TELE SATELLITE NEWS - Number 13/2004  28 March 2004

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TELE SATELLITE NEWS - Number 13/2004  28 March 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


PLAYBOY TV SIGNS EASTERN EUROPEAN OUTPUT DEALS A range of broadcasters in Eastern Europe have signed up for programming from Playboy TV International (PTVI), including Russia's REN TV. REN TV has scheduled a branded block every Saturday night that will feature a two-hour Playboy movie. TV1000 East, meanwhile, which reaches the Baltics, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, will take more than 100 programming hours a year as part of an output deal. In the Slovak Republic, TV Markiza has acquired a package of series and movies, and in the Ukraine, New Channel has licensed 18 adult films to air throughout the year.

BELGIUM

VRT SPORTS CHANNEL NOT ON DUTCH CABLE
According to a report by Radio Netherlands, the temporary sports TV channel planned for this summer by Flemish public broadcaster VRT will probably not, after all, be on Dutch cable systems. Many Dutch cable systems would have difficulty finding space for the extra channel, and also VRT itself wasn't keen on the idea of distributing its sports channel in the Netherlands as it didn't want to be put in the position of effectively competing for viewers with Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

FRANCE

CANAL PLUS MAY FACE BIDDING CONTEST WITH TPS OVER FOOTBALL RIGHTS Leading pay-TV operator Canal Plus may find itself in a bidding contest with TPS for the rights to broadcast French football championship games. Canal Plus, which this week lost the right to broadcast top English games to TPS, will ``do everything we can to get the maximum'' rights to broadcast French championship games, Chief Executive Officer Bertrand Meheut said in an interview last week. ``We want at least to retain what we have today.'' Paris-based TPS, which is 66 per cent owned by TF1 and 34 per cent by M6-Metropole Television, will step up to the challenge, TF1 Chief Executive Patrick Le Lay said in a separate interview.
In November 2002, facing competition from TPS, Canal Plus bid 480 million for three years of French football rights. TF1 challenged the way bidding was conducted and France's competition authority suspended Canal Plus's contract. France's Ligue 1 deferred the process and will ask for fresh bids in September or October this year. Canal Plus on March 24 reported
2003 operating income of 247 million, its first profit since 1996. Canal Plus now gets first pick for a live game from each round of Ligue 1 games. TPS, with 1.5 million subscribers, gets second pick. Canal Plus has choice of the third live game and has a Saturday night highlights magazine. TF1 has a showcase Sunday morning show.

GERMANY

SABAN AND VIACOM EYE VIVA STAKE
Haim Saban's Saban Capital Group and entertainment giant Viacom Inc. are looking at acquiring a controlling stake in German music TV group Viva Media.
Saban and Viacom are believed to be trying to secure a 60% share in Viva by buying up the stakes in the company currently held by Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System (30.6%) and Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group (15.3%) along with Viva shares controlled by a series of private investment groups. A takeover deal for Viva would allow Viacom, which owns MTV, to buy out a strong local competitor and gain a near monopoly on the German music television market.

BUNDESLIGA TV RIGHTS TO FETCH 300 MILLION A new broadcasting rights deal for the German Bundesliga could bring in as much as 300 million next season, Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said this week. "I'm quite optimistic that at the end of the month we'll have an agreement and the first number in the deal will be a three," Rummenigge told the daily Die Welt newspaper. The German football league DFL received around 280 million for this season's television rights to the Bundesliga and the organisation's CEO Wilfried Straub, who is negotiating the new deal, has said a decision will be made in days. Up until now, the DFL has only agreed a 45 million deal with the national broadcaster ARD while plans for a separate Bundesliga TV channel next season have been shelved. In a related development,
ProSiebenSat1 Media, Germany's largest broadcaster won't bid for pay-TV rights to the country's football league matches, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing ProSieben spokeswoman Katja Pichler.

ITALY

AUDIENCE SHARE UP FOR MEDIASET
Mediaset, Italy's leading commercial television network, reported on March 23 a primetime audience share of 45% in 2003, placing it in a lead position compared to the 44.6% of rival RAI, Italy's public broadcaster. Mediaset's three channels reported a consolidated daily audience share of 44% in 2003, a 1.1% increase over the previous year. Mediaset's flagship channel Canale 5 was the country's leading television channel in the primetime slot last year with an audience share of 23.9%, against the pubcaster's flagship RAI 1's 23%. Italia 1, Mediaset's second channel, became for the first time Italy's third largest television channel with a primetime share of 12.4% against RAI 2's 11.7%.

