Here you will find the last satellite news!
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Here you will find the last satellite news!
Burma’s military junta says it believes information technology, particularly satellite TV, “is a decadent threat that undermines nationalism and has warned the people to avoid satellite TV programmes.”
BBC Monitoring, quoting the local Irrawaddy website, reports that on Tuesday, the junta-controlled newspapers in Myanmah/Burma, The New Light of Myanmar, Myanma Alin and The Mirror, published a commentary blasting satellite TV.
"In reality, satellite [TV] programmes are particularly designed to wield influence, making use of media and arts," the newspapers said. "Today, certain countries are brazenly interfering in the internal affairs of their targeted countries by inciting political problems, instigating mass demonstrations, and demoralizing the characters [sic] and undermining the nationalistic sense of the people through decadent programmes."
The article was titled "We should not continue to allow decadent satellite programmes," in the English-language daily The New Light of Myanmar, and "Don't Continuously Water a Poison Plant!" in the Burmese-language newspapers, Myanma Alin and The Mirror.
The article said that watching satellite TV in Burma "should have been remedied" because "many of those channels [on satellite TV] can demoralize the people, hurt national spirit and patriotic spirit [sic], and arouse emotional feelings."
TV programmes received through a satellite receiver include news stories that "are against the government policy as well as the sense that may hurt national culture, customs, traditions and character of the people," the article claimed.
If the government disregards and ignores the problem, the nation and the people will face evil consequences, the article said, claiming that the Chinese government prohibits Chinese citizens from watching satellite TV programmes and many countries prohibit and control such broadcasts to protect their national interests.
Soon after the crackdowns on mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks in September 2007, the junta attempted to control citizens' watching satellite TV, in particular the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) as well as the international channels for Al Jazzera, CNN and BBC. In early 2008, the junta ordered a massive hike in the annual satellite TV license fee. At the time, the license fee was increased 166-fold.
As alternatives to the Burmese government's propaganda TV channels, MRTV and Myawaddy, many people in urban and rural areas watch DVB which broadcasts in the Burmese language and provides Burma related news, according to viewer surveys. DVB, run by Burmese exiles, is a "multimedia organization promoting press freedom, democracy and human rights," according to world-newspapers.com.
In recent years, Burmese authorities have tried to counter satellite TV, particularly DVB, by permitting the pay TV, government-controlled channels MRTV 4 and MRTV 5. Both channels are managed by the Ministry of Information. Audiences can access international news broadcasts, music and movie channels. News from international broadcasts is censored.
Most teashops in urban areas have satellite TV receivers and people who cannot afford to buy a receiver watch satellite TV programmes at teashops. Journalists in Rangoon say teashops with satellite TV get more customers. To reach a larger audience via satellite TV, the Washington-based Voice of America (VOA) Burmese Service reportedly has plans to expand its programmes from radio broadcasts to satellite TV in the Burmese language.
© Rapid TV News 2009
War has broken out between Italian public broadcaster and Rupert Murdoch-backed Sky Italia. RAI is cancelling its encryption deal with Sky Italia, which scrambled satellite transmissions as far as Sky Italia receivers were concerned.
The RAI-Sky contract has six months left to run, but the cancellation comes just weeks after RAI teamed with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Mediaset cluster of channels to launch Tivu, a ‘Freesat’ operation that sets the two network operators up in direct competition with Sky.
At the moment Mediaset’s contractual obligations with Sky are being honoured, but it is widely anticipated that this deal too will soon cease. Both RAI and Mediaset have been seen as enjoying the extra coverage and convenience of Sky’s distribution.
As a direct result of this RAI action Italian homes with satellite equipment cannot access RAI’s channels via the Sky Italia set-top box, and must now buy a Tivu receiver in readiness for the official launch in June. Sky Italia has 4.7m subscribers.
Complicating the issue is that Sky uses the NDS-developed VideoGuard Conditional Access system, while Tivu has selected a rival system from Irdeto.
© Rapid TV News 2009
KabelKiosk, Eutelsat’s German direct-to-cable platform, is taking television channels from TV group ProSiebenSat.1 on board its free-to-air bouquet.
Sat.1, ProSieben, kabel eins, N24 and 9Live have been added to the basic package. Together with channels operated by RTL group, which joined the platform last year, KabelKiosk now carries all the large German commercial broadcasters.
Cable head-ends are served through capacity on Eutelsat’s 9° East orbital position. KabelKiosk’s basic package, comprising 30 commercial broadcasters, will soon be expanded to 50 channels. Additionally, an HDTV package and digital video library will be added this year.
KabelKiosk supplies more than 250 cable companies, which altogether reach 2.8 million households, with digital TV channels.
