TELE SATELLIT European Satellite News - English Version Number 3, Week ending 12 June 1994 By Martyn Williams Berlusconi accuses RAI of bias Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has accused Italian state TV, RAI, of bias in it's reporting during the election campaign and subsequent reporting of the new, Berlusconi led, Forza Italia government. EBU President, and BR chief, Albert Scharf was one of the first to condemn Berlusconi for his comments. Through his ownership of Fininvest, Berlusconi controls Italy's three top commercial TV networks, Italia 1, Rete 4 and Canale 5. The company also has interests in other TV stations throughout Europe and several magazines in Italy. Fininvest executives also occupy most of the seats in the Italian government. Many complained of blatant media manipulation during the campaign when Berlusconi used his TV networks to promote Forza Italia. D-Day anniversary fills the sky Undoubtedly, the satellite event of the week was the 50th anniversary of the D-day landings and the commerative events that went with them. Numerous newsfeeds were sighted right across the sky with the Reuters London transponder on Intelsat K becoming "RTV NORMANDY" for the weekend. Live coverage was carried in all of the nations taking part in the commemorations from the UK, Belgium and France. The technical quality of CNN's live coverage of UK events seemed particulary poor compared with those on BBC 1 and a look at the US network pool on Eutelsat 2F3 revealed that the signal leaving the UK, in NTSC, was of very poor quality. 6 June 1994 - UAP's D-Day The same day was also D-Day for United Artists Programming but it had a different meaning. In UAP's case, D-Day was digital day. UAP, parent company of seven TV stations has changed to digital transmission for three cable services. Wire TV, The Learning Channel and The Parliamentary Channel are now being broadcast as a digitally compressed signal on the old Parliamentary Channel transponder. The new standard ensures that the services, which were offically cable only, are now only received by authorised cable networks that have paid for the stations. The pictures in subscribers home should also be of a higher quality and less resistant to rain degredation. Since the new service started on 6 June The Parliamentary Channel has been sending in analogue on the new channel of 11.476 GHz, H. This service is expected to be only temporary whilst other authorised users of TPC are converted to digital. Bertelsmann, TCI plan new music channel German multi media concern, Bertelsmann (BMG), and America's largest cable operator, TCI, are planning a new music channel to rival MTV in the United States. The new channel, full details of which have not been announced, will rival the upcoming music service from Sony, Time Warner, Thorn EMI and Polygram. CMR missing Astra country music radio station, CMR, is not currently broadcasting. A tape loop on the Sky Sports audio subcarrier declares " We regret the interruption of service. Country Music Radio is currently unavailable ". CMR was part of the Quality Music Radio group which recently collapsed bringing an end to QEFM. A technical problem is understood to be the reason for the lapse in transmission. Cable Plus back in clear PAL ! Last week we carried a story about the switch to VideoCrypt by Cable Plus but as soon as last weeks news was completed the Czech pay TV station dropped its encryption for clear PAL. It seems that the broadcasts last week were part of the ongoing testing of the new system. At time of writing the signal is still clear but full encyption should take place soon. BBC staff strike again Staff at BBC television and radio held another one day stoppage on 10 June. The action came after negotiations broke down between the National Union of Journalists and the engineers union BECTU and BBC management. The corporation's bosses want to impose new work patterns and pay routines. Some of the news output was disrupted on BBC TV and radio. The unions are threatening another strike to coincide with the coverage of the European election results on Sunday night. QVC welcomes Europe UK based home shopping network, QVC, has begun aiming programmes at a European audience after its recent inclusion in the Multichoice Kaleidoscope package. The channel's teletext service now carries telephone numbers for the European countries it broadcasts to and regular reference is made on screen to conversions from the mainly imperial UK sizes used to the metric sizes used throughout the rest of Europe. Broadcasters prepare for World Cup '94 The US feeds are already getting busy with reports for all of the European networks from correspondants already in the USA. The World Cup boasts the world's largest TV audience and will draw millions of viewers continent wide. In Europe, satellite dish owners can see most matches live on ARD, ZDF, Eurosport and MBC. Other satellites to watch for feed material from the US are any of the Atlantic Ocean Intelsats. Transponders have been reserved on Intelsats at 18W, 24.5W and 35W and on PanAmSat. The host broadcaster fot the championship is Europe's own EBU. The EBU circuits will run full time on NASA's TDRSS satellite at 41W. BBC WSTV - news from Hong Kong, Japan The BBC have just re-entered the television market in Hong Kong. An agreement with the countries only cable operator, Wharf Cable, has put four hours of BBC World Service news onto the networks "International Channel" as of 11 June. The BBC were part of Rupert Murdoch's Star TV package until they ended their agreement for carraige on the North beam of Asiasat. The BBC remain part of the Star package for the Indian ragion. World Service TV still haven't finalised satellite details for home reception. The feed to Wharf is understood to be taken from the digital BBC feed going to New Zealand. In Japan the BBC are about to launch World Service TV onto cable networks with DTH reception following soon. The Japanese service will include four hours a night of prime time programming broadcast in two channel sound, English and Japanese. Radio Xanadu changes to Energy München German rock station, Radio Xanadu, has changed it's name following the sale of 40% of the station to French radio group NRJ. The station, available Europewide via the DSR radio packet is now calling itself Energy München. In brief .... Euronews are planning a German language news station for German cable nets. SDR 3 radio is planned for Astra. Premiere, 7.74 / 7.92 is the tipped home fro the service. ZAP TV for Hot Bird. A planned station will bring the best of other networks programming to the new Eutlesat Hot Bird. Small previews of forthcoming programmes will be presented if all goes to plan. TELE Satellit Magazine This news is from the English language news service of TELE Satellit,a monthly satellite trade 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 a informative technical section. Part of the magazine is written in English. 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 +49-7308-5296 Where to find satellite news : TELE Satellit News, English : LHARC'd Windows Write Version - UKFORUM library 17, EURFORUM library 5 ASCII Text Version - UKFORUM library 17 Fax polling - +31-45-273615 *2*44 TELE Satellit News, German : ASCII Text Version - Deutsches Computer Forum (GERNET) Other reliable sources of satellite news : - Satellite Journal International provides worldwide satellite news and can be found in UKFORUM, EURFORUM, TELECOM, BPFORUM and CEFORUM plus other networks worldwide including Internet, Nifty Serve Japan and Fidonet. - 3615 SURPIN on Minitel in France for the latest hot news ! - SAT 1 Text, page 550 with fresh news every 3-4 days plus frequency charts. - Radio Sweden Mediascan. 1st and 3rd Tuesday, 20 minutes into the English programme via Astra, Shortwave, Mediumwave 1197 kHz and the World Radio Network. We encourage all European satellite users and viewers to drop by UK Forum section 17, Entertainment, to chat and discuss all issues related to European satellite broadcasting.