TELE SATELLITE NEWS - Number 08/2004 22 February 2004

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TELE SATELLITE NEWS - Number 08/2004 22 February 2004 - A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by TELE-satellite International
Editor: Branislav Pekic

* Issue 02-03/2004 of Tele Satellite International magazine is out now * More details at http://sadoun.com/Sat/Products/Acces...-Satellite.htm


E U R O P E


EUROVISION TO LAUNCH DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL VIDEO NETWORK Eurovision will launch a new digital terrestrial video network in April
2004 to complement its existing satellite network. The network will use an innovative multi-service platform to connect major European cities as well as the East Coast of the United States and allow television producers and engineers to broadcast quality news and programme contributions. It will complement the existing Eurovision satellite network to offer highly resilient occasional, full-time video and data services directly to Europe's premier broadcasters. Its major benefits will be complete flexibility of bandwidth at an attractive price.

FRANCE

CANAL+ INCREASES STAKE IN COMEDIE
Canal Plus has almost doubled its stake in theme channel Comedie to 34% by exercising an option to acquire the 15.3% shares held by French production house Rigolo Films 2000. French actor and producer Olivier Granier, who runs Rigolo Films along with Dominique Farrugia, will step down from his post as head of the humour channel as a result of the acquisition. Launched in 1997 as a joint venture between Canal Plus, Rigolo Films and Pathe, which continues to control 66% of the local channel, Comedie features serials and comedy shows such as "Saturday Night Live." It is available in France via cable distributors and through Canal Plus' satellite platform CanalSatellite. The channel is also distributed in Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and in French-speaking territories including Guadeloupe and Martinique.

CANAL PLUS COMPLAINS AGAINST TF1 AND M6
Canal Plus said on February 18 that its pay-TV subsidiary CanalSatellite had complained to the European Commission that rival broadcasters TF1 and
M6 had refused to allow their free-to-air terrestrial channels to be broadcast on the platform. Canal Plus, confirming reports in the French press, said it had referred the matter to Brussels after several attempts to resolve the issue directly with TF1 and M6 since August. The rival broadcasters, who jointly own the TPS pay TV platform - CanalSatellite's main competition in the French market - have refused to comply, according to Canal Plus. The commission has been asked to decide whether exclusive access to the terrestrial channels constitutes a monopoly and therefore a barrier to competition, but no response has been received from Brussels so far. TPS is owned 66% by TF1 and 34% by M6.

GERMANY

CONSTANTIN SIGNS PREMIERE DEAL
German distributor and production house Constantin Film confirmed on February 16 that it has signed a three-year output deal with German pay-TV operator Premiere. The deal will run from 2004-06 and will include Constantin pickup titles including "Alexander," "Lost in Translation" and
"21 Grams" as well as such in-house productions as "Wrong Turn," "Autobahn Racer" and the upcoming horror sci-fi feature "Resident Evil: Apocalypse."
The deal will include all of Constantin's productions and distribution pickups beginning January. 1, 2004 through December 31, 2006, except for children's films.

PROSIEBEN CONSIDERS PAY-TV OPTIONS
Pay-TV platform may soon have a new competitor after commercial broadcast group ProSiebenSat.1 revealed plans to move into the pay-TV arena.
According to local press reports, ProSieben is currently mulling over the possibility of launching a bouquet of up to five channels. The main selling point for the bouquet would be the transmission of live Bundesliga matches.
At present, pay-TV operator Premiere holds the broadcast rights to German football but ProSieben head Urs Rohner has allegedly discussed his expansion plans with the football league's top man, Wilfried Straub. This is not the first time that ProSieben has expressed interest in the pay-TV market. In the mid 1990s the broadcast group shelved its proposed SiebenPlus portfolio due to financial constraints. ProSieben owns channels Sat.1, Pro7, Kabel 1 and N24.

NEW PAY-TV MUSIC CHANNEL FROM APRIL
Pay-TV audiences in Germany will be able to tune into a new 24-hour music channel from April, when the latest venture from local outfit GoldStar TV goes to air. From April 3 subscribers to pay-TV platform Premiere will be able to watch Hit24. The channel is aimed at the 30+ demographic with its mix of rock and pop from the 1970s to the present day. Hit24's schedule will be made up of themed blocks, such as Partytime on Friday and Saturday nights, requests show and programmes about the music scene in Germany.
Hit24 is a 100% subsidiary of GoldStar TV and will be free to Premiere Plus customers. It will go up against music channels Viva, Viva Plus and MTV's German feeds.

