and with Mike and Erica calling cues then try I701 4060R SR5632 A256 V308 PCR8190 that will help our U.S readers!
23/8/00
Livechat tonight in the chatroom, not much happening so I guess I will work on the redesign again.
One thing Wednesday Night in the states the Final episode of Survivor screens, keep an eye on I701 for a possible feed around lunch time perhaps?
Cricket is on Ekushey tv Asiasat 3 Pakistan vs South Africa as expected right now!
NEWS
Foxtel considers appeal, Seven says 'let's deal'
from http://www.smh.com.au
By ANNE DAVIES
The Foxtel board is still considering whether to seek leave from the High Court to appeal against last week's landmark ruling on access to pay TV, amid overtures from the Seven Network yesterday for a commercial solution to the dispute.
Legal advisers to Foxtel yesterday briefed the board on the practical implications of last week's decision by the Federal Court as well as the likely chances of success of an appeal.
The Full Court ruled that the Foxtel network was a carriage service network, which means it is subject to the Telecommunications Act.
Although the decision is limited to the existing analog network, it means broadband cable is now likely to be opened up in the same way as the telephone system in the mid-1990s.
The board of Foxtel has been told that Seven must first obtain capacity on the cable from Telstra. It can then apply to Foxtel for access to its subscriber management system and set-top boxes in people's homes.
But as there are only between nine and 12 channels available on the Telstra cable - Foxtel has 50 of the available 62 - Seven may well face an uphill battle getting capacity. Mr Mike Boulos's TARBS has already sought 16 channels, while Seven is yet to make a formal application for capacity.
A Seven spokesman confirmed yesterday that Seven was hoping to lodge its application later this week, but Seven was hopeful that a negotiated commercial solution would be reached rather than further litigation.
Even if Foxtel does not appeal, it could take months for Seven to gain access, as Foxtel and Seven must agree on a price for access.
The Foxtel board also considered the likely impact of the decision on its plans to invest $200 million in converting its system to digital.
Several board members said the ruling made the capital expenditure less attractive as it would only increase capacity for competitors.
The board also discussed the option of developing Foxtel's satellite distribution system, which now serves about 300,000 subscribers.
This system is not subject to the court ruling.
Foxtel board yet to decide whether to appeal against court decision opening up pay TV to competitors.
22/8/00
South Africa vs Pakistan should be on Ekushey TV , Asiasat 3 Wednesday from about 11.45a.m Sydney time, let me know if you see it. I have neglected the site redesign a bit over the past few days as I have been trying to sort out a laptop (the cheque for it went missing in the post) Also I have organised a screenshot grabber. Which combined with the laptop should be very usefull. No progress with my dish yet, Brothers VERY VERY busy at work (Both top engineers in my city) Big news day today!
Currrent list of receivers handling Mega on Thaicom 3,
Pheonix 222,333 Satcruiser (all)
Problems, Pacific Satellite, Strong 4600 and Prosats.
Anyone tested it with a Nokia?
From my Email
No replies to emails sent to Mega or Ekushey Tv
Steve Johnson of Auckland has sent in a big list of satellite gear he has for sale check it out on the Sattrader page!
Collin Ferris reports APTN and Reuters on Asia 2 seems to be back as it was ie FTA.
(Craigs note, perhaps getting things prepared for the Olympics)
P.Eade writes. Re Singapore Challenge Cricket (on Ekushey tv?) next game Pak v SA Wednesday 23, NZ v SA Friday 25, Final Sunday 27.
Was also carried Sunday I701 briefly on one of the TVNZ transponders but can't remember which one.
NEWS
DIGITAL AGENDA BILL PASSES THROUGH PARLIAMENT
Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Bill 2000
From http://law.gov.au
The Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Bill 2000 passed through the Senate and House of Representatives on 17 August 2000, and is currently awaiting Royal Assent. The Bill will commence 6 months after this is received. The 6 month delay will allow affected parties to re-negotiate, where appropriate, current arrangements in light of the comprehensive amendments that the Bill makes to the Copyright Act 1968. The Government also proposes that the operation of the legislation be reviewed within three years of its commencement.
The Bill was introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 September 1999 and referred to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs (the LACA Committee). The LACA Committee tabled an Advisory Report on the Bill in the House of Representatives on 6 December 1999. A number of Government and Opposition amendments were made to the Bill in response to the LACA Committee?s recommendations before the House passed the Bill on 28 June 2000.
As a result of further scrutiny of the Bill and consultation with interests, additional amendments were required in the Senate. The majority of these amendments are technical in nature.
It is worth noting Government amendments to the enforcement measure provisions of the Bill regarding circumvention devices and services, and rights management information. These amendments relate to both the parties who may have standing to bring an action under these provisions, and those who may give permission to perform one of the proscribed acts. The enforcement measure provisions have been amended to ensure that it is the copyright owner and any exclusive licensee who may both give permission and have standing to bring an action in relation to circumvention devices and services, and rights management information.
