This news is provided free of charge to on-line users by TELE Satellit magazine and TS News Service GB. IT IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. It may not be reproduced for commercial reasons by any means what so ever. If you wish to reproduce this news or redistribute it for non commercial use please contact the email address below. Der TS Nachrichtendienst ist ein Service fuer die Freunde von TELE Satellit und TS-TV und ist nur fuer persoenliche infromation freigegeben. Programming Notes : - TS News is pleased to announce we are now available on Fidonet in Denmark. Jens Henneberg is distributing us on SATELLIT_R23.PUB, the Danish satellite echo. Thanks Jens ! - SAT 1 has re-organised the teletext service. TS News in German is now on page 513. TELE SATELLIT EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE European Satellite News - English Version Number 28, Week ending 4 December 1994 By Martyn Williams News Desk : Internet martyn@euro.demon.co.uk or CompuServe 100025,1637 (c) TELE Satellit Magazine Ariane 3rd stage fails - PanAmSat 3 lost TS News Bureau London and Curt Swinehart Ariane launch 70 ended in failure last Thursday night after a problem with the third stage of the rocket ended with the $150 million PanAmSat 3 satellite plunging into the ocean. PAS-3 was launched about 2257 UTC (2357 CET) and after a brief delay prior to launching, everything seemed OK for the first ten minutes or so. Then, with almost sickening intensity, the viewer could tell from the onscreen telemetry that there was something wrong. A few minutes later the chairman of ArianeSpace apologized to the owners of PAS-3, saying that the satellite and launcher were not able to achieve orbit, and were lost upon re-entry into the Earths atmosphere. Charles Bigot, president of Arianespace was reported as saying "The third-stage of flight 70 did not function correctly, the motor ignited but after ignition the motor only partially functioned...about at half power. This mission has been lost, the satellite is lost,". The failure is larger than normal blow to Ariane as it was the first use of a new third stage version of the rocket using an improved oxygen-hydrogen mixture that has enabled the company to increase Ariane's capability. Shortly after the failure Conneticut based PanAmSat said a re-launch would be attempted during 1995. The satellite was due to be positioned over the Atlantic to provide communications facilities for customers from Hong Kong to Europe and North America. PanAmSat say the satellite was insured and late Friday night Reuters quoted a source as saying it was insured for more than $200m. The failure is sure to delay upcoming Ariane launch schedule including the new Eutelsat Hot Bird. Jean Phillipe Donnio looks at consequences of the failure, The inquiry will reveal the cause of the failure but whe can already say that its again a problem with the 3rd stage. Thus, among Ariane's 7 failures, 1 is due to the first stage (L02), 5 to the 3rd stage (L05, V15, V18, V63, V70) and the last one to Ariane's rag (V36). That is, a 10% failure rate. This failure will have numerous consequences: With a 10% failure rate Ariane customers are now faced to its competitors, especially the Chinese and the Russians. The Chinese have a Long March launcher with a low failure rate and competitive prices, but they can't for the moment at least carry heavy payloads. The Russians with their Proton launcher are the most impressive competitors: a 5% failure rate, very low prices and no capacity limitations. Therefore this failure will make Ariane's customers think over the use of the European launcher. With Ariane's fully booked program, this failure will introduce 3 to 6 months delay for satellites: Eutelsat and Brazilsat but also ERS 2, Intelsat 706, DBS 3, Helios... 12 launches where scheduled for 1995 (7 in the first semester). For us Europeans, the loss of Panamsat 3 is a serious lack. This telecommunication satellite should have been placed over the Atlantic to provide broadcasters a direct US to Europe link. Astra has just won a few months delay against its direct competitor Eutelsat whose satellite will remain on the ground. Eutelsat is really unlucky with Ariane this year, after its Eutelsat 2F5 was destroyed on the 63rd flight. All this should also benefit to Deutsche Telekom: indeed, Eutelsat is very likely to buy TV-Sat 2 to join the 13 degrees East orbit slot. That purchase may seem strange at first because Deutsche Telekom is a shareholder of the SES, Astra's operator! Nevertheless Deutsche Telekom wants to sell its satellite for a profit. That's why the price asked for it is so high. TV-Sat 2 is indeed not more than a 5 channel satellite with only 4 years to go!!! Finally we, the public, will have to wait to