PROSIEBENSAT.1 REPORTS FINANCIAL RESULTS The ProSiebenSat.1 Group boosted profits significantly in fiscal 2003.
Preliminary figures released by the company this week indicate that the Group generated pre-tax profits of €57 million on the year. The figure represents a 171 per cent gain from the year before. EBITDA at the Group level grew €26 million to reach €196 million, a 15 per cent gain. EBIT was
€158 million, up €50 million or 46 per cent from the year before. The consolidated net profit was €45 million, more than three times the previous year's €15 million. ProSiebenSat.1 Group revenues for fiscal 2003 were down
4.6 per cent, from €1.895 billion to €1.807 billion. This means the Group was able to improve earnings even though its revenues suffered from the adverse conditions in the German TV advertising market. All in all, in 2003 the German TV advertising market is thought to have shrunk 4 to 6 percent net from the year before. ProSieben, Sat.1, Kabel 1 and N24 generated 92 per cent of the ProSiebenSat.1 group's revenues in 2003. Sat.1 passed the break-even point, with pre-tax earnings of €5 million. ProSieben, with pre-tax earnings of €135 million and a 20 per cent profit margin, remains the Group's most profitable station. Kabel 1 and N24 both improved their earnings significantly. ProSiebenSat.1 Media is Germany's largest TV company. The group has four strong TV stations - Sat.1, ProSieben, Kabel 1 and N24. Collectively, the four channels represent 42.7 percent of the German TV advertising market, one of the largest in the world.
Internet - http://www.ProSiebenSat1.com/

IRELAND

SETANTA TO BROADCAST LIVE SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE For 14 years, Irish satellite channel Setanta has been beaming football, rugby and Gaelic football games into homes, steadily building a growing worldwide audience. The Dublin-based company was named as preferred bidder for the contract to show 38 SPL matches on the digital platform each season for the next four years. The deal should transform Setanta, which is expected to offer £50 million to broadcast live Scottish Premier League games next season, and take it a few steps further towards becoming "one of the largest independent pay-per-view broadcasters and one of the largest independent sports broadcasters". Reports last week focused on claims that the deal will mean an extra £1 million each year for the 12 SPL clubs, all of which are cash-strapped and, in some cases, face an uncertain future.
Currently, BBC Scotland is believed to be paying £18 million to broadcast games over two years. This year Setanta will have revenues of £26 million and the company is profitable. Its core revenues come from North America, New Zealand and Australia, where the company has been picking up the crumbs left over by the major broadcasting networks to show football, rugby and Gaelic football games. Hundreds of Champions League games, the FA Cup and international football matches are beamed around the world by Setanta, along with the Celtic Cup, Six Nations Rugby and the Rugby World Cup.

ITALY

GOVERNMENT WINS CONFIDENCE VOTE ON MEDIA DECREE By a wide margin, Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government won a confidence vote on February 17 on legislation aimed at saving one of his private television channels from being forced off free TV and onto satellite.
Controversial from the outset, the law was originally adopted by the government in December as a decree, which requires parliamentary approval to take effect. Heated debate over media ownership surrounded the measure's creation. The government insists the law will save hundreds of jobs at Rete 4, one of three channels in Berlusconi's Mediaset network. Mediaset opposed Rete 4's transfer onto satellite, saying the move would drastically cut earnings from advertising and put the channel's survival at risk. The center-left opposition says the decree was tailor-made to benefit Berlusconi's TV empire.

GLOBECAST DISTRIBUTES TELEPACE
Telepace, the first and longest running full-time Catholic channel, has chosen GlobeCast to deliver its programming to Europe via its Eutelsat Hot Bird platform and to North America on GlobeCast WorldTV on Telstar 5.
Telepace is broadcast in Italian, English and Spanish. The channel, which has close ties to the Vatican, features programming primarily dedicated to promoting Christian family values and morals. GlobeCast is providing transmission, uplink and space capacity on Eutelsat Hot Bird and Telstar 5 for Telepace.

NORWAY

PARLIAMENT IN FAVOUR OF DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL There is now a parliamentary majority for the building of a nationwide ground based digital distribution network for television. Up to now, digital television in Norway has been distributed via cable or satellite.
In order to get access to the network, all must purchase a digital "black box" costing around NOK 1500 ($200). This will give improved picture quality, even more channels to choose from, and access to more information from various sources. The present analogue transmitters will be replaced by new digital equipment, and the analogue network will eventually be completely closed down. The new network will be a joint venture between public broadcaster NRK and commercial channel TV 2, but programs from various channels will be available on the digital network.

SPAIN

SOGECABLE REPORTS LOSSES
Pay-TV broadcaster Sogecable on February 17 said its net loss widened in
2003 on restructuring costs related to its takeover of rival pay-TV company Via Digital. Sogecable said it had a €329.6 million net loss in 2003 compared to a €54.2 million net loss in 2002. The company said it had restructuring costs of €266.3 million, primarily related to the termination of programming contracts and to job cuts following its July takeover of Via Digital. Sogecable said its 2003 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 21% to €170.8 million from €141 million.
In July, after completing the takeover of Via Digital, Sogecable launched a new digital TV service, Digital Plus. At the end of 2003, Sogecable said its Digital Plus service had 1.8 million subscribers, down slightly from the 1.82 million subscribers it reported at the end of the third quarter.

