
This news is provided free of charge to on-line users by TELE-satellit 
magazine and TS News Service GB. IT IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. It may not be 
reproduced for commercial reasons by any means what so ever. If you wish to 
reproduce this news or redistribute it for non commercial use please contact 
the email address below.

Der TS Nachrichtendienst ist ein Service fuer die Freunde von TELE-satellit 
und TS-TV und ist nur fuer persoenliche infromation freigegeben.



TELE-satellit
EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE
International Satellite Broadcasting News
Number 43, Week ending 19 March 1995
By Martyn Williams
News Desk : Internet martyn@euro.demon.co.uk  or CompuServe 100025,1637
(c) TELE-satellit Magazine


BROADCASTING LICENCE FOR SUPER RTL
Cologne, Germany (TS) -- Super RTL has received a broadcasting license from 
the Landesanstalt Fur Rundfunk, Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine Westphalia's 
state broadcasting authority). 
"Super RTL is our first thematic channel and a new area of broadcasting for 
CLT," said Michel Delloye, chief executive officer CLT Multi Media.  "We're 
very excited about this new venture and in launching Super RTL, with Disney."
"We have a great management team, a solid business plan and a wonderful 
partner in CLT," said Michael Eisner, chairman and chief executive of The Walt 
Disney Company.  "We're thrilled about Super RTL."
The award follows a license approval recommendation by the members of the 
Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten (DLM - Conference of the 
Directors of Regional Broadcasting).  Super RTL, available through cable and 
satellite, plans to launch on April 28. On satellite the channel will use 
Astra 1A's channel 13, recently occupied by RTL 4.
Said Super RTL Managing Director Peter T. Heimes:  "We're delighted to have 
received the support of the DLM and the state broadcasting authority.  Now 
we're looking forward to providing German viewers with quality entertainment 
for the entire family."
With its headquarters at the Cologne Broadcast Centre in Cologne-Ossendorf, 
Super RTL will provide German viewers with popular Disney features from 6 to 
8pm, Mondays through Fridays. 
Additional program highlights on the new channel include the popular
"Li-La-Launebar," TV comedian Dirk Bach, Hella von Sinnen, the classic "Das 
Schloss am Worthersee" and the dramatic series "Matchball", starring pop 
singer Howard Carpendale and set in the fast- moving world of tennis.
Super RTL expects to be available to a total of 12 million households by the 
end of this year.  Approximately 7.5 million households are expected to have 
access to Super RTL through direct-to-home, satellite transmission, with the 
remainder receiving Super RTL through the cable networks.


SUCCESSFULL LAUNCH FOR JAPAN'S H2
Kagoshima Space Centre, Japan (TS) -- After delays caused by leaking oxygen 
pipes and bad weather Japan's H2 rocket finally made it into orbit on 
Saturday. Aboard were GMS-5, Japan's newest weather satellite, and SFU, 
carrying a scientific payload. Liftoff was 1701 JST (0801 GMT).
The GMS-5 satellite was built in Los Angeles by Hughes Space and 
Communications Company (HSC) under subcontract to NEC Corporation of Tokyo.  
The HS 378 model spacecraft is the fifth in a series of Hughes-built 
Geostationary Meterological Satellites that have been monitoring weather 
conditions over the Pacific Basin since 1977. Japan's National Space 
Development Agency awarded the contract, and the Japanese Meteorological 
Agency operates the spacecraft.
After about three months of in-orbit testing, the satellite will be turned 
over for service at 140-degrees East. The GMS spacecraft collect and 
distribute weather data to other Asia-Pacific countries and contributes to 
weather forecast services in an area that includes Australia, China, 
Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and 
Vietnam.


CANADIAN COMPANY TO OFFER MORE DIGITAL TV
Toronto, Canada (TS) -- Tee Comm Electronics announced a planned service that 
will deliver more than 100 digitally compressed TV channels to US viewers 
starting 1 December this year.
The new service is called AlphaStar and will use AT&T's high powered Telstar 
402R satellite to reach it's audience.


WEGENER WIN SNG CONTRACT
Clarksburg, Missouri, USA (TS) -- Wegener Communications has won a contract 
from ComSat to provide Satellite News Gathering (SNG) products. The products, 
using Labs-developed video compression technology, will be demonstrated during 
the National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB) convention April 10-13 in Las Vegas.
Under the agreement, Wegener will produce MPEG-2 broadcast quality digital 
video encoders and decoders specifically for use in SNG applications.  The 
products are ruggedized for "flyaway" and SNG truck applications.
"This product will bring the economies of digital compression to satellite 
news gathering," said Bob Placek, president and CEO, Wegener Communications. 
"The compact electronics package, coupled with smaller uplink transmitters and 
antennas will greatly expand the applications for SNG by reducing the cost of 
SNG vehicles and the cost of satellite time."
In a typical SNG application the encoder is installed in a remote news 
gathering truck.  This studio-on-wheels goes to an event location, sets up its 
satellite transmission system, and sends a remote feed back to the main studio 
for rebroadcast.  In the past, video SNG required an entire satellite 
transponder during the transmission.  Now, by utilizing the digital 
compression technology developed at COMSAT Labs, up to eight video feeds can 
be transmitted
over a single transponder.
The next generation of Eutelsat satellites are amongst those that will be 
promoting the use of a wide band transponder for a conventional TV channel and 
a digitally compressed SNG channel squeezed into the space on the transponder.


NEWS DATACOM TO SUPPLY AUSTRALIAN CABLE
London, UK (TS) -- News Datacom will supply Conditional access systems for the 
new Australian digital cable network, FOXTEL. The system will use News 
Datacom's VCS 4000 Digital Video System which is fully DVB MPEG-2 compliant.
In the last two weeks the VCS 4000 been successfully tested on cable in Europe 
using MPEG-2 broadcasts via Astra 1D as test material. The system has also won 
a contract with Star TV in Asia.