PARLIAMENT APPROVES MEDIA BILL
Italy's parliament has approved a controversial media bill, months after President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi refused to sign a previous version into law on grounds that it handed an unfair advantage to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private media empire. The modified bill, designed to launch Italian television into the digital age, was approved by 311 votes to 246. It still has to be approved by the upper house Senate, but is expected to have an easy passage because, as in the Chamber of Deputies which voted on March 24, Berlusconi's allies have a large majority. The bill has outraged the centre-left opposition, who claim it was tailor-made to protect Berlusconi. The Prime Minister, Italy's richest man, directly or indirectly controls about 90 per cent of Italian television either through his family's ownership of three commercial channels or through his supporters on the board of state broadcaster RAI. The media reform bill would lift current laws that restrict a private company from owning more than two national television stations and would thus allow Berlusconi's Mediaset group to retain its three commercial stations: Italia 1, Canale 5 and Rete 4. The new media law will allow Berlusconi to by-pass a constitutional court ruling last November which would remove one of his three TV stations, Rete 4, from terrestrial to satellite broadcasting. In February, Berlusconi pushed through a decree-law which allowed him to temporarily protect his ownership of Rete 4, pending the latest bill becoming law.

ROMANIA

CME INCREASES TV STAKES
Central European Media Enterprises on March 23 announced its agreement to acquire an additional 14% interest in its Romanian television operations from local partners for $20.3 million, bringing the company's total ownership of the station group to 80%.
The transaction documentation has been finalized and will be executed following regulatory approval and subsequent registration of the transaction with the Romanian authorities, both of which are expected to be completed within two weeks. This transaction follows last week's Media Council approval allowing CME to acquire control of the Romanian Television license for its second Romanian channel, Acasa and two other local licenses. This gives CME control of all television licenses in its Romanian operations which were not previously under its control. CME's Romanian television station group will launch a new channel, PRO Cinema, on April 19. PRO Cinema will be a cable distributed network focusing solely on films and series and is targeted at an upwardly mobile urban adult audience. Eighty percent of Romanian cable companies, including the three biggest operators, have already agreed to distribute this channel throughout the country. CME's Romanian television station group also includes PRO TV and TV Acasa, which held the number two and five audience share ranks on a nationwide coverage basis in 2003, with a combined broadcast reach of 15.7 million people.

RUSSIA

MILITARY PLANS TV CHANNEL
The Russian Defence Ministry is planning to launch a nationwide television channel to deliver "military and patriotic" programming. The new channel, which will be called Zvezda (Star), is scheduled to start broadcasting in February 2005. Once it goes on air, it will join the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper, which has been publishing since 1924, in the ministry's media portfolio. But before Zvezda can be launched, it has several hurdles to overcome.
According to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, one of the technical problems the project faces is that the channel's transmitter risks disrupting the operations of airfields in and around Moscow. The ministry will also need to find staff to devise and produce an estimated 18 hours of programming every day. But the main obstacle appears to be funding. The paper reports that only $80,000 has been set aside for the venture.
Contrast this, the paper says, with the $100 million required for the channel to go nationwide. Even broadcasting in Moscow and the surrounding areas would cost almost $40 million. To make up the shortfall, the ministry has approached energy giants Gazprom, Lukoil and Rosneft, but with no result as yet. Instead, defence officials have now set their sights on Rosoboronexport, the state-run arms exporter.
Alternatively, the paper says, the channel, which is expected to express the views of the Defence Ministry and the security services, may ask President Vladimir Putin's administration to pull some strings.

SCANDINAVIA

VIASAT TO SCREEN ENGLISH FOOTBALL
Viasat Broadcasting has acquired the exclusive rights for free- and pay-TV to the English FA Cup and the English national football team's home matches over the next four years. The FA Cup rights are for the next four seasons and cover Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, while the rights for England home matches run until summer 2008 in all Scandinavian countries. Included in the package are the Community Shield fixture, as well as the English First Division and League Cups for the next two seasons. Viasat has also acquired the rights to the Swedish national football team's away matches for the qualification to the World Cup 2006, excluding the Malta match, but including the qualifier clashes with Croatia, Bulgaria, Iceland and Hungary. The fixtures will be broadcast on TV3 Sweden, Denmark and Norway, TV3+ in Denmark and on Viasat Sport. Viasat has recently launched three new sport channels, Viasat Sport 1, 2 and 3. Highlights of the Swedish games will be housed in new football show, Avspark.

SPAIN

SOGECABLE OPTS FOR FRONT PORCH DIGITAL
Front Porch Digital Inc. announced on March 24 that pay-TV group, Sogecable, has deployed DIVArchive as the core storage management layer in one of the world's most advanced archive systems. DIVArchive will provide the critical interface between automation applications and storage devices across the Sogecable digital workflow and will manage more than 200,000 hours of video content. Sogecable, an affiliate of
Canal+ Group, has more than two and a half million
subscribers, and is Europe's third largest supplier of paid television.