© Rapid TV News 2009
Satellite distribution specialist GlobeCast will use next month’s Dubai CabSat to launch a new African DTH platform
Hot on the heels of the failure of Gateway’s DTH bouquet, GlobeCast is attempting something a little different in the shape of a wholesale service. “The new platform is the first (free) Ku-band DTH platform with coverage over sub-Saharan Africa, providing broadcasters with the opportunity to reach households across the continent,” says GlobeCast.
GlobeCast is starting modestly and has one dedicated transponder on a satellite that facilitates uplink from Europe and is compliant to distribute services to IPTV or terrestrial network head-ends.
The new platform, which is an alternative to the pay TV bouquets in sub-Saharan Africa, responds to a strong demand for free-to-air Ku-band coverage of this crucial region. Several African broadcasters are already in contact with GlobeCast to secure positions in this coveted space and extend their audience to 56 African countries, says the operator.
© Rapid TV News 2009
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Portugal has just got a new 24 hour news channel called TVI 24, operated by Spanish company Prisa's Media Capital. The channel will launch officially on February 26 at 9pm, exclusively on ZON TV Cabo.
The new channel claims to be different from its competitors in its dynamic and innovative attitude in the way it treats the news according to José Eduardo Moniz, TVI's general director. The channel will fight for a rigorous and objective journalism by offering the tips so the viewers can get their own conclusions.
TVI 24 has different news blocks as well as magazines on sports, economy, culture, ways of living, science, fashion and Nature as well as debates and interviews. In these interviews it will count on the presence of Portugal's most important politicians such as Augusto Santos Silva and Nuno Morais Sarmento.
At the same time as the broadcasting channel a website will be launched [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] which will be the new entry door for the information the broadcaster aims to be leader in. This website also wants to be the leading website of Portugal's internet information in general.
On its side ZON TV Cabo has shown itself "enthusiastic and at the same time anxious" for the launching of the new channel. Luís Lopez (pictured, above), the channel's CEO, highlighted the importance of the new service for the reinforcing of the diversity of channels in the programming schelude of ZON TV Cabo.
© Rapid TV News 2009
Last night was supposed to be the night when all of the USA’s main broadcast stations switched off their analogue signals, and depended entirely on digital transmission. At the end of the day – or night – just 421 stations went dark. The rest now have just a couple of months until June 12 to switch off.
A total of 641 stations have now gone dark, some 36% of the nation’s total. However, the 421 number was somewhat larger than the anticipated total of just a week ago when the National Association of Broadcasters was talking only of some 368 stations making the switch.
There is a ‘half-way house’ date of April 18 when the Federal Communications Commission expects another bundle of stations to switch off.
However, this staggered pattern is leaving some viewers confused. Indeed, there’s another potential date of March 14 that some stations have been granted as their ‘darkness’ date.
Meanwhile, all the stations that still remain transmitting in analog have to meet FCC rules & regs requiring them to carry extra public information commercials alerting viewers that the sands of analog time are fast running out.
© Rapid TV News 2009
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Eutelsatʼs Hot Bird 9 craft, pictured, left, has
been commercialised at 13 deg East.
Eutelsatʼs Hot Bird 9, launched just before Christmas, has entered commercial service. It went live at 4am GMT time on Feb 17. The new satellite will work alongside HB6 and HB8, and replace HB7A.
Hot Bird 7A will move to 9 deg East and will be re-branded as Eurobird 9A where it will take over the work currently being done by Eurobird 9 (20-transponders worth) and add an additional 18 much-needed transponders to the 9 deg East slot.
Eurobird 9 will continue its orbital mission at “another location” says Eutelsat, somewhat enigmatically.
Hot Bird 9 has a payload of up to 64 Ku-band transponders and is the second in Eutelsat's new generation of HB craft, and follows HB8 which was launched in 2006. These high-capacity spacecraft have the dual mission of renewing Eutelsat's resource at its premium video neighbourhood at 13 degrees East and boosting Eutelsatʼs overall back-up capacity.
Eutelsat also has a very strong order book of new (and replacement) satellites for its manifest. Including Hot Bird 10 launched last week and still undergoing in-orbit testing, it has 6 craft on order including an anticipated order for Atlantic Bird 4R. AB-4R is the proposed craft to replace the lost W2M (which failed in January following its Dec 20 launch).
© Rapid TV News 2009
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German health channel Deutsches Gesundheitsfernsehen (DGF) has abandoned satellite distribution and is available with immediate effect via its website [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] only.
According to the Hamburg-based broadcaster, the move will serve the consolidation and further development of the brand, the continued distribution of health-related programmes and viewers’ increasing interest in readily-available content to download. The channel, which was launched on April 1 2007, screens advice series, talk shows, reports and scientific programmes covering health, nutrition, prevention, exercise, research and naturopathy.
Distribution via Astra (19.2° East) was terminated on February 10. At the time, a spokeswoman said that the interruption was only temporary due to a technical rearrangement and that the channel would be available as usual on Astra within a few days.
