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T S I  C H A N N E L  N E W S - Number 29/2000 - July 16 2000 -
A weekly roundup of satellite and digital TV news sponsored by Tele Satellite
International
Editor: Branislav Pekic

E U R O P E


BALTIC REGION

VIASAT LAUNCHES BALTIC PLATFORM
Simultaneously with the introduction of a digital TV platform in the Nordic
region, Viasat Broadcasting announced on July 10 it is launching a digital
platform in the Baltic market. Viasat's digital TV packages, including the new
Baltic platform, will be broadcasting from the Sirius satellite system at 5
degrees East, owned and operated by the Nordic Satellite Company (NSAB). Baltic
viewers with a parabolic dish and a Viasat digital satellite receiver will get
access to a variety of digital Viasat channels such as tailor-made TV3 and
TV1000, as well as a number of third-party channels. As a special service for
the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic countries, the digital package
also incorporates ORT International and other popular Russian channels.

FRANCE

ALLOCINE TO JOIN CANAL PLUS PLATFORM
French film-oriented internet portal AlloCine, in which Canal Plus holds a 25
per cent stake, plans to launch a movie-themed channel, AlloCine Television, in
September. The channel will not screen films, but will carry film-centred news
including real-time box office, interviews and talk-shows. It will also screen
promo reels of films a week before and after their French opening, offering a
prime promotional tool to French distributors. The 24-hour channel, which will
be carried on Canal Plus' digital platform CanalSatellite and the main cable
systems, will be financed through advertising and is expected to break even
within four years. 
Internet - www.allocine.com 

FIFTEEN MILLION SUBSCRIBERS FOR GROUPE AB
Groupe AB has announced that the total subscriber base of its 18 thematic
channels was 15.2 million households as of June 30, compared to 14.4 million as
of March 31. This increase was primarily due to the increase in the number of
households receiving AB1, Animaux and Escales, as a result of the entry of
these three channels into Swisscom's basic cable service in Switzerland. In
addition, all of Groupe AB's thematic channels benefited from the continued
growth in the subscriber bases of the pay-TV operators in France that
distribute its channels. Notably, the number of households subscribing to
Groupe AB's thematic channel options via satellite increased by 5.1 per cent to
410,000 as of June 30 from 390,000 as of March 31. 

RUSSIA

NTV SWITCHES TO EUTELSAT W4
NTV-Plus, Russia's only direct-to-home satellite pay-TV system, has begun
broadcasting on EUTELSAT's new W4 satellite at 36 degrees East. A total of 19
transponders on W4 are switched into a high-power fixed beam over Russia.
Sixteen of these transponders, corresponding to the frequencies held by the
Russian Federation (the RST-1 / RITM network), are leased by the Russian media
group Media-Most for the NTV-Plus direct-to-home digital television package.
Launched in 1996 NTV-Plus currently broadcasts about 40 television channels and
FM radio to a subscriber base of 110,000 homes. Services in the platform
include Russian TV channels and an international line-up comprising BBC World,
Muzzik, E!Entertainment, Discovery Travel & Adventure, Euronews, Eurosport,
Hallmark, Fox Kids, Nickelodeon, VH-1, Romantica, Discovery, Animal Planet,
Fashion TV, MTV Russia, CNN International, Discovery Civilisation, Discovery
Sci-Trek, TCM, Cartoon Network and TV5. The platform also includes free-to-air
Russian broadcast networks such as NTV, RTR, THT and Kultura (Culture) and
NTV-Internet that provides high-speed access to the Web.

TURKEY

FOX KIDS LAUNCHES ON CABLE
Fox Kids Europe NV has announced that it had secured distribution in an
additional 790,000 Turkish homes, via a distribution deal with Turk Telecom,
the national cable service provider. The analogue channel launched on July 15
across all of Turk Telecom's 25 cable systems, which cover major cities
including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. The Turkish-language broadcast will
broadcast from 07:000 to 20:00 seven days a week. The deal comes just two
months after Fox Kids entered the Turkish market, via a carriage deal with
digital satellite television platform DigiTurk. 