GOOD RESULTS FOR TELE 5
Mediaset-owned terrestrial channel Tele 5 has declared a net profit of 122.6 million in 2003, 43 per cent up than the previous year with a benefit of 85.9 million. High audience ratings (an average share of
21.4%) and a rise of 10% in net revenues reaching 643 million have mainly contributed to its good financial results. To reduce costs, the network has even cancelled or not renewed its contracts with the largest US studios reaching, instead, agreements with independent production companies and strengthening its in-house production. Advertising revenues grew by 11.7%, reaching 633.5 million.

TURKEY

MEDIASET INTERESTED IN STAR TV
Leading Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset is seeking to expand into Turkey as part of plans for growth in Eastern Europe, its chief financial officer, Marco Giordani, said on March 25. Turkey has said it will sell the Star television stations owned by the Uzans, the country's third-richest family, as it seeks to recoup $6 billion of losses at a failed Uzan-owned lender. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister who controls Mediaset, has inquired about Star, the Turkish daily Vatan said. Mediaset has identified Turkey, Poland, Russia and Ukraine as markets for expansion, Giordani said at a press conference in Milan. He did not specify any possible acquisition targets. Turkish law bars foreign companies from owning more than 25 per cent of a television station, so Mediaset may seek a Turkish partner. Regulators seized control of Star and more than 200 other Uzan-controlled companies last month, pledging a swift sale to help raise funds for repaying depositors at Turkiye Imar Bankasi, which was taken over in July.
Police are seeking the patriarch, Kemal Uzan, and other family members on embezzlement charges.

UNITED KINGDOM

REALITY LIFE TO LAUNCH THIS AUTUMN
Zone Vision has signed a deal to launch a new female-targeted channel, Reality Life, on BSkyB, with plans to roll out the network across Europe in the coming months. Reality Life will feature reality TV programming specifically targeted to women aged 18 to 49. It will initially launch on BSkyB, before moving to other markets in Europe. Zone Vision is hoping to replicate the success of its Reality TV Channel, which launched in 1999 and is now available in more than 120 markets, including the U.S. and the U.K. In addition to expanding the reach of Reality Life, Zone Vision is looking to roll out new thematic channels over the next two years.

RACE COURSES TO LAUNCH DEDICATED TV CHANNEL Britain's racecourses have drawn up detailed plans to launch their own racing channel on satellite television if, as expected, the Attheraces channel ceases operation on March 29. Though live coverage of British racing is likely to be lost for a period of weeks, and possibly months, the tracks involved - including all of the country's major courses - hope to get pictures back on air by the end of June. In the meantime, in theory at least, the tracks have also been involved in negotiations with Attheraces aimed at revising their original #307 million deal, which was signed in the summer of 2001. The #307 million, 10-year media rights contract between the Attheraces consortium  comprising BSkyB, Channel 4 and Arena Leisure - and 49 of Britain's racecourses was signed in the summer of 2001. The consortium's long-term aim was to recoup their investment by persuading viewers to place bets on racing via interactive digital TV.
However, the revenue from interactive betting has been, and seems likely to remain, pitiful.

FREEVIEW COULD OVERTAKE SKY BY 2007
Freeview, the digital TV service backed by the BBC, is set to replace Sky as the UK's favourite way of watching multichannel television by the end of 2007.
According to industry research, the free-to-air service, which is available in 3 million homes compared with Sky's 7.2 million, is expected to be adopted by almost 10 million households in four years time, with Sky in 8.9 million UK homes and cable in just 3.5 million. The study also suggest 87% of households will have gone digital by 2008, leaving only a small minority of die-hard analogue viewers.
The predictions, made by ZenithOptimedia in its UK Television Forecast 2007, also validate the government's plan to switch off analogue TV signals by 2010. By the end of 2007, Zenith expects 22.3 million out of a total of 25.6 million homes to be watching digital TV. Freeview has enjoyed a dramatic rate of uptake in recent months.

MTV BACKS DOWN IN MUSIC VIDEO DISPUTE
MTV has backed down in its dispute with European independent record companies that threatened to remove some of music's the biggest stars such as Travis, Ozzy Osbourne and The White Stripes from its channels. The Viacom-owned broadcaster has agreed to return to collective negotiations with independent record companies over the price it pays for video rights, after vowing earlier in the week it would only do individual deals with record companies. In an open letter the record industry the president of MTV Europe, Brent Hansen, said the broadcaster was willing to resume talks with Video Performance Limited, the body appointed by record companies to negotiate a deal on their behalf.

