ARCHIVED NEWS 2011
23/12/11 RIC TV info card has appeared on Astra 1 at 19 degrees east 11.243 H, SR 22.000, FEC 5/6, and also on 12.692 H, SR 22.000, FEC 5/6, it says RIC the family channel starts in 2012, not much information available on this channel, all I can find is HERE and HERE
23/12/11 After I told you previously on here (further down this page) that from 01/01/12 German channels Viva and Nickelodeon/Comedy Central will only be available in digital from Astra 19.2 east, 31/12/11 sees these channels removed from Astra analogue 19.2 east, It has now been announced that the German version of DMAX will also cease broadcasting on analogue satellite on 31/12/11, DMAX too will only be available in digital on satellite from 01/01/12. All analogue channels from the Astra 1 satellite will end on 30/04/12
23/12/11 The 16th to the 29th of January 2012 sees The Australian Open 2012 tennis tournament broadcast live on Eurosport, this includes the FTA Eurosport Germany
22/12/11 Sky Sport News Germany which is currently unencrypted and was originally planned to be unencrypted from the 1st to the 31st of December 2011 have announced that Sky Sport News Germany will remain free to air via satellite until the 19th of January 2012, from 20th January 2012 Sky Sport News Germany from the Astra 1 satellite at 19 degrees east will be encrypted and only available to Sky Deutschland subscribers
22/12/11 The audience share of the evening regional news programmes of the ARD state regional channels (NDR, WDR, hr, e.t.c.) are most popular in the North of Germany, NDR's regional news magazines are the first and second most popular with a larger viewing percentage that the other 'regionals' in other parts of Germany, RBB had the third highest percentage of viewers for it's evening news programme
20/12/11 The bidding process for the German TV rights for the coming years up until the 2016/17 season for the German Football 'Bundesliga' (1st) and 'Zweite Bundesliga' (2nd) leagues has begun. Sky, ARD, and Sat 1 are the likely candidates, Sky obviously for the live coverage, ARD and Sat 1 for the highlights packages, Sat 1 previously had the highli9ghts to the 'Bundesliga' before ARD 'stole' it from them, Sat 1 are still not happy about losing the UEFA Champions League to ZDF and they have said that they strongly desire football and more specifically the 'Bundesliga' back on Sat 1 where it belongs
20/12/11 French TV channels M6 and Canal+ are bidding to secure rights to the UEFA Europa League football for the period 2012-2015
20/12/11 Fransat the Eutelsat backed French Satellite Platform which broadcasts 'free' (encrypted) French TV which requires a one off purchase of a dedicated receiver and viewing card now has 1.6 million customers, Fransat broadcasts from Atlantic Bird 3 at 5 degrees west
15/12/11 Spanish TV channels Antena 3 and La Sexta are to merge
15/12/11 French hunting and fishing channel Seasons will celebrate it's fifteenth birthday by becoming free to air from the 27th January to the 10th february 2012
15/12/11 The application process for the European broadcast rights to the FIFA World Cups football in 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) has begun, applications must be in by the 3rd February 2012, after this date the negotiations with the preferred bidders will begin
15/12/11 Austrian channel ORF 2 will have a new on air look (a new on air identity) from the 9th January 2012
14/12/11 Following on from the news I gave you on 08/12/11 that Qatar's Al Jazeera had secured four of the five French TV packages for the UEFA Champions League football for the 2012-2015 period, it's been announced that Canal+ have secured the final French package of rights to the UEFA Champions League for the same period, this package was previously held by TF1, presumably this means that the one game per week which we 'got' free to air on satellite from TF1 will no longer be available as TF1 no longer have the rights
14/12/11 The process for the allocation of rights to the French League Cup football have begun, the rights are for sale for a 4 year period (2012/13 to 2015/16), the rights are currently held by France Television
08/12/11 German TV's live coverage of the football's 2012 European Championships finals from Poland and The Ukraine have been announced, see my Live FTA Sports page HERE
08/12/11 If you are a fan of free online gaming you may be interested to know that ProSiebenSat.1 and EA will cooperate on a three year agreement to bring free games to the ProSiebenSat.1 internet sites, the games will include 'FIFA Superstar', 'Need for Speed', and 'Battlefield Earth', you will soon find these games at prosiebengames.de and sat1spiele.de
08/12/11 The 2012 ANGA cable trade fair for the cable, broadband and satellite industries will be held from the 12th to the 14th June 2012 in Cologne,Germany. If you are planning on going to this event and need a hotel or other orienteering, contact me, I know the area well, I used to live and work there
08/12/11 If you are going on holiday to Germany next year around or after the 1st May 2012 you must be prepared for no TV in your hotel room, a survey has found that 37% of hotels who have analogue satellite TV did not know about the analogue satellite TV switch off which is happening on the 30th April 2012
08/12/11 German music channel Yavido will no longer be available via satellite from 01/01/12, from this date Yavido becomes an internet only music service
08/12/11 From mid 2013 the media regulator in The Netherlands want there to be a minimum of 30 TV channels available in the 'Standard' package (there can be more than 30 but no less than 30), currently they must provide 15 channels, the regulator wants to stop the TV companies from making more money out of viewers, i.e. putting channels behind a 'premium' paywall
08/12/11 Madonna is the half-time entertainment at American Football's Super Bowl on February 5th, 2012 from Indianapolis, Could they not have picked someone better like Beyonce or Alicia Keys or someone? We have all seen Madonna's breasts already!!!
08/12/11 Italian broadcaster Mediaset who own Italian commercial channels Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4 (and other free and pay channels) has launched it's own news channel, the channel is called TgCom24, Rai and Sky Italia already have their own news channels and naturally Mediaset felt it needed to have it's own news channel, it will be no coincidence that Mediaset is owned by 'the family' of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, if anyone is in need of a good TV/news profile it is most certainly Mr Berlusconi! TgCom24 will be based on the US style of news channel and with Mr Berlusconi 'behind it' it most certainly will be 100% biased just like Fox news and 100% biased towards him. TgCom24 is on Hotbird at 13 degrees east 11.013 H, SR 27.500, FEC 3/4
08/12/11 Qatar based satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera have secured four of the five French TV packages for the UEFA Champions League football for the 2012-2015 period, how long before Al Jazeera make a move for UK sports rights or more specifically for the English Premier League, it is coming of that I'm sure
08/12/11 From 01/03/12 Eutelsat will rename all it's satellites to reflect their orbital position and in what order they are, see HERE
08/12/11 The Netherlands, the UEFA Champions League football for the coming 2012/2013 will be broadcast on Dutch state television NOS and on Pay TV channel Sport 1, Dutch commercial channel RTL 7 have secured rights to the UEFA Europa League for the next three years
08/12/11 it's official, Samsung is the Worlds top selling Television manufacturer, LG are second, Sony are third and Panasonic are fourth
01/12/11 Sky Sport News Germany now free to air on Astra 1 at 19 degrees east, the SD version is on 11.720 H,
SR 27.500, FEC 3/4. the HD version is on 12.304 H, SR 27.500, FEC 9/10, as I told you a long time ago on my 'latest news' page, Sky Sport News Germany is only free to air from 01/12/11 until 31/12/11, from 01/01/12 Sky Sport Germany is encrypted as part of the Sky Deutchland package
01/12/11 Deutsches Wetter Fernsehen, a new weather channel from Germany is now on Astra 1 19 degrees east, frequency is 12.051 Vertical, Symbol Rate 27.500, FEC 3/4
01/12/11 ARTE France SD on Hotbird at 13 degrees east 11.623 Vertical, SR 27.500, FEC 3/4 is now broadcast in MPEG4 format not MPEG2 as previously was, this means that a standard/regular SD receiver will not receive this channel, if you are an SD viewer and want to watch ARTE France in SD you need Astra 1 at 19 degrees east, ARTE France SD is on 11.934 Vertical, SR 27.500, FEC 3/4
01/12/11 France Television (France 2, and France 3 e.t.c) will by 2012 have more programming in VM (Version Multilingue), this means more programming as well as being available in French will also have the original language as the second audio option, whether this applies only to terrestrial or on satellite too remains to be seen
01/12/11 France Television (France 2 and France 3 e.t.c) have signed an agreement to show free to air the final of French Rugby's Top 14 tournament in 2012, 2013, and 2014
29/11/11 Analogue TV channels switched off from Atlantic Bird 5 degrees west, this means that there is no more TF1, France 2, France 3, France 5, Arte, and M6 in analogue from this satellite, you need to go digital for these channels, they are free to air in digital but from 3 different satellites, France 2, France 3 and France 5 are still available from 5 degrees west but TF1 and M6 are available at 9 degrees east and ARTE is available at both 19 or 13 degrees east. There are other options for a sort of 'free' French TV, Fransat (5 degrees west) and TNTSat (19 degrees east) are buy 19 channel packages, you buy the receiver and viewing card, the viewing card lasts for approximately 4 years or when a 'card swap' is required due to updated encryption, the cards are cheap to replace after the 4 years have ended29/11/11 Analogue TV channels switched off from Atlantic Bird 5 degrees west, this means that there is no more TF1, France 2, France 3, France 5, Arte, and M6 in analogue from this satellite, you need to go digital for these channels, they are free to air in digital but from 3 different satellites, France 2, France 3 and France 5 are still available from 5 degrees west but TF1 and M6 are available at 9 degrees east and ARTE is available at both 19 or 13 degrees east. There are other options for a sort of 'free' French TV, Fransat (5 degrees west) and TNTSat (19 degrees east) are buy 19 channel packages, you buy the receiver and viewing card, the viewing card lasts for approximately 4 years or when a 'card swap' is required due to updated encryption, the cards are cheap to replace after the 4 years have ended
24/11/11 Anyone who can receive the French channel NT1, either with a TNTSat or FranSat system may be interested to know that NT1 will be broadcasting the semi-finals and the final of the FIFA Club World Cup live on December's 14, 15 and 18
24/11/11 60% of Germany's HD+ customers who initially purchased a HD+ system have opted to extend their 'subscription', this cost ¢â€š¬50 for a further year after the initial 12 months period ended
23/11/11 Channel 5, Channel 5 +1, 5 USA and 5* will all become free to air soon, this follows today's news that Channel 5 +1 will be available officially on the UK's 'Freesat' platform on 06/12/11 and that 5 USA and 5* will be available officially on the UK's 'Freesat' platform on 08/12/11, these channels will become free to air in the weeks before those dates, possibly end of November or in the first days of December, see HERE
23/11/11 Euronews plans to start a radio station, initially available via the web but Euronews plan co-operation agreements with other radio groups to supply its news service, this radio station will be available in five or six languages
22/11/11 It just had to happen! Oprah Winfrey who only recently ended her long running and legendary talk show 'The Oprah Winfrey show' has now said that she will be starting a new talk show, this new show will eb called 'Oprah's Next Chapter' will naturally appear on Oprah's own 'OWN' (Oprah Winfrey Network) TV channel!