UNITED KINGDOM

BSKYB CONSIDERS TAKEOVER OF OPEN
According to a report in the Independent newspaper, BSkyB is believed to be in
talks to take control of digital interactive television service Open. BSkyB
already holds 32.5 per cent of Open but is thought to be keen to increase its
holding to 75 per cent. The group is understood to be willing to buy the 20 per
cent stake held by HSBC, the banking group and the 15 per cent stake controlled
by Matsushita, the Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer. Sky wants to
take advantage of the growing Open subscriber base which is forecast by some
analysts to grow from 2.8 million to 6 million by 2008. 

NTL TO DISTRIBUTE ITN NEWS CHANNEL
ITN's first fully digital 24-hour news channel, the ITN News Channel will be
delivered across all three digital TV platforms by ntl as part of a 10-year
contract. ITN's programme feed of global, national and local news content will
come directly from its London headquarters to ntl's Digital Media Centre (DMC),
where commercials and promos will be inserted before the channel is presented
to the various platforms. For digital satellite subscribers, the channel will
be transported from the DMC via ntl fibre to the company's teleport at Crawley
Court, Hampshire, for uplinking to the Astra 1D/2B satellite for direct-to-home
delivery. For ntl's digital cable network the channel is injected locally at
the DMC and, for other cable platforms, it is received directly from the
satellite feed. For digital terrestrial viewers, the 24-hour news service will
be delivered over the SDN multiplex, which is also co-located at the DMC.

LATEST SUBSCRIBER FIGURES FOR ONDIGITAL
ONdigital had signed up 774,000 subscribers at the end of June, the company has
announced. Chief executive Stuart Prebble said it was on target to reach one
million subscribers by the end of the year. Prebble also announced details of
its TV-based Internet service - ONnet - to be launched in the autumn, adding
that the company was in discussion with about 100 content providers.

ONDIGITAL PREPARES NEW SPORTS CHANNEL
On July 11, digital terrestrial broadcaster ONdigital announced details of a
new sports channel offering exclusive live football coverage. The channel will
be launched next year following the broadcaster's recent acquisition of
non-Premiership Football and Worthington Cup rights. An ONdigital spokesman
said the new channel will rival existing sports channels Sky Sports 1-3 and
Eurosport by acquiring more rights. He said: "The new channel will actually
feature more live football than any other currently available. "We have bought
the rights to show a minimum of 88 games from divisions one to three a season,
most of which will be from the first division, in addition to extra
pay-per-view matches. "We also have the Worthington Cup and Champions League
games, and the aim is to look for other rights over the next year.

POSSIBLE RTL BID FOR UNITED NEWS
RTL Group, which will be Europe's biggest free-to-air commercial TV broadcaster
when its shares start trading on the London Stock Exchange July 26, is
considering making a 5 billion bid for United News & Media Plc, according to a
report in the The Times. Luxembourg, Germany-based RTL owns 65 per cent of
Britain's Channel 5 and wants to add the remaining 35 per cent owned by United.
RTL Director of Strategy Richard Eyre, a former chief executive of the U.K.'s
Independent Television Network, would keep all of United's ITV licenses, while
disposing of the rest of the company as fast as possible, including its
publishing division and Express newspapers. The U.K. government ruled on July
14 that the three major owners of ITVUnited News, Carlton Communications Plc
and Granada Media Plcwill be allowed to consolidate down to two, each with an
equal ownership share



N O R T H  A M E R I C A


UNITED STATES

RECORD JUNE FOR DIRECTV
On July 10, the DirecTV Inc. digital satellite television service announced it
acquired 142,000 new customers in June, a record for that month. An additional
140,000 customers were transitioned to DirecTV from medium-power PRIMESTAR by
DirecTV last month.  Through the first six months of 2000, DirecTV has acquired
857,000 new high-power customers, a 28 per cent increase over the same year
period in 1999. DirecTV now has approximately 8.7 million customers, including
customers subscribing to the medium-power PRIMESTAR by DirecTV service. 

LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK JOINS DIRECTV
DirecTV has added Lifetime Movie Network to its line-up, becoming the first
national satellite distributor of the 24-hour channel for telefilms, features
and miniseries. DirecTV already carries LMN's sister channel Lifetime
Television. 

CNBC TO LAUNCH SECOND CHANNEL
US financial news channel CNBC is set to take advantage of its popularity by
launching a second channel in the US. The station is drawing plans for a
24-hour channel that would provide rolling market news and commentary from the
US, Europe and Asia. The channel, to be called CNBC2, is likely to be launched
early next year. CNBC, owned by NBC, the television network that is part of
General Electric, has agreed distribution deals with cable companies that would
make the new channel available in 10 million homes, the minimum needed to make
the project viable. The existing channel, which has become the favourite source
of financial news, can be seen in about 72 million homes in North America and a
further 78 million around the world. The launch will also be seen as a move to
pre-empt plans by other broadcasters to launch rival channels. It is thought
the new channel would broadcast financial footage before switching to its Asian
and European coverage.

COMCAST TO BUY TWO VIACOM CHANNELS
On July 11, Comcast Corp. announced it will acquire two regional sports
networks from Viacom Inc. The deal to buy Home Team Sports, which serves the
Baltimore-Washington area, and the Midwest Sports Channel, which serves
Minneapolis and Milwaukee, should close by the end of the year. The networks
were put up for sale after CBS Inc. and Viacom merged. Comcast has majority
ownership of QVC, the Golf Channel, E! Entertainment and Comcast SportsNet.

BET MOVIES LAUNCHES ON DIRECTV
Leading DBS operator DirecTV, Inc., launched BET Movies on July 14. BET MOVIES
is the first and only movie channel created exclusively to meet the unique
entertainment choices of viewers with African-American interests and
sensibilities. The channel, launched in 1997, is a joint venture between Starz
Encore Group LLC and BET Holdings, Inc., and features new hit movies, exclusive
premieres, original productions, classic movies, independent movies and films
from the African Diaspora.
Internet - http://www.starzencore.com



L A T I N   A M E R I C A


ONE MILLION SUBSCRIBERS FOR DIRECTV LATIN AMERICA
Galaxy, operator of DirecTV in Latin America, said on July 11 that the number
of subscribers in the region hit the 1 million mark June 30, thanks to stronger
growth in Mexico and Argentina. Subscribers increased by 67 per cent during the
year ending June 30, while the annual rate for the six-month period from
January to June is slightly less than 65 per cent, Galaxy Latin America
president Kevin McGrath said, claiming net subscriptions of 1,000 a day in
Argentina and 500 in Mexico. Galaxy's most important market is Brazil, where
the company has about 400,000 subscribers, followed by Mexico and Argentina
with 170,000 each. Colombia and Venezuela each have about 150,000, while the
remaining countries in the region account for about 50,000. "We estimate we
will reach the break-even point of 1.7 million-2 million subscribers by the end
of 2001," said McGrath. DirecTV currently reaches 27 markets which include:
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago,
Venezuela, and several Caribbean island nations.

HBO TO DISTRIBUTE DISNEY CHANNEL
HBO Latin America Group has announced an agreement to represent and carry the
Disney Channel signal exclusively throughout Latin America. "This agreement
will strengthen HBO Latin America Group family of channels, and the group is
very pleased to bring the exceptional content of the Disney Channel into Latin
American homes", said Ele Juarez, president

ARGENTINA

TYC SPORTS SEEKS GLOBAL EXPANSION
TyC Sports, a 24-hour Argentine sports channel, is tying up deals that will see
it air in the US early next year, targeting the Hispanic community, followed
closely by Spain and Mexico. The channel has five million subscribers in
Argentina. Since January, 'explosive foreign expansion' has seen it pick up
over 1.8 million subscribers abroad, according to Sergio Veiga, its
international business manager.