UKRAINE

TET AIMS AT NATIONWIDE AUDIENCE
The Kiev-based TV channel TET can now be called nationwide, its president Hryhoriy Tychyna has said. It is already being broadcast in 45 towns across Ukraine, and the number is soon set to rise to 56, he said. Thus TET's potential audience, i.e. the number of people technically able to receive our programmes at home, will reach 63 per cent of the population of Ukraine (today it is 55 per cent). The channel's audience share has recently also started growing very dynamically. Whereas in December last year TET's overall share in Ukraine was 0.68 per cent, over the first 11 days of February it passed the 1 per cent mark, reaching 1.03 per cent. According to Tychyna, the channel he heads would soon be re-launched in spring in a new form - a youth entertainment project.

UNITED KINGDOM

BBC AND ITV TO BATTLE FOR FOOTBALL RIGHTS The BBC and ITV are to go head-to-head in the battle to restore live football to terrestrial screens when BSkyB auctions the rights to up to eight Premier League matches in the spring, according to a report in The Guardian. Meanwhile, Sky is finalising plans for a ground-breaking new interactive service that will allow fans of Premier League clubs to follow every minute of every match played by their teams during next season. BBC insiders have confirmed the corporation is prepared to bid for the matches, which have become available due to the last ditch compromise deal brokered between the Premier League and European commission competition regulators last December. They see the package of live games, one a month for three years from the start of the next football season, as the perfect complement to the return of Match of the Day. It will be joined by a Sunday morning repeat and a new show on Sunday evening. If the BBC win the race for the modest package of live matches, which will be screened at 17:15 on a Saturday, it feels it would have an attractive balance of live games and highlights that would tell "the story of the season". The ITV chief executive, Charles Allen, also confirmed earlier this month he was keen to bid for the games but insisted he was "absolutely determined" not to overpay after losing money on the £183 million it paid for Premier League highlights in 2000. Channel Five is believed to be weighing up the pros and cons, while pay-TV channels are also free to bid. The new BSkyB chief executive, James Murdoch, has confirmed the pay-TV giant will sub-license between six and eight games in the spring once the commission has completed an ongoing consultation period. BSkyB, which paid £1 billion for the rights to 138 live matches a season, will be reimbursed by the league if it ends up out of pocket following the auction.

MILLIONS MAY NOT RECEIVE DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL Millions of households will be unable to receive BBC1 or BBC2 in three years under radical proposals being drawn up by broadcasters, according to a report in The Observer. The BBC, Channel 4 and ITV plan to switch off the analogue signal in some parts of the country in 2007 in an attempt to persuade viewers to upgrade to digital TV. Under the proposals from the trade body, the Digital Television Group for a 'staggered switch-off', analogue transmitters will stop broadcasting region by region. BBC2 would go first, and it would then be available only to digital viewers. Some months later, BBC1 will stop transmitting an analogue signal, and it too will be broadcast only digitally. Broadcasters have already spent millions of pounds developing the digital channels but viewing figures have disappointed them. The industry hopes the gradual switch-off will persuade reluctant viewers to upgrade to digital, despite the extra cost. The Government wants to turn off the analogue signal completely between 2006 and 2010, but has promised not do so until 95 per cent of households can receive digital TV.

BSKYB TO ADD TWO STAR CHANNELS
After about a year of negotiations with BSkyB, Star India has finally managed to get its two channels Star Plus and Star News, in the DTH platform. With this agreement, which is effective from March 1, 2004, Star Plus and Star News will reach 7.2 million UK households at one go and thus becoming the only Indian broadcaster to reach that figure. Star Plus and Star News channels will be available to subscribers at no additional cost in BSkyB’s, Family Package and Lifestyle Package, an advantage which could take it ahead of Zee, Sony and B4U in the UK market. “The Family Package, which costs £19.50 caters to 97 per cent of the BSkyB’s 7.2 million DTH subscriber base, while the Lifestyle Package with a cost of £16.50, caters to about two per cent of the subscriber base.

GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS DISMANTLING BBC
Britain's government was considering a plan to break up the BBC and remove its independent status in the wake of a bitter row with the state-funded broadcaster over the Iraq war, a report said. Government papers detailing possible changes to the BBC's structure proposed breaking it into separate regional entities for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, The Sunday Times said. The documents, which the newspaper said had been drawn up by "senior civil servants", also suggested that the job of ensuring the BBC's impartiality could be taken away from the corporation's board of governors. Plans being considered include giving a government media watchdog greater control over the BBC's output, closing BBC outlets which are not considered "public service" and even forcing the corporation to share some of its licence fee revenue with other broadcasters.

