TELE SATELLITE NEWS - Number 14/2004  4 April 2004

[Sadoun]

TELE SATELLITE NEWS - Number 14/2004  4 April 2004 - A weekly roundup of global TV news sponsored by TELE-satellite International
Editor: Branislav Pekic

More details at http://sadoun.com/Sat/Products/Acces...-Satellite.htm

E U R O P E


PRIVATE BROADCASTERS AGAINST STATE AID
Some of Europe's largest media companies - including BSkyB, RTL, Mediaset and Reed Elsevier - are urging the European Commission to clamp down on state aid to publicly-funded broadcasters, according to a report in the Financial Times. In a joint complaint to Brussels, groups representing the EU's commercial TV, radio and publishing companies claim that publicly-funded rivals, such as Germany's ZDF and the UK's BBC, received 82.2 billion of state aid in the five years to 2001, distorting competition and harming trading conditions. The private broadcasters claim they have uncovered evidence showing that state aid has risen at
4.8 per cent a year since 2001, when publicly-funded broadcasters received a total of 15 billion.
Commercial media groups are calling on Commission officials to discuss alleged anti-competitive aid at meetings in Brussels next month. A policy document produced by the European Publishers Council, the Association of Commercial Television and the Association Europeenne des Radios urges the Commission to introduce tougher measures to prevent market abuse.
Other companies supporting the complaint include Telecinco of Spain, Germany's Axel Springer, Canal Plus of France and Sweden's Bonnier Group.

BULGARIA

CLUB SIGNS SATELLITE CARRIAGE DEAL
Chellomedia-backed women's channel Club has entered the Bulgarian market, after a carriage deal with the ITV Partner satellite platform that launched nationwide in March. Club is available on ITV Partners basic digital tier throughout Bulgaria. ITV Partner is the first Bulgarian interactive DTH platform and is backed by Interactive Technologies.
Furthermore, ITV Partner will also distribute the channel to Bulgarian cable operators.

GERMANY

PREMIERE GETS FOOTBALL TV RIGHTS
Pay-TV operator Premiere has said that it has beat out Haim Saban's ProSiebenSat.1 to acquire pay-TV rights to Germany's top football league, the Bundesliga.
Premiere said it had signed a deal with the league for the rights to first- and second-division Bundesliga games for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. Premiere is reported to have agreed to pay 180 million per season, or 360 million for the rights over the next two years. Premiere and the football league are still in talks about moving the Bundesliga's two Sunday matches to Friday.

TMG SIGNS WBIT OUTPUT DEAL
Herbert Kloiber's Tele-Munchen Group has acquired a massive TV rights package from Warner Bros.
International Television, TMG and Warner Bros. Sources said the deal was worth $230 million. The deal, which was confirmed by TMG at MIPTV in Cannes and by WBIT in Los Angeles, gives the German rights group free-TV rights to Warner Bros. TV series and movie titles including the first two "Lord of the Rings" films, the second "Harry Potter" movie and all of Warner's
2004-05 feature output. The package also includes numerous WB television series, animation and a back catalogue of Warner library titles.

WINE NETWORK SIGNS CABLE DEALS
The first channel devoted entirely to wine has signed carriage deals with two German cable operators, Kabel!Vision and ish TV. Wine Network, which launches this September, will reach 2 million homes via digital platform Kabel!Vision, and 1.1 million in Cologne, Bochum, Dortmund and Dusseldorf on ish TV. The 24-hour channel airs programming on all aspects of wine selection, etiquette and cooking tips, along with travel programming with a focus on wine destinations, vineyards and winery profiles. The channel will also feature health, fashion, entertainment and cultural programming as it relates to wine lovers' lifestyles.
Founded by two entrepreneurs, Frenchman Patrick Brunet and US/Japanese business partner Lorie Kim, Wine Network TV is slated to launch elsewhere in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US in autumn 2004.