SPORTFIVE BECOMES FAS EUROPEAN TV PARTNER Sportfive has emerged as the major player after the English Football Association (FA) confirmed its new European TV partners for the 2004-5 to 2007-8 period.
The FA has concluded an agreement for second party rights with Sportfive  just a week after the agency came under new ownership. These rights extend to the right to broadcast England home international matches into the territory of the opposing team. Sportfive already has more than 30 European football federations in its second party rights portfolio and the FA said it was an ideal partner to help it promote its properties in Europe. Sportfive last week was bought by Advent International, a private equity firm. In France, FA Cup games will be shown via Canal Plus. In addition, the FA has appointed Sportfive to assist in negotiating the remaining European territories. The successful conclusion of the above multi-year agreements follows the acquisition of FA Cup and England rights by ESPN Star Sports, for selective Asian markets.



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


CANADA

CABLERS CRITICISE LEVY ON U.S. TV CHANNELS A levy imposed on popular U.S. TV channels to support the domestic broadcast industry would not only raise cable and satellite prices but would create another unneeded trade irritant with our American neighbours, says the Canadian Cable Television Association. The CCTA was responding to suggestions by the president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters that popular foreign TV services were enjoying a "free ride" in the Canadian market and it was time to end it. Both the broadcasters and the cable and satellite carriers have been at loggerheads since last year when the carriers applied to the CRTC to bring such popular foreign services as HBO, Fox News and ESPN directly into Canada. The idea horrified the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (whose members often pay licence fees to simulcast such U.S. content) and was ultimately rejected by the CRTC.

UNITED STATES

DESTINY CHANNEL TO LAUNCH THIS SUMMER
Young viewers are the target of a new cable channel debuting this summer in college communities. The Destiny Channel, aimed at viewers age 18 to 34, will launch on up to 1,100 campuses in August and plans to expand beyond colleges starting in fourth quarter 2005. Destiny Channel will start with two hours of shows in the college version of primetime, 10 p.m. to midnight, and eventually plans a full schedule of programming. The channel will be available in some areas to off-campus cable subscribers.

TV CHANNEL FOR MUSLIM TO DEBUT
Bridges Television Network Inc. is planning to launch later this year, right before Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting that will begin October 15. The main target audience for this new channel is the estimated population of eight million American and Canadian Muslims, two million of whom are Arab Americans. The channel will initially air from 4 p.m. to midnight Central Time, to switch to a 24-hour format in the near future. Bridges TV has compiled a database of 200-plus independent producers and is in the process of acquiring more than 3,000 hours of English-language content. The idea is to target viewers with programming that will have multi-cultural acceptance.
The planned programming will feature sports, news, advice, music, talk shows, religion, children, women, food, comedy and drama.

CABLERS TO OFFER BLOCKING OF TV CHANNELS The cable television industry said on March 23 it will provide free equipment to allow subscribers to block unwanted channels, a reaction to efforts on Capitol Hill to curb indecent programming. The offer is directed to about half the nation's 70.5 million cable subscribers who don't have cable boxes that can be programmed to block certain channels or programs. The companies agreeing to the plan include the 10 largest in the country and reach 85 per cent of all cable subscribers. It comes just as both lawmakers and regulators, attempting to crack down on indecent programming, have discussed requiring cable companies to let subscribers buy individual channels or a family-friendly tier, rather than have to purchase packages that include both the Disney Channel and MTV.
The cable industry opposes the idea.

COMCAST TO BUY TECHTV
Comcast Corp. will acquire Vulcan Inc.-owned TechTV, the cable operator announced on March 25, along with its intention to merge the cable channel with one of its own digital networks, G4. The purchase, which will cost Comcast less than $300 million, according to sources, also gives a minority stake to EchoStar Communications, which agreed to grant the new combined channel a slot on its 120-channel programming package.
By joining forces, G4 will see its distribution almost triple from 15 million to 43 million homes, which TechTV has access to through operators and satellite providers that G4 isn't signed to, including DirecTV and Cablevision.

ABC NEWS SIGNS VOD DEAL
The ABC television network is set to enter the video-on-demand market by offering some of its news programs in a subscription service from ninth-ranking US cable company Insight Communications. ABC News, owned by Walt Disney, will provide Insight with 20 hours of its programming including special reports and excerpts from its 'Nightline' programme, half of which will be updated each month. The ABC News features will be included in a sports and news service that will cost $4.99 a month and initially include content from about even providers. Insight subscribers can watch the programs whenever they want with VCR-like features such as fast forward and reverse.