22/11/11 Austrian national broadcaster ORF wants to see an increase in the TV licence fee of 7% from next year, 80% of Austrians are against this increase
22/11/11 French ARTE's recent showing of the 'classic' film Full Metal Jacket got the highest number of viewers for a film on the channel this year!
22/11/11 France Television launches a 'new' video on demand service in January 2012 called Pluzz VOD, this replaces the current VOD service
22/11/11 29th February 2012 sees Swiss national broadcaster SRG's six channels broadcasting in HD, the six channels are the German language SF 1 and SF zwei, the French language TSR 1 and TSR 2 and the Italian language RSI LA 1 and RSI LA 2, official launch of these HD channels is 29/02/12 although these six channels are currently on air on the Hotbird satellite, these channels are/will be encrypted, same rule applies regarding 'subscription' as is currently the case with SRG's SD channels, you need to be a Swiss TV licence payer to get a viewing card
19/11/11 UEFA announce that Sky Deutschland will be the host broadcaster for the 2012 Champions League final in Munich, Sky Deutschland will produce the international SD, HD and 3D signal, Sky Deutschland will provide the worldwide television signal to more than 200 countries. Last year's final held in london was produced by BSkyB.
19/11/11 Over 19 million German household now watch their TV digitally, German public and private broadcasters have expressed a desire for manufacturers to produce set top boxes and integrated TV's with satellite and terrestrial tuners built in for after the analogue satellite switch off which happens on 30/04/12
19/11/11 In Germany there are new levies/taxes being applied to consumer electronic products which have the ability to copy/record in Germany, this is of interest to us the satellite TV consumer as receivers which have a built in hard drive or receivers with the ability to record to an external device such as a USB or hard drive wioll have a tariff of anywhere between ¢â€š¬12 and ¢â€š¬34, this will means receivers will be more expensive in Germany as inevitably manufacturers will pass the 'cost' onto consumers
19/11/11 Sky Deutschland could stop showing motor racing's Formula 1? they say they are thinking about it, it is a constant thorn to Sky Deutschland that RTL's free TV coverage is so popular and well established, the German TV market is so unlike the UK market, here Sky rules, there free TV is such a dominant player, personally I think Sky will continue to show the Formula 1 for some time to come, in my opinion Sky Deutschland are 'playing' for a cheaper deal. For the Formula 1 fans who visit my site in droves looking for free Formula 1 from next year after the BBC/Sky 'stich up' it can only be further good news that Sky Deutschland are not 100% committed to Formula 1 which means that RTL will still be the main 'player' of Formula 1 for the foreseeable future which means continuous Free Formula 1.
19/11/11 January 2012 sees French/German culture channel ARTE launching a new programme schedule format, each evening will have a 'theme', Mondays will be Classic Film night, Tuesdays Investigative Doumentaries, Wednesdays Fiction and Documentary Films, Thursdays will have Television Series and Fridays will have Television Films. Saturdays will be Magazine and Sundays will be Culture. There will also be more multi platform extras i.e. see the web e.t.c.
19/11/11 If you are planning on a holiday in Vienna a new 24 hour English language radio station should be on air on FM sometime in 2012, Danube International Radio can be found here HERE , you might find HERE of some interest too!
19/11/11 From 01/01/12 German channels Viva and Nickelodeon/Comedy Central will only be available in digital from Astra 19.2 east, 31/12/11 sees these channels removed from Astra analogue 19.2 east, receiver manufacturer TechniSat and MTV Networks will together market a changeover to digital TV for consumers, they will offer a complete digital package, the receiver, the dish and the lnb together, everything for the digital switchover in onebox, as an added bonus customers who buy this product will get one months free viewing of the 6 channel MTV Unlimited package (MTV Music, MTV Hits, MTV Dance, MTV Rocks, VH1 Europe and VH1 Classic), this complete digiatl package will be available in TechniSat approved retailers and will sell for approximately for ¢â€š¬99
19/11/11 Sky Deutschland has finally accepted defeat in it's 'campaign' to get ARD's Das Erste early Saturday evening 'Sportschau' football Bundesliga highlights show moved to a later time, Sky have for a long time been voicing their displeasure because German TV viewers have been able to see extended Bundesliga highlights on Free TV not long after the matches have finished, 'Sportschau' stays on Das Erste every Saturday at 1730 UK time, nice to see that Sky are not having it all their own way, very good news
19/11/11 Germany's Media Markt electronics chain who are already under pressure with falling sales have another problem, German police have arrested the German head of Media Markt on suspicion of bribery, Media-Saturn (majority owned by Metro) is Europe's largest electronics retailer but has seen a large drop in sales maunly due to internet retailers
19/11/11 Sky Deutschland goes from strength to strength, it now has 2,8 million subscribers, 98 thousand new customers acquired in the last 3 months
19/11/11 The Muppets return to German TV but only if you can receive pay TV channel Sat 1 Comedy, from 26/12/11 this channel will be repeating the original 'Muppet Show' series every Monday to Friday at 1845 UK time, also 22nd of January sees Sat 1 Comedy showing a Muppets marathon and special shows to coincide with the release of the new Muppets Movie at cinemas
10/11/11 from 2012 until 2016 there will be less free to air coverage of The German Football 'DFB-Pokal' Cup, previously coverage of the tournament was shared between Das Erste and ZDF but the new deal for 2012-2016 coverage is that Sky Deutschland have secured the rights to show all 63 matches of the Cup, Das Erste have secured the rights to show only 8 matches, it will probably be one match from each round and the Final.
05/11/11 The encryption company Nagra Kudelski (Nagravision) announces a massive restructuring which will involve 270 of the company's 3000 strog workforce losing their jobs, the company also announced it will focus more on Internet security too, this company 'is in the red' and it aims to save 90 million Swiss franks every year
05/11/11 The UK's ITV secures the rights to broadcast France's Roland Garros Tennis Grand Slam Tournaments
01/11/11 Pan Arabic MBC Group secures capacity on the New Eutelsat Atlantic Bird 7 at 7 degrees west, MBC is hoping to start broadcasting it's channels in HD from January 2012
01/11/11 Dutch TV format The Voice a new talent show which is beginning soon on the BBC and also an Irish version will air soon on RTE and is also a Worldwide TV phenomenon with 45 countries either broadcasting or soon to broadcast a version is embroiled in a plagiarism row. Irishman Roy Barry claims it's his format, he lodged a format called 'The Voice of America' with the US Copyright Office in 2008, naturally 'Talpa' the Dutch company who 'stole' the format say there are big differences between Mr Barry's and Talpa's formats, this is ongoing and in the hands of their respective lawyers.
01/11/11 Advertising on Dutch Television rose in the third quarter of 2011 by 7.4% compared with the same period in 2010
01/11/11 Canadian TV CBC and the UK's ITV sign a multi year agreement for the Canadian channel to continue showing 'Coronation Street', the deal also allows for Catch up and Video on Demand showings, CBC is currently nine months behind the UK with its episodes/storylines but two episodes of Coronation Street are transmitted on CBC every weekday so Canadian viewers will 'catch up' with the UK one day soon, naturally this will please the British ex-pat community in Canada who are probably sick to the teeth at being told by their UK relatives what is currently happening in the street!!
26/10/11 As predicted here a long time ago, Austrian TV channel TW1 which was broadcast free to air and was a good source for some free to air sports has gone, it has been replaced today by ORF III, ORF III is encrypted and only available with an official ORF/Austria Sat viewing card, there are other 'unofficial' means of receiving ORF/Austria Sat but I cannot really go into detail about these on here, also launched today is ORF Sport+ which was previously a part time sports service on TW1 and is now a 24 hours a day seven days a week stand alone channel, ORF Sport+ is also encrypted and also needs an ORF/Austria Sat viewing card
26/10/11 As predicted here a long time ago, Sky Sports News HD Germany launches free to air, it will be free to air for one month from 01/12/11 until 31/12/11, Sky Sports News Germany will also be available in SD and this version will also be free to air for the same period, from 01/01/12 SKy Sports News Germany will be encrypted and only available as part of a Sky Deutschland/ƒsterreich subscription package
26/10/11 Want SEX in HD? Porn channel Dorcel TV will launch in HD and will be available on all platforms, Dorcel TV was founded in 2006 and is available in 25 countries and if you are really really interested it's available in the English, German, and French languages, does anyone really listen to the dalogue in porn films? I thought 'oooh' and ahhhh' were universal!!