ITALY

EU HITS OUT AGAINST BERLUSCONI MEDIA DOMINANCE In a report adopted by a key committee of the European Parliament, the lawmakers took particular aim at Italy among a number of countries over which they had concerns. "The Italian system presents an anomaly due to a unique combination of economic, political and media power in the hands of one man, the current president of the council of ministers, Silvio Berlusconi," the report said. It said Berlusconi had not resolved his conflicts of interests, although he had promised to do so, and assailed what it called governmental interference, pressure and censorship at state-owned broadcaster RAI. Through his political office and private business interests, Berlusconi has influence over around 95 per cent of Italian television. He has denied using this leverage over TV coverage. The full European Parliament will debate and vote on the report next month. The report can put political pressure on EU authorities to launch legislation, but neither the Commission nor EU governments are obliged to act on it.

PORTUGAL

DISCOVERY SIGNS CARRIAGE DEAL
Beginning April 16, subscribers to Portugal's TV Cabo will again have access to the Discovery Channel, as part of a deal with Discovery Networks Latin America/Iberia (DLA/I). The agreement adds 1.4 million subscribers to Discovery's penetration in Portugal.
The deal also renews People+Arts on TV Cabo. Discovery Channel Latin America/ Iberia now reaches more than 18 million subscribers.

RUSSIA

GAZPROM-MEDIA DENY LINK WITH EUROFINANCE GROUP The Gazprom-Media holding company has denied reports that its member companies may be passed over to Eurofinance Group. "Before the end of the year, Gazprom-Media and Eurofinance are to sign an agreement to establish a new company in which a 51 per cent stake will be held by Gazprom-Media and a 49 per cent stake by Eurofinance. Such plans were announced from the very beginning and remain in force," Irina Gan, Gazprom-Media's press secretary, told Interfax on March 29. Gazprom-Media holds controlling stakes in the television companies NTV, NTV-Plus and TNT; the radio stations Ekho Moskvy, Troika, Do-Radio, Sport-FM and First Popular Radio; Seven Days Publishers; the newspaper Tribuna; and the NTV-Media advertising agency.

SCANDINAVIA

VIASAT TO DISTRIBUTE PLAYBOY TV PROGRAMMING Viasat, a leading provider of digital television in Scandinavia, is expanding its relationship with Playboy TV International through the launch of two additional services. Starting this month, Viasat will broadcast a second Playboy TV channel originating from the UK in their Gold package to complement the existing Scandinavia Playboy TV service. The Playboy TV UK feed features a mixture of Playboy's popular series and British and European produced programming such as Double Entry, the Love Goddesses series, and Babe of the Month. In addition, Viasat will also offer Spice Platinum, Playboy TV International's hottest European adult channel. Under the new agreement, Viasat will directly retransmit the Playboy TV UK. The original Playboy TV Scandinavia, which has run successfully in the Viasat Gold package for the last six years, will now be re-branded as Playboy TV Plus.
Playboy TV Plus will continue to feature movies, traditional Playboy series and Playmates. Launched in 2001, Spice Platinum has rapidly become one of Europe's most sought after premium adult networks now reaching subscribers in over 15 territories. Both Playboy TV and Playboy TV Plus will be available to all subscribers to the Viasat Gold package, and Spice Platinum will be a premium a la carte service sold exclusively on a Pay Per Day, and potentially a monthly basis.

UNITED KINGDOM

BSKYB TO TAKE OVER HORSERACING
BSkyB is poised to seize control of television coverage of British horseracing at a knockdown price.
The media giant wants to increase its share in a new channel and allow more bookmakers access to it to drive revenue. BSkyB plans to broadcast a new racing channel through bookie-owned Satellite Information Services at low cost. Under the proposed deal the racecourses will resume responsibility for terrestrial television rights. Any deal is not expected to be signed off for two months. Previously BSkyB owned a stake in the collapsed satellite racing channel Attheraces, which went off the air on March 29.