The Government also accepted an Opposition amendment to the transitional provisions in the Bill. The transitional provisions provide that where copyright owners have previously licensed or assigned the current wireless broadcasting right, they will not be taken to have automatically assigned or licensed the new broadcasting right, which encompasses both cable and wireless broadcasts. Neither will they be taken to have assigned or licensed the broader elements of the communication right, which includes the new right of "making available online". However, these provisions are subject to a contrary intention.
The Opposition amendment makes it clear that a contrary intention can be found outside of the terms of the agreement itself. The Government agreed that this approach gives effect to its intention that the transitional provisions should take into account the commercial practices and the conduct of the parties in determining whether a contrary intention exists.
The amended Bill and explanatory material are available on the Parliament House website at http://www.aph.gov.au/legis.htm. Copies of the Parliamentary debates, including the second reading speech can be found at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/index.htm. Copies of the LACA Committee's report are available at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/laca/digitalagenda/contents.htm.
Further detail about the central reforms of the Bill can be accessed in past issues of the e-news at http://law.gov.au/publications/copyright_enews/pastissues.html.
Copyright overhaul for Internet, pay television
AAP --
from http://news.ninemsn.com.au
Tough new enforcement measures will ban the unauthorised reception of pay television and help copyright owners to combat Internet piracy, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said today.
Pay television operators will also have to pay to re-broadcast works that have already been transmitted on free-to-air television.
Mr Williams said the reforms, passed by parliament today, represented a historic change that placed Australia among world leaders in copyright reform.
"This bill brings Australian copyright laws into the 21st century," Mr Williams told parliament.
"The reforms will update Australia's copyright standards to meet the challenges and harness the opportunities presented by rapid developments in communications technology especially the Internet."
The changes, contained in the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda Bill) 2000, outlaw the manufacture, import or distribution of devices to allow for the unauthorised reception of pay television services.
The government will undertake a review of the legislation within three years of its commencement.
Foxtel rethinks digital strategy
from http://www.afr.com.au
By Luke Collins
Pay-TV group Foxtel is rethinking plans to convert to digital services after Friday's Federal Court ruling that Telstra, which owns 50 per cent of Foxtel, open its cable network to other parties.
Foxtel, in which News Corp and Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd each hold 25 per cent stakes, has been planning to convert from analog to digital so that it can offer interactive services through its set- top boxes.
It is concerned that following the court ruling, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission could force Telstra to open up the digital platform to all comers, undermining the commercial viability of the costly conversion.
Foxtel's board meets today to discuss the ramifications of Friday's court decision, which rejected claims that Foxtel had exclusive access to the $3.5 billion network built by Telstra and found in favour of Mr Kerry Stokes' Seven Network.
Seven last night estimated its likely damages bill from the drawnout legal battle would be about $US500 million ($850 million), while Foxtel insiders claimed the shareholders were less likely to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to convert its subscribers to digital services.
"That's very much at stake. These are the issues that are being considered," one executive said.
"With digital services ultimately to be opened up by the ACCC, it's all at risk."
Telstra and Foxtel shareholders, Mr Kerry Packer's PBL and Mr Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, have been discussing the funding of Foxtel's transition to digital services for months.
The ACCC chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said yesterday there were "different issues over digital access compared to analog".
"Quite probably, there would be a far wider number of channels and a much better chance of access [to third parties]," Professor Fels said, adding that the ACCC had not yet been asked to rule on digital access.
Seven shares jumped 12.7¢ to $7.93 yesterday, continuing a strong run in anticipation of Friday's ruling.
Telstra stock fell 6¢ to $7.28, even though fund managers believe the decision "should increase the value of Telstra because the more content you put through it, the more subscribers you gain, the more valuable the network is".
Foxtel is believed to have only about 10 spare channels on its analog platform. Seven wants a handful to distribute its C7 sports service and other planned channels, but is yet to again formally request carriage following Friday's ruling.
Ethnic pay-TV group Television & Radio Broadcasting Services Australia is already engaged in arbitration with the ACCC and Telstra about commercial access rates and wants 19 channels, indicating that Seven could struggle to gain carriage.
It's all aboard for digital express
From http://www.smh.com.au/
By TOM BURTON
The earth moved last Friday.
The decision by the full Federal Court to give Kerry Stoke's Seven Network access to the Foxtel pay television platform dramatically changes the rules for analog pay TV.
But the judgment has far wider implications for the whole digital industry after the court ruled that access means not just access to the cable but also to the transmission and reception gear at either end.
Giving all operators access to communications infrastructure is a key principle of the telecommunications regime and what the Federal Court decision has conclusively determined is that access means the full technological infrastructure necessary to deliver a service.
Analog pay television is a comparatively simple technology in terms of the associated transmission and reception equipment needed.