CHANNEL 4 AND 5 DISCUSS MERGER
Channels 4 and 5 have held exploratory talks over the past six months about a merger, according to the Business newspaper. The newspaper said Channel 4 Chief Executive Mark Thompson and Lord Hollick, the chairman of United Business Media, a minority stakeholder in Channel 5, had held the talks.
"They have indeed talked. Contrary to what is being admitted, the discussion ranged rather wider than the simple matter of airtime sales," an unidentified senior source was quoted by the newspaper as saying. Reuters reported last October that both broadcasters, along with pay-TV company BSkyB, had held informal talks about forming a unified advertising sales unit to compete with Carlton and Granada after they merged to form ITV Plc.
Channel 4 declined to comment on the Business report and Channel 5 representatives could not be reached for comment. Channel 5 is 65 per cent-owned by RTL, a European broadcaster and division of Bertelsmann, with the remaining 35 per cent in the hands of United Business Media. The newspaper said the government had no plans to privatise or float Channel 4.
Channel 4 is publicly owned but unlike the publicly funded BBC, it carries advertising.

TURNER SIGNS WITH TWO WAY TV FOR INTERACTIVE GAMES Cartoon Network owner Turner Broadcasting is stepping up its interactive TV strategy after taking on Two Way TV to develop a series of games featuring characters such as Bugs Bunny to run across its channels. Turner, which also operates Boomerang and Toonami, will roll out several iTV games from next month, which it says will allow it to establish the extent of correlation between viewer use of such applications and any subsequent uplift in audience ratings.

FREEVIEW IN 3 MILLION UK HOMES
The free-to-air digital TV system Freeview was installed in nearly 3 million homes by the end of last year, figures released on February 21 have shown. At the end of December, 2,996,700 households received the service, with 866,000 boxes sold in the last three months of the year, according to figures from media watchdog Ofcom. The 41% rise in Freeview uptake over the final quarter of 2003 helped to push digital penetration to over half of households in Britain, a key milestone that had been widely anticipated.
There were 12.4 million homes with digital TV at the end of the year, representing 50.2% of the country. That comprises Freeview's 3 million, BSkyB's 7.2 million satellite subscribers, over 2 million digital cable customers, as well as 211,000 homes with free-to-air digital satellite TV.
A further 4% of households subscribe to analogue cable, bringing the total number of multichannel TV homes to 54.4%. Sales of Freeview decoder boxes - which cost as little as £60 - benefited from a boom over the Christmas period, with 100,000 a week being bought during the festive season.
Freeview was launched in October 2002 after the collapse of ITV Digital by a consortium backed by the BBC, BSkyB and transmission business Crown Castle. Around a million Freeview customers still receive their signals through old ITV Digital boxes. The service gives access to 30 channels without any subscription costs and is a key plank in the government's drive to get viewers to switch to digital TV. It is hoping the whole country will have gone digital by the end of the decade, when it wants to switch off existing analogue signals. Although more than half of British households now have digital TV, market forces alone may not be enough to get to full coverage. The government wants to wait until 90% of the country has digital TV before switching off analogue and paying for the rest of the population to go digital. But at present a quarter of viewers are unable to receive the Freeview signal because they live outside the reception area. The government is also worried about a hard core of "refuseniks" who will resist the proposed shift. And there are concerns the government has not taken into account households that have digital TV but other analogue TV sets as well, and the need for video recorders to be retuned for recording digital programmes.




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


CANADA

ABS-CBN TO EXPAND TO CANADA
Following the successful launch of its European operations last year, media giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. is now looking into expanding its presence in Canada in line with the continued development of its international business. Maloli Manalastas, ABS-CBN vice-president for government affairs, said the network will pursue plans to penetrate Canada as part of efforts to tap the large market of Filipino workers in the area, and eventually contribute in improving profitability. "We can’t increase advertising rates that’s why we have to look for other markets," she said. Manalastas said the company is now in talks with a satellite provider or cable operator from Canada for a possible partnership. The only problem she sees that could derail the signing of a deal is the issue on programming content. The Canadian government wants 60 per cent of the shows to be aired to comprise of Canadian program, leaving the remaining 40 per cent to foreign programs.
ABS-CBN Global Ltd., a wholly-owned offshore subsidiary of ABS-CBN, launched last year its cable and direct-to-home/satellite programming services in Milan, Italy through The Filipino Channel (TFC), the first and only 24-hour cable and satellite service that offers all-Filipino programming. The launch of TFC in Milan is in response to the increasing demand for entertainment and news programs in the rapidly growing overseas Filipino market in Italy. ABS-CBN Global is the holding company which runs TFC, ABS-CBN News Channel, Cinema One, and Pinoy Central in the US and the Middle East. During the first half of 2003, the company’s worldwide subscribers had grown by 30 per cent to 167,636 from a year ago, fuelled by the 73-per cent expansion in North America. TFC is seen by almost a million overseas Filipinos in North America, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Papua New Guinea and Europe.

