SCDX - Sweden Calling DXers #2300

EUTELSAT–The Kurdish Med TV has left 10.972 GHz on Eutelsat II-F2 (10 degrees East) and is now on HOtbird 4 on 10.853 GHz. (Richard Karlsson in “Aftonbladet”)

Fashion TV has once again returned to the analog world, in clear PAL on Hot Bird 2, on 11.766 GHz. (“SATCO DX”)

VOA–The Voice of America is starting a new international radio station called Radio Voyager on September 5. (Richard Karlsson in “Aftonbladet”)

BRITAIN–The digital terrestrial TV venture by Carlton Communications and the Granada Group has changed its name from British Digital Broadcasting to ONdigital. The change is partly to avoid confusion with Sky Digital from British Sky Broadcasting and its British International Broadcasting interactive service. The 30 channel terrestrial package will include existing BBC and independent channels, as well as new services such as BBC News 24, and a package of around 15 subscription channels. (Reuters)

On August 3 the European Commission said it planned to clear the BIB venture with conditions. BIB has agreed to the conditions, among other things that buyers of BIB-subsidized digital decoders will not be required to to subscribe to BSkyB’s or any other pay TV services. The partners also agreed to provide third parties with access to the set- top boxes and the software needed to run interactive services. (Reuters)

Universal Studios has put the British launch of “13th Street: The Action and Suspence Channel” on hold, and may even shut down the Sci-Fi Channel in response to the decision by Britain’s Independent Television Commission requiring British Sky Broadcasting to unbundle channels, so people will be able to subscribe to just those channels they want. While the ITC plan allows current contracts to continue until 2000, Universal says the plan is devastating. (“What Satellite TV”)

On the other hand, on August 4 the “Financial Times” reported that Carlton Communiations has teamed up with Universal Studios to broadcast two channels on British digital terrestrial television. The FT says the deal will provide a crime and film channel for ONdigital, which is aiming to launch before Christmas. (Reuters)

ASIA/PACIFIC

JAPAN–The Japanese multi-channel satellite broadcaster SkyPerfect TV plans to go public in Japan in 2000. The company was formed in May through a merger of Rupert Murdoch’s Japan Sky Broadcasting and Japan’s Perfect TV. Subscribers to the 151 channel system exceeded 800,000 at the beginning of August, and the company hopes to attract two million by the end of 1999. The number of channels is to increase to 170 by the end of December. Analysts say only a fraction of subscribers enjoy programs from both operators, due to a delay in introducing dual-mode receivers for the two satellites currently used. Rival DirecTV, which launched in December, had 152,000 subscribers at the end of July. (Reuters)

NORTH AMERICA

WRN ON NPR–I’ve just returned after several weeks at home in California. While I was there I noticed a media review in a local newspaper (can’t remember now if it was the “San Francisco Chronicle” or the “Santa Rosa Press-Democrat”) which criticised National Public Radio as “Eurocentric”.

Despite the United States having the world’s most extensive media, I think most of us travelling from anywhere in the world to the US feel like we’ve gone behind a media curtain. The rest of the world disappears in the fog of American news.

So rather than being “Eurocentric”, I think many observers would just congratulate NPR on doing a great job of covering the rest of the world. The recent East African bombings dominated the news in the US, of course, but NPR was the only station I noticed that actually talked about how the blasts had affected the local citizens in Kenya and Tanzania.

The object of this lengthy discourse, is to lead into how NPR is now doing an even better job at covering the world, including a new way to listen to Radio Sweden.

On August 1st our partners, the World Radio Network, which relays around 20 international broadcasters on satellite, started packaging a service of overnight programming for NPR, called “WRN on NPR”. This follows similar WRN initiatives in Canada and South Africa.

When I was in London recently, I visited the WRN offices, and talked to Managing Director Karl Miosga, who told me the new North American service is based on similar projects in other countries, and you can hear that interview in today’s program.

That said, I have to admit that the new service is keeping a very low profile. Neither the local NPR station where I was staying, nor the much larger and news-oriented KQED in San Francisco seem to be offering “WRN on NPR”. And a visit to the NPR webpage, looking for a list of stations carrying the service, revealed not a single mention, not even a link to WRN.

On the other hand, there isn’t all that much on the WRN website, beyond a press release from last month on the then-upcoming service.

If you live in North America and your local public radio station isn’t carrying the new overnight service, you can always give them a call and make a gentle suggestion.

C-SPAN–For several years C-SPAN which relays programs from the American Congress on two TV channels, has been offering relays of the BBC World Service and international radio stations. These have been separate audio subcarriers on the satellite transponders of the two channels. But recently C-SPAN has offered the relay of foreign radio stations as the SAP, the second audio channel included in modern American TV sets.

This trip was the first time I had access to a TV set with SAP, and while several other channels did actually have second audio channels (often Spanish translations), there were no SAPs for either C-SPAN channel. So either C-SPAN has abandoned the SAP channels (and we at Radio Sweden should stop telling people they can hear us that way), or Century Cable pulled the plug on C-SPAN, but no one else.

Comments?

FOX–In Europe, the wholesome family entertainment fare of the Family Channel failed to attract viewers, and it was taken over by TCI’s subsidiary Flextech, which switched to a format of mindless gameshows as “Challenge TV”. Now in America, beginning August 17, the Family Channel has been taken over by Rupert Murdoch, renamed the Fox Family Channel, and programming like the regular feature “Diagnosis Murder” is apparently too tame, and has been dropped.

PUBLICATIONS

SATELLITE TIMES–We’re sad to note that Grove Enterprises is closing “Satellite Times” magazine, which covered space from TVRO and weather satellites, to amateur radio satellites and radio astronomy. The September issue will be the last. Sister publication “Monitoring Times” continues. (In the interests of full disclosure, I must point out that I have written a column for “Satellite Times”.)