watch Hot Bird 1, Astra 1E and Telecom 2C... Furthermore, the relative lack of transponder capacity might speed up a little more the need for digital services! Jean Phillipe Donnio is a TELE Satellit writer and author of "The Satellite Encyclopaedia". A new edition has just been released. BBC announce two new channels for Europe The international arm of the BBC, BBC Worldwide Television has launched two new TV channels for Europe. The new services will begin broadcasting on 26 January and will be news and information service, BBC World, and entertainment channel, BBC Prime. At the launch Bob Phillis, chairman of BBC Worldwide, outlined the two new services. BBC World is targeted at an audience of "influential, business people" and will feature news on the hour every hour 24 hours a day plus the best of the BBC's factual output including Holiday, Top Gear, Tomorrow's World and Film. At key times of the day the channel will programme solid blocks of news. The service will be available free of charge on the Eutelsat 2F1 satellite but not licensed for distribution in the UK. The new entertainment service, BBC Prime, will combine the best of the current output of the BBC domestic network, including two domestic news bulletins, with classics from the archives of the corporation and Thames TV. BBC Prime will broadcast an encrypted signal on Intelsat 601 in D2-MAC using Eurocrypt, taking the place of the current World Service Television. Subscriptions would continue to be handled by TV Extra and cost around GBP70 a year. Phillis would not be drawn on when the channel would break even. Responding to questions from the assembled press Phillis refused to state which region would be next for a role out of BBC channels but did confirm that the WSTV name would be replaced with BBC World across the globe. The BBC has long been looking at launching a service in the USA and a domestic news channel in the UK. Competitors for the new venture include NBC Super Channel and CNN International who both claim audiences of around 60 million in Europe. Canal Plus, TV Wisla finally get licences Jan de Weydenthal (RFE/RL) in Warsaw The National Council for Radio and Television has granted broadcasting licenses to two new private television channels: Canal Plus, the pay TV cable channel partly financed by the French company of the same name, and TV Wisla, a regional channel owned by Polish entrepreneurs that intends to broadcast to southern Poland. According to Rzeczpospolita on 29 November, the decision has put an end to a protracted dispute within the council that effectively delayed the issuing of licenses to any applicants and created the impression that such decisions were politically motivated. Canal Plus is to start broadcasting on 2 December, while TV Wisla is planning to begin operations in March 1995. Canal Plus Poland is expected to use Eutelsat 2F3 at 16 degrees East and should be on air this weekend. Ostankino public TV set up Julia Wishnevsky (RFE/RL), Moscow On 30 November Yeltsin decreed the establishment of Russian Public Television Ostankino (RPT) on the basis of the former state Ostankino Radio and Television Company, ITAR-TASS and Interfax reported. As outlined in the Daily Report of 30 November, the decree provides for the privatization of 49 percent of Ostankino shares, to be sold to 12 large companies, including a number of private banks, the ITAR-TASS news agency, the AVTOVAZ car plant, and the TV Center. Fifty-one percent of the shares will continue to belong to the State Committee on Property. Nevertheless, the RPT will no longer be financed from the state purse. All the state funds will be channeled into the financing of another state-owned TV company, Russian Television, and the educational Russian Universities channel. The RPT Ostankino will be run by a council chaired by Aleksandr Yakovlev (currently the chairman of the Federal Television Service). Ostankino TV newscasts claimed that the reorganization would help the company to provide unbiased coverage of the forthcoming election campaign. JSTV goes for English audience Astra pay TV channel JSTV has announced a new subscription rate for English speaking viewers who want to watch the channel's coverage of Sumo Wrestling. JSTV broadcasts each major tournament for 60 minutes each night throughout the 15 days of the basho and has long been aware that many English viewers cannot afford the £30 a month subscription just for the Sumo. Speaking to TS News, JSTV's Russell Barash said that a special subscription would be test marketed in the UK from the new year that would provide access to just the 6 annual tournaments for £35 a year. In the future this may be expended to include certain news programming but at present is restricted to the Sumo. The special rates