STAND-UP COMEDY CHANNEL IN 2005
In Chicago, Internet pioneer brothers Joseph and Avi Fox have announced plans to launch a new cable network called Stand-Up Comedy Television or SCTV. The brothers plan to have the network on the air in January of 2005. SCTV will air a heavy dose of stand-up created exclusively, as well as air original programmes, vintage comedy shows, movies and classic stand-up. SCTV will be based in Chicago with most of its programming aimed at the baby boom generation.
Internet  http://www.standuptv.com

ECHOSTAR REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER RESULTS
The EchoStar Communications Corporation posted a quarterly profit on March 27, reversing a year-earlier loss, as it added subscribers to its Dish Network satellite television service at a stronger pace than expected. EchoStar's Dish Network reported net income of $3 million, compared with a loss of $716 million, in the quarter a year earlier. Total revenue for the quarter rose 14 per cent, to $1.51 billion from $1.32 billion in the fourth quarter last year. EchoStar added 340,000 new subscribers in the quarter, beating analysts' estimates and bringing its total subscribers to 9.43 million. But the revenue per subscriber fell to $50.70, below the monthly average of $51.11 for the year and well below DirectTV's revenue per subscriber of $71.70.



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


VH1 LATIN AMERICA LAUNCHES ON APRIL 1
MTV Networks Latin America's continued expansion in the region kicks off on April 1 with the launch of VH1 in Mexico, with plans to reach 75 per cent of the Mexican cable market by the end of 2004. VH1 in Mexico will launch with a penetration of about 50 per cent on Cablevision and some PCTV affiliated systems. The April 1 launch also sees VH1 being available in Ecuador, on Univisa Ecuador, and Venezuela, on Net Uno.

BRAZIL

GLOBECAST AND EMBRATEL TO COVER ATHENS OLYMPICS GlobeCast has partnered with Brazilian telecommunications group, Embratel, to provide contribution broadcast services, internet and telephony for Brazilian terrestrial broadcaster, TV Globo for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The satcaster will also be working closely with four additional official Olympic Broadcasting rights holders, ATV and TVB in Hong Kong and Japanese channels, TV Asahi and Fuji TV, to provide specifically tailored packages including satellite transmissions and SNG services, for the duration of the games. TV Globo will be providing Brazil with national terrestrial coverage of the 24th Olympic Games, and will be using GlobeCast and partner Embratel to manage its contribution delivery, via Intelsat satellites, from the Official International Broadcasting Centre.

COLOMBIA

CARACOL OPTS FOR PANAMSAT
PanAmSat Corporation on March 25 announced that Caracol Television, the leading broadcaster in Colombia, has chosen PanAmSat's PAS-9 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite to distribute its global programming under the brand name Caracol TV Internacional throughout South America and Europe as well as Galaxy 13, the company's newest satellite, for delivery to North America. Under the terms of the agreement, Caracol, a major customer on the PAS-9 satellite for programming distribution in its native Colombia, will now use the spacecraft for content delivery throughout Latin America and Europe. As one of the world's largest co-producers of soap operas, it will also use PanAmSat's Napa teleport for delivering its popular entertainment content to the Hispanic communities in North America via the Galaxy 13 satellite. Caracol TV Internacional offers live entertainment and news from Colombia as well as many of the most successful productions that have been broadcast in Colombia and throughout Latin America.
Internet  http://www.caracoltvinternacional.com



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


STAR PLUS CONTINUES TO GROW
Star Plus, with its rising advertising and subscription revenue, is driving the growth of Star group. Star, bolstered by a 20 per cent increase in revenues, substantially increased its second-quarter operating income versus prior year. Revenue gains were driven by advertising and subscription growth primarily at Star Plus which, on an average, continues to deliver all of the top 10 cable programmes in India, News Corporation, the parent of Star Group, has said in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the US. Stars growth in India comes at a time when it suffered start-up losses in countries such as China and other Asian countries.
Stars operating income improved by $5 million owing to higher subscription revenues from India as well as stronger syndication revenues from Bangladesh Cricket and lower costs associated with various cricket events. According to estimates, Star India has booked revenues of $200 million in 2002. This is about 70 per cent of Star groups Asian revenues. Star Plus is estimated to reach about 40 million cable and satellite homes of the total cable and satellite universe of about 45 million. As per the last years estimates, subscription revenues accounted for about 70 per cent of Star India revenues. The remaining comes from advertising. The satellite broadcaster is planning to enter direct to home (DTH) satellite television distribution system in India in partnership with the Tata group. Besides, the company also has interest in the countrys cable operating companies with about 26 per cent interest in Hathway.

AFGHANISTAN

POSITIONAL PLAN FOR NATIONAL BROADCASTER The shape of Afghanistan's future media environment has taken another step towards clarification with the preparation of a position plan on the corporatization of the state-funded national broadcaster, Radio-Television Afghanistan (RTA), and the country's national news service, the Bakhtar Information Agency (BIA). The document, prepared by three international consultants whose professional services were jointly funded by UNESCO, the BBC and German aid agencies, outlines a strategy for RTA and BIA to enable them to become independent, self-sustaining enterprises. The position plan will now go forward to prospective donors and other interested parties.