If the courts find that access means the complete end-to-end service has to be opened up for analog pay TV, then it is even more likely they will find the same for more complicated digital services - where the associated servers and consumer equipment are even more integral to the delivery of the service.
This will have a huge impact on the whole digital industry and, in particular, any one wanting to build a digital business based on exclusivity
Which means almost everyone, ranging from telephone companies trying to lock users into their WAP mobile phone service, trunk radio operators giving only certain taxicab companies access to their service, and a gamut of would-be digital television operators looking to offer interactive television and other broadband type applications to their exclusive subscriber base.
Almost all the business models which underpin these services assume much of the infrastructure cost is recuperated from subscribers paying a premium to get access to the exclusive service.
This is certainly the case for the Foxtel board, which today is considering its whole digital roll-out plan, a plan which assumed Foxtel would be able to fund its digital conversion by capturing all the subscriber revenues which are associated with the service.
Foxtel and Optus already have a significant investment in digital boxes - all the subscriber equipment is digitalised - and a decision to go fully digital would have opened up the system not only for significantly more channels but also for interactive television services such as pay-per-view, interactive advertising and electronic commerce.
Given the farce surrounding the Government's terrestrial digital TV policy the digitalisation of the pay TV system was perhaps the best chance to get some serious go-forward in high-speed digital infrastructure. The decision will mean all the numbers which underpin the conversion to digital will have to be reworked. For both Foxtel and Optus this means the whole negotiations over the future of their businesses - and in Foxtel's case its shareholder structure - will also need to reassessed.
The big winners from the Federal Court decision are the start-ups and those established players which don't yet enjoy access to high-speed digital platforms. Most obvious are Seven itself, the Ten Network, the ABC and John Fairfax, publisher of this product.
None have any equity in a current network platform and now have the opportunity to distribute their services on the emerging digital systems. For a company like Fairfax, this dramatically affects its digital strategy. Whereas it faced a pay-out of between $250 million to $1 billion for a piece of datacasting spectrum to supply high-speed interactive and television services, it can now plan to deliver these services through other carriers' infrastructure at the marginal cost of delivery.
Ditto for Seven, Ten, the ABC and any other start-up which wants to access other wise proprietary hardware and associated infrastructure.
The interest from here will be whether Telstra and Optus and their partners - who dominate the high-speed carriage game - play ball. Unless there is a sudden change of heart, you'd have to expect delay, obfuscation and litigation are more likely.
The ACCC is the key player and it can use its considerable clout to force the pace of opening up the system. But as Seven's Stokes has found, there are a lot of hurdles to getting access. Winning the judicial fight is only the first step and getting appropriate access to the infrastructure which drives more sophisticated high-speed broadband services is not going to be a straight forward issue.
But still, Friday's full court decision means the digital lock-out days are now over.
New Internet Television Network
For those of us who get homesick while abroad, this could be the website to take those blues away. UnoDosTres.com, the first Internet Television Network, has arrived to bring that little bit of home to your doorstep.
"It's as simple as one, two, three", says Company Chairman and CEO Carlos Barba, "wherever you are in the world you can log on to the website and watch your local television. We are taking people back home."
Established more than a year ago, UnoDosTres.com serves the English, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities worldwide. Recently the company forged partnerships with broadcasters throughout the United States and Latin America, including an alliance with Globecast North America, to create its Internet Television Network.
"It's as simple as one, two, three. Wherever you are in the world you can log on to the website and watch your local television. We are taking people back home."
Carlos Barba has been in television and broadcasting for 30 years. His latest idea will, he believes, create a new kind of relationship between broadcaster and consumer.
"I could see that the internet was going to be the natural evolution of media", he said. "Billboards, print, radio, television, cable, direct television satellite have all given way to the internet. Now it is the most important way to get one-to-one with your consumer.".
The idea is for people all over the world to use UnoDosTres.com as their gateway home. For $5.95 per day, they can log on to the website and watch their local television station for as long as they want, whenever they want. They will also be able to communicate directly with the television station and voice their opinions on the things they see.
According to Carlos, the response from hispanics living in New York is enthusiastic. "The consumers are delighted. They are thrilled to have the opportunity to be interactive, to ask questions, to be in contact with home and to have their voice heard. This is television in a new way - this television is the consumer's television.", he said.
"I could see that the internet was going to be the natural evolution of media... now it is the most important way to get one to one with your consumer."
UnoDosTres.com has so far secured contractual agreements with 18 Latin American broadcasters and two from the Caribbean, for a period of five years. Each broadcasting partner gets 50 percent ownership of UnoDosTres.com in their country, 50 percent of the revenue from the Internet Television Network and 50 percent of the revenue from any sales in their country from the website's e-commerce.