are currently only being made available to UK viewers although this may be extended to all of Europe if successful. He also confirmed JSTV's place on Astra 1B and said that the channel were definately not moving to 1D as several recent reports have claimed. For more information on the special rates contact JSTV at 100302.3375@compuserve.com Russians to invest in Baikonur Doug Clarke (RFE/RL) The Russian Khrunichev State Space Research and Scientific-Production Center plans to invest at least $25 million in modernizing the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to Anatolii Kiselev, its general director. He told Interfax on 30 November that Khrunichev wanted to upgrade the Baikonur facilities used to launch the company's heavy reusable Proton and Proton-M boosters in view of the upcoming launch of western commercial satellites. Khrunichev is part of a joint Russian-American consortium that has concluded 13 deals worth $1 billion to use the Proton boosters. The first launch--scheduled for November 1995--is of an Inmarsat satellite. Orion launches first satellite Orion Atlantic launched their first satellite on 29 November intensifying competition for international satellite services in Western and Eastern Europe. The Orion 1 satellite will provide the largest two-way satellite-based data network in Europe. "The launch of Orion 1 provides new telecommunications options for multinational companies," said W. Neil Bauer, president of Orion Atlantic. "Furthermore, Orion's expanded presence promises to intensify competition within the international satellite market." The satellite will provide digital voice, data and video communications to multinational companies and support and enhance the deployment of a variety of private video and data networks in North America and Europe when it reaches its final orbital location in early 1995. In addition, a full range of satellite services -- featuring compressed digital video services for satellite news gathering and broadcasting -- will be offered to establish the satellite as the "digital satellite" in the Atlantic Ocean region during its 10.5 year mission life. "The Orion 1 will allow us to provide specialized satellite services at competitive rates with a new standard for customer service and flexibility," said Bauer. "The satellite's advanced switching capabilities and high powered beams will enable Orion to offer customized telecommunications services including desktop-to-desktop multimedia business communications." Located at longitude 37.5 West, the Ku-band Orion 1 satellite carries 34 transponders and provides multiple spot-beam coverage and broad-beam transatlantic and regional coverage in North America and across Eastern and Western Europe. TS Survey update Thanks to those of you that have completed our survey on satellite TV. To those that haven't please do ! We are not including the survey in this weeks news but it has appeared in the last two editions. Those on CompuServe can send the completed survey to our CIS address - 100025,1637 and on Internet to survey@euro.demon.co.uk The results have provided some surprises and some results we could predict. The closing date is 15 December and we have some prizes from TELE Satellit and Travel to give away. Results will appear in our 25 December issue. In Brief... - A new, global TV news network begun December 1st. TeleNoticias is a Spanish language news channel that will use Scientific Atlanta digital video compression to reach audiences in Spain, North, central and south America. In Spain, the channel is being retransmitted by Antena 3 TV under the name Antena 3 Noticias. Tele Noticias' main competition will come from the massive ECO network, currently available in Europe as part of Galavision. - ESPN has received a licence to broadcast and receive satellite television from the Singapore authorities. The channel is setting up a production facility in Singapore where it will operate three networks for mainland China, India and Southeast Asia - Israel will launch a communications satellite, Amos 1, next year to serve the Middle East and Eastern Europe. - MTV have announced that the new, relaunched Asian services will include an English language channel. MTV are re-launching in Asia next year after loosing thier position on the Star TV packet earlier this year. TELE Satellit Magazine This news is from TELE Satellit Magazine, a monthly satellite magazine edited in Munich, Germany. It consists of 132 pages, full colour with tables, charts and news with many off-screen photos of the satellite channels plus an informative technical section. 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 Please support the on-line news service and take out a subscription ! 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