AUSTRALIA

SEVEN AND SBS TEAM UP FOR THE OLYMPICS
The Seven Network has signed a landmark agreement with public broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting Service, to provide the pubcaster with complementary coverage of the forthcoming Olympic Games in Athens. Under the multimillion dollar rights agreement, there will be uninterrupted coverage of the 2004 Olympics across the two free-to-air channels, with primary coverage on Seven and complementary coverage on SBS. The agreement builds upon a broadcast model used for the Sydney 2000 Games, when Seven produced two Olympic Games coverage channels -- a primary broadcast channel on Seven and a complementary subscription TV channel. While the exact details of those sports and the broadcast schedule itself are yet to be finalized, SBS will provide extensive coverage of all Olympic football matches, including both the mens and womens finals. Meanwhile Seven will retain exclusive rights to the highest-profile sports  track and field, swimming, rowing, cycling and gymnastics  as well as the opening and closing ceremonies and many of the sports and events featuring Australians. It is also likely that SBS will offer fans of volleyball, handball and the like the opportunity to watch those sports. Both Seven and SBS will provide more than 15 hours of coverage on each of the 16 days of competition, from 3.30pm AEST until 7am.

INTERACTIVE TV TO BOOST PAY-TV REVENUES
Pay-TV operators plan to double their advertising revenues to $200 million within two years as Foxtel this week unveiled plans for banks, phone and car companies to lead the charge into interactive TV advertising by March next year. Interactive ads will be used as a key bargaining chip by Foxtel to lure another $100 million from free-to-air networks; pay TV's current advertising base is approaching $100 million, with Foxtel's sales arm, MCN, controlling about 80 per cent. According to MCN's chief executive, Anthony Fitzgerald, pay channels such as Fox 8, Fox Sports and music channels such as Channel V would be the first to run interactive ads.

HARDCORE TV CHANNELS EXPAND COVERAGE
Overseas satellite television broadcasters are exploiting apparent loopholes in Australian censorship laws to beam 24-hour pornography channels - including hard-core broadcasts  for subscriptions of $5 a week.
The Herald has confirmed that European and Asian-based broadcasters are buying time on an Australian satellite service, New Skies Satellite, to telecast X-rated pornography on channels with titles such as Free-XTV, Blue Kiss, InXWorld, Sexz TV and Back Room.
Distributors are advertising the service, which they say is "like pay TV", for a $450 installation cost including a decoder box, and an annual $250 subscription. The promoters claim none of the licensing authorities - the Australian Communications Authority and the Australian Broadcasting Authority - nor the Office of Film and Literature Classification have the jurisdiction to monitor or ban the content.

BUSINESS TV CHANNEL LAUNCHED
Palamedia and Sky News announced the completion of an agreement for Palamedia to produce the first 24-hour television channel dedicated solely to Australian business. Palamedia will be responsible for the production and editorial content of the channel as well as the sale of all advertising and sponsorships.
Sky News Active Business Channel will provide complete coverage of all significant Australian business stories and of the big stories from overseas. The channel will bring viewers regular reports from the ASX, live coverage of the opening and closing of the US markets and highlights and closing information from all the international markets.

BANGLADESH

BTV VIA SATELLITE FROM APRIL
Bangladesh Television (BTV) will launch
round-the-clock satellite transmission in the first week of April to beam programmes around the world.
According to an agreement, BTV will have to pay a yearly rent of Tk 1.75 crore to AsiaSat 3 for 24 hours of satellite transmission. An earth up-link station and other equipment were installed at a cost of Tk
3.75 crore. BTV is now running its terrestrial transmission 14 and a half hours: 7:00am to 9:30am in the morning run and 12 hours from noon to midnight before it signs off. For 24-hour transmission, the programme department will have to fill the slot of another nine and a half hours. The growing demand for BTV, especially among Bangla-speaking expatriates around the world, prompted the state-owned television to go satellite. Viewers need several dish antennas to down link programmes of all Bangla channels as the channels are not using the same satellite. The channels are using different satellites to up link
programmes: Thaicom for ATN Bangla, ApStar for NTV and PanamSat 4 for Channel i.

CHINA - HONG KONG

VIACOM SEEKS TO EXPAND IN CHINA
Viacom is looking to expand its presence in China with a joint venture production agreement inked with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and an expanded deal in place with state broadcaster CCTV. The venture with SMG follows recent changes to state law allowing foreign investment in local production companies.
Viacom and SMG will work together to produce Chinese-language kids' and youth programming for distribution to SMG's channels, as well as to channels outside of Shanghai. The deal builds upon a previous relationship with SMG, in which MTV and Nickelodeon programming was syndicated to SMG channels. SMG also co-produced the MTV Style Awards Show in Shanghai.