BRAZIL

NEW E! PROGRAMME FEED FOR BRAZIL
E! Entertainment Television Latin America has announced the launch of a new
Portuguese feed for Brazil, as well as new programming initiatives for local
contents in several cities. Twenty per cent of the programming for the new feed
will be in Portuguese or dubbed. E! Entertainment will produce Latin American
versions of Top E! Music, Un Da de Fama, Celebrity Profile, Behind the Scenes
and Coming Attractions.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BY END OF YEAR
Fox has announced it plans to launch a National Geographic channel in Brazil
before the end of the year, although there is no exact date yet. Brazil will be
the first Latin American country to receive the channel, which will be both,
dubbed and subtitled into Portuguese.



A S I A


AUSTRALIA

SEVEN AND FOXTEL MAKE UP
Australian commercial broadcaster, Seven Network on July 10 reached a truce
with top pay-TV operator, Foxtel, ensuring the broadcaster's C7 sports channel
get carriage on the Foxtel network.
The new agreement follows a March 27 court decision ruling in favour of Seven,
allowing the broadcaster to access the Foxtel network. Previously, Foxtel and
50 per cent owner Telstra had denied access.

NTL WINS SBS DTT CONTRACT
NTL has won the first fully outsourced digital terrestrial television broadcast
contract in Australia from the Special Broadcasting Service Corporation (SBS).
The contract involves the design, build, management and operation of
transmission services for a 15-year period. Transmissions are scheduled to
begin on January 1, 2001 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to
an estimated four million homes.

INDIA

NEWS TV INCREASES CHANNEL V STAKE
News Corp.'s Indian company News TV announced on July 13 it was increasing its
stake in Channel [V] from current 74 per cent to 87.5 per cent. The company was
buying out stakes of BMG Crescendo, Time Warner and Sony.  The deal is expected
to be finalised by the end of this month. The channel will now effectively
become a joint venture between News TV and EMI, with holdings of 12.5 per cent
and 87.5 per cent respectively. News TV plans to make the channel a 100 per
cent subsidiary. 

SAHARA TO LAUNCH NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS CHANNEL
Sahara TV announced its plans to launch a news and current affairs channel in
the fourth quarter of this year at a press conference in Mumbai on July 5. The
station currently airs a Hindi entertainment from two large studios in Mumbai
and Noida, near Delhi.

INDONESIA

NEWS CORP CLOSE TO RCTI STAKE
News Corp is believed to be close to securing an equity stake in Indonesian
free-to-air station RCTI, according to local sources. It is thought that a
shareholder meeting will be called early this month to vote on the proposal and
sources suggest that the shareholders will support the deal. Despite falling
behind Indosiar in recent months, RCTI remains one the country's leading
commercial terrestrial stations. Sources say that either Bambang Trihatmojo,
son of ex-president Sharyo and the holder of a majority 70 per cent stake in
RCTI, or the Rajawali Group, which holds the remaining 30 per cent, would be
willing to sell. 

ISRAEL

YES TV FINALLY LAUNCHES
After months of delay, Israel finally got digital satellite television when
YES: DBS Satellite Services Ltd. launched on July 15, just five days before the
July 20 deadline. YES, which has invested $200 million in the satellite
start-up, said it plans to put up another $800 million over the next four
years. YES said it will be offering three packages: YES Bronze, YES Silver and
YES Gold. It has the advantage over Israel's three other cable operators, since
it has the exclusive right to offer a choice of channels under the "tiering"
system. A basic package of twenty channels, including channels 1, 2, CNN, Sky,
Hallmark, BBC World, BBC Prime, Eurosport and a pay-on-view service, will cost
NIS 59 a month, while the price of a similar package to the one offered by
cable will cost NIS 129, compared with NIS 159 for cable subscribers. The
company said that new subscribers will be offered a super-wide package, which
will include a receiver and all the basic packages: cable, entertainment,
movies, music and erotica, for NIS 129 a month for two months. 