UNITED STATES

DISNEY TURNS DOWN COMCAST OFFER
The directors of US media giant Disney have rejected the £35 billion offer made last week by cable company Comcast. Disney announced on February 16 its board had unanimously spurned Comcast's bid as undervaluing the company, but said it would consider any "legitimate proposal". Comcast, which last week stunned the media world by launching its audacious takeover attempt, defended its offer as "a sound and compelling proposition for both sets of shareholders". Comcast is America's largest cable company with 21.3 million subscribers and has been looking to team up with a company that could provide content to its network of viewers.

TVN AND STARZ ENCORE GROUP EXTEND VOD DEAL TVN Entertainment, a leading provider of on-demand television programming, management and delivery solutions, and Starz Encore Group, the largest provider of premium movie services in the United States, on February 17 announced a long-term extension of their agreement covering Starz'
subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Starz On Demand. TVN will provide Starz with a range of VOD Services in support of Starz On Demand's content distribution, including encoding, asset management, site-specific metadata and multicast transport to VOD systems throughout the United States via TVN's ADONISS platform. TVN will deliver Starz On Demand content to MSOs offering the monthly on-demand movie service, currently including, Comcast, Adelphia, Insight, and others. Starz On Demand is an enhancement to the Starz Super Pak, providing impulse viewing of Starz movies with "VCR-like" functionality as part of the monthly subscription and with no fee per view. Starz On Demand features over 100 great movies every month, selected from titles shown across the Starz Super Pak, Starz Encore Group's collection of up to 13 digital movie channels.
Internet http://www.TVN.com
http://www.starz.com

SES AMERICOM FILES REPLY AT FCC
SES AMERICOM, an SES GLOBAL Company, filed reply comments on February 13 at the Federal Communications Commission in support of permitting reduced orbital spacing between DBS satellites serving the United States. Such DBS spacing would allow US television viewers to receive many more channels of high definition TV, local television, and other services not available today. SES AMERICOM's comments demonstrate how new DBS satellites operating within 4.5 degrees of other DBS spacecraft can be authorized to ensure quality service in accordance with existing FCC and international procedures. Characterizing a rulemaking proposal (by entrenched incumbent DBS operator DirecTV) as unnecessary and a source of delay, SES AMERICOM encouraged the FCC to promote the use of good-faith technical coordination among operators as the most effective method to introduce new DBS satellites. By allowing operators to employ techniques best suited to their specific satellites and services, coordination is the method most likely to achieve technical compatibility of proposed new satellites with neighbouring satellites. SES AMERICOM intends to offer capacity for DBS services from a satellite at 105.5 degrees, licensed by the Government of Gibraltar. This capacity will be part of a platform named AMERICOM2Home - of television and broadband Internet services employing multiple satellites at or near the 105.5 degree orbital location licensed to SES AMERICOM and its affiliates. The 105.5 degree slot is 4.5 degrees from orbital locations used by DirecTV and EchoStar.

NEW HEALTH TV CHANNEL PLANNED
The World Bank and The Health TV Channel, Inc. on February 17 announced a new educational television project for the Americas. Broadcast across the USA, Latin America, Canada, Spain, and Portugal, the channel will feature medical and public health training for healthcare professionals in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. The project will aggregate educational content from universities, ministries of health, medical and public health experts, and other partnering organizations. The broadcast programs and educational activities will be directed to all in the health sector, including practitioners, policy decision-makers at local and national levels, elected officials and hospital personnel. The goal of the project is to increase the level of medical and public health training while disseminating innovations and best practices. The Health TV Channel will launch the new channel in mid-April 2004. Spanish and Portuguese language content will be provided from educational sources in the USA, Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Countries able to view broadcasts include Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Spain, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, continental United States, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Internet http://www.healthtvchannel.org

VOY NETWORK TO LAUNCH IN JULY
VOY on February 18 announced the launch date of its cable television platform, VOY Network, on July 19. VOY targets Adults 18-49 in the rapidly growing English-speaking and acculturated U.S. Hispanic marketplace, the fastest growing demographic and population segment in the U.S. VOY's lifestyle entertainment and community programming includes genres such as talk shows, reality, travel, culinary, pop culture and celebrity, history, documentaries and politics that entertain, energize and inspire both Latino and mainstream audiences.
Internet http://www.voygroup.com

NBC SIGNS LONG-TERM DEAL WITH SES AMERICOM SES AMERICOM, an SES GLOBAL company, announced on February 18 that NBC has signed a multi-year transponder renewal agreement for C-band service on SES AMERICOM's AMC-4 satellite. This transponder will be used for the distribution of Telemundo's U.S. Spanish-language television network.
Viewed in 118 markets, Telemundo's broadcast programming reaches 91% of the estimated 38.8 million Hispanic TV households in the U.S. AMC-4 is a hybrid C/Ku-band satellite that became fully operational in January 2000 at 101 degrees West.

