TELE SATELLIT European Satellite News - English Version Number 5, Week ending 26 June 1994 By Martyn Williams (c) TELE Satellit Magazine La Chaine Info debuts TF1's new all news TV station La Chaine Info, LCI, debuted to Europe on Friday evening. The channel, set to take on CNN, Sky News and Euronews, uses Telecom 2B at 5 degrees West. LCI broadcasts on 12.585 GHz, H. Cable Plus jumps around the sky Czech pay TV channel Cable Plus is currently broadcasting via Gorizont 12 at 40 degrees east. The channel, previously carried on another Gorizont satellite at 11 degrees west moved suddenly last week to Eutelsat 2F4 for a few days before settling in it's current position. The sudden move from 11 degrees west was followed by Reuters moving their Moscow feed from the Gorizont at 14 degrees west onto the old Cable Plus channel. The suddenness of the move suggests that the Gorizont satellite at 14 degrees may have a fault. Either the ku-band transponder is broken or the satellite may be out of use. The bird has been in inclined orbit for some months now. Cable Plus briefly appeared on one of the Eurovision channels for an evening before moving on. Multichoice to debut in Poland From it's base in the Netherlands, Multichoice has announced the setting up of a new company to bring the multichoice package to Poland. Multichoice Poland is part owned by News Datacom Ltd and Nethold, the parent company of Filmnet. The Polish package, which will be available in the coming weeks will include FilmNet The Complete Movie Channel, The Discovery Channel, The Children's Channel, Country Music Television Europe, The Adult Channel and QVC. As in the rest of Europe, the system in use will be Videocrypt 2. Hughes wins $118m from US Government Hughes Aircraft Co, one of the world's major satellite manufacturers, has won a long running court case against the US Government. A federal judge ordered the US Government to pay Hughes $118m on June 17. The lawsuit involves part of the satellites orbiting control system which enabled satellites to progress from the low earth orbiting models that were used in the past to the current geo-stationary orbiting birds that we all use today. The control device was patented in 1960 and the lawsuit originally filed in 1973. Three years after the invention Hughes built Syncom, the first geo-stationary satellite, and the worldwide communications industry, now worth $15bn, was born. Hughes filed the lawsuit in respect of 81 satellites built by manufacturers other than Hughes, including the 36 satellites currently used for the new GPS, Global Positioning System. Of the 81 satellites, the majority have military uses whilst around 20 are used for scientific purposes. TV war in Turkey The Turkish state TV channel, TRT, has struck out at Eurosport's World Cup Soccer coverage leaving Turkish cable networks able to broadcast only sound during the games. The blank screens are a result of protests by TRT that it had exclusive rights to the tournament. Eutelsat 2F1 full Eutelsat's 2F1 satellite at 13 degrees east is now full. The remaining channels have all been reserved. The new BBC news channel will take one, DSF's pay per view sports will take another leaving the remaining two channels to be occupied by Sci Fi TV and a new digital radio service called SaRa, both set to launch later this year. Wimbledon feeds Any tennis fans in Europe can find the main Wimbledon feeds via the following satellites : RTL Television - Intelsat K; RTL 5 - Eutelsat 2F1; NHK Japan - Eutelsat 2F1 (NTSC); Main world feed - Intelsat K. Classic FM tests for Sweden Classic FM, the commercial Classical music station that currently broadcasts in the UK and Netherlands, has begun sending the service across the Tele X satellite in preparation for a new service in Stockholm. The tests can be heard on Tele X TV channel, Femman - 12.475 GHz, LZ, subcarriers 8.46 / 8.64 MHz.. Classic FM use a digital link to the Netherlands from their UK base so it is likely that a similar method will be used shortly to reach Sweden. Global TV moves to 2F3 After testing for a few days on the Croatian TV channel on Eutelsat 2F4, Global TV has moved to Eutelsat 2F3, 11.163 GHz, H. The channel is a new Asian satellite service. TV Rock via Intelsat 702 ? Scandinavia may get it's own rock TV video channel when Intelsat 702 begins service early July. TV Rock says it will launch a Scandinavian music channel from it's base in Norway. Languages used will be Norwegian and Swedish. TV News in brief ... - The RTL 2 telephone hotline has a new number - 0138/1212 - Reports this week suggest Filmnet may lease a channel on the new Eutelsat Hot Bird 1 Radio News in brief ... - New on Hispasat - RNE Radio 1 via Canal Classico at 12.226 GHz, LZ on 7.38 / 7.56 MHz. - DMX now say they will programme up to 150 channels via Astra when they launch their digital pay radio 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 : 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.