26/10/11 This could only happen in The Netherlands, the Dutch 'branch' of the Occupy movement will have it's own Radio station! Really this is true, the owner of a Radio ship is a sympathiser of the Occupy movement, the station will be broadcasting on 107 FM
26/10/11 US TV network Fox has acquired the TV broadcast rights to show the football world cup in the English language in the US from 2015 until 2022
26/10/11 TF1 and France 2 TV channels are in talks to broadcast a prime time interview with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, at present this is only in the planning stage
26/10/11 German TV channel Tele 5 now in HD but like all the other German commercial TV channels that have gone HD it's part of the Astra run encrypted HD+ 'subscription' service
20/10/11 The French version of ARTE HD is now on Hotbird at 13 degrees east, Frequency is 11.681 Horizontal, SR 27.500, FEC 3/4, this channel is and will be free to air for the foreseeable future, this is a welcome addition especially for the programming that French ARTE shows in it's original language format (English included), German ARTE HD has been available free to air on Astra 1 at 19 degrees east for a long time but German ARTE has less original language broadcasts than French ARTE, for me personally it makes not much difference (as I am multilingual) but the 'mother' language is always preferable if it's an audio option!
20/10/11 Following the French team's success at this year's Rugby World Cup the French Rugby federation has begun negotiations for the French Rugby test matches, the rights to broadcast these matches are currently held by the state broadcaster France television but as I said following the success bla bla .... TF1 and Canal+ will be interested in acquiring the broadcasting rights to these test matches, for sure!
20/10/11 France Television who already have the exclusive rights to broadcast the Rugby Six Nations tournament until 2013 have extended their exclusive rights contract until 2017 for roughly the same price they pay now, they currently pay ¢â€š¬20 million every year for the rights
20/10/11 More problems at BSkyB, 1st July to 30th September 2011 saw a 1.3% decline in its net profits, new subscriptions seems to be slowing so Sky say they will be focusing more on different ways of getting existing subscribers to pay more rather than concentrating on acquiring new subscribers
20/10/11 TV5 Monde the French International channel which broadcasts in French with some English subtitling is now available in nearly half of American households following a recent distribution deal with US cable company Comcast to supply the channel to the Florida area
20/10/11 The President of the French National Olympic Sports organisation (CNOSF) says they want to launch (in association with an 'operator') a sports channel on the French 'TNT' system
20/10/11 German TV Channel Vox will from 01/11/11 be subtitling some of it's programmes in German, these will be transmitted in DVB subtitle form
20/10/11 The 24th to the 30th October sees German TV hold their second 'Aktionswoche', this is a joint partnership between German TV channels and KlaarDigital 2012 to inform German TV viewers that all Analogue Satellite TV from Astra is closing on 30/04/12, again this 'Aktionswoche' will inform viewers of what is happening and what their options are
20/10/11 The Netherlands, a new series of 71 Graden Noord (71 Degrees North) featuring 5 Flemish and 5 Dutch celebrities setting off on a 2,500km trek to the North Pole was planned but a few days before they were due to leave on their adventure the whole thing was cancelled, the producers of the show said they could not guarantee the safety of the celebrities because a number of permanent back up/security people could not join the expedition, the producers are hoping to have another attempt in place for early 2012
20/10/11 France Television has the rights to the London Olympics in 2012
20/10/11 Intelsat and Globecast (France Telecom) will be working in partnership on content and distribution services from the London Olympics in 2012, from 20th July to 13th August 2012 Intelsat and Globecast will have for customers two cameras in position feeding a continuous live view, one camera will be situated in Stratford with a clear view of the Olympic stadium and the second camera will be situated in central London with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in the background, Intelsat and Globecast will also offer customers playout and international distribution content via satellite and fibre optic
20/10/11 9.5 million viewers in France watched the Rugby World Cup semi final between France and Wales, that's 73% of the audience who watched it on TF1, the Rugby World Cup has been getting record audiences in France and that semi final was the biggest one yet, Breaking News just in, France will be closed on Sunday morning 23/10/11 for the Final between France and New Zealand, French channel TF1 (who are broadcasting the final live) qsay it's a matter of prestige not profit, 'The Blues' exploits in this year's RWC have been watched by an average 7.6 million television viewers in France, these are good viewing figures considering the RWC matches have been played in the early mornings
12/10/11 French channel TV5 Monde Europe now has English subtitles on some of it's programmes, these subtitles are in DVB form not in standard teletext form, you need to select DVB English as the subtitle language, unfortunately TV5 Monde Europe does not have a teletext page that tells you which programmes are subtitled in English (at present not too many) but if you click on this LINK it takes you to the TV5 Monde Europe TV Schedule, then scroll through the day's/week's programmes and if you see this symbol Sous-titrage put your mouse/cursor over that symbol, it will then tell you what languages the programme is subtitled in, naturally English in French is 'anglais'
12/10/11 Austrian versions of ProSieben and Kabel Eins now with more regional Austrian programming, specifically ProSieben Austria will now have a morning breakfast show Mondays to Fridays and both ProSieben Austria and Kabel Eins Austria will have a /news/infotainment programme broadcast late afternoon/early evening.
07/10/11 Following the success viewers wise of Kabel Eins coverage of Football's Europa League the 'mother channel' Sat 1 will take over some of the coverage of the group stages of the competition, Sat 1 will show the Thursday matches live, Kabel Eins will not lose all of the Europa League, they will show the matches if they are played on a Wednesday like they very rarely but sometimes are
07/10/11 ORF Sport Plus starts 24 hour programming on 26th October 2011 at 1300 UK time, ORF Sport Plus will be an encrypted channel not available free to air, TW 1 (which currently 'time shares' programming with ORF Sport Plus) will be replaced by the new ORF 3 channel which will also be encrypted.
07/10/11 If you have 'access' to Germany's encrypted Sportdigital TV you will be able to see two of football's Euro 2012 qualifiers live on Tuesday 11th October, 17.55 UK time sees Turkey vs Azerbaijan and 19.55 sees France vs Bosnia Herzegovina
07/10/11 Germany's RTL pulls out of the race to acquire Poland's TVN television company, this leaves only Time Warner and Vivendi still interested in purchasing TVN, Vivendi already owns France's Canal+ network and are very hopeful of acquiring TVN
07/10/11 Al Jazeera International, the English language news channel now broadcasts in 16:9 widescreen format, previously it was broadcast in 14:9
07/10/11 The Netherlands 'Totaal TV' TV Guide magazine had it's yearly survey of the customer service/call centre operations of the country's five television providers (Canal Digitall, UPC and Ziggo were three) and found that in calls/contact made by the magazine to the customer services that 80% were given false information about HDTV services and availability
07/10/11 Swiss TV starts test transmissions of it's channels on HD on Hotbird, currently testing are the 'German' SF1 and SF 2 and the 'French' TSR1 and TSR 2, these tests are Viaccess encrypted and there are no official smartcards available, official launch will be February 2012 when the 'Italian' RSI LA 1 and RSI LA 2, for anyone who's interested the frequency is 10.971 H SR 29.700 FEC 2/3
07/10/11 The end of 2014 will see Eutelsat's Eurobird 9B join Eurobird 9A at the 9 degrees east satellite position, this will drastically increase capacity for TV and data at this new 'hot' position for Eutelsat, one thing of importance to us is the footprints of this new satellite, of course it will have a pan-European footprint but of more concern to us is that it will have four other footprints which will focus on Germany, Italy, greece and Scandinavia. mmmm.....
07/10/11 Luxembourg's M7 have bought Czeck/Slovak Pay Tv platform Skylink, M7 who already own Skylink's competitor CS Link since early 2011 also operates Canal Digitaal in the Netherlands and TV Vlaanderen in Belgium
07/10/11 The UK's Channel Four Television signs a deal for more satellite capacity at Astra 28.2 degrees east, this will be for an expansion of Channel Four's channels like Film 4, More 4 and E4 to the HD broadcast standard also Channel Four HD which is currently broadcast on Eutelsat's Eurobird at 28.5. degrees east in 'widebeam' receivable all over Europe will move to Astra 2 and when it does move it will be on a narrower UK and Ireland focused beam meaning it will be harder or impossible to receive Channel Four HD in parts of Europe
01/10/11 Austria's ORF has activated another transponder on Astra 1, 11.244 H, SR 22.000, FEC 5/6 has ORF SPORT+ which is currently carrying the ORF SPORT+ programming that TW 1 transmits, ORF SPORT+ will be a 24 hour sport channel but ORF SPORT+ is and will be encrypted. Also on this new ORF frequency is ATV2, it's a 'sister' channel to ATV and will launch on 01/12/11, ATV2 is currently carrying programme trailers and is also encrypted
01/10/09 Euronews is one of the first TV channels to be broadcast live on aeroplanes, Turkish Airlines and Gulf Air are the airlines for you if you cannot do without your 'fix' of live Euronews!
