TELE SATELLIT European Satellite News - English Version Number 1, Week ending 29 May 1994 Sky may scramble audio ! Reports this week are suggesting that Sky have commissioned an audio decoder for use across their channels on Astra. The reports suggest that UK military electronics giant, GEC, are building a prototype unit for Sky. Scrambling of the audio on Sky's VideoCrypt coded channels will mean pirates will have to hack the audio in addition to the video signal. After seeing VideoCrypt partially hacked Sky will be anxious to introduce a system that will be virtually uncrackable or certainly not commercially viable to crack. United Artists to test MPEG on Intelsat Prior to introducing MPEG 2 video compression for distribution of the UAP television channels on Intelsat 601, UAP are testing the new system from 30 May to 3 June. The tests are taking place daily from 1000UK - 1700UK on The Parliamentary Channel's transponder. During this time TPC will be available to cable operators on another Intelsat 601 channel. Wire TV and The Learning Channel will continue to be dual illuminated during the tests. The tests are for cable operators who should all have the new MPEG 2 decoders in place by the first test date. The MPEG 2 system will allow UAP to transmit all their cable only services via a single transponder. The Parliamentary Channel, 11.055 GHz, Horizontal The Parliamentary Channel backup, 11.478 GHz, Horizontal Wire TV / The Learning Channel, 11.095 GHz, Horizontal German SRI radio via Astra ? Radio Austria International's german language "Shortwave Panoramas" programme has reported that Swiss Radio International may put their German language service on Astra. This would be alongside the current SRI multi lingual service that is now broadcasting via the Swiss pay TV sender, Teleclub. Teleclub, 11.332 GHz, Horizontal Swiss Radio International via Teleclub, subcarrier 7.38 MHz Three more members for Eutelsat Eutelsat's latest three members are Andorra, Bulgaria and the Russian Federation. There are now 46 member countries of the organisation. In 1990 Eutelsat membership numbered just 20 countries. Russia looses Military satellite Russia lost a military satellite on May 26 due to a launch failure. According to Russian Military Space Command the rocket's payload fell into the Arctic Ocean shortly after lift off. The Cosmos 2281 satellite was to sole payload of the Cyclon rocket that blasted off from the Plestek space centre in Russia's far north. The fault occured during the second stage of the rocket causing both the second and third stages to malfunction. BBC strike suspended as talks begin The palnned series of strikes throughout the summer at BBC television and radio have been suspended by the main unions involved whilst a peace deal is attempted with BBC management. The suspension came two days after a national strike at the public broadcaster wrecked the news schedule on both TV and radio. The Breakfast News programme was replaced by a B movie whilst local and national news was severly cut. Fairing worse was BBC radio, especially talk based Radio 4 and the news based Radio 5 and BBC World Service. News was just about non existent on these stations. The unions involved, BECTU and the National Union of Journalists, are protesting about new working conditions and performance related pay. RTS text debuts with satellite listings ! After a brief test period Serbia's RTS television has introduced a teletext service on it's satellite channel, RTS SAT. The service features many subjects, all indexed on page 199. Amongst the TV guide viewers can find listings for European satellite TV channels : TV Index 360/1; TNT 378; Eurosport 379; Sky One 380; MTV 381; Rai Uno 382; Italia 1 383; RTS SAT, Eutelsat 1 F5, 21.5 deg East, 11.492 GHz, Vertical Russian Parliament announces TV station The lower house of Russia's parliament has voted to create its own TV service. The house expects to produce daily 30 minute reports on business carried out during the day. Financining is still uncertain as is how the station will be carried. USA - CBS and FOX at war ! America's CBS network has declared war on Rupert Murdoch's Fox network. The announcement came after days of excitement and wonder in the US TV industry after Murdoch bought twelve TV stations from New World Communications for $500m. These stations were all affiliated to the CBS network and were VHF stations. In the US historically VHF has been more desirable than UHF stations. Murdoch immediately announced that he would join his new stations to his FOX network over the next 12 months leaving CBS without affiliates in several major US markets. The stations are long time CBS affiliates in cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Tampa and Cleveland. The buy came just months after Murdoch paid $1.6bn for the right to NFL American football, outbidding CBS, ABC and NBC in the process. Many in the industry were shocked at such a high figure and the recent buyout of TV stations has affirmed that Murdoch means business. The old FOX affiliates are tipped to become the new CBS affiliates although this is uncertain at this stage. In brief ...... Kanal 6 is now available via 11.134 V on Eutelsat 2 F4. This was the feed channel from Turkey. World Tamil Television has added an extra audio subcarrier at 7.20 MHz. The new BBC Sport Grand Prix outside broadcast unit has been feeding Sound in Syncs with additional sound on subcarriers. One channel carries the full programme sound whilst the other carries just the commentary. Wire TV has signed with BBC for rights to show Wimbledon tennis highlights every evening of the championships.