LIBERTY MEDIA FILES SUIT AGAINST NBC
According to the February 18 edition of the Los Angeles Times, Liberty Media Corp. has lodged a suit against NBC, claiming overdue carriage fees for CNBC. The suit stems from a 16-year-old carriage deal between CNBC and cable systems owned by Tele-Communications Inc., a company that John Malone sold to AT&T in 1999. Liberty Media, which Malone retained, was the programming arm of TCI. According to the report, NBC has alleged that Comcast*which acquired AT&T's cable division in 2002*had "repudiated" the old agreement.




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


FRENCH ANTILLES

GLOBECAST TO DISTRIBUTE FRENCH TV CHANNELS Satellite services company GlobeCast announced on February 11 that it has signed an agreement with World Satellite Guadeloupe (WSG) and Martinique TV Câble (MTVC) to deliver French television channels TF1, M6, LCI and Infosport to major cable head ends in the French Antilles via its digital satellite distribution platform on NSS 806. TF1, M6, LCI and Infosport represent an important addition to the line-up on GlobeCast’s platform on NSS 806 and further enrich GlobeCast’s offering to cable operators throughout this region. The orbital position of New Skies Satellites’ NSS
806 at 319.5º East provides direct access to over 2000 cable head ends across the Caribbean and Latin America and may be received with a C-band antenna as small as 1.80 meters. GlobeCast is providing encryption, multiplex and uplink of these channels from its SERTE technical operations centre in Paris, as well as space capacity on its digital distribution platform on NSS 806. GlobeCast manages two platforms NSS 806 with access from gateways in Europe and America - one in Paris for programming originating in Europe and the Middle East; and, the other in Miami for transmission of content from the Americas, including MGM Latin America and Casa Club TV.
Internet http://www.globecast.com

PERU

PRAMER RENEWS AGREEMENT
Peru's Telefónica Multimedia has renewed its agreement with Pramer, extending a deal for a range of channels and agreeing to take on the Cosmopolitan Televisión channel. The Peruvian cable operator will add Cosmopolitan Televisión to its basic tier, and will continue to carry Pramer's other channels: elgourmet.com, Hallmark Channel, Film&Arts, Canal (á), América Internacional, Telemúsica, and the adult channels Private Blue and Private Gold.




A S I A & P A C I F I C


MTV FORECASTS INCREASE IN AD SALES
MTV Networks, which is owned by the third-largest US media company, will probably have a 20 per cent increase in Asian advertising sales this year, MTV Networks Chief Executive Officer Tom Freston said. MTV advertising sales in Asia last year rose 24 per cent, twice the pace of the rest of the world for the company, which is owned by the cable-network unit of Viacom Inc. About 150 million homes in Asia have MTV channels, which include Nickelodeon. Advertising expenditure will rise 5.1 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region this year to US$68.41 billion, the fastest growth of the world's regions, according to ZenithOptimedia, a U.S.-based media services company. MTV plans to dub about half of Nickelodeon's programming into Hindi this year and may set up a south Indian music channel, Freston said.

ASIASAT TO OFFER BACKUP SERVICES FOR STAR Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) announced on February 16 that it is providing back up facilities and services to Star at AsiaSat’s new Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong. Under the terms of agreement, AsiaSat will provide facilities to house Star’s back up broadcast and RF equipment for downlinking and emergency uplinking to AsiaSat 3S and other related services. AsiaSat’s Tai Po Earth Station is designed for tracking and monitoring AsiaSat’s satellites as well as for providing additional value-added services to AsiaSat’s customers such as C-band and Ku-band traffic uplinking and back up services.
Internet http://www.asiasat.com

AUSTRALIA

BIOGRAPHY JOINS FOXTEL PAY-TV OFFER
The Telstra/New Corp/P&B joint-venture Foxtel has added a widescreen factual channel from AETN International to its new digital TV bouquet. The new Australian feed of The Biography Channel will be broadcast in 16:9 aspect ratio, a first for the channel, when Foxtel Digital launches in the first half of 2004. It will sit alongside the Aussie feed of AETN's flagship network, The History Channel. The signal for The Biography Channel in Australia will draw upon AETN's programme library, but will be operated and programmed locally by the Australian pay-TV broadcaster. Foxtel has over 1 million subscribers through Australia.

AZERBAIJAN

ARMENIAN TV CHANNELS OCCUPY TV AIRSPACE
Six Armenian television channels have expanded occupying Azerbaijani broadcasting space, said Olaylar News Agency on February 17. The TV channels that have been broadcasting in Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia have now begun stepping far from the space of Nagorno Karabakh.
Azerbaijanis have expressed their concern about the issue, as they said, they do not want to watch and hear anti- Azerbaijani information on the Armenian televisions.