29/09/11 Saudi Sport 2 FTA on Hotbird 12.245 H SR 27.500 FEC 3/4, Saudi Sport 1 is already on Hotbird, see 09/09/11 below for Saudi Sport 1 frequency details
28/09/11 Free Polish music TV channel 4fun.TV starts a new Free music TV channel on Hotbird called TV Disco, Frequency is 11.642 H SR 27.500 FEC 3/4
28/09/11 Germany's Sat 1 want the German 'Bundesliga' football back on Sat 1, they used to show highlights of the Saturday games before ARD/Das Erste wont eh rights a couple of seasons ago, Sat 1 say they want to bid for the rights to the free TV showings of highlights of the Saturday and Sunday matches
28/09/11 UEFA is in the process of launching a tender for the French TV broadcast rights in to the next three seasons of The UEFA Champions League football competition
28/09/11 France's Canal+ say they would consider closing TPS Star or offering it for free on TNT. this is all because of the long standing problems with the competition commission in France over the still on going debacle of a merger between CanalSat and TPS both of whom were at one time competing Pay TV platforms, CanalSat/Canal+ were recently heavily fined by the regulators over irregularities/issues regarding this merger
28/09/11 Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 Group has through it's subsidiary (Red Arrow Entertainment Group) acquired a majority stake in US production company 'Fuse'
28/09/11 International ratings agency 'Fitch' downgrades Spain's telecoms group Telefonica (The UK's O2 is a subsidiary) from A- to BBB+
28/09/11 Super RTL have said they that they would like to go 'HD' in 2012, they also said when they do go 'HD' that it will be as part of the Astra backed HD+ 'subscription' package
28/09/11 MTV Networks France in association with Deezer (the free music streaming service based in Paris) to launch three new webradio stations, MTV Base, MTV Pulse and MTV Idol
28/09/11 BBC News' website has been voted the best news website in the world, they received the 'Online journalism Award' last Saturday. This award is a joint award awarded yearly by the Online News Association and the University of Miami
UPDATE 26/09/11 Now this is good news for both French language learners and for viewers who cannot understand French and just need to know 'what they are talking about on this programme!!', this October sees French channel TV5 Monde launch an English language subtitle service for some of it's programmes in Europe, TV5 already subtitles some programmes in the French, German and Dutch/Flemish languages. This English language subtitle service will be available on the TV5 Monde Europe channel which serves the whole of Europe and not the TV5 Monde FBS channel which is TV5's 'domestic' channel which serves France, Belgium and Switzerland, it's quite easy to confuse the two TV5 versions. Most probably at launch there will only be a small amount of programmes subtitled in the English language, as is currently the position with the German and Dutch/Flemish subtitling, but some is better than none, that's what I say. TV5 Monde have said that English subtitling will be 'costed' from the existing financial budget and they will not require extra funding for this as English subtitling is already available on TV5 Monde in the United States, 'English' Africa and Asia, it has also been announced that TV5 Monde would like to introduce subtitling programmes in Spanish sometime in 2012.
25/09/11 Lunchtimes this coming week sees Channel 4 UK showing some all time classic western films, Monday sees Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (13.05), Tuesday has Shane (12.55), Wednesday has The Magnificent Seven (12.40), Thursday has Rio Grande (13.05) and Friday has Cheyenne Autumn (12.10), all times are UK times, but do not forget that if you forget and miss the beginning that Channel 4 has Channel 4+1 too!!!!
25/09/11 The Netherlands, 192TV's website is HERE
25/09/11 ANGA Cable 2012 trade fair for the cable, broadband and satellite industry will be held from the 12th to the 14th June 2012 in Cologne, Germany, I know this place well, it's easily accessible and a good show to be at, see HERE for further information
25/09/11 Switzerland's Swiss info website operation will undergo a drastic restructuring due to enforced budget cuts by the Swiss SRG
25/09/11 French Pay TV service AB will be for end of 2011/beginning of 2012 having a rebrend/repositioning of it's channel offerings, channels most notably affected will include Mangas and Toute l'Histoire
25/09/11 French 'free' platform TNTSAT have by the end of August sold three million receivers, TNTSAT launched in March 2007, TNTSAT receivers are dedicated receivers with a free to view card for 'free' reception of French TV channels, these receivers are also 'CanalSat' ready if viewers would like to upgrade to French Pay TV
25/09/11 TBS whose channels include Cartoon network, TNT and TCM amongst others will in May 2012 start a new Pay TV channel for Germany called 'glitz', this channel will be a 'women's' channel broadcasting in HD and will feature fashion, lifestyle and cooking type programmes with German and English audio options
20/09/11 The big 'three stage' BBC frequency change has begun, BBC News is now on 10.803 H SR 22.000 FEC 5/6, BBC Parliament is now on 10.788 V SR 22.000 FEC 5/6, and BBC Alba is now on 10.817 V SR 22.000 FEC 5/6. See HERE for more on this.
20/09/11 Analogue signals WILL DEFINITELY be switched off from the Atlantic Bird 3 satellite at 5 degrees west on 29th Novenber 2011 it has been confirmed
16/09/11 BBC Postman! and longtime children's TV cartoon 'Postman Pat' is to be made into a feature length animated film which will be released in early 2013, apparently the storyline will involve 'Pat' being given the chance of fame on a TV talent show, let's hope for 'Pat's' sake that this talent show's voting is by postal vote only, 'Pat' is a postman on a talent show, he's a sure fire winner!!!! voting scandal number two coming soon, watch this space!!
16/09/11 The German TV legend that still is Thomas Gottschalk formerly the long time presenter of 'Wetten Das....?' starts his new early evening show on January 23 2012, the show will be called 'Gottschalk Live' and will air every Monday to Thursday at 1830 UK time. broadcast dates and times are subject to change
16/09/11 Here's a little crazy thing that happened, 'Sky Line' who are a card sharing service, which is a form of hacking in itself, have themselves been hacked, the anonymous hacker managed to access 'Sky Line's' database, if you are a customer of theirs, be worried, be very worried!
16/09/11 German TV's 'Das Wort zum Sonntag' a traditional spiritual/religious message for viewers broadcast every Saturday evening will on the 17th September at 2155 UK time feature the current head of the catholic church, Pope Benedikt XVI with his message, this is the second time a current Pope has spoken 'Das Wort zum Sonntag' on German TV, the first was of course Pope John Paul the 2nd in 1987, for anyone who is not familiar with 'Das Wort zum Sonntag' (The Word for Sunday), it's a little like the old ITV epilogues that featured a person of the church talking about life and religion and reassuring words, which were always broadcast before ITV closed down every night
14/09/11 ITV's late night/early morning 'QVC' shopping programme could be gone by early 2012, ITV are thinking of replacing 'QVC' with their own 'shopping channel' which would feature some 'stars' (it being ITV I'm sure it will be Z list stars) from ITV shows as presenters, If you are watching ITV when ITV's shopping programme comes on I can tell you that you do not have to watch this 'pap', simply change channel over to the ITV Channel Islands region which does not show the shopping, instead it shows Steve Scott's Nightwatch documentary series. ITV Channel Islands is on the Astra 2D satellite Frequency of 10.906 V SR 22.000 FEC 5/6
14/09/11 Research by the University of Seattle in the United States has shown that children who watch just nine minutes of the very popular/very successful cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants made the children suffer attention and learning problems, this programme should immediately be renamed as SpongeBrains SquareEyes!!!!
14/09/11 Canal+ France who hold the rights to the 'currently playing' Euro Basketball championships have said that if France are in the Final of this tournament that they will offer the Final to a free channel for broadcast as it will be a major event for the French public, an e-mail to potential channels offering this deal has been sent
13/09/11 Austria's new ATV 2 channel (sister channel to ATV) starts regular transmissions on 01/12/11, this channel will be encrypted via the Astra 1satellite at 19.2 degrees east, ATV 2 will start broadcasting programme trailers on the Astra 1 satellite from 03/10/11
11/09/11 Rai Premium now FTA on Hotbird 11.804 V SR 27.500 FEC 2/3, it was FTA now it's encrypted again
09/09/11 Saudi Sports 1 now on Hotbird 12.015 H SR 27.500 FEC 3/4 FTA
09/09/11 Eins Festival now in HD from Astra 1, 12.421 H SR 27.500 FEC 3/4 but it's only temporary
09/09/11 France's Canal+ has acquired 605 of French channels Direct 8 and Direct Star, my opinion of this deal is that sometime in the future Canal+ will make Direct 8 via satellite no longer be free to air
09/09/11 More and more people in The Netherlands are switching from terrestrial TV to satellite TV because of the wider choice of channels both SD and HD
09/09/11 the Uk's three year old Freesat platform now has 2 million users, apparently in 2011 47% of new Freesat users had cancelled their 'Sky'
09/09/11 AustriaSat has started it's 10 channel HD package, without going into too much detail it's basically the same channels as the German HD+ package, i.e.the Austrian versions of the RTL channels, and the ProSiebenSat.1 channels and the MTV run Nickelodeon abd Comedy central channels, as reported a some time ago on this site special equipment (CI/Cam) is required to receiver this package, it really is not much different from Germany's HD+ in the way it's set up, basically it's only different encryption and Austrian channel versions
09/09/11 Trace group whose channels include Trace Sports HD sign a 5 year deal with Eutelsat to continue carriage of it's channels on the Eurobird 9A satellite
09/09/11 Classic/Legendary French childrens cartoon character 'Calimero' (anyone remember 'him'?) is to be made in 3D, there will eb 0ne hundred and four 11minute episodes made and it will be shown on the TFou childrens channel and most probably also on the main TF1 channel, 'Calimero' was and still is a very popular character in France, if you still don't know who 'Calimero' is take a look at 'his' official website HERE
09/09/11 More actions against 'pirates', an illegal card sharing network in Portugal has been broken up, more than 650 people were receiving 'hacked' Pay TV channels from ten servers with modified receivers and also in Belgium the Court of appeal has upheld a Courts decision to imprison and a 'hacker' and order him to pay damages of ¢â€š¬1.85 Million, he was active between 2006 and 2010 'supplying' Sky Deutschland viewing
09/09/11 The new channel for men from ProsiebenSat.1 Group which will start broadcasting in the second half of 2012 will be a 'SIXX for men' type channel, it will feature BBC Documentaries, Concerts, and Travel type programming, this new station is in the final planning stages. ProSiebenSat.1 have plans for another new channel which will be the same or similar to Super RTL and Nickelodeon, this new channel which will target the teenage age goup.