In return the partner is required to provide broadcast content, of which they will own 50 percent, and to show an 'infomercial' for UnoDosTres.com once a week. The latter boosts local advertising sales on the website and e-commerce business, to date the company's largest source of revenue. What is unique is that there is no cash investment involved on either side - they are simply investing in kind.
Partners include Gamavision in Ecuador, TV Montecarlo in Uruguay, Puma Television in Venezuela, Televisiete in Guatemala, ATV Peru and Channel 22, Los Angeles.
Carlos considers UnoDosTres.com a traditional broadcasting network rather than just an internet site. On average, consumers spend 12-28 minutes on one website and he is determined, with good broadcast content, to increase his selling power by capturing the consumer for much longer.
"Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Africa, any broadcaster who wants to be part of the idea - let's talk!"
Carlos is convinced he is sitting on a pot of gold. As Latin America begins to embrace technology, this is a great opportunity to seize on the region's $400 billion media market's buying power and to target the large population of hispanics living in the United States, who still have family and friends back home.
But Carlos will not stop at the Americas. He wants to go global. "Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Africa - any broadcaster who wants to be a part of this idea, without cash investment, then let's talk!" he says.
You can visit the website at www.unodostres.com
21/8/00
Live chat in the chatroom 8.30pm Sydney time, also I will be in there from 9.30pm NZ. I hope people enjoyed the cricket yesterday. I emailed Ekushey tv to findout if they have a website and where can I find their tv guide. The next game in the series will be on Friday its either South Africa vs Pakistan or South Africa vs NZ I can't remember should be good anyway!
From the Dish
PAS 8 166E Phoenix Chinese has left 12606 H , is only on 12526 H.
Optus B1 160E: Herbalife Broadcast Network has left 12451 H (PAL) and 12739 V (PAL), moved to Optus B3.
Optus B3 156E Herbalife Broadcast Network has started on 12336 V
Palapa C2 113E RCTI is still on 3473 H, MPG, SR 8000, FEC 3/4.
Panamsat 4 68.5E 3716 H " Test Card" Dig sr 19850 fec 3/4 vpid 1560 apid 1520 pcr 1560
Asiasat 3 105.5E 4116 H "Test Card"Dig sr 19850 fec 3/4 vpid 1560 apid 1520 pcr 1560
Panamsat 2 169E 3716 V " TEST Card" sr 19850 fec 3/4 vpid 1560 apid 1520 pcr 1560
Those last 3 look interesting same settings? same organisation useing them I expect, Games feeds?
NEWS
Seven demands access to Telstra cable
By Luke Collins
from www.afr.com.au
Mr Kerry Stokes' Seven Network is pressing for immediate access to Telstra's $3.5 billion cable network after Friday's crucial court ruling, saying it plans to create a suite of pay television channels drawing on its extensive programming library.
While Foxtel's chief executive, Mr Jim Blomfield, warned yesterday the access issue "has a long way to go yet", Seven also indicated it would call on the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission should Foxtel refuse to carry Seven's only existing pay-TV channel, sports service C7.
Questions about the real impact of Friday's ruling began to circulate almost as soon as the Full Bench of the Federal Court handed down its decision requiring Telstra to grant outside parties access to its cable network for analog pay-TV purposes.
While the ruling grants companies such as Seven the right to use the network and gain access to set-top boxes, Foxtel is under no obligation to incorporate channels into its programming package. That means Seven would still have to operate as an independent pay-TV company unless it can cut a deal with Foxtel.
"There's a lot of detail to be worked out," Mr Blomfield told The Australian Financial Review yesterday. "They don't have access to our branding, they don't get access to the Foxtel marketing. I think it would be pretty tough."
A Seven spokesman said yesterday the company believed "the ACCC will take an interest in" Foxtel's position, adding it "would be in Foxtel's interest" to take Seven's channels.
"We've always said that the sports channels are the starting point of a greater involvement in subscription television and we will certainly be pursuing a strategy of multiple pay-TV channels," the spokesman said, referring to its library of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer product and its corporate relationship with United Kingdom production house Granada Media. Seven is expected as early as today to again request carriage for C7 on Foxtel. However, Foxtel is believed to have only about 10 spare analog channels and ethnic pay-TV group Mr Mike Boulos' Television & Radio Broadcasting Services Australia has already applied to use 19.
TARBS is also understood to be involved in arbitration talks with Foxtel and the ACCC in an effort to determine a reasonable commercial rate for carriage of its services.
Insiders are also closely watching the Australian Football League's reaction to Friday's ruling as it attempts to strike 10-year broadcasting rights deals. There are suggestions the AFL could now sell the free-to-air rights before the September 2 grand final and leave decisions on both the pay-TV and internet rights until later.
Seven has bid for the AFL's free-to-air, pay-TV and internet rights while Foxtel is seeking only the pay-TV rights and has promised to pass on any subsequent channels to both Optus Television and Austar Entertainment.
