TELE Satellit European Satellite News English Version - Number 4, Week ending 19 June 1994 By Martyn Williams General Instrument wins big Nynex contract One of the UK's leaders in cable televison and telecoms has chosen US based GI to provide cable TV terminals as the networks looks towards the future. The new GI terminals are descibed as user friendly and interactive TV ready. Nynex provides 1.5 million UK homes, mostly in the north, with a cable TV service. In addition to the contract for user terminals the deal also contracts GI to build a new head end system allowing Nynex to individually control each convertor and allow up to 60 channels onto the network. Most UK networks currently offer up to 30 channels and most homes are not individually addressable. When the system is built it will be a showcase for other network operators to emulate. New logo for Eurosport Eurosport has begun using a new logo. The logo made it's first on screen appearance on Friday June 17 as part of the World Cup soccer coverage. The logo has been appearing in Eurosport press advertisments and on the stand at the Cable and Satellite 94 show in London back in April. The new logo is little different to the old one. New look for RTL Text RTL Text, the teletext service of RTL Television has been re-structured. The new look to the service has brought most of the page numbers in line with the ARD/ZDF model which most other German TV stations follow. Microsoft TV via Astra 1C Microsoft TV will once again make an appearance on Astra. The broadcast will last 10 hours and begin at 1530 MESZ this Tuesday, June 21st. Look at Astra channel 47, 11.171 GHz H. Global TV tests A new asian TV service, Global TV, has been seen testing on Eutelsat 2F3. The channel in use is 10.987 GHz H, also used by HRT Croatian television. Turksat tries again Turksat 1B should be launched in mid July. The launch of this satelite has been brought forward due to the failure of an Ariane vehicle carrying the original Turksat 1A satellite earlier this year. The satellite carries 16 transponders delivering a powerful 51 dBW signal across Turkey. Due to it's orbital position of 31 or 42 degrees East, the satellite can put a 48 dBW signal into central Europe and a 45 dBW signal into central Asia. ARD Radio is market leader Germany's national broadcaster, ARD Radio, is the market leader in Germany. According to recently released figures 35.87 million people listen to an ARD radio station every weekday. Leading ARD station, WDR 4, also available on Astra, attracts 1.17m listeners whilst the top private radio station Antenne Bayern counts 640,000 listeners on an average weekday. MCM keeps on expanding The french language alternative to MTV, MCM Euromusique, is now offering viewers in Germany subscriptions. The channel has been available for some time in the UK. The subscriptions offered are for the D2-MAC service via TDF 1 at 19 degrees West. This satellite is a DBS bird so the signal is only receivable in and around France. Subscriptions for the SECAM service on Telecom are only available to French viewers as part of the Canal Satellit package. Radio news - The unidentified radio station on EDTV Dubai's channel on Arabsat has been identified. The station is Dubai Jamhurya. The station broadcasts on the 7.20 MHz subcarrier of EDTV Dubai (3.955 GHz LZ) alongside Dubai's english language sender, Dubai FM on 7.74 MHz. - German station JAM FM is in financial trouble. Only a few months after the dance music station strated on Kopernikus they have run into problems. JAM FM uses a subcarrier on the Franco-German Arte channel but needs more exposure. - At time of writing Country Music Radio is still off the air. A tape on the Astra channel simply states that the channel is unavailable but gives no explanation why. Two possible reasons are being circulated - technical or financial problems. - ISS Radio, which broadcasts several channels of narrow band audio via Kopernikus may be taking the service digital. In brief ... - The RTL Radio news and sports service, Nachrichten- und Sport Radioservice GmbH, has signed a new cooperation agreement with Agence France Presse. AFP will join with NSR to produce a single radio news service for German radio stations. NSR supplies 20 radio stations with thier current service. - The Adult Channel has dropped subscription prices in Germany. Subscribers now pay DM 199 compared with the old price of DM 399. The new price is more comparable with the price UK viewers pay of GBP 50. - The Russians launched another satellite on 7 June. A Cosmos 2281 satellite was put into orbit by a soyuz rocket for the Russian military. - German TV channel VIVA plans a teletext service. - Romainian TV is planning a Eutelsat service. 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 : Zipped, 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.