FIVE SEEKS PARTNER
Gerhard Zeiler, the chief executive of the RTL Group, has said that U.K. broadcaster Five needs a partner in order to fend off competition from the BBC, BSkyB and ITV. Zeiler confirmed that Fivejointly owned by RTL and United Business Mediahad held merger talks with Channel 4. "But that is only one option among many and within the next 18 months we will make a decision which alternative we are going to take," he is quoted as saying in a Reuters report. "What we need is a multi-channel strategy. The situation on the British television market now is that three major groups emerged with the BBC, BSkyB and now ITV," Zeiler explained. Executives from RTL and United Business Media, the minority shareholder in Five, have also held talks with cable firm Telewest on a possible deal. One scenario could involve a tie-up with Flextech, co-owner of UKTV's digital channels.

NDS AND RANK SELL INTERACTIVE TV CHANNEL NDS, a leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, and Rank, one of the world's leading leisure and entertainment groups, on March 31 announced the sale of their interactive games and betting channel, 'Fancy a Flutter', to YooMedia, the interactive TV and mobile entertainment company. Since it's launch last year, 'Fancy a Flutter' has successfully established itself as one of the leading gaming sites on the Sky digital platform. YooMedia is a digital TV and wireless entertainment company that provides services including chat, games and dating products. Recently, YooMedia has acquired GoPlay TV Ltd. an interactive-games channel currently operated by Sony Pictures Digital Inc, and has signed an exclusive three-year partnership agreement with Sportingbet Group, one of the world's leading online gambling business.

SCI-FI CHANNEL PREPARES FOR REBRANDING
The Sci Fi channel is geared up for a major rebrand and reposition in the market, with some #2 million earmarked for the campaign. "We are trying to open up the definition of Sci Fi to include the paranormal and fantasy," Sci Fi U.K. president Dan Marks said at MIPTV. "We were appealing more to men, but we are now trying to achieve a more 50-50 split (among) men and women." The rebranding involves an overall programming shift -- and an updating of the Web site and off-air marketing materials -- that began late last year with new shows "Veritas" (a "Tomb Raider" spin-off) and early this year with another new show, "Tremors: The Series." These shows have given the channel its best ratings of the past five years.

ITV WANTS PART OF BBC LICENSE FEE
ITV has come out for the first time as an advocate of "top slicing" the BBC licence fee  allowing other broadcasters to bid for public money to produce public service programming. The commercial network also believes that responsibility for regulating the BBC should be taken away from its board of governors and given to Ofcom - a view backed by rival media organisations including Channel 4, ITN, Chrysalis and the Commercial Radio Companies Association. ITV believes at least some of the #2.7 billion raised via the licence fee should be made available for other broadcasters to bid for, but it not calling for a set sum of money to be put aside. The UK's leading commercial TV broadcaster also said it did not object in principle to replacing the licence fee with funding by subscription. Other ITV recommendations included selling off the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and setting up an independent BBC programme commissioning centre along the lines of the ITV Network Centre.

OFCOM BOSS WANTS DATE FOR ANALOGUE SWITCH-OFF Ofcom chief executive Stephen Carter has called on the government to end any uncertainty over the date for switching off analogue TV, warning progress will "stall" unless it intervenes. He said the battle to persuade the entire nation to upgrade their TV sets would be lost unless a switch-off date is set. The government has said it will phase out the analogue service between 2006 and 2010. It has been reluctant to take the risk of setting a firm date because the withdrawal of TV services has the potential to blow up into a huge political storm. The media regulator has been conducting an urgent review of the government's plan to switch off analogue between 2006 and 2010 and will deliver its findings next week. It has emerged that half of those questioned in a study by the Department of Trade and Industry "disagreed" with the policy of switching off by 2010. There are also difficult problems to solve in converting second and third sets in people's homes and retuning video recorders.