Plot thickens in pay TV wheel of fortune
GEOFF ELLIOTT, ICE Pick
From www.australianit.com.au
AUSTRALIA'S pay TV industry just got more complicated. Kerry Stokes' win in the Federal Court on Friday to ensure his Seven Network can access Telstra's cable network has caused a big splash. Now for the ripples.
What is John Porter at Austar thinking, for example? The American chief executive of the regional pay TV company has been in talks to buy at least part of Cable & Wireless Optus's city-based cable network to extend Austar's pay TV business out of the regions.
But if he can now win access to Telstra's cable and run out a competing pay TV service to Foxtel, why would he bother?
And, having done a fair amount of due diligence on the C&W Optus pay TV business, he'd be sure to pick up a few strategic salvos to compete with C&W Optus without having to fork out $1 billion, or more in cash or kind, to buy a stake in it.
Some industry watchers have used this scenario to paint a bearish picture for C&W Optus's chance of locking in a good price in the part sale of its cable network.
The Federal Court decision was a bad one for C&W Optus, they say. But not so fast. In the words of one Austar insider: "Well, I'd rather own the network than have to negotiate an access price."
And there's the rub. Winning a decent commercial arrangement on access to Telstra's cable, or on any of its services for that matter, is the thing that causes every budding telco executive in the country a big headache.
So, the talks with C&W Optus were still on, sources told Icepick.
And, more than that, the scuttlebutt is that UK-based NTL, which is building an east-coast fibre-optic network for basic telecommunications and internet services, could join the C&W Optus pay TV fray, too.
It's probably no coincidence that Adrian Chamberlain, who is overseeing the restructure of C&W Optus's cable business, was instrumental in selling to NTL the cable business of Optus's parent company, London-based Cable & Wireless. Market rumour is the talks with NTL about the Optus cable are continuing.
Chamberlain transferred from London earlier this year. Many industry watchers see his role as a rerun of his success in London: oversee an upgrade and successful sale of the network.
Still, some reckon that Telstra could play dirty.
With the Federal Court opening access to Telstra's cable, its commercial interest surely dictates that it not delay for one minute.
Notwithstanding its 50 per cent interest in Foxtel, Telstra would presumably like to get a high-volume, low-cost rival pay TV service on its cable quickly to help defray the costs of the cable.
If it did, it could then make life difficult for C&W Optus in its attempt to sell down its interest in the network.
But, again, Austar sources played down the chances of this. They say there is simply not enough capacity on Telstra's system for now, although that would change once digital upgrades to the cable are carried out.
It's anyone's guess on how the complex relationships between the likes of Telstra, the media players in Kerry Packer, Kerry Stokes and Rupert Murdoch and the folk over at C&W Optus shape up after the Federal Court decision.
If anything is worth punting on, it's probably this: that Telstra's monopoly practices are a hard habit to break. It will want to charge high access fees to its cable and that will mean the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be busy arbitrating pricing decisions for new pay TV players wanting access. Ironically, that's seen as one of the reasons there's so much competition emerging in Australia's telecommunications sector anyway.
Telstra's monopoly pricing has left room for others to dive under it.
Telstra's history of over-wrought internal processes and committees, as well as high prices, means making a quick decision to outflank C&W Optus's cable negotiations is highly unlikely. Then there's the partners in Foxtel - Packer and Murdoch - to think about, too.
Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski likens shifting Telstra's business strategy to trying to manoeuvre an aircraft carrier. Others use a different analogy: if Telstra's executives and engineers were confronted with crossing a swollen creek, internal planning committees would draw up plans for another Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Korea's Arirang TV to Begin Broadcast to the Americas
from www.satnewsasia.com
/Satnews Asia/ -- Arirang TV, Korea?s best entertainment and information channel has began test broadcast to the Americas last August 11 in preparation of its 24 hour digital broadcasting service beginning on September 25th (EST). Using PanAmSat 9 as its distribution vehicle to the Americas, Arirang TV will be transmitted throughout the Americas including USA, Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South American countries.
During the trial broadcast, Arirang TV will air 10 and a half hour of programming which will be divided by three runs. The first block will start at 9:00 in the morning, the second at 2:00 pm, and the third at 7:30 pm. (EST) Arirang TV programming will be aired in English or Korean along with Spanish subtitles for the convenience of viewers with latin heritage. As the first Asian channel to provide Spanish in South America, Arirang TV will bring exotic tastes of Asia to the viewers in that region. In particular, Arirang TV?s entertainment programs ranging from dramas, movies, music, animation to sports will give unique enjoyment of TV viewing.
Programming: Entertainment & Information
Dramas, Movies, Music, Sports, Cartoons will make up the entertainment portion of the programming while general news, fashion, and tourism-related information will comprise the other half. The ratio will be 50 percent entertainment, 30 percent culture, and 20 percent news. The higher percentage given to entertainment reflects the growing interest shown by foreiners for Korean programs.