09/09/11 Germany's Sport 1 signs a contract with the UK's 'Matchroom' for TV rights to the Darts World and European Championships until 2016 as well as other Darts tournaments, also more Snooker, Boxing, Golf, Bowls and Fishing! coming on Sport 1
09/09/11 It looks like 'Handball' is coming to France 3, the French Championships of this sport which will be broadcast on Canal + will also have between six and twelve matches on France 3 which will be shown regionally on Sunday afternoons, negotiations are still taking place
09/09/11 October 26th sees Austrian channel TW1 replaced by ORF3 and ORF Sport Plus. these two new channels will not be free to air, they will be encrypted, you will need a ORF Digital card to view these channels. I have been reporting for a long time that TW1 was going and that replacements would be encrypted, we now have a date.
06/09/11 192TV is a Dutch music video TV channel based on the 'pirate' station Radio Veronica, 192 was the old frequency of Radio Veronica, this new station launched on cable TV in The Netherlands on 01/09/11, it's an 'MTV for the over 45's', 192TV has now acquired the rights to over 6,000 'old' music videos which include videos from the legends that were the UK's Top of the Pops and Germany's Musikladen pop show, I really hope that 192TV comes to Satellite TV soon
06/09/11 There were ten pilot shown in ZDF neo's TV Lab for viewers to choose one which would be made into a series, the one chosen by viewers was 'Teddy's Show', Teddy is comedian Tedros 'Teddy' Teclebrhan and he earns a new series to be shown in 2012
06/09/11 Turner Broadcasting System France goes from strength to strength in France, and they want to keep it that way with more investment in it's programme content, TBS France are fine tuning their websites too, with a change in the company that runs the websites for their channels, TBS France's channels are Cartoon network, Boomerang, Boing, TCM and CNN
06/09/11 Macrovision/Rovi will supply Panasonic's next generation of TV's and DVD's in Europe with it's interactive programme guide 'Total Guide', it will supply Movies, Information, Advertising, basically everything and all at one point of call
02/09/11 The long awaited AFN's channels e.t.c. leaving of Hotbird happened yesterday on 01/09/11, AFN's channels are now available from Eutelsat's Eurobird 9A at 9 degrees east, the free Pentagon Channel and the three free AFN radio channels are on 12.418 V, Symbol Rate 27.500 FEC 3/4
01/09/11 The media regulator for Rheinland-Pfƒ¤lz in Germany is not happy with both Sat 1 and RNF Tv channels, they say that both channels did not have a clear and identifiable separation point between advertising and programmes, this breach has happened on more than one occasion says the regulator
01/09/11Satellite operator SES-Astra and 3D glasses developer iPont will demonstrate 3D tV without glasses at the IBC 2011 trade fair which takes place between the 8th and13th of September in Amsterdam
01/09/11 Great Britain's ITV and Italy's Mediaset which is owned y Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi are in talks about a joint bid to buy 'Endemol', Endemol is the company that made Big Brother amongst other TV classics!!!!
29/08/11 This is important for a many reasons, the BBC Trust said the BBC must reduce costs on its 'Red Button' services, as a result the BBC are closing one of their satellite transponders and some services are moving, more details on this can be found on my BBC Satellite Changes page HERE
29/08/11 Sony is currently developing special glasses to view subtitles for the cinema, these glasses will allow cinema viewers who are deaf/hard of hearing or fans of original film versions, the subtitles would not be seen on the movie screen but instead they would be seen on the special glasses lens, testing of these new glasses will begin in the UK in early 2012
29/08/11 In the next ten years there will be a 50% increase in satellite launches than in the previous ten years
29/08/11 Hard to believe this next bit of news but at this years Edinburgh International Television Festival ITV 1 has been named as the best British channel of the year, ITV 1 is filled with soaps, reality and repeats of Poirot, Frost, Morse, Midsomer Murders, not to mention X Factor/Pop Idol e.t.c. How on earth has ITV 1 become the best British channel? last years winner was Channel 4 and would/should have won this year too, as you can tell I am not a fan of ITV 1, or ITV 2 come to think of it, though I do like ITV 3 and ITV 4, what they show may be 'older' but at least it's escapeism, if I want reality shows I will watch a proper documentary of I will watch the news channels, I will not watch the 'pap' that ITV's 1 and 2 call reality or documentary.
29/08/11 This news will make fans of Italian Serie A football happy, If you are a 'subscriber' to German channel Sportdigital then the news that Sportdigital will be showing 86 live games from Serie A for this 2011/12 season will make you very happy, the word 'subscriber' is used in this instance very loosely and with tongue firmly in cheek!!!!
29/08/11 14th September sees the launch of Cartoon Network UK in HD on BSkyB
29/08/11 On 6th September 2011 Sky Italia launch a new ‚£D channel which will show sports and films, over a hundred events will be shown live
26/08/11 Arte has an agreement with the Belgian Flemish language state broadcaster VRT which means that Arte will now carry Flemish/Dutch subtitles for it's programmes, good news for people who like to watch Arte but who cannot understand French or German but can understand Flemish/Dutch!!!!
26/08/11 RTL, Vivendi and Time Warner are the companies still interested in buying TVN Poland for over a Billion Euros, see further down this page dated 12/07/11 for more on this, by the way RTL owns 40 TV and 34 Radio stations in 10 European Countries, Vivendi owns the French Canal Plus operation and of course we all know who Time Warner are
26/08/11 From the 2nd to the 7th of September ARD will be at the IFA 2011 in Berlin with a stand and will also be broadcasting live from this media/communications event
26/08/11 following their successful bid for the TV rights to the UEFA Champions League football from 2012/13 it looks like ZDF have not got much money left 'in the bank' for other football, ZDF say they will not be bidding to renew their contract for the German 'DFB Pokal' (domestic league cup) football, German TV coverage of this competition, like other sports which are broadcast on German state TV, is usually shared between ARD and ZDF, now it will be left to ARD alone to bid for the rights with ZDF possibly sub leasing the rights from ARD at a later date, or another scenario would be the rights being bid for by some of the following, RTL, Sat 1, e.t.c. or by Sky Deutschland or one of the Cable TV companies, must watch this with interest.
26/08/11 Lady Gaga is to have a 'guest appearance' on The Simpsons, the episode will be called 'Lisa goes Gaga' and will air in the spring of 2012
25/08/11 French channel M6 extends its TV rights multi year contract with CBS International which was originally signed in 2003
25/08/11 French football club Paris Saint Germain is considering setting up its own TV channel, PSG already has its own Internet TV channel but wants a proper TV channel just like the channels that other football clubs in France like Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux already have, PSG would use the production facilities/match coverage of Canal+ france or of Al Jazeera both of whom own TV broadcast rights to the French Ligue 1 football championships
25/08/11 TBS (Turner Broadcasting System) whose channels include TCM, cartoon Network and Boomerang are to launch their 'new' childrens youth channel called Boing this September on Canalsat France, this channel has recently already launched on other platforms in France including Numericable and Orange, Boing is also a long time successful channel in Italy as part of the Mediaset bouquet
24/08/11 A sad day for German TV comes on Saturday 8th October 2011 with the very last 'Wetten Das..?' show, this live entertainment extravaganza programme with its host Thomas Gottschalk has been on air for 30 years with 196 episodes, many many top stars of both Music and Film, world renowned stars from the USA included have all taken part in this show, i cannot think of a top US Music or Film star who has not been on this show in the 30 years it has been on air, I for one am sad that this show is ending, a very good family entertainment show that will most certainly be missed. There will be a special farewell programme for Thomas Gottschalk which will be on 3rd December 2011. To find out what 'Wetten Das..?' is all about, please click HERE
24/08/11 A fire on Tuesday evening 23/08/11 at ProSiebenSat.1's headquarters in Unterfƒ¶hring near Munich, Germany caused problems with the broadcasting of all channels for a time late in the evening, there was a temporary loss of control at the broadcast centre which resulted in some programmes being repeated when they should not have been and programmes being aired ad free, there is/was construction work taking place at ProSiebenSat.1's headquarters and a defective cable is thought to be the cause, the fire also damaged a water main causing more damage due to the water, this fire is estimated to have caused approximately ¢â€š¬500,000 worth of damage
24/08/11 Dutch pay TV operator Canal Digitaal in the last week has switched off about 50 smart cards it believes are being used for 'card sharing', they also ran some tests afterwards to see if the cards were still being used, 'card sharing' has long been a problem for Canal Digitaal and the company says it will continue to monitor its smart cards and deactivate any it suspects are being used for illegal purposes, the cards deactivated were reportedly being used as with 'cc-cam'/'card sharing' systems, it is not only the pay TV cards that are used by card sharers but also the 'STD-NL' cards which decrypt the basic state/commercial channels which Canal Digitaal has to issue because of Dutch Television licence payers rights to free news and free TV, owners of the smart cards deactivated have been reported to the police
24/08/11 Dutch cable television company 'Ziggo' says it will end analogue broadcasting of its channels between 2013 and 2015
23/08/11 Former German goalkeeping legend that is Oliver Kahn plans a football casting show, this show would air on Sat 1 in May 2012 and would seek to find a German football talent with the winner earning a place with a top 'Bundesliga' football club, this format is already a success for Kahn in China with his show 'The Kahn Principle'
23/08/11 N-TV Germany's news channel will be broadcasting lots of its programmes live from the IFA 2011 media fair in Berlin, they also have a stand at this years event
23/08/11 French channel M6 will show the Euro 2012 football qualifying match between Romania and France live on 6th September at 1920 UK time
23/08/11 The witch/bitch that is Sarah Palin is to star in her own Fly on the Wall/Reality TV series on US network TLC from September, how interesting!! Is there anyone out there who likes this woman?!!!! This woman is worse than the disaster that was George Bush, and that is really saying something!!
