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. TELE Satellit News won't be taking a break ! We will be available, as usual, next week although in a reduced form. We would like to wish all our readers happy holidays and a prosperous 1995. We would like to welcome users of Maus Net in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. ! We are now being distributed thanks to Hans Juergen Wackwitz. You can read TS News in the tv.grp newsgroup. EUROPE'S SATELLITE MAGAZINE European Satellite News - English Version Number 31, Week ending 25 December 1994 By Martyn Williams News Desk : Internet martyn@euro.demon.co.uk or CompuServe 100025,1637 (c) TELE Satellit Magazine SES announce first Astra 1D allocations Martyn Williams and Peter Klanowski, TS Bureau Munich. After an almost week long delay SES has released part of the transponder allocations for Astra 1D. They are as follows : 49 10,714 h arte 50 10,729 v NBC Super Channel 51 10,744 h CLT (new programme for the Netherlands) 52 10,759 v RTL 4 53 10,773 h 54 10,788 v TV Asia 55 10,803 h 56 10,818 v 57 10,832 h 58 10,847 v 59 10,862 h 60 10,877 v 61 10,891 h 62 10,906 v 63 10,921 h Filmnet Slovakia 64 10,936 v RTL 5 RTL 4 will move from Astra 1A transponder 13 to be replaced by the new German Disney channel RTL Super. ARD Videotext reports that Arte signed with SES for a transponder on 14 December and will broadcast both the German and French versions over Astra. SES say the rest of the transponders are under "advanced negotiation" but the details about new channels will not be available until after Christmas. When TS News called NBC Super Channel earlier this week they were making no comments about the Astra 1D channel. The move of NBC is interesting because they had previously gone to lengths to deny reports about a possible channel on Astra. SES said on Thursday that most of the new channels would be available by January 1st. These include new services on the existing Astra satellites. Chinese Channel encrypts from January 8 The Chinese Channel has announced that it will begin full time encryption of broadcasts from the 8 January. The service will use the NagraVision system and cost viewers GBP 13,99 a month to view. Orbit signs for Intelsat 704 Italian based Orbit Communications have signed a lease for four transponders on the new Intelsat 704 satellite to be positioned at 66 degrees East. The company will move it's digital TV packet onto the four 112 MHz wide transponders to give a better coverage of the Middle East and Northern Africa where the service is targetted. A premium package of 28 TV channels will be transmitted including BBC World Service News, Orbit News (News from ABC, CBS and NBC), Orbit - ESPN Sports, The Discovery Channel, CNN International and movies, childrens, music and entertainment programming. The TV offering will be supplemented with 12 digital radio channels. Orbit are understood to be continuing the current service on Arabsat 1D for the foreseeable future. The move is being hailed by Intelsat as the establishment of an Intelsat hot bird for European broadcasting although quite how a satellite at 66 degrees East can be a hot bird is unclear. Many west Europeans can't see the satellite because it's low on the horizon. Intelsat 704 puts a strong 50dB signal into most of Central Europe and Egypt / Saudi Arabia. Protests at Kazakhstan channel shut down Bess Brown (RFE/RL Inc) A decision by the management of Kazakhstan's state radio and television corporation to stop broadcasts on a popular TV channel has led to conflict with state TV and radio staff, ITAR-TASS reported on 19 December. During the previous week, protesting staff drew up a letter to President Nursultan Nazarbaev, Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, and parliament head Abish Kekilbaev asking them to put an end to the dictatorial methods of the head of the state TV corporation, Leila Beketova, who was accused of lack of professionalism and incompetence in selecting managers. Beketova has been described by Western observers in Almaty as an example of Soviet-style mentality; Kazakh intellectuals have complained that she has reversed the "Kazakhization" of state radio and TV initiated by her predecessor. According to the ITAR-TASS report, Beketova has reacted to the staff letter by firing 11 of the most active protesters. The Supreme Soviet is reported to have set up a commission to investigate the staff complaints. Slovak TV Head on Television's Role Jiri Pehe (RFE/RL Inc) Jozef Darmo, newly appointed director of Slovak Television, told journalists in Bratislava on 19 December that "any spiritual renewal in Slovakia cannot be accomplished without the help of television." He noted that the media law demands that television be a "national, independent, nonpartisan, information, cultural, and educational institution." In his opinion, this meant that television cannot be used "to offend the [Slovak] nation and the nationalities living on Slovakia's territory." "It will not be used to attack and devalue national institutions," Darmo said. In brief ... • Pro 7's EXPRESS TV teletext service has been re-designed and re-named. The new Klar Text now contains an easier to read page of what's currently on TV as well as many TV related news items. Reader Survey results... Many thanks to all the readers who sent in answers to our survey. Here are the main results. Full results will be available in the future. For each question we simply awarded 5 points to the first choice down to 1 point for teh fifth point. Any result below 10 points has not been shown. For the teletext results only one point was awarded as this was a one answer question. What are your top 5 favourite TV channels ? (any language) 47 CNN International 40 Sky News 32 Sky One 26 NBC Super Channel 26 UK Gold 24 RTL TV (Germany) 21 SAT 1 21 Discovery 19 ZDF 17 ARD 17 MTV Europe 16 Euronews 15 FilmNet Plus 14 Pro 7 13 Eurosport 13 Sky Movies 13 Bravo 12 Arte 11 N 3 10 3 Sat 10 TV 1000 10 RTL 4 What are your top 5 worst TV channels ? (any language) 35 UK Living 30 Family Channel 29 QVC 23 MTV 18 DSF 18 RTL 2 16 Galavision 16 RTL TV (Germany) 14 ESC 13 Polonia 1 13 Sky One 11 Sky Soap 10 SAT 1 What are you top 5 favourite TV channels ? (Foreign Language) 40 CNN International 30 RTL TV (Germany) 28 NBC Super Channel 20 Sky News 18 MTV Europe 17 Pro 7 16 RTL 4 15 Arte 14 RAI Uno 13 SAT 1 13 TV 3 12 VOX 11 ZDF 11 FilmNet 11 TNT 10 TV 5 Europe 10 M6 What are your top 5 radio stations ? 38 Sky Radio 29 Virgin 1215 19 RTL Oldiesender 17 StarSat Radio 15 BBC 1 15 RTL Rock Radio 14 BBC World Service 14 BBC 4 13 MDR Sputnik 12 N-Joy 11 Deutsche Welle 10 NDR 2 10 World Radio Network What are your favourite teletext services ? 7 NBC Text 4 ARD/ZDF 3 CNN Text 3 Sky Text 2 TVE Teletexto 2 Pro 7 2 UK Gold TELE Satellit Magazine This news is from the English language news service of TELE Satellit, 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 Where to find satellite news : TELE Satellit News, English : CompuServe UK Forum (UKFORUM) - Windows Write / ASCII version, library 19 CompuServe European Forum (EURFORUM) - Windows Write version, library 5 CompuServe Deutschland on line (GERLINE) - Windows Write version, library 15 fax polling +49-8282-81003 fax polling +49-2163-81744 NBC Super Channel - NBC Text page 171 ISDN Mailbox IDTRANS (128 kBps), User Gast, Password SAT, +49-89-45001424 alt.satellite.tv.europe newsgroup on Usenet World Wide Web : http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html Fidonet SAT.028 Fidonet SATELLITE.FR Fidonet RU.SAT Fidonet SATELLIT_R23.SAT Globalnet : GN.ONDES.COURTES.FR Sparknet : SK_SATELLITE Maus Net : tv.grp Anonymous FTP to : ftp.funet.fi /pub/dx/text/satellite/telesatellit CIX Skyguide/telesat conference SAT NET BBS network TELE Satellit News, German : CompuServe Deutschland on line (GERLINE) - ASCII version, library 15 CompuServe Der Spiegel Forum (SPIEGEL) - ASCII version, library 11 fax polling +49-8282-81003 fax polling +49-2163-81744 SAT 1 Text - page 513 SAT NET BBS network ISDN Mailbox IDTRANS (128 kBps), User Gast, Password SAT, +49-89-45001424 TELE Satellit TV ! Last Friday of every month, repeated following Sunday . DFS Kopernikus 2, 28.5 degrees east. 11.625 GHz, Horizontal polarisation. Audio 6.60 MHz. 20:00 UK, 21:00 CET Other reliable sources of satellite news : • *44022999# ,menu option 30 on BTX / Datex J • 3615 SATPHONE on Minitel • Phone 3670-8192 in France • Radio Sweden Mediascan. 1st and 3rd Tuesday, 20 minutes into the English programme via Astra, Shortwave, Mediumwave 1197 kHz and the World Radio Network. Also via ftp from ftp.funet.fi • Skyguide on the Internet • Radio Netherlands Media Network, Thursday, 23 minutes into the English programme via shorwave and The World Radio Network • World Wide Web users can access TS News and the electronic journals above and more information via the European satellite home page, URL http://xan.esrin.esa.it:2602/satellite.html