Language: English or Korean along with Spanish and English subtitles
Arirang TV's programs will be produced in English, but because of the large Spanish speaking community in the Americas, Spanish subtitles will be provided. For programs that are produced in Korean, both English and Spanish subtitles will be included to help viewer understanding. In addition, to help facilitate the understanding of program contents by the ever widening audience, Arirang TV will strive to expand its foreign language service in the future.
Arirang TV will examine its technical systems during the test air, while local cable operators investigate whether or not Arirang TV meets the needs of their subscribers.
Apart from the Americas, Arirang TV will also extend the coverage of its Asia-Pacific channel to Europe and Northest Africa via Hotbird from August 27th.
Headquartered in Seoul, Arirang TV brings Korea?s best entertainment and information programs to viewers beyond the peninsula. Since its launch of international satellite broadcasting on August 12, 1999 to the Asia-Pacific region via AsiaSat 3S, Arirang TV has gained much popularity with the access of 15 million households in just a year. As of the end of July, 7 million viewers from India alone have access to Arirang TV as well, the only Northeast Asian channel in India.
Arirang TV is temporarily using PAS5 until the official launch in the late September when it will switch to PAS9, which is currently still under test operation.
Driven by the success in Asia, Arirang TV will launch a new channel for the American audience, and extend the Asia-Pacific channel to Europe and Northeast Africa on this coming September 25th EST.
World1: A channel for the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Northest Africa
The Korea International Broadcasting Foundation, which owns and operates Arirang TV, also has a domestic cable channel ?Arirang TV Korea.?
CyberWorks Identifies 3 Growth Sectors, New Management Team
From www.satnewsasia.com
/Satnews Asia/ -- Richard Li, Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) chairman and chief executive, has identified three key sectors for the company following its successful US$28 billion acquisition of Cable & Wireless HKT. The new company will operate eight business units within three operating sectors: telecommunications services, global communications services and Net enterprises, which Li described as "sustained, high and explosive growth" respectively.
The eight business units and their descriptions are:
Telecommunications Services
95 percent Broadband availability in HK via fibre and XDSL
2.1 million residence and 1.5 million business lines in HK
Strong earnings and revenues
Foundation for developing Broadband infrastructure across Asia-Pacific
Connectivity Services
Providing global Broadband connectivity
Broadband fibre optic and satellite network
One of Asia's largest IP Backbones >1,200 Mbps
Mobility Services
Wireless platform for access to NOW services
Wireless demand outstrips fixed line in Asia
Quality assets in Hong Kong that provide leverage for regional expansionity assets in Hong Kong that provide leverage for regional expansion
Nearly 1 million customers
Data Centres/Web Hosting Services
Over 300,000 square feet of Hong Kong operations facilities
Leading Asian-global partnerships and strong positioning
Strong position to capture applications and high demand for connectivity throughout Asia and beyond
Broadband Business To Consumer Services
World's largest producer of converged broadband content (NOW TV-web service)
Entertainment, e-commerce and communications content
Multiple revenue streams and co-branding opportunities
Rapidly growing broadband base in Hong Kong
Business to Business Services
One-stop-shop for e-business capability
eLogistics, eProcurement, eMarketplace, call center, ASP, IT
Strong (Fortune 500) customer base in Hong Kong
CyberWorks Ventures
US$780 million in strategic investments
Equity stakes in more than 50 Internet-related companies
Infrastructure Services
Synergies with all business units
Cash flows from flagship investment properties
Revenues from Cyberport in Hong Kong
Revenues from Pacific Century Place in Beijing
Cyberworks will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange on August 22. It will pay shareholders US$11.32 billion in cash and issue an additional 8.67 billion shares in the merged company, which is equivalent to about US$17 billion at current market prices. In February, Li, 33, valued the deal as high as US$38 billion. "We see a world of telecoms opportunities right here in Asia," said CyberWorks deputy chairman Linus Cheung, ex-HKT chief executive. "Our new company is already Hong Kong's leading provider of local and international services and Internet access, the second-largest operator of mobility services and a major player in broadband services as well. We will continue to build on this strong foundation."
For telecommunications services, CyberWorks said it intends to expand within Hong Kong and beyond by "building on the US$4.7 billion invested in network infrastructure in the last 10 years to accelerate the DSL and broadband migration of our customer base". CyberWorks said that its telecoms services comprises fixed line operations and represents the "engine room" providing cash for the other two growth sectors.
"Funds are generated from 3.7 million business and residential phone lines, and 77,000 broadband residential and business customers," CyberWorks said. The company added that it would expand this sector into Greater China, after Hong Kong, without providing a timeframe.
Global communications services consists of connectivity and mobility services. The company said that it hopes to leverage on its Telstra Corp joint ventures to develop a global distribution network that will involve the upgrade and rollout of additional cable and other infrastructure to meet future demand for carriage of voice, data and Internet services. "Mobility services will operate as an Asia Pacific provider of wireless voice and data network services," CyberWorks said.