INTERACTIVE CHANNEL GETS CABLE COVERAGE
Hong Kong Cable TV has inked a carriage deal with Asian television veteran Robert Chua for his upcoming 24-hour broadband service, The Interactive Channel.
The Interactive Channel will be broadcast on cable TV's basic service in late 2004. The channel will air local programmes that combine the internet, telephony, broadband and wireless applications like SMS and telephone voting in games, quiz and talk shows.

ASTRO SEEKS SLICE OF CHINESE PAY-TV MARKET ASTRO All Asia Networks is gearing to grab a slice of the lucrative China pay-TV market and has initiated talks with a Chinese partner to gain a foothold in that country. Chief financial officer Rohana Rozhan said Astro, through its wholly-owned unit, Celestial Pictures Ltd, initially planned to distribute Chinese movies to hotels and foreign compounds in China. "That is just the start. Our ultimate aim is to provide the entire pay-TV business to this huge market of over one billion people," she told StarBiz in an interview.
Astro chief operating officer David John Butorac said the company was deeply involved in discussions with the Chinese government, and expected to launch the Celestial movie channel in that country in the near future. He added that Celestial was also looking at Thailand as another potential market. Celestial has rights to 760 Chinese movie titles - the largest Chinese film library, also known as the Shaw Brothers library, in Hong Kong.

TV HOME SHOPPING CHANNEL LAUNCHES IN APRIL A Chinese-South Korean TV home shopping joint venture is expected to hit Shanghai's airwaves on April 1, the China Daily has reported. The venture is worth US$20 million, with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) taking a 51 per cent share and CJ (Cheil Jedang) Home Shopping of South Korea taking 49 per cent. SMG will use its Theatre Channel through Oriental TV to broadcast home shopping programmes for five hours every day in the initial phase.

PROFITS DOWN AT TVB
Hong Kongs Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) said that its profit has plunged 25 per cent to US$56.6 million for 2003, the Standard newspaper has reported.
TVB posted a profit of US$75.7 million in 2002.
Operating profit at TVB's Hong Kong business dived to
US$23.6 million from US$62.6 million. Terrestrial broadcasting revenues, which include advertising revenues from TVB's core domestic free-to-air TV business, fell to US$222 million from US$228.5 million.

INDIA

SPACE TV TO SELL STAKE TO FOREIGN INVESTORS Space TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) television joint venture between the Indian conglomerate Tata group and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is likely to divest up to
29 per cent equity in the company to foreign institutional investors, according to local reports.
The company's proposal with the government says the equity will be diluted by the Tata group, whose holding in the company will come down to 51 per cent from the present 80 per cent. News Corp's holding in the company will remain at 20 per cent. News Corp's investment in Space TV will be through the company's wholly owned Dubai-based subsidiary, Network Digital Distribution Services. The development follows Star Group officials approaching the Indian government for an early clearance of its DTH project, Space TV, offering 65 channels on its platform for a monthly subscription of $4 from November this year. Investment worth $350 million has been earmarked for the DTH project by Star and Tata Group. Star is also planning to launch two new entertainment channels in the country. Set-top boxes will be priced under $65, while the initial cost of the service for a household will be around $105. The company is expecting about one million subscribers in the first year operation.

GOVERNMENT RECEIVES APPLICATIONS FROM NEWS CHANNELS The Indian government has received more than 10 applications from various news channels, as required by guidelines reviewed last year. "By March 26, all channels with news and current affairs content in them must adhere to the unlinking norms announced last year," said a government official. The government had given a one-year timeframe to news channels for restructuring or working their equity as per the guidelines. Last year, the Indian government announced that all news and current affairs channels, up- linking from India, cannot have more than 26 per cent foreign direct investment. The new directive also stipulated that an Indian entity should have a minimum of 51 per cent stake in any news uplinking venture.
The channels which have filed their applications include CNBC-TV 18, TV Today's Aaj Tak and Headlines Today, New Delhi Television (NDTV), Asianet News, Independent Television and Sri Adhikari Brothers Television. The last two have filed applications for launching their news channels. Five national news channels, NDTV India, NDTV 24X7, Sahara Samay Rashtriya, state-run DD News and Headlines Today were launched last year. STAR News, which has a joint venture partner in ABP, was re-launched as 24-hour Hindi news channel.