MTV EUROPE AND MUSIC LABELS REACH DEAL
MTV Europe and a collection of independent music labels reached an 11th-hour agreement to continue airing music videos from the likes of The White Stripes and Prodigy, the groups said on April 1. Talks broke down earlier this month on the renegotiation of a new licensing contract. The music labels, through their negotiating body Video Performance Limited (VPL), had threatened to boycott MTV Europe as of April 1 if no deal could be reached. Terms of the new deal were not disclosed. VPL rejected an earlier offer from the television network to pay 840,000 pounds per year to air the videos of hundreds of artists and under the expired contract, MTV Europe was paying 1.9 million pounds per year to VPL for the rights.

BBC SIGNS HORSERACING DEAL
An interim agreement has been put in place which guarantees the terrestrial television coverage of this year's Royal Ascot, Vodafone Derby and Glorious Goodwood by the BBC. The deal, which protects the BBC's racing coverage until the end of the year, has been signed following the collapse of the #307 million media rights agreement between attheraces and 49 of Britain's courses.




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


CANADA

LICENSES RENEWED FOR EXPRESSVU AND STAR CHOICE The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said on March 31 that Bell ExpressVu, an arm of BCE Inc., and Shaw Communications Inc.'s Star Choice can continue in business, with their licences renewed until August 31, 2010. Despite complaints and requests from several interveners at hearings held last October, the CRTC disagreed with most calls for new restrictions on the licences, or a shorter licence period. The commission did impose new conditions that both Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice must carry a minimum of five English CBC and five French CBC stations, including one from each time zone.

UNITED STATES

ECHOSTAR PAYS OUT OVER TV SUSPENSION
EchoStar has paid compensation to more than 9 million subscribers after its dispute with Viacom, the country's largest media group, led to channels such as CBS, MTV and Comedy Central being taken off the air.
The pay-TV group, which temporarily suspended broadcasting Viacom channels after a dispute over carriage fees, has offered credits of $1-$2 per subscriber. The dispute was resolved after CBS channels were kept off the EchoStar platform for 48 hours. The impact is not expected to weigh on full-year results.

XY.TV SIGNS SATELLITE DISTRIBUTION DEAL
SES AMERICOM announced on March 29 that XY.tv, a 24-hour network of original lifestyle and entertainment shows designed for 12 to 34 year olds, has signed on for satellite distribution services.
XY.tv is delivering live and recorded programming over the Internet to SES AMERICOM's Internet gateway and satellite uplink facilities in Woodbine, Maryland, where the content is packaged, stored and delivered to cable headends across the country aboard SES AMERICOM's AMC-1 satellite, one of two satellites that combine to form the Cable2 neighborhood. XY.tv, which officially launched in December 2003, is available via digital cable and direct-to-home satellite services targeting the 12-34 year old viewer.

VIACOM REVIVES GAY CHANNEL PLANS
Viacom is reviving plans to create a gay-themed cable network, two years after dropping the project.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Viacom chief executive and chairman Sumner Redstone told analysts and investors that a gay-themed channel would have cost $30 million to create and could now "be worth a billion dollars." Viacom's chairman now says not pursuing the idea was a mistake, the daily said.
Redstone has ordered Tom Freston, the chairman and chief executive of Viacom's MTV networks, to prepare a business plan to launch the country's first network catered to the gay public.

MEXICAN CHANNELS ON DIRECTV
DIRECTV and SATMEX MAXIMO, an integral part of SATMEX, the leading satellite telecommunications provider in Latin America, on March 31 announced an agreement to add ONCE MEXICO and Canal 22 to the DIRECTV PARA TODOS programming line-up this April. Customers who subscribe to any DIRECTV PARA TODOS programming package will be eligible to receive ONCE MEXICO at no additional cost. The service provides access to more than 45 Spanish-language channels including sports, movies, music, news and educational networks and 210 English-language channels. ONCE MEXICO is Mexico's leading network for news, documentaries, talk shows and children's programming, featuring the largest selection of pay per view choices and sports programming available. Canal 22 is the official television channel of the Mexican National Council for the Culture and the Arts.
Internet  http://www.oncetv.ipn.mx
http://www.22mexico.tv