MORE DIREC-TV SUPPLIERS
Los Angeles, California, USA (TS) -- GM Hughes announced last week that three 
more manufacturers have been authorised to produce home reception equipment 
for the Direc-TV service. The companies are Toshiba, Uniden and Hughes.
Currently Direc-TV receivers are manufactured solely by Thomson.


MORE PROGRAMMING FOR ECHOSTAR
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (TS) -- Echostar have signed ESPN, USA Network, Disney 
Channel, TBS and the Discovery Channel for their upcoming DBS service. The new 
Echostar service will operate from their own satellites and is scheduled to 
begin in the autumn of this year.


IN BRIEF
- The Playboy Channel plans a summer launch via Astra transponder 42, 
currently used by Bravo until they close at midnight.
- A German language home shopping channel may be launching via TV 3 Norway's 
channel 31 transponder on Astra. The German channel would be operated by TV3's 
owners, Kinnevik.
- The Body Shop is to launch a in store radio service and is tipped to use 
Astra transponder 15, MTV Europe, in stereo.
- VH-1 Germany has launched on Astra.
- Canal Horizons will begin broadcasting on Hot Bird 1 from 1 September. The 
channel will use D2-Mac with Eurocrypt encryption. Canal Horizons is a pay TV 
service aimed at Africa and operated by Canal Plus. The Hot Bird service is 
hoped to increase penetration of the North African nations.
- On Tele-X transponder 32 (12,322 GHz) Swedish Television are testing MPEG-2. 
Five TV services are expected to join the packet service including SVT-TV2, 
TV4 and TV6. (TS-Bureau Vilnius)
- The new Norwegian channel TV+ will begin broadcasting from 20 March. The 
station will use D2-Mac with Eurocrypt on 11,823 GHz LH via the old TV-SAT in 
it's new home of 0,6 degrees West (TS Bureau Vilnius).


SATELLITE NEWS ON THE INTERNET
TS Bureau Lubeck, Germany
TELE-satellit's German language news service from SAT 1 Text is now available 
on the Internet thanks to a new teletext server. The information is available 
via a World Wide Web page at address :
http://odin.csn.tu-chemnitz.de:9999/SAT/513/1
SAT 1 Text satellite news is updated every Tuesday and Friday.

In addition to TELE-satellit's recently launched Italian news service, the 
Italian satellite magazine *satellite* has debuted on the Internet with a 
section of satellite news at
http://www.videomusic.com/sathome.html
You can find the latest satellite news and other information including the 
programme listing for EBN.

Dutch speakers can also get satellite news from 
http://www.veronica.nl/Veronica/Blad/SatNieuws/
A satellite news page is available, updated weekly. There are also sound files 
available at the Veronica's site but they are mostly over 1Mb in size so a 
fast link is recommended.


TELE-satellit Magazine
This news is from the English language news service of TELE-satellit, a 
monthly satellite magazine edited in Munich, Germany. It consists of 164 
pages, full colour with tables, charts and news with many off-screen photos of 
the satellite channels plus an informative technical section and Europe's best 
satellite frequency guide. Subscriptions are available for DM 120, Europe 
surface mail; DM 144, Europe airmail and DM 192, ROW airmail. Orders for 
subscriptions and more information should be sent to : TELE-satellit Customer 
Service, Silheimer Str. 6a, D-89278 Nersingen, Germany, Fax +49-7308-919001 or 
email 100543.660@compuserve.com

Where to find satellite news :
TELE-satellit News, English :
CompuServe UK Forum (UKFORUM) - Windows Write / ASCII version, library 19
CompuServe European Forum (EURFORUM) - Windows Write version, library 5
CompuServe Deutschland on line (GERLINE) - Windows Write version, library 15
CompuServe Telecommunications Forum (TELECOM) - Windows Write version
fax on demand +49-8282-81003
fax on demand +49-2163-81744
fax on demand +49-7308-919009
fax on demand +44-1875-614888
NBC Super Channel - NBC Text page 171
alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup on Usenet
World Wide Web : http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html
Fidonet SAT.028
Fidonet SATELLITE.FR
Fidonet RU.SAT
Fidonet SATELLIT_R23.PUB
Maus Net : tv.grp
America On Line - from the "ham radio" area in the General file library.
Anonymous FTP to : ftp.funet.fi /pub/dx/text/satellite/telesatellit
CIX Skyguide/telesat conference
SAT NET BBS network
SweDX BBS, Swedish DX Confederation. +46-8-53034727 / Fidonet 2:201/339
Short Wave Paradise BBS, online 24 hours a day ! USA 616-383-4979

TELE-satellit News, German :
CompuServe Deutschland on line (GERLINE) - ASCII version, library 15
CompuServe Der Spiegel Forum (SPIEGEL) - ASCII version, library 11
fax on demand +49-8282-81003
fax on demand +49-2163-81744
fax on demand +49-7308-919009
SAT 1 Text - page 513
3sat Text - page 279
SAT NET BBS network

Other reliable sources of satellite news :
 Radio Sweden Mediascan. 1st and 3rd Tuesday, 20 minutes into the English 
programme via Astra, Shortwave, Mediumwave 1197 kHz and the World Radio 
Network.
Text and audio files of Mediascan can be found in the SCDX directory on 
ftp.funet.fi
 Radio Netherlands Media Network, Thursday, 23 minutes into the English 
programme via
shorwave and The World Radio Network
 World Wide Web users can access TS News and the electronic journals above 
and more information via the European satellite home page, URL 
http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html
 The ProShow. Every Sunday night starting at 9:00 pm EST on the Omega Radio 
Network - Galaxy 3, Transponder 17, 5.80 MHz.


