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TELE-satellit
EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE
International Satellite Broadcasting News
Number 74, Week ending 22 October 1995
By Martyn Williams
News Desk : Internet martyn@twics.com  or CompuServe CIS:martynw
(c) TELE-satellit Magazine


ARIANE LAUNCHES ASTRA 1E
  KOUROU, French Guiana (TS) -- An Ariane 42L rocket carried the 
Astra-1E satellite into orbit last Thursday morning from the European 
Space Agency's launch site in French Guiana.
  Ariane Flight 79 left the pad at 0038 GMT Thursday, five days later 
than previously planned due to faulty electronics.
  The satellite is the fifth for Luxembourg's SES and will be used 
exclusivly for digital broadcasting from its position at 19.2 degrees 
East alongside the other four analog Astra satellites.
  The next launch for the company will be Astra 1F, sheduled to be 
launched by a Russian Proton rocket early next year.


TELEPIU ANNOUNCES DIGITAL PACKAGE
  ROME, Italy (TS) -- Telepiu, the national terrestrial pay TV 
operator in Italy, has announced details of a coming digital TV 
package.
  The broadcaster announced this week its existing four channels - 
sports, movies, culture and a new channel - began broadcasting on a 
Eutelsat II satellite on October 10 and that decoders for home use 
will become available soon making it the first consumer digital TV 
package in Europe.


PROGRAMMING INVESTMENT TO FOLLOW FLEXTECH CABLE SALE
  LONDON, England (TS) -- Flextech has sold its British cable 
television interests for 62.6 million pounds to Dutch group KPN Kabel, 
a unit of the country's PTT.
  Flextech owned 91.7% of IVS, a company investing in and running 
cable television networks in the UK that cover 216,000 homes.
  The sale does not affect any of the cable programming interests held 
by the company which include TCC, Discover Channel, Bravo and others.
  The money raised from the sale will be used to purchase more 
programming for the networks and set up a programming library.


CENTRAL TV BROADCASTS SWITCHED OFF IN TUVA
By Laura Belin, OMRI Inc.
  MOSCOW, Russia (OMRI) -- The main television center in Tuva has 
suspended all Russian TV and Russian Public TV broadcasts except for 
news programs, ITAR-TASS reported on 20 October. 
  The center is owed 4 billion rubles ($900,000) by central 
television, and its workers, who have not been paid for six months, 
decided to impose a "blockade."
  Earlier this month, President Yeltsin issued a decree forbidding 
unsanctioned cutoffs of national television networks.


BT WINS CANAL PLUS DIGITAL CONTRACT
  LONDON, England (TS) -- British Telecom will provide uplink 
capability to France's Canal Plus when it launches a digital 
television packet via the Astra 1E satellite next year.
  BT will send the company's Canal Satellite digital package from its 
headquarters at Boulogne Billancourt near Paris to the recently 
launched satellite.


MATRA GRABS NILESAT CONTRACT
  PARIS, France (TS) -- Matra Marconi Space has won a contract to 
supply Egypt with its first satellite - Nilesat. The $158 million deal 
specifies the company will deliver a satellite in orbit, spares and 
backup on the ground and two control centers at Cairo and Alexandria 
in Egypt.
  The satellite will be built by Alcatel Espace and transmit digital 
television to homes across Egypt equipped with 60cm dishes. The system 
is scheduled to begin broadcasting in 1997.


ST. PETERSBURG'S CHANNEL FIVE JOINS THE "BIG THREE."
By Brian Whitmore
  ST PETERSBURG, Russia (OMRI) -- St. Petersburg's Channel Five has 
joined Russian Public TV (ORT) and Russian TV to form the "big three" 
of Russian national television channels. 
  President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree enabling St. Petersburg's 
main channel to broadcast to 70 million viewers from northwest Russia 
to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk without interference, Smena 
reported on 11 October.
  The decree forbids local authorities from blocking Channel Five in 
favor of their own broadcasts. Yeltsin also proposed making the 
channel a joint stock company with 51% of the shares held by the 
federal government and the remaining shares held by private investors.


NEWS FROM FINLAND
By Pasi Andersson
  HELSINKI, Finland (TS) -- Scandinavian Broadcasting Systems has 
released their plans ... they will apply for a terrestial broadcasting 
licence 
in November. It's believed that they will start on satellite if 
someone else get's terrestial licence.
  YLE has confirmed that they will start satellite service in early 
1997. It will be based on channel that they distribute on some Swedish 
cable networks, it carries currently programming from YLE1/YLE2 and 
also from MTV3.
  Russkoje Video has released some details: 5-7 hours/day, russian 
documentaries and films, possible some western series, mostly with 
subtitles ... it's not known what they will "really" do: How they will 
get viewers in Finland with Russian films from 60's ... maybe some 
documentaries will be suitable but for example PTV will get more 
viewers with programming they
already have on cable.
  Russkoje Video is owned by Russian National Film Committee and some 
banks. They operate also in other areas like banking and 
import/export. The company started on St.Petersburg's cable in 1993 
and share managing director Dimitri Rozhdestvensky with TV6 Moscow 
where he is vice managing director.


ATLAS LAUNCHES NAVY SATELLITE
  CAPE CANAVERAL AIR STATION, Florida, USA (LMM) -- A Lockheed Martin
Astronautics Atlas II rocket successfully launched the Ultra High 
Frequency Follow-On (UHF F/O) F6 communications satellite into 
geosynchronous transfer orbit Sunday morning from Complex 36, Pad A.
  It was the ninth successful Atlaslaunch of 1995 from Cape Canaveral 
Air Station and the fifth successful launch in the UHF Follow-On 
Program for Hughes Space and Communications Company and the U.S. Navy.
  "We are three-for-three this year in the UHF Follow-On launch 
program for Hughes, and we couldn't be prouder of Atlas's outstanding 
performance," said Michael R. Wash, president of Lockheed Martin 
Commercial Launch Services.
  The Atlas II, designated AC-119 for the UHF F/O F6 mission, is one 
of four variants in the Atlas family presently launching satellites 
for domestic and international customers.  Atlas II is capable of 
placing satellites in the 6,200 to 6,500-lb. weight class into 
geosynchronous transfer orbit. 
  This sixth satellite in the UHF F/O Program incorporates extremely- 
high frequency (EHF) capability, which began with the fourth 
spacecraft in the series, launched by Atlas in January of this year.  
The fourth through the tenth satellites are being launched on Atlas II 
and IIA, which offer added performance over the Atlas I used to launch 
the first three satellites.  At a total of 10 missions, the UHF F/O 
Program is Lockheed Martin's largest single commercial launch services 
program.


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CREDITS,

Reports in TELE-satellit news are from our worldwide network of 
reporters and sources. In particular we would like to thank :

Curt Swinehart for keeping us up to date with all parts of the 
satellite industry.

Don Fitzpatrick of DFA in San Francisco for providing permission to 
reproduce articles from Shoptalk, the TV news industry's daily news 
and information magazine.

OMRI material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research 
Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, 
Czech Republic. For more information on OMRI publications, please 
write to: info@omri.cz

Reproduction in part of Jonathan's Space Report was maded possible by 
kind permission of Jonathan McDowell. To read the full edition see 
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html or 
ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*

News from Radio Sweden is made possible by Geroge Wood, presenter of 
Sweden Calling DXers/MediaScan,  the world's oldest radio program 
about international broadcasting. Radio Sweden has presented this 
round-up of radio news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since 
1948. It's currently broadcast on the first and third Tuesdays of the 
month. A temporary web site exists at 
http://www.abc.se/~m8914/media.html