BOXING TV NETWORK PLANNED
California-based film financing and media company Pacificap Entertainment has inked a deal with a company in Las Vegas to create a network devoted entirely to boxing, with launch planned for the third quarter of this year. The Boxing Channel, a venture with Global Boxing Promotions, will air programming about the sport, as well as live matches. It will also be an outlet for properties from Pacificap's Cavalcade of Sports library, which includes matches featuring boxing legends Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, among others. The channel is aiming to launch with 20 million homes this September

FCC ADOPTS NEW SATELLITE TV Rules
Satellite television providers such as DirecTV and the Dish Network will have to follow the same rules for political and children's advertising as over-the-air broadcasters and cable TV operators under regulations announced on March 25. The rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission require satellite operators to allow political candidates to buy advertising time on their systems and to sell it to them at the lowest rates they offer to commercial customers. Like cable systems, satellite operators have commercial time on the networks they carry that they can sell.

NBC TEAMS UP WITH SCOPUS FOR THE OLYMPICS NBC Olympics is using digital video transmission equipment from Scopus Network Technologies to transport its 24-hour coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games from Athens due to take place August 13- 29. NBC will transmit the signals from the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Athens to various sites in the United States for broadcast via the networks of NBC, including the first-ever Spanish-language US broadcast on Telemundo. Scopus E-1100 MPEG-2 DVB encoders, installed at the IBC, will transmit round-the-clock coverage of the Games on six channels via satellite and fibre optic cable to Scopus IRD-2800 integrated receiver decoders at NBC's US headquarters.

BBG SUBMITS BUDGET REQUESTS
The US Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which is responsible for all US non-military international broadcasting, has requested a total budget of $577 million for the 2005 financial year. The bid includes
$45 million for the Middle East Television Network, which comprises the recently-launched satellite TV channel Al-Hurra as well as Arabic-language Radio Sawa. By spring 2004, the US expects to make Middle East TV available in Iraq through terrestrial transmitters. A terrestrial transmitter in Baghdad has just gone on the air, and transmitters in Basra and three other cities should be active in the near future, the BBG said.

ALL SPORTS TV NETWORK LAUNCHED
OBN Holdings, parent company of the Omni Broadcasting Network, on April 1 announced the launch of the All Sports Television Network, which is the only national sports network available on broadcast television.
Scheduled to officially launch during the second quarter of 2004, ALL SPORTS will reach approximately 40 million households throughout the United States.
ALL SPORTS will feature select coverage of national and international sporting events including football, baseball, basketball, track & field, tennis, softball, soccer, swimming, wrestling, volleyball and Australian Rules football. In addition to broadcasting live and delayed events, ALL SPORTS will showcase sports movies, news and talk shows, in-depth athlete and team profiles, as well as up-to-date scores and highlights from leagues, events and tournaments around the world.
Initially on the air with 4 hours of sports programming per day, ALL SPORTS plans to double its broadcast schedule by the Fall of 2004 and anticipates reaching 80% of the US television audience by the end of the year.
Internet  http://www.obnholdings.com



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


MEXICO

MEXICAN MARKET A PRIORITY FOR VIACOM
In Mexico for the launch of VH1 Latin America this week, Viacom's chairman and CEO, Sumner Redstone, said that the company plans to expand further in Latin America. According to reports, Redstone met this week with Mexican President Vicente Fox, other senior officials and executives from local media companiesreportedly including Televisain order to broaden Viacom's reach in Mexico. Redstone noted that Mexico was one of the company's "top five prioritiesMexico has 50 percent of its population under 24, which, as I like to say, is music to our ears, because those are the demographics that our brands focus on." Expansion in Mexico could include the launch of additional Viacom-owned channels, following the rollout of VH1 Mexico in the coming months, and branded blocks on local networks.