FIJI

FIJI TV TO EXTEND SATELLITE COVERAGE
Fiji Television plans to invest F$6 million in extending satellite coverage
to the outer islands of the archipelago and to nearby countries, according
to a report by Pacific Media Watch. Speaking at the Commonwealth
Broadcasting Association (CBA) conference in Nadi, Fiji TV chief executive
officer Ken Clark said the new service was expected to begin from July 1.
The satellite transmission will beam the free-to-air channel Fiji One and
six pay-TV channels. For the first time, Fiji's outer islands and other
countries within the region will receive Fiji Television broadcasts. The
pay-TV service will be increased to six or more channels, said Clark. The
satellite broadcast will cover Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Niue and parts
of New Zealand and Australia. However, Fiji TV expects some transmission
problems, particularly during poor weather. "Using KU Band (satellite feed)
there's always something called Œrain-fade' and while we expect to be 99.6
per cent efficient, during some periods of the year, the signal will
disappear for a little while," Clark said. Fiji TV expects to recover the
set-up costs through revenue from the existing TV service, the expanded
pay-TV service and an expected modest return on the rent and sale of the
satellite receivers and set-ups to customers. The satellite dishes
customers will need for receiving the new signal are expected to cost
around F$1000.

IRAQ

AL-HURRA TV STARTS BROADCASTING
Alhurra ("The Free One" in Arabic), the US government-funded
Arabic-language television network, started broadcasting across the Middle
East on February 14. The channel will compete with Al-Jazeera and
al-Arabiya, which broadcast out of Qatar and Dubai respectively. Both are
accused by Washington of inflaming tensions in the region. Alhurra,
available to viewers on the region's two major satellite systems: Arabsat
and Nilesat, is on air with 14 hours of programming a day and is to expand
to 24 hours within weeks. Critics say the station will find it hard to
establish independent credibility as it is being set up with funding from
the US Congress, which has given al-Hurra a $62 million budget for its
first year.

ISRAEL

FOUR BIDDERS FOR KNESSET TV CHANNEL
Four groups are expected to submit bids today for a license to broadcast
from the Knesset. The news companies of Channel Two, the news company of
Channel 10, the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), and the Hadashot Hayom
company that produces regional news broadcasts for the cable firms are all
vying for the tender. Legislation to establish the new Knesset channel was
passed just two months ago. A selection committee will choose the licensee
from among the bidders. The Knesset channel will be modeled on the C-SPAN
networks in the United States and will replace Channel 33, which currently
operates from the Knesset under the auspices of the IBA. The recipient of
the license for the Knesset channel will receive an annual budget of about
NIS 13 million, as well as a NIS 2 million allocation during its initial
year. The channel will not broadcast commercials or sponsorship messages;
it will be solely financed by the Knesset. It is scheduled to broadcast
from 7 A.M. through to midnight. The licensee will be required to broadcast
live from the Knesset plenum and from one of the committees, provide taped
footage of another committee and present a morning program. The bidders
will also propose other programming and these proposals are expected to
play an important role in the selection process. The bidders will make
presentations to the selection panel during the coming days. The winner is
expected to be announced within two weeks, with broadcasts slated to
commence within two months.

PAKISTAN

INDIAN TV CHANNELS TO RETURN TO PAKISTAN
Pakistan might permit cable operators to resume showing Indian satellite
channels as a goodwill gesture to mark the resumption of their dialogue
process. The Daily Times on February 19 quoted officials in Islamabad as
saying that the Pakistani government had no objection to initially
permitting the relay of entertainment channels. In the second phase, cable
operators could even relay Indian news channels. "The growing ties between
the two neighbours have convinced the government that the Indian news
channels will not be hurling propaganda against Pakistan, as they did a
couple of years ago," the official said. "The Pakistan Electronic Media
Regulatory Authority will be announcing fresh guidelines for the cable
operators pretty soon. "Pakistan and India have restored their traditional
communication links and the two want to go even further in this direction,"
the official added. The Cable Operators Association of Pakistan (COAP)
confirmed the move. More than 20 channels were affected, including the
Star, Zee and Sony networks. Cable operators say TV subscriptions have
fallen almost 40 per cent during the 26-month ban. Pakistan had 972 cable
TV operators in December 2001. The number fell to 110 because of the ban.

SOUTH KOREA

EDUCATION CHANNEL PLANNED
Seoul has unveiled a package of measures, including a 24-hour education
channel, to try to curb soaring spending by parents on private after-school
education, according to the South China Morning Post. Under the proposals,
the state-run satellite channel EBS will be transformed into a
round-the-clock video classroom.