The development indicates that the advertising-financed free-to-air channel has been hit hard by the reduction in advertising revenue caused by the economic crisis. With the termination of its satellite distribution, DGF has rid itself of a significant expense, but also a large portion of its audience. It remains to be seen how long the channel can hold out as a web-TV service.
© Rapid TV News 2009
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KabelKiosk, the channel and service platform operated by Eutelsat for cable operators, will transfer its entire offer to the orbital position 9° East, terminating its previous distribution via 8° West.
Through the new satellite Eurobird 9A, considerably more capacity will soon be available at 9° East. With the move, Eutelsat is laying the cornerstone for the further expansion of KabelKiosk this year, including new free-to-air and pay-TV channels, HDTV services and a digital video library.
On March 1 Eutelsat will offer all KabelKiosk channels which until now have been distributed on 8° West in parallel on Eurobird 9A. The dual distribution will end on May 31 when the signal on 8° West is switched off.
In order to inform cable operators and installers of cable networks about the technical parameters of the new satellite position and the expansion plans, KabelKiosk is conducting a nationwide seminar tour in March.
© Rapid TV News 2009
Barry Maloney of Balderton Capital, a major investor in Irish pay-TV sports operator Setanta, has heavily criticised the English Premier League for permitting what he described as its “predatory pricing” policy. The news emerged as it became clear that BSkyB would and could not permit sub-licensing of its soccer TV rights to Setanta.
Setanta has suffered a 50% cut in the number of premiership soccer matches it can cover from the 2010 season. Maloney said: "A football match that ends 5-1 does not suggest two evenly matched, equally competitive teams. The Premier League auction process has failed to introduce the fair competition that the European Commission intended. Sky's market dominance has allowed it to bid a predatory price for football rights – a price based not on economics, but on its desire to damage its competition. We will lobby every single group and regulator with an interest. This affects all sports – it's not just football," said Maloney.
Setanta’s biggest shareholders include Balderton Capital, Doughty Hanson and Goldman Sachs, and its advisers at Close Bros and Goldman Sachs are in crucial talks to establish a new direction for the business now the sports landscape has changed so dramatically. The group now has to prove to its investors that its business model is sustainable – a far from easy challenge.
© Rapid TV News 2009
German pay-TV operator Premiere could lose documentary channels Discovery Channel and Animal Planet from the beginning of April.
A Premiere spokesman confirmed to news magazine Focus that he “couldnʼt guarantee” both channels will remain on the platform. TV-guide magazines have already been advised to inform their readers of the possible retreat in their March editions.
According to information received by Focus, the uncertainty is due to contractual negotiations which determine how much Premiere pays for the services per subscription and year. The position of the contract partners is thought to be hardly compatible.
The threatened decrease in channels could be connected with the sobering financial statement which Premiere CEO Mark Williams is expected to present today (Monday Feb 16) in Munich. According to the report, in the fourth quarter of 2008 Premiere again suffered stagnating turnover and subscription figures. Additionally, average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) did not increase.
Analyst Sonia Rabussier from investment bank Sal. Oppenheim advises shareholders to sell their Premiere shares, as she believes the broadcaster will not break even until 2012.
© Rapid TV News 2009
Successful launch of Express-AM-44 and Express-MD-1 satellites
The AM-44 telecommunication satellite has been successfully launched by a Proton-M rocket from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Express-AM-44 satellite, dedicated to the Russian Satellite Communication Company (RSCC), was launched with its Express-MD-1 co-passenger on board a Khrunichev satellite.
The Express-AM-44 satellite is designed to provide digital TV and radio broadcasting, telephony, data transmission channels, videoconferencing services and Internet access. The satellite will be also used to deploy communication networks, via VSAT technology.
The AM-44 carries 16 actives transponders in Ku-band, 10 in C-band, and 1 in L-band. It is equipped with 4 antennas requiring high technology know how: three steerable antennas for C and Ku-band as well as a L-band network antenna. It weight about 2.6 tons at launch, have a 6 kW electrical power end of life and will be positioned at 11° West.
The Express-MD-1 satellite is designed to provide TV, voice and data transmission and radio broadcasting services over an area spanning Russia and most of the CIS countries. It will be positioned at 53° East.
The Polish DTH platform Cyfrowy Polsat is making its offer available free of charge for a period of up to six months.
Subscribers who sign a 29-month contract to receive its Mini Max package will be able to receive it free of charge for six months, while those who commit to 24 months will have the first three months free of charge.
The latter will also be available to those opting for a 29-month contract for the Family, HBO, Relax Mix, Relax Mix+HBO, Super Film and HD packages, while signing a 13-month contract for the Family and more comprehensive packages will guarantee one month free of charge.