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


CASBAA REVEALS NEW SATELLITE TV MARKET DATA The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia
(CASBAA) has released the first aggregated data endorsed on an industry-wide basis covering the size and value of the Asia Pacific pay-TV market. The CASBAA data shows that the Asian cable and satellite industry in 2003 accounted for almost 190 million multi-channel homes, 95% of which are pay homes.
Pay-TV advertising revenues for 2002 were US$2.6 billion in 2002 compared to an estimated US$14.8 billion in overall TV ad spend. In 2003, there were 48 million multi-channel subscribers in India, 12 million in Korea, 8 million in Japan, 7.7 million in Taiwan and 100 million multi-channel subscribers in China.
Total multi-channel ad spend stood at US$2.592 million for the industry but with just US$205 million for pan regional advertising buys. China leads with US$752 million; followed closely by India at US$739 million; and Taiwan at US$586 million. The multi-channel total TV viewing share is now over 50% in multi-channel homes in many markets.
Internet  http://www.casbaa.com

AUSTRALIA

FOXTEL OPTS FOR NDS TECHNOLOGY
NDS Group on March 31 announced it had successfully completed the first phase of systems integration for FOXTEL Digital. FOXTEL, Australia's leading subscription television provider, launched its new digital TV service, FOXTEL Digital, on March 14 offering consumers an unparalleled choice of more than 130 digital channels and services. The NDS solutions used by FOXTEL are VideoGuard conditional access system, StreamServer broadcasting management, Value@TV interactive TV solution and iVideoGuard, which interfaces between the conditional access system and interactive applications to allow FOXTEL to offer interactive content using subscription and pay-per-use business models. NDS also developed interactive TV games seen on The Arcade, which is available to FOXTEL Digital subscribers through FOXTEL Gamesworld. The Arcade currently offers five retro-style games and will be updated monthly.

BANGLADESH

NEW LAW FOR SATELLITE TV BROADCASTS PLANNED A parliamentary standing committee has recommended introduction of a law to deal with the satellite television channels. The standing committee on information ministry at a meeting on March 29 also asked the ministry to explain at its next meeting why Bangladeshi satellite television channels are not allowed to broadcast in India. The members of the committee said all Indian TV channels should be stopped to broadcast in Bangladesh if Bangladeshi channels are not allowed to broadcast in India.

CHINA - HONG KONG

DIGITAL CABLE TV TO BE PROMOTED
China will promote digital cable TV, said a senior Party official on March 28. Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China
(CPC) Central Committee, said that the development of digital cable TV will be conducive to the country's information industry and economic growth and enrich people's lives. The government will join hands with enterprises and the market to promote the new technology, building the facilities, developing software and keeping the market in order, he added.
The government expects more high quality and popular culture products to be produced in the digital cable TV format, Liu said.

ZONE VISION SIGNS UP CCTV-9
Netherlands-based distributor Zone Vision has signed a deal with CCTV-9, the English-language division of China's state-run broadcaster China Central Television, to sell CCTV-9 programming worldwide.
Under the deal, Zone Vision will act as the nonexclusive agent for CCTV-9 programming worldwide.
The agreement encompasses the Chinese broadcaster's 24-hour overseas news service as well as its library of documentaries and feature programs about Chinese history, culture, government and economy.

EXTV OPTS FOR CONVERGYS BILLING SOLUTIONS Convergys Corporation, the global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care services, announced on March 29 a three-year billing contract with exTV. The Hong Kong-based operator licensed Convergys' WIZARD end-to-end billing product to support its new, all-digital multichannel TV service.
Specially designed for Hong Kong viewers, exTV recently launched its full-service package of 27 channels featuring local programming and entertainment from around the world. exTV is operated by Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Limited (GSB), a joint venture of Intelsat, a leading global communications provider, and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), Hong Kong's premium content provider and broadcaster. exTV is transmitted via satellite through existing SMATV and CABD networks into set top boxes of individual homes.
Internet  http://www.extv.com.hk
http://www.convergys.com

WARNER BROS SIGNS DEAL WITH CHINA MOVIE CHANNEL Warner Bros. International Television has inked a multiyear television deal with China Movie Channel, marking WBITD's first-ever volume programming distribution deal with a Chinese broadcaster. The deal involves television rights to a slate of current and library feature films as well as made-for-TV movies for broadcast in the People's Republic of China.