SRI LANKA

ABC LICENCE CANCELLED
Sri Lanka's Ministry of Information and Daily Communication, which is
controlled by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, on February 16 cancelled the
TV operating licence of Asian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), a successful
private media group that runs five FM radio stations. According to Radio
Netherlands, no official reason was given for the sudden move to stop ABC
from starting its TV channel. ABC will challenge the decision in courts,
sources said. ABC obtained a licence for starting a TV station in November
1995. Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned
the Sri Lankan Information and Communication Minister's decision to cancel
the TV broadcast licence. Reporters Without Borders said it feared that the
decision could be a prelude to further tough measures against the
privately-owned media by President Chandrika Kumaratunga's administration
during the parliamentary election campaign that starts in a few days. Sri
Lanka currently has three privately-owned broadcast television channels and
one cable television channel, in addition to the state TV broadcaster.

THAILAND

ITV TO REVAMP PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
Television station iTV will move ahead with a major programming
restructuring plan despite warnings from authorities that doing so would
violate its concession contract, according to the Bangkok Post. Executives
of the station announced that starting in April, iTV would introduce a new
programme schedule with an increased focus on entertainment-related content
during prime-time hours. While the station would continue to offer a ratio
of news and documentaries to entertainment of around 70:30, as required
under its 30-year concession, the shift of entertainment programmes into
more favourable slots could be seen as a potential violation of its
contract. iTV is 43% owned by Shin Corp, the telecom giant founded by Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. iTV, which ranks fourth in viewership after
channels 7, 3, and 5, has posted regular losses since opening in 1995.
Analysts say the station's programme restrictions and high concession fees
are the main factors behind its losses. The company posted a loss of 178
million baht for the third quarter of 2003, with nine-month losses of 570.2
million.

UBC REPORTS FIRST PROFITS
United Broadcasting Corporation Group (UBC), the country's largest pay-TV
operator, saw its balance sheet in the black for the first time last year,
reporting a net profit of 131.05 million baht. The accumulated losses for
the company amount to 12.8 billion. UBC, which posted a net loss of 258.91
million baht in 2002, said that its 2003 revenue grow by 5.9% year-on-year
to 7.17 billion baht. The increased revenue came partly from last year's
160-baht increase in monthly subscription fees, as well as from the
stronger baht, which helped reduce the cost of foreign programmes. The
subscription fee for UBC's Gold package, which includes 29 channels, stands
at 1,412 baht per month. This year, the company projects sales revenue will
grow about 9%, driven by rising subscriptions. The company, which has
434,815 subscribers, expects to hook up about 35,000 new customers by the
end of the year. UBC will spend between US$2 million and $4 million on
acquiring programming, mainly foreign shows. A new focus will be on the
low-end market as UBC joins forces with local cable operators in the
provinces, offering 10 channels for 150 baht a month. More new channels
will be launched in conjunction with local producers if the government
gives UBC permission to carry advertising on them, he said. At the same
time, the company will assist the government in its crackdown on illegal
cable operators.

TURKMENISTAN

FOURTH TV CHANNEL TO COVER HALF OF GLOBE
The new channel of Turkmen TV that plans to broadcast in six languages,
would effectively beam at almost half of the world from Europe to Japan,
says a report by the Turkmen news agency. Turkmenistan has announced an
international tender for purchase of equipment for the new channel. So far,
German, French and Russian companies have obtained tender documents.




A F R I C A


TUNISIA

FIRST PRIVATE TV CHANNEL LAUNCHED
The first private television channel has been created in Tunisia, reports
the state-run Tunisia Information Service, which says: "The creation of
this new channel comes to further materialize the decision by Tunisian
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of 'the opening of the audiovisual
landscape to the private radio and television stations'. This decision was
announced on 7 November 2003, in President Ben Ali's address to the nation
on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of his coming to power.

UGANDA

CABLE TV COMPANIES OPERATING ILLEGALY
According to a report by the newspaper The New Vision, for 50,000 shillings
[approximately $27], Metropo Cable (U) Ltd, operating cable television
services on behalf of Kampala Siti Cable Ltd., has been connecting
subscribers in Kampala to their services. One then pays 45,000 shillings
[approximately $25] a month as subscription for a promised total of 51
channels. These include programmes such as BBC, CNN, Star Sports, MTV and
Fashion TV. Others are Cartoon Network, Star News, Channel V (24-hour music
channel) and HBO (24-hour movies). They also offer over 20 channels of
Indian and Arab programmes. But apparently, neither Kampala Siti Cable nor
Metropo Cable (U) Ltd. have any rights to broadcast these or other
channels. According to the paper, many corporations, including Fashion TV,
MTV and Star TV have written what are known as 'cease and desist' letters
to both companies, and also to Uganda Cable (U) Ltd. Multichoice Africa,
which broadcasts both M-Net and DSTV channels, has also communicated to the
three companies several times, asking them to stop their services.
According to Charles Hamya, the general manager of Multichoice Uganda, the
piracy has been going on for about five years.