ISRAEL

YES OUT OF CREDIT
Satellite broadcaster YES is being threatened with closure if it does not pay a $30 million debt to the Israel Aircraft Industry (IAI), according to a report by Radio Netherlands. The IAI is the owner of the Amos
1 satellite which YES uses to beam its programmes to subscribers. The IAI claims that the debt has accumulated over the past few years. A spokesman noted that a year ago both sides came to an agreement that YES would pay its debt in installments, but so far the company hasn't been able to keep to the schedule that was worked out. Further attempts by the IAI to get YES to repay the debt, including legal means, have failed, and this is affecting the flow of cash into the IAI.
Meanwhile, Yes has failed to keep to terms of a credit agreement, and the banks have therefore withheld more advances. Yes made losses last year of NIS 555 million on increased revenues of NIS 842 million. Apparently, Yes needs an injection of some NIS 400 million over the next two years, with NIS 150 million planned for this year alone. Yes is jointly held by Bezeq, Eurocom and Polar, which cannot inject further cash into the costly venture. In fact, Eurocom has asked Bezeq to take its 30 per cent share of Yes off its hands.

JAPAN

BROADCASTERS ADOPT VIDEO CODING FOR MOBILE DIGITAL TV Japan's six major television networks said they have agreed on a terrestrial digital standard aimed at beaming high-quality TV images to mobile phones, starting March 2006. Publicly funded Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), along with private stations TBS, NTV, TV Asahi, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo agreed on the deal with MPEG LA, a group that negotiates on behalf of the multiple patent holders involved. In December, Japan became the 12th nation in the world to start terrestrial digital broadcasting, with services beginning in the three biggest metropolitan areas -- Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya -- covering 12 million households. While the networks agreed to broadcast the new service free of charge, no handset makers or mobile phone service providers have said they would jump on the bandwagon.

MALAYSIA

PROFITS UP AT ASTRO
Astro All Asia Networks announced a
better-than-forecast net profit of RM12.3 million for the financial year ended Jan 31, 2004 due to strong subscriber growth and improved performance in the fourth quarter. Announcing its first full-year results on March 23 as a listed company, Astro said the net profit was 20.6% higher than the forecast RM10.2 million it made in its prospectus prior to its listing last October. Turnover for the satellite pay-TV operator was RM1.418 billion, which was slightly higher than the forecast RM1.409 billion. For the fourth quarter to Jan 31, 2004, Astro reported a net profit of RM38.1 million on a turnover of RM396.4 million. The groups MC-TV operations achieved its highest growth with 298,733 net additions or 45% over that achieved in the previous period. This brings the total residential subscriber base to 1.28 million as of January 31, 2004 while the total subscriptions including schools and commercial subscribers were 1.39 million.

OMAN

OMAN TV TO CONTINUE ON ARABSAT
During a March 22 meeting between Hamad bin Mohammed Al Rashdi, information minister, and Khalid Balkhiyor, director-general of the Arab Organisation for Satellite Telecommunications (Arabsat), the two sides exchanged copies of an agreement signed between the ministry and the organisation to extend transmission of the Sultanate of Oman's Television and Radio to four continents in the world. Al Rashdi noted that a consultative services agreement would be signed during the coming period to establish the new complex of Oman TV's well-equipped studios to keep abreast with the latest developments in the fields. Al Rashdi added another agreement would be signed with international satellites through Arabsat to extend transmission of Oman's Television and Radio to Australia and New Zealand to enable Arab and Omani students and communities to receive and watch its programmes.
Khalid said the Sultanate was among the founders of the organisation. He added initial tests of extending transmission of Oman's Television and Radio started two days ago and that official transmission would begin on April 1.

PAKISTAN

THREE NEW TV CHANNELS TO LAUNCH
Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Sheikh Rashid Friday on March 26 informed the National Assembly that three new TV channels in private sector would go on air within a week. He said the government has brought revolution in the information sector by allowing 30 TV channels in the private sector to launch their programmes in the country. Responding to a question during the question-hour session in the House, he said the 30 channels will start operation within a month, provided frequency is allocated to them. He said the government has planned to permit 100 channels in the country. Sheikh Rashid pointed out that no proposal is under consideration to lift ban on Indian channels, adding, in the presence of about 150 channels in near future, there is no need of relaying foreign channels.



A F R I C A


SOUTH AFRICA

NETCARE TO LAUNCH TV CHANNEL FOR PATIENTS Private hospital group Netcare Holdings has clinched a deal with Nexus Digital for the provision of a dedicated television channel. The HealthNet channel began broadcasting to 38 Netcare hospitals last month, but will be officially launched on March 24.
Programmes that cover pre-op jitters, details of surgical procedures, and post-op treatment will be spliced in between movies, documentaries and sitcoms, said Nexus MD Tienie Kapp. Kapp said the channel had received a good response from advertisers, and had secured in excess of 50% of the first year's advertising revenue target. Patients in Netcare hospitals already have access to the South African Broadcasting Corporation, E.tv, and a bouquet of channels from DStv. The deal with Netcare involves installing up to 8000 new television sets, and upgrading the facilities patients use to call a nurse from their bedside. Nexus was negotiating with MultiChoice to broadcast HealthNet on an existing DStv channel with vacant air time, and aimed to launch on the satellite channel within 18 months, said Kapp.