HONG KONG CABLE TV WANTS PENALTIES FOR PIRATES Pay-TV service provider Hong Kong Cable Television wants to introduce criminal penalties for using unauthorised decoders to view pay-TV programming.
Cable TV, the city's leading pay-TV provider, said there were more than 100,000 illegal decoders in use in Hong Kong, far higher than the 60,000 estimated by the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia. The media reports further added that the operator plans to have its digital network fully in place as soon as possible, which will enable it to switch broadcast signals more frequently and thus prevent use of unauthorised set-top boxes. But legislator Ma Fung-kwok said that the piracy problem will still exist even after the network is completely digitalised and his opinion is supported by several broadcasters including Television Broadcasts, Asia Television, Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting, Cable TV, TV Plus and Yes Television.

SMG AND CJ GROUP TO LAUNCH SHOPPING CHANNEL China's Shanghai Media Group (SMG) wants to set up a joint venture home shopping channel with Korea's CJ Group with the intention of launching April 1. SMG is taking advantage of China's new rules that allow foreigners to make direct investments in Chinese production companies in order to raise standards closer to world levels. SMG and CJ Group will each invest $12 million in the venture, although the Chinese will have the majority stake with 51 per cent.
SMG believes the venture will reduce its dependence on advertising, which currently accounts for 90 per cent of revenue. CJ Group already runs home shopping channels in South Korea and Taiwan and the Chinese believe the model is suited for Asian audiences. They have applied to the Chinese regulator, the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television, for permission to carry five hours a day of home shopping programming on one of its cable TV channels. SMG reaches around 3.5 million cable TV homes in Shanghai, one of the wealthiest cities in China.

INDIA

CNBC-TV18 TO LAUNCH CHANNEL FOR INDIANS ABROAD
CNBC-TV18 is planning to launch an international channel for the direct-to-home (DTH) service aimed at overseas Indian audiences in the Middle East, UK, Europe, US, Singapore and Hong Kong. It will have a distinctly "business, general, political, lifestyle and feature news" focus and will be launched towards the end of the year. This will be in addition to the Hindi business channel it's considering to launch this year. "We are very actively looking at these options.
A final decision will be taken shortly," TV18 managing director Raghav Bahl said.

NEW KIDS CHANNELS ON THE WAY
Zee Telefilms and Italy's Mondo TV are gearing up to launch a new kids channel in India during the third quarter this year. Production company UTV has baptised its upcoming Hindi kids channel Hungama TV to reflect the station's strong local slant. Hungama TV, which is aimed at the 4-18 demographic, will be launched by United Home Entertainment (UHE). Finally, Walt Disney Television International has begun dubbing its programming into Hindi, Tamil and at least one other language spoken on the Indian subcontinent in preparation for the launch of three Disney channels and a fourth "in two to three years," company president David Hulbert said.

TIMES GROUP TO LAUNCH 3 CHANNELS
Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, publishers of The Times of India, is planning to enter the television business with a bouquet of three channels, including an entertainment channel, a spiritual channel and a business news channel. The entertainment channel will be the first to go on air. The first channel is likely to go on air in July. According to media industry sources, the entertainment channel, expected to be named Zoom, will focus on events, music, fashion and lifestyle. The business news channel, which is expected to be the last to take off, is yet to be named.

JAPAN

BROADCASTERS TO BLOCK DIGITAL COPYING
NHK and the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan will start on April 5 to block attempts by viewers to illicitly duplicate digital television programs for commercial purposes. The duplication control will be applied to digital TV programs aired by both terrestrial digital broadcasters and broadcasting satellites, according to NHK and the nation's biggest grouping of private TV broadcasters. NHK and the member broadcasters of the association will mingle special antiduplication signals with conventional signals that make up the digital images and sounds of their programs. The special signals will make it impossible for people with digital TVs and special tuners for receiving digital signals to watch TV programs, unless they insert a B-CAS card into their digital TV sets. B-CAS cards are distributed to owners of digital TV sets at the time of their purchase. The antiduplication mechanism has already drawn criticism from some quarters of the home electronics appliance industry, which apparently fear the new mechanism may eat into sales.