MAJOR CABLE DEAL FOR TBS
Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) has signed a multi-year deal with Matav Cable
Systems. TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and Cartoon Network will be offered as two
24-hour channels. Matav's launch of these channels is planned for mid-July.
Under the terms of the deal, TCM will be subtitled into Hebrew.

JAPAN

WOWOW PREPARES FOR DIGITAL
Japan DBS operator Wowow on July 14 announced revealed plans to set up a wholly
owned subsidiary in preparation for its entry into the field of digital
broadcast services via communications satellite. The new company is expected to
be capitalised at 100 million. Wowow is in talks with companies such as Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and Mitsubishi to get them on board the project.
Wowow hopes to split the company into two ventures: a platform business, which
will manage customers and be responsible for marketing; and a broadcasting
services business. The platform business is expected to offer its services to
broadcasters utilising transponders from Space Communications, a Mitsubishi
group firm.

JORDAN

INDEPENDENT TV AND RADIO AROUND THE CORNER
Jordanian Information Minister Taleb Rifai has said that an amendment to
broadcasting laws will be submitted to parliament, allowing independent radio
and television stations to operate in Jordan. Legislation has already been
introduced in a bid to establish a "Media Free Zone"  to entice Arab
broadcasters to spend time and money working from Jordan. More radical changes
are planned to open the market to independent broadcasters, as well as
privatising the state-run media.

MALAYSIA

MEASAT IN DISTRIBUTION TALKS WITH TELEKOM MALAYSIA?
Measat, operator of the Astro service in Malaysia, is rumoured to be in
distribution talks with Telekom Malaysia. According to industry sources, Measat
is planning to distribute by end year its programmes via Telekom's fibre optic
network, which covers the main towns and cities in Malaysia. Measat currently
has more than 300,000 DTH subscribers across Malaysia.

MAURITIUS

GOVERNMENT APPROVES STAR TV BUYOUT OF NEWS TELEVISION
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board will allow STAR TV through Buzzer
Investments to buy out stakes in Mauritius based News Television (Mauritius) at
"fair value". STAR will become controlling shareholder in the company after the
sale. NTV has gained clearance to produce and distribute films, music and audio
software, and undertake downstream investments in Indian media and
media-related companies. The Broadcast ministry has supported the proposal with
a proviso that NTV does not broadcast from India.

SINGAPORE

CATHAY DIGITAL CHANNELS IN DOUBT
Cathay Organisation's plan to launch two DTV channels in Singapore is in doubt
following the government decision to award a pay-TV licence only in 2002. The
movie and film distributor had received a six-month DTV trial licence from the
broadcasting authority in May, having been one of the five successful
applicants. Cathay intended to introduce regional and international
entertainment programmes following the trial, as well as electronic programme
guides, pay-per-view and video-on-demand. 

THAILAND

SATEL SIGNS UP BLOOMBERG TV
Shin Satellite Plc (Sattel) has signed a contract to broadcast Bloomberg
Television to India. Sattel offers C-band and Ku-band transponder leasing,
teleport and other value-added and engineering services to users in Asia,
Africa, Europe and Australasia. Bloomberg Television has begun utilising the
C-band extended beam of Thaicom 3 to provide a trial free-of-charge service to
India for six months commencing at the end of June 2000.

SUBSCRIBER INCREASE FOR UBC
Thailand's premier pay-TV operator, United Broadcasting Corp. on July 13
announced a 2.2. per cent quarterly gain in subscribers (a net increase of
7,198) during the second quarter of the current financial year, pushing its
subscriber base to 340,593, a 17 per cent rise year-on-year. 

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