23/08/11 RTL's shopping channel Channel 21 is to end its analogue satellite transmissions via Astra 1 at 19 degrees east on 1st October 2011, it is available in digital from the same satellite
23/08/11 From 1st September 2011 German travel/holiday channel Sonnenklar TV will be available in HD, Frequency will be 12.574 H, Symbol Rate 22.000, FEC 5/6, QVC HD and HSE HD also begin their HD broadcasts on the same day
20/08/11 This year's MTV Video Music Awards will feature a tribute to Amy Winehouse
20/08/11 French/German culture channel Arte will show the cult British series 'The Saint' which starred the future James Bond actor Roger Moore, Arte will show this classic black and white series from the 5th of September until the 4th of October every weekday at 1600 UK time, most probably there will be repeat showings the following weekday at around lunchtime, Arte will show 21 episodes of The Saint during this month long period
19/08/11 The UK's Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt who recently said that he wants 50 new local TV stations around the UK on air by 2015 has said that he would like to see news programmes on these local TV channels sponsored, now this could be interesting! Imagine this "here is the news, our top stories tonight are, ...Tesco opens a new local store, ....following an agreement between Go compare and this TV channel you can now get your car insurance at a special low price, ...." you get the idea!!!!
19/08/11 The UK's Competition Commission who have been looking at Sky's pay TV Film rights have provisionally ruled that Sky are restricting competition with their exclusive rights deals with the Hollywood studios for first showings of new releases, the commission said it will consider restricting the number of studios Sky has deals with, the commission will issue a final ruling in 2012, as usual Sky's stance is that there is nothing wrong and they say that there is no need for regulatory intervention
19/08/11 Turkmenistan in Central Asia fears foreign TV so much that it has banned the all use of satellite dishes, foreign newspapers and magazines are already banned in this isolated country, when announcing that satellite TV dishes are to be banned the country's president said that Turkmenistan would get cable TV, how exciting for Turkmeni viewers!!!!
19/08/11 The French Womens Football Championship (D1) will be broadcast in the clear, France Television have secured the rights
19/08/11 France Television have extended their contract to screen the Tour de France up to 2015, France 2 and France 3 are the channels that show the Tour de France in France
19/08/11 ProSiebenSat.1 Group have plans for more channels for the Austrian market but this won't happen until 2012 if it does happen, they would like to start a new women's or comedy channel for Austria, this follows the recent announcement that Austrian channel ATV will launch a sister channel ATV2 at the end of the year
18/08/11 More bad news for Sky?? The Italian anti-competition authority who are already taking a look at Sky Italia's purchase of the broadcast TV rights to the 2010 and 2014 Football World Cups which the authorities think were acquired illegally are now to look at Sky Italia's purchase of the broadcast TV rights to the UEFA Champions League from 2012/13 to 2014/15, as usual Sky's stance is that there is nothing wrong and they say that they have done nothing wrong
18/08/11 By the year 2015 80% of all televisions produced will have a silicone TV tuner, silicone tuners are a more modern shift away from the traditional can TV tuners
18/08/11 This Sunday 21st August HR Fernsehen starts live coverage of the German Womens Football Bundesliga at 10.15AM, 1st match is between FFC Frankfurt and SG Essen-SchĦnebeck
18/08/11 Massive R&B replaces WTF music channel on Eurobird 28.5 degrees east 11.623 Horizontal Symbol Rate 27.500 FEC 2/3
18/08/11 Viewers to ZDF neo can choose the next new series to be made for the channel, from 27th August to 3rd September ZDF neo will each evening at 2130 UK time be showing ten 'pilot' shows in it's TV Lab strand, these 'pilots' will range in themes from crime to dating, the 'pilot' with the most votes will be shown as a series, see HERE
15/08/11 The BBC announces that for the Olympics which will be held in London 2012 that BBC Three will be broadcasting all day with live coverage of the games, BBC three currently only broadcasts during the evening/night hours, there will also be a new radio station especially for London 2012 called Five Live Olympics Extra
15/08/11 You can now get 3D glasses in the USA from a vending machine, only in two US cities at present, San Diego and Huntington Beach but it will be extended top other cities across the USA, three varieties of glasses are available, a black standard version for $22, colour and design version for $30 and a limited edition version for $70
15/08/11 the majority of Austrian Digital TV Households watch their TV via Satellite
15'/08/11 NBC Universal Germany chief Katharina Berends says that the Astra backed HD Plus package is Pay TV, she says they are using 'verbal acrobatics' to say that it's not Pay TV but it is Pay TV not Free TV
15/08/11 Sky Deutschland has an increase in subscriber numbers, in the last 12 months 283,000 new subscribers 25% of whom have gone for HD
15/08/11 Manufacturers Loewe, Wisi and Hirschmann now have new receivers in the shops which are able to receive the AustriaSat HD platform, these receivers incorporate the new encryption standard which has been implemented to stop the widescale 'hacking' of AustriaSat's previous encryption, from September 2011 the Austrian HD versions of Sat 1, ProSieben, Kabel Eins and Puls 4 will be encrypted and will only be receivable with a suitable cam and card, some pedantic people on the 'forums' don't want to believe that these Austrian channels are going to be encrypted soon but take it from me that these channels will be encrypted soon
15/08/11 German Basketball fans can watch the German national team live and free to air on Sport 1, this includes the Basketball European Championships which take place from 31st August to 18th September
15/08/11 German shopping channel HSE 24 will from 1st September 2011 also be broadcast in HD Quality
15/08/11 The Sat 1 ball is back, Sat 1 has a new logo/on air design from 16th August 2011
15/08/11 Germany's RTL 2 has a new logo and new trailers, these feature the music superstar Shakira
15/08/11 Fans of the old pirate radio stations Radio Noordzee and Radio Veronica will be interested in this, 192 TV begins broadcasting from 1st September 2011, 192 TV will be available on cable networks in The Netherlands, I'm not sure yet if it's going to be on satellite TV, 192 TV will have original Radio Veronica jingles and will be a 24 hour Golden Oldies station playing mostly 60's and 70's stuff but also stuff from the 80's and 90's, maybe even the 00's too
15/08/11 Dutch channel Veronica is to make a Dutch version of the hugely successful BBC car show Top Gear
15/08/11 Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Xpand 3D are working together on a new 'standard' for 3D glasses, in 2012 viewers should be able to buy Universal 3D glasses, one size fits all so to speak
15/08/11 From 22-25 September the Pope Benedikt will be in Germany and Ard's Das Erste channel will be showing/following everything live
15/08/11 ARD/ZDF secure the rights to show the Handball Champions League for a further two years, fist show rights for the Handball are held by Eurosport
15/08/11 German call show channel 9Live closed down on 9th August, it is no more, around 40% of 9Live's workers will be found other work within the 'Group', in 2012 ProsiebenSat.1 Group are to start a new channel for men 'SIXX-Pendant' and my personal feeling is that this is the channel that will eventually be replacing 9Live
04/08/11 Sky Deutschland officially starts a new HD sports news channel called Sky Sports HD Extra, the Official start will be Saturday afternoon (06/08/11) which is when the German Bundesliga season starts fully but the channel is now on air on Astra 1 at 19 degrees east, frequency 12.304 H, SR 27.500 FEC 9/10, this last week there have been rumours that this channel will be free to air for a short time at launch to attract more subscribers to Sky Deutschland but it has not been confirmed/decides officially by Sky Deutschland whether this channel will be free to air.
04/08/11 British State Television broadcaster BBC says it will broadcast the final of the Strictly Come Dancing Entertainment/Dance show in 3D, the final will be transmitted just before Christmas this year, this 3D show is the first entertainment show to be broadcast in 3D by the BBC and it follows on from the Wimbledon tennis finals which were also broadcast in 3D by the BBC. BBC 1 HD and BBC HD can be received via the Astra 2 satellite at 28 degrees east
04/08/11 Satellite Receiver manufacturer Smart Electronics has a new range of HDTV receivers on the market which incorporate the new CI-Plus modules and the new SmarCAM-3 encryption standard for ORF and AustraSat encrypted TV services via satellite, this new encryption standard will replace the existing encryption which has been widely hacked. now the receivers are on the market the change will begin, ORF are in the process of beginning a card swap to more secure encryption too, more on this is further down this page
03/08/11 Bloomberg TV in cooperation with Prince Al Walid will launch a new Arabic version of Bloomberg probably in 2012 to go in direct competition against CNBC Arabia, what is interesting here is that Prince Al Walid is the second largest shareholder in 'Rupert Murdoch's' Newscorp but also that Rupert Murdoch also plans an Arabic financial news channel also to start in 2012, so the two would be in direct competition.