NEW ZEALAND

MAORI TV STATION LAUNCHED
New Zealand has launched its first ever national Maori language television channel. The service will reach more than 80 percent of New Zealand's population of four million. The launch comes 13 years after the nation's highest court ruled that the government had a legal responsibility to fund Maori TV to protect the language, under an 1840 treaty between Maori and British settlers. The channel is required by law to provide at least 50 per cent of its content in Maori, which is now spoken by less than a tenth of New Zealand's 530,000 Maoris. The NZ government is providing $A26 million for the channel.

SINGAPORE

UNIVERSAL SIGNS LOCAL OUTPUT DEALS
Universal International Television has inked a multiyear licensing deal with Singaporean terrestrial Channel i, operated by SPH MediaWorks, that will see the broadcaster taking on titles as diverse is the quirky dramedy Monk, the reality series Mad Mad House and the new science fiction series Battlestar Galactica. Other highlights from the package deal include Dick Wolf's three-series Law & Order franchise, USA Network's new crime drama Touching Evil, CBS's futuristic legal drama Century City and the epic mini-series Spartacus.

YES TV TO EXPAND TO SINGAPORE
Yes TV Plus has inked a deal to offer SingTel's broadband subscribers in Singapore an Internet-delivered, video-on-demand programming package. The platform will initially offer Hong Kong terrestrial ATV; U.K. sports network Manchester United Television; Soundtrack Channel, with music from movies and television; Universal Chinese Film Videoclub, with Chinese-language films; and Indian movie network Video Sound.



A F R I C A


ALGERIA

ALGERIA TV EXPANDS GLOBALLY
Algerian satellite TV channel Canal Algerie, began broadcasting its programmes to North America and Africa on March 26, with Asia next on the cards. The channel is a joint project between the National Television Public Company [ENTV] and the Radio and Television Broadcasting Company [TDA]. Algerian officials said that the Telstar5 satellite is being used to cover North America on the Ku multi-channel package, while, at the same time, the NSS7 satellite is being used to broadcast Canal Algerie programmes and two radio stations to Africa...

NIGERIA

FSTV STARTS BROADCASTING
The first indigenous satellite television in the country, Frontage Satellite Television (FSTV) on March
26 began test transmission in Lagos. FSTV is the first indigenous satellite television in Nigeria and the brain child of the popular politicians, lawyer and businessman Bashorun Reuben Ilenoboye Famuyibo. It is a 30-channel DTH service which was launched in the United Kingdom in January. According to local press reports, FSTV has already 20,000 subscribers waiting to be connected to the multi-channels satellite television.

SOUTH AFRICA

AIDS TV CHANNEL PREPARES FOR LAUNCH
The United States government has committed R19-million to fund a South African satellite health channel teaching about the HIV/Aids pandemic. "I'm sure people will learn something; that they will always want to watch [from the channel]," said Frederick Schieck, the deputy administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAid). "It's not about the money, it's about the quality and the people," Schieck said in Johannesburg. He said he believed the funding would be put to good use as HIV/Aids was a serious disease threatening the lives of millions of South Africans. The channel would be launched late this year and it was hoped it would be broadcast to all 4 000 public health institutions in the country. The funding formed part of US President George Bush's Emergency Plan for Aids in Africa.

[lin]

With regards to echostar:

DISH did not pay me the dollar credit for missing chicago cbs.
I called 5 times (about this and other matters) and then they
"reversed the credit" anyway. I just want to set the record straight
about the mistruths of Echostar.

[Nsat]

Lin

Sorry to hear that, but I saw the $1 credit on my bill.