Digital decoders are being made available to buy for PLN99 (€21.4) or PLN79 for the duration of the contract, while HD decoders cost PLN199 (PLN99) and those with a hard disk PLN499 (PLN199).
The news comes as alongside reports that Cyfrowy Polsat gained more subscribers in January than 12 months earlier. However, no exact figure has been made available.
Fault hits 90,000 Sky+ HD boxes
Up to 90,000 Sky+ HD boxes are to be replaced after a manufacturing fault was identified in a batch of units manufactured by Pace, it has been confirmed.
The problem first came to light on Digital Spy on Wednesday, when some Sky customers reported being called by the pay TV operator and advised of a fault that could impact the long term performance of their Sky+ HD box.
When contacted by Digital Spy for comment, Sky's high definition team posted on the forum: "Pace has told us about a manufacturing fault that can affect around 90,000 of the first boxes supplied by Pace. The fault was resolved in Paceʼs subsequent supplies of boxes.
"To be 100% clear, itʼs nothing to with a faulty component; the problem relates to the way that some of the boxes were assembled. It doesnʼt raise a safety risk or prevent them from being used as normal until we exchange them, but in the longer term it could lead to the failure of the box.
"Weʼre proud of our Sky+HD product and weʼre not happy about customers having boxes that donʼt meet our quality standards. So we want to swap all of the boxes in this batch.
"We started calling the affected customers earlier this week to fix an appointment for one of our engineers to come and install a free replacement box. Because of the number of boxes, it will take us about three months to contact everyone, so there is no need to be concerned if we havenʼt called you already. The box can continue to be used as normal until we come to replace it.
"To make up for any inconvenience, we will give all affected customers three monthsʼ free subscription to our HD pack (worth £29.25) when we replace their box."
Further details about the precise nature of the fault have not been released.
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German commercial broadcaster RTL wants to transmit its channels via DTT in Stuttgart from mid-2009. As well as free-to-air channels RTL, RTL II, VOX and Super RTL, the package will include pay-TV services Passion and RTL Crime, marking the first time pay-TV channels will be available via DTT in Germany.
Teletext is to cut up to 16 jobs after turning over some editorial and administrative functions to the Press Association.
The company said that the cuts will be made following a "review of editorial costs and efficiencies" as it prepares "for a digital-only future".
PA will produce Teletext's entertainment pages and handle viewer enquiries that are currently handled by duty editors.
"In the current economic climate we have to ensure that we are delivering editorial services in as efficient a way as possible and these changes will expand our existing relationship with the Press Association, while retaining other external specialists to keep the distinctive character of our various entertainment magazines," said Teletext editor-in-chief John Sage.
Last month, Ofcom questioned the need for a public service teletext licence beyond 2014, and permitted Teletext to dramatically cut the number of national and regional news pages it publishes
Parent company Viacom sees 69% loss
Can Paramount's upcoming film slate push Viacom's profits up?
Viacom, the owners of MTV, Paramount Pictures and the Rock Band franchise, has announced a massive 69 per cent loss in profits.
The loss is being put down to redundancy payouts – 880 jobs were cut in December – and a write-down of assets.
The loss equates to a $387 million year-on-year, with profits down to $173 million (£120 million) from $560 million (£350 million) the same time in 2008.
Poor DVD sales
Viacom is putting the profit slump down to a decline in advertising and a slowing of DVD sales, with Viacom President Philippe Dauman saying the company's fourth-quarter results "reflect the realities of a challenging economy."
In 2008, the company had successful DVD releases of Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull, but still saw a 6 per cent dip in the home entertainment market.
There was some good news regarding the cinema revenue. Paramount saw 28 per cent jump in revenues to $350 million (£240 million). The company is hoping that its 2009 film slate will also perk things up – with the likes of Star Trek, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and "GI Joe all coming out this year.
TVN24 has plans to use a virtual studio in mid-March 2009 which would appear in some programmes, such as the "Political Scanner". This will allow to diversify the set. Next step for TVN24, also planned for March, is the introduction of 16/9 picture format.
TVN24 singnal in 16/9 format is already available on Hot Bird 7A (13E) satellite, it is encoded in Conax CAS7.
Technical parameters:
Hot Bird 7A (13°E)
tp. 10 (11,393 GHz, pol. V, SR: 27500, FEC: 3/4, DVB-S)
ID: Test
PID V: 522
PID A: 750
PID PCR: 146
SID: 4321
Two channels should appear soon in Poland - Funspot and Mood Channel. Program company will distribute these channels. Program has recently signed a contract with Accedo Broadband, a provider of interactive content to approximately 4 million IPTV customers in 25 countries worldwide.
Funspot is a channel with interactive games, available in several categories: puzzle, quiz, arcade, logical games, strategy, cards - a total of more than 100 titles. Most of these games are offered in HD quality. Mood Channel is a library of live pictures in Full HD.