In April, Melbourne-based Telstra said it would invest US$3 billion in CyberWorks, its first major investment in Asia, as part of a plan to expand its Internet, data and wireless businesses in the region. Three months later, Telstra said it was planning a US$1.5 billion global bond sale in mid-to-late October to help fund its proposed investment in CyberWorks.
CyberWorks' Net enterprises will include its broadband, B2C service or Network of the World (NOW); B2B and data centers plus Web hosting services, and CyberWorks Ventures.
CyberWorks new executive committee and management listed below:
Richard Li, 33
? CyberWorks chairman and chief executive
? Pacific Century Group chief executive
? Pacific Century Regional Developments Ltd. (PCRD) chairman
? Executive committee chairman
Alexander Arena, 49
? Executive committee deputy chairman
? PCRD director
Linus Cheung Wing Lam, 51
? CyberWorks deputy chairman
? Executive committee member
? Formerly HKT chief executive and Cable & Wireless plc executive director
David Prince, 49
? group chief financial officer
? Executive committee member
Peter To, 52
? CyberWorks deputy chairman
? PCRD managing director and CEO
Francis Yuen, 47
? CyberWorks deputy chairman
? Pacific Century Group deputy chairman
? Pacific Century Insurance Holdings Ltd chairman
? PCRD deputy chairman
? Executive committee member
Norman Yuen Kee Tong, 51
? CyberWorks deputy CEO
? Executive committee member
? Member, Business-to-Consumers executive committee
Richard Li, prior to becoming CyberWorks chairman and chief executive, held two prominent positions under his father Li Ka-shing's business. Li resigned as the deputy chairman and executive director of Hutchison Whampoa and executive director of the city's power utilities, Hong Kong Electric Holdings.
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing controls Hong Kong's largest conglomerate, Hutchison Whampoa, and the power utilities, Hong Kong Electric Holdings.
A spokeswoman for PCCW said Richard Li made his intention to resign from Hutchison Whampoa known before the conclusion of PCCW's merger with Cable and Wireless HKT. "He wants to be free and to focus on PCCW," which has a staff of some 15,000, she said.
Li's path to success began in 1991, when aged just 24 he set up the satellite television Star TV network with his father's backing. The network was sold three years later to media baron Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which retains control of the broadcaster today.
Li's father, dubbed "superman" by the local press, chairs the diverse Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., with interests including property, utilities, container port operation, supermarkets, a retail electronics chain and gasoline stations.
Bachelor Richard, Li Ka-shing's second son after Victor, has been tagged by the press here as "little superman."
After a stint at Star TV, Richard went into the emerging opportunities of the cyber world, setting up the Pacific Century Group to engage in developing digital media, financial services and infrastructure.
Its Pacific Century Diversified Ltd. unit and Intel Pacific Inc. last year agreed to exchange their stakes in Pacific Convergence Corp. Ltd. for stakes in Tricom Holdings Ltd., renamed Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. The firm was established to provide high-speed Internet services, delivered via satellite to ground distributors.
Its first big deal was the CyberPort project in partnership with the government to build a high-tech hub in Hong Kong, but the 1.6 billion US dollar undertaking triggered a storm of protest as it was awarded without competitive bidding. Nevertheless, the project sparked a torrent of dot.com startups in Hong Kong at a time when the city was struggling through its worst recession stemming from the Asian financial crisis. Since then, Richard Li's deal-making has caught investors' attention.
NOW goes to i-CABLE
The identification of the three growth sectors comes after the announcement that PCCW Internet and digital TV content service, Network of the World (NOW) will be available on i-CABLE's Hong Kong Cable television service, a new dedicated channel (Channel 28) on August 28. The arrangement comes under a carriage agreement, with an initial period of three months. The two companies plan to continue to work on a longer term relationship with possible cooperation in other areas.
The Hong Kong Cable channel is the second television network in Hong Kong that distributes NOW. The first is iTV, an interactive television network under Cable & Wireless HKT (CWHKT), the telecom company to be merged with PCCW.
PCCW Pays $250M For Second Acquisition in Japan
PCCW also recently announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Japanese entertainment producer, Jaleco for $250 million. Upon completion of the transaction, PCCW is expected to hold about 80.72 percent of the enlarged capital of Jaleco, through its subsidiary CyberWorks International. The company will be renamed Pacific Century CyberWorks Japan.
The transaction is expected to be completed in three different stages, a tender offer and two third party allotments. The first stage is expected to be satisfied through a tender offering of a total of 6.11 million shares at a price of 379JPY (US$3.49).
The tender offer price was calculated by adding a 15.5 percent premium to the lowest price of Jaleco's share in the past four months. The tender offer is expected to be completed during the period August 11 to August 30.