03/08/11 The Astra backed HD+ German Pay TV platform which carries HD versions of approximately 11 channels including RTL and SAT 1/PRO 7 e.t.c. says that 50-60% per cent of customers who took out their one year free viewing offer have renewed/paid their ¢â€š¬50 to extend their subscriptions for another year, more detailed figures/sales will be announced in November this year when data for all customers of HD+ will be available. HD+ also has a subscription deal which operates through Sky Deutschland and this also contributes to the high level of subscribers taking up the free offer or renewing/extending their subscriptions I think
03/08/11 MTV Networks in the Netherlands announce the closure of TMF and the start of three new channels, these will be Comedy central Extra, MTV Music 24 and MTV Live HD, MTV networks also announced that by the end of this year MTV, Nickleodeon, and Kindernet/Comedy Central will also be transmitted in HD
29/07/11 A bad day today for Motor Racing's Formula 1 Grand Prix fans in the UK, from 2012 to 2018 the BBC will only be showing half of each seasons practice, qualifying and races live (other races will be highlights only), these will include the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and the Monaco Grand Prix and also the last race of the season, Sky Sports will be showing all races live including the races that the BBC will show, BBC Radio 5 will still have live commentary of each race, this news means that from 2012 half of the Motor Racing Formula 1 races will not be available anymore on free to air television in the UK, UK viewers who still want to see Formula 1 will have two options from next year, either subscribe to Sky or get a free to air satellite system and point the dish at 19 degrees east for the German channel RTL, RTL is free to air via satellite and can be received in the UK. See the Sports TV section of this site for details on how to receive RTL in the UK.
28/07/11 The possible new date for the launch of Astra 1N is 05/08/11 at 2253 UK time, the launch was aborted on 01/07/11 due to a faulty valve. This new satellite will be placed at 28.2 degrees east until the second quarter of 2013 when it will be replaced by the new Astra 2E satellite, when this happens Astra 1N will be positioned at its permanent home of 19.2 degrees east, you can watch this launch live on Astra 1 at 19 degrees east, Frequency is 11.023 Horizontal, Symbol Rate 22.000, FEC 5/6, the channel is currently labelled as ASTRA 1N launch.
27/07/11 USA TV channel TLC will from Autumn this year be showing a Reality TV show featuring a Muslim Family from Dearborn near Detroit, USA. Dearborn is one of the main cities with the largest amount of Muslims living there in the USA, this programme is sure to be coming to European TV screens too sometime later
27/07/11 French Pay TV platform CanalSat has signed an agreement with RTL's french subsidiary M6's niche digital channels to remain on Canal+/CanalSat France for a further three years up until 2015, the deal covers a total of nine digital channels in the M6 family which includes M6, W9, Paris premiere, Serie Club, and more including the M6 range of music channels.
27/07/11 It has been announced that there will be a Dutch commentary version of Eurosport 2 launched later this year, this is good news for dutch viewers as Eurosport have the rights to the Football German Bundesliga which is very popular in the Netherlands, it's also been announced that there will be a Eurosport 2 HD launched sometime in 2012
27/07/11 From September 5th 2011 ZDF infokanal will be renamed ZDF info and rebranded with new content and design, ZDF info will be the last of the three 'extra' ZDF digital channels to be renamed/rebranded following ZDF neo and ZDF kultur's revamps
27/07/11 Austrian Television ORF responds to the widely hacked Irdeto system it currently uses for its encryption of it's satellite services by announcing that the new CI-Plus modules which are to the new SmarCAM-3 will be needed together with new viewing card to be able to watch the ORF HD channels via satellite, the AustriaSat pay TV platform will also use the CI-Plus and SmarCam-3 encryption Format. ORF say the cryptoworks hacked encryption will be phased out within two or three years, but ORF have previously announced that they will begin 'card swapping' in August this year
27/07/11 Sat 1 in Bayern want to make viewers aware of the regional/local variations of Sat 1 that are available on Astra 1, it says that most receivers come with the national Sat 1 version pre-programmed and no regional/local versions stored or they are stored at the back of the channel list, this means viewers are missing out, this will only get worse after analogue switch off 30/04/12, viewers can go to the Sat 1 website for help to find their correct regional/local Sat 1 version
27/07/11 The German electronics stores Media Markt and Saturn which are owned by Metro Group slip into the red, they have reported their first sales loss in two years, they are also they are also planning on shedding 3,000 jobs
26/07/11 The phone hacking scandal which has engulfed Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (owner of Sky Satellite Television and Fox in the USA as well as other interests) has not only cost the company the BSkyB takeover but also has cost the company 4 billion US dollars which is about 2.8 billion euros
26/07/11 The Dutch competition authority approves the acquisition of the ProSiebensat1 subsidiary SBS Netherlands by the media group Talpa together with the Finnish publishing group Sanoma but Talpa must sell it's stake in RTL Netherlands for the deal to go through, Talpa would like to bring Radio 538 with it to SBS also but they might have to sell this station too if RTL say it stays with them
26/07/11 RTL Group acquires complete 100% control of its Croatian operations RTL Hrvatska and its sister channels, previously they held 74% of shares in this subsidiary, RTL is the market leader in the TV market in Croatia
26/07/11 Hackers have hacked into the Austrian website which stores Austrian Television and Radio licence fee payers personal data including hundreds of customer bank account details, the hackers said that such sensitive information should not be stored for years and made so easily accessible
26/07/11 The French 'International' channel TV5 Monde announces that from September this year their Internet site will be enlarged with lots of new features, some of the offerings will include TV connectivity in cooperation with Philips and Toshiba, TV catch up and Video on demand, there will also be a map of the world where you click on a certain region/part of the world then it will give you programmes relative to that region.
22/07/11 SES Astra wants to launch a website for the housing industry in Germany, the satellite operator wants to give landlords more information showing that satellite can be a better alternative to cable, SES Astra are also seeking installation companies that it can work cooperate with
22/07/11 German channel VOX will have a special 'Doku Marathon' marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11, there will be lots of documentaries on 10th and 11th September 2011 on VOX
22/07/11 France's TV8 Mont blanc together with Sat2way to develop internet via Eutelsat's Ka-Sat satellite
22/07/11 French channel L'Equipe TV will be showing a live match from the Championship, coverage of this one weekly game from England's second division starts on August 6th
19/07/11 German Cable Television may not completely change over to digital until 2018, currently not many German cable households have a digital receiver and the cable companies reckon that it will be 2016 before they reach an 'ideal' 705 of households who will have converted to digital, only then they think can they set a date and plan to convert the rest of their customers and set a plan in place to turn analogue off in 2018, all subject to change of course, especially with all analogue satellite signals being switched off April 30th 2012, not that that makes too much difference in my opinion as people will simply replace their analogue satellite receiver for a digital one. Same as the cable companies are living in cloud cuckoo thinking that when analogue satellite goes people rather than simply buying a digital satellite receiver will opt instead for complete system change to cable likewise the Geman digital terrestrial groups are also thinking the same, both are in my opinion like I said living in cloud cuckoo land.
19/07/11 Eurosport secure the European television rights to the IAAF Athletics World Championships in 2011 and 2013 as well as for other events of the IAAF World Athletics series over the next three years, this deal includes loads of events, outdoor and indoor, senior and youth over the next three years. These events will be shown on Eurosport , Eurosport 2, and most importantly on Eurosport HD
19/07/11 German 'Bundesliga' First Division Football rights for the 2013 to 2016 or 2017 seasons will be sold as three different packages, could be a slight hope that some live games may be shown on the ARD/ZDF channels if they can secure the rights to one of the packages. The German Football 'Zweite Liga' Second Division football rights will remain as a single package of matches to be sold to the highest bidder.
19/07/11 French channel TF 1 signs a deal with Sony Pictures Television Distribution to show their series and films free to air and also on their pay TV ventures
18/07/11 The Czeck/Slovak pay TV satellite broadcaster Skylink is for sale, it is valued at approximately ¢â€š¬40.9 and the Czeck and Slovak parts will be sold separately, it is the most popular pay TV package in both countries and in 2010 it had one million subscribers but the market is competitive and Skylink is in direct competition with UPC Direct, Digi TV and CS Link
15/07/11 The Netherlands - A fire and subsequent collapse of the 'Smilde' transmitter tower, also a smaller fire and short circuit in the 'Lopic' transmitter resulted in Dutch terrestrial tV and Radio transmissions going off air, together these two transmitters cover 70% of the Dutch population, authorities say it will take more than a year to rebuild 'Smilde' and other masts or mobile masts will need to be used in the meantime to maintain coverage. the 'Lopic' transmitter is also still off air until further notice. Dutch Radio 1 is being transmitted from the 'Flevo' transmitter on 747 Khz because the FM is also off on the two affected masts. UPDATE 19/07/11 'Lopik' is now back on air, a temporary replacement mast for the 'Smilde' mast in 'Assen' is currently being assembled and should be operational by Sunday 24/07/11 UPDATE 03/08/11 Dutch Radio 1 is now transmitting from the old UK BBC World Service transmitter of 648 Khz AM and Dutch Radio 5 is now on 747 Khz AM as a temporary measure, FM reception is not expected to be 'fixed' for a few week yet and large parts of the Netherlands still have no FM reception at all
Dutch Radio 1 is being transmitted from the Flevo AM transmitter on 747Khz because the FM is off too from the two affected mastsDutch Radio 1 is being transmitted from the Flevo AM transmitter on 747Khz because the FM is off too from the two affected masts
15/07/11 ZDF have today confirmed that 3Sat and KiKa (the childrens channel) will start broadcasting in HD from 1st May 2012 after all analogue signals are turned off on the Astra satellites at 19 degrees east on 30th April 2012, ZDF had previously confirmed that ZDF neo, ZDF kultur and ZDF info will also be broadcast in HD from this date
13/07/11 ARD/ZDF who have cancelled their coverage of the Tour de France from 2012 due to too many doping scandals and cited a lack of viewer interest, are interested in reporting from the Tour after the day's races have ended so they want the rights for News and magazine shows.