The second stage is expected to take place on September 6, when Jaleco will issue 23.12 million new shares at an issue price of 328JPY (US$3.02). Among all the issued shares, 14.79 million shares, representing 36.97 percent of the enlarged issued capital will be subscribed by PCCW.
The other 8.33 million shares (20.82 percent) in the second stage will be subscribed by three other Japanese companies. They include an advertising agency, Dentsu, a Japanese financial services company, Orix and an entertainment ticketing service and lifestyle publisher, PIA.
In the final stage, Jaleco will issue 60.71 million new shares, representing 60.05 percent of the enlarged capital, at an issue price of 328JPY (US$3.02). This stage is scheduled to be held on November 6. According to Yoshifumi Mori, senior managing director of Jaleco, the company reported a debt of 1 billion JPY, despite a net profit of 150 billion JPY in the year ended March 31.
Mori admitted that the company is in debt, but he expected the injection from PCCW could help redeem the debt by this year. The reasoning behind the acquisition lies in Jaleco's involvement in videogame software production, which is expected to benefit the company's development of its TV-broadband content service, Network Of the World (NOW). Other business units of PCCW Japan include the export of Japanese content, like comics and drama through translations and to offer data center and ASP services.
Todd Bonner, executive director of PCCW and chief executive officer of PCCW Japan, admitted that the Japanese broadband service market is not mature in the distribution of content. "To acquire content, one needs a distribution platform." He said the company's involvement of building the broadband infrastructure is expected to provide opportunities for the new company to develop in the immature market.
"The broadband community is about to explode in Japan," said Bonner. The company expected the NOW Japan service would be available by mid 2001 and a Chinese version of NOW later this year.
20/8/00
FEED ALERTS
Live cricket NZ vs Pakistan Singapore Trophy tournament live on EKushey TV on Asiasat 3!!!!!
D.Holbrook
20/8/00
D.H reports
Brisbane/Parramatta NRL game on Optus B1 12513 H Analogue
From the Dish
Intelsat I701 The Telefenua package has left.
Panamsat 8 166E 8 CNN Financial Network has encrypted. The Disney Channel Australia that was on 12726H has left.
CCTV 4 has returned to12686 H
Phoenix Chinese on 12,606 H is now in clear.
Optus B3 156E Transponder on 12407 V has been switched to a Australian & New Zealand beam.
Palapa C2 113E RCTI has gone from 3473H now only on the harder to receive 3755 V.
NEWS
Packer junior aims to create an entertainment conglomerate in India
from indiantelevision.com
James Packer, son of the Australian media baron Kerry Packer was in India this week. He spoke to The Economic Times about Channel Nine's (which is a JV between Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings and Himachal Futuristic Communication Ltd) plans for India.
Channel Nine's immediate activity in India is a joint venture with Doordarshan wherein it has bagged the contract for upgradation of production and technical standards for DD-Metro's morning and prime-time slots. It also has the production rights for DD for all international cricket matches played in India. In addition to the two hours of the prime time slot, Nine Broadcasting has bid for another two hours of prime time on the Metro channel. This is in keeping with Nine Broadcasting's strategy to create a platform for itself within Doordarshan.
Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) is helping DD to increase Metro channels network from 75 transmitters to 125 transmitters by the year end. This move is expected to take DD-Metro's reach from 180m to around 350m when the project is completed.
BBC World, the preferred choice among decision makers
from Indiantelevision.com
BBC World, the international news and information channel form the BBC stable, is the most watched channel amongst the cream of Indian business decision makers. This was the finding of a recent survey conducted by premier research agency ORG-Marg.
The research was carried on with a sample size of 1030 respondents. The respondents were senior executives designated as general managers and above across the top 500 private sector companies registered in India, the largest 100 public sector companies and the leading 100 financial sector companies.
73 per cent of those surveyed said that they had watched BBC World during the previous week - more than any other channel. The survey also revealed that 84 per cent of the respondents watched BBC World in the previous month. Popular entertainment channels like Zee, Sony, Star and DD all failed to attract viewership of more than 50 per cent of the respondents.
19/8/00
Not much at all to report today other than Mediasat should be really busy tommorow so watch out for those feeds.
Report on Thaicom 3 Mega channel.
A few days ago I noticed that the 'Channel Data Table' which allows the full bouquet to load into any F.T.A. box was taken away from the data stream. Result being, if you try to load or re-load the Mega channel you will not do so, unless you force the receiver, by entering the video, audio, and pcr pids. (V513 A641 P513)
Thought you may like to put this on your page as it might save someone a headache through frustration!
Kind regards, Tony Drexel. FTASS S.A.
Article
Crazy about the cable in Pakistan!
ISLAMABAD (August 19) : The cable fever has engulfed Pakistan and nobody is complaining except those in the business of selling satellite dishes.
With the legali