12/07/11 If you holiday or live in The Netherlands and your hotel or house is one of the 3 million customers of Dutch Cable TV company Ziggo's analogue service then you will find that you have lost a lot of the International channels like BBC, RAI and CNN. This is so Ziggo can offer more digital and HD channels but their customers are really angry, I would have thought that they are probably more angry because BBC has gone rather that RAI. Customers in Limburg lost the popular German channels ZDF and WDR while viewers in The Hague lost CNN amongst others
12/07/11 Eurosport is the top TV channel in Europe according to a income rankings study, MTV came in at number two.
12/07/11 German TV casting show 'The Voice of Germany' will have two famous German singing stars on the casting jury, Nena (51) and Xavier Naidoo (39). The 'The Voice of Germany' is already a successful format in the USA and The Netherlands and will be seen in Germany in the Autumn of 2012
12/07/11 Media group Vivendi which owns the Canal Plus pay TV platforms is one of the potential buyers for the controlling 51% stake in Polish Television group TVN which is being sold by ITI Group. Other media companies offered this sale include News Corporation (highly unlikely now!), Time Warner, RTL, Discovery, and ProSiebenSat1 Group.
12/07/11 Austrian satellite music channel GoTv says encryption on satellite is not planned
12/07/11 US TV channel TNT part of TBS in America is to remake classic TV series Dallas, this series will focus on the children of the original 'Ewing' family, but there will be guest appearances from the original 'Ewings', three original stars confirmed are JR (Larry Hagman), Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and Sue-Ellen (Linda Gray), the commisioned ten part series will air on US TV in the summer of 2012.
11/09/11 On 24th August 2011 Euronews will launch in the Ukrainian language, this brings to 11 languages that Euronews broadcasts in.
09/07/11 Lots and lots more Snooker to come on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, the channel has signed a new 5 year TV contract for the rights to all the top Snooker tournaments.
09/07/11 Big big police action going on in Cyprus against Pay Tv pirates and Card Sharing servers, lots of arrests and I'm sure more will follow as this has been a big operation, these 'hackers' offered access to the UK's BSkyB channels and the Greek NOVA Pay TV platformm as well as the BFBS British Forces network which is also encrypted and shows the best of UKTV but more importantly has Sky Sports on it too..
09/07/11 More than 50% of the German population now receive their TV digitally either via Satellite, Terrestrial or Cable
09/07/11 CNN International is the top source for news and information for Europe's top earners a survey said, the survey which measured the combined use of TV, online and mobile services put CNN at 56.4% with BBC World News on 52.9%. Sky News came in third which is more good news on top of the good news 'Uncle Rupert' has had already!!!!
09/07/11 The Encryption Company Irdeto reaches out it's encryption technology to Blu-Ray, they have acquired a copy protection system known as BD+ which its hoped will be more effective in the stopping of illegal copying of copyrighted material.
07/07/11 US ESPN outbids NBC to secure the rights to show the Wimbledon Tennis for the next 12 years, previously the event was shown for 43 years on US network NBC
06/07/11 Chinese News channel CNC World now testing on Eurobird 1 at 28 degrees east with the 'label/channel name' 53375 on frequency 11.307 Vertical SR 27.500 FEC 2/3
06/07/11 BBC Entertainment free to air from Astra 3B at 23.5. degrees east frequency 12.051 Vertical SR 27.500 FEC 2/3
06/07/11 Austrian HD versions of German HD commercial channels Sat 1, ProSieben, Kabel Eins and the Austrian Commercial channel Puls 4 HD now on air from the Astra 1 satellite at 19 degrees east, they are currently free to air but won't be for long, these channels will be part of the AustriaSat Pay TV platform but will also be 'free' with a ORF HD smartcard. Frequency information is 11.670 Horizontal SR 22.000 FEC 2/3
05/07/11 ARD/ZDF extend their rights to also show the 2014 Winter Olympics from Russia and the 2018 Summer Olympics from Brazil
04/07/11 ProSiebenSat1 group will start a new channel (working title SIXX-pendant) for men in the 45-65 age group in the second half of 2012, they want to bring male viewers in this age group back to the ProsiebenSat1 'family' and after the success of the female same age group channel SIXX they feel that they can do the same for the men. My personal feeling is that the recent quiz channel 9live which is now a channel which is being kept going with series and dramas will eventually be replaces by this new channel for men
24/06/11 French-German channel ARTE announce a restructure of programming beginning January 2012, this will mean that each evening's programmes will have a 'theme', weekends will be culture evenings and weekday evenings 'themes' will consist of fiction evenings, investigation evenings and author evenings with documentaries and films. The 'base' of ARTE's programming will not change, what will change is the format that programmes are presented in, so ARTE's staple diet of TV series. films, documentaries, specials, music theater, dance and culture will remain the same.
12/06/11 - It has been announced that the 'last' of the German state TV channels, Eins Extra, Eins Plus and Eins Festival together with the Regional channels not to go HD yet including MDR, and most probably HR, RBB, and BR-alpha will begin broadcasting in HD sometime in 2014, It has already been confirmed that German channels WDR, NDR, SWR, BR, plus Phoenix and the ZDF channels, ZDF kultur, ZDF neo, ZDF infokanal, 3 Sat and most probably KiKa will start HD broadcasting from 01/05/12, currently the only German state TV channels available in HD are ARD's Das Erste, ZDF and ARTE.
12/06/11 - Germany's N24 news and documentary channel starts broadcasting in HD from 01/07/11, like all of the German commercial broadcasters which broadcast in SD FTA on Astra 19 degrees east this channel (together with all other German commercial channels) will not be Free to Air in HD, it will be part of the 11 channel HD+ subscription package, it will broadcast on 10.773 H SR 22.000 FEC 3/4
Eurosport Germany and Italy's Rai Sport 1 and 2 are showing the UEFA U-21 EURO Football Championships live
Football, some but not all of the Copa America football championships, which take place between the 1st and 24th July, will be shown free to air on German TV, the semi-finals, the 3rd place play off and the final will be shown on the free Sport 1 channel, some of the earlier rounds matches will be shown too at the weekends, but also some of the matches will be on the subscription only Sport 1 + channel
The Boxing Klitschko brothers extend their contract with German TV channel RTL for a further 5 bouts, the first bout of this new contract will be Vitali Klitschko against Poland's Tomasz Adamekon on the 10th September of this year.
15 European countries have now gone 'digital' only and more countries will be 'digital' only by the end of the year
BBC HD channels from Astra 2D now broadcast in DVB-S2 not DVB-S, if your receiver supports S2 then you will need to retune, if your receiver does not support S2 then you wont be able to receive the BBC HD channels.
Comedy Central HD Germany and Nickelodeon HD Germany have started broadcasting, These two channels will be part of the German HD Plus (HD+) subscription package, this package is currently free to view for the first year with a HD Plus viewing card and cam but then customers must pay 50¢â€š¬ per year to continue viewing, these two channels bring the total number of channels in the HD Plus package to 10, German commercial channels HD variants Sat 1, RTL, RTL 2, Pro 7, Kabel Eins, Vox, Sport 1, and Sixx are the other channels available in the HD Plus package. This makes me worried, I ask myself, "Is this the beginning of the end of free to air satellite television from Germany?". OK the German State Television channels ARD/ZDF and all their variants (including the '3' regional channels) have already said that they will remain free to air on satellite, some Hollywood studios and US TV companies have only recently been calling for the German state TV channels to introduce some form of encryption/copy protection, this together with more and more sports rights holders also looking to protect their interests on a country by country basis, looking to sell their rights to the highest bidder irrespective preferably to a Pay Tv provider, only recently FIFAand UEFA said they would be looking into challenging the legality of football being 'listed' events in many countries (i.e. major events must be shown on free to air television). What I do know is that there is some sort of an investigation ongoing into RTL/Sat1prosieben Group's ventures into the 'Pay' TV market but whether this will come to anything is anybody's guess. I have very grave concerns for 'free to air' German Television once the SD channels are switched off, OK it's a little while before that happens but who knows how long it will be?
Austrian state TV broadcaster ORF starting in August will begin the process of changing all old smartcards for new smartcards, there are approximately 2.2 million 'old' smartcards in circulation which are for the heavily hacked Cryptoworks encryption system, the new smartcards will be using the Irdeto succesor system ICE.
Launch of the new Austrian channel ORF 3 which replaces TW 1 is further delayed because the Austrian 'BWB' Competition Authority and State Broadcaster ORF can' agree on the small print, specifically advertising and the non promotion/promotion of ORF's other channels and services on ORF 3. ORF 3 should have been on air in May of this year, but that was put back to September 4th of this year, but even this new date may be unlikely to be met. there is a clear stalemate at the moment between the two parties.
By 31/07/11 AFN (American Forces Network) will cease broadcasting from the Hobird satellite position of 13 degrees east, from 01/08/11 AFN will only be available from the Eurobird 9A satellite at 9 degrees east, this move also affects the free to air Pentagon Channel and also the three free to air AFN radio channels, frequency details are on my frequencies page
Al-Jazeera has secured the rights to show France's top football league Ligue 1 for six years beginning with the 2012/2013 season
British set top box manufacturer Pace last year was the world leader in sales of set top boxes (over 20 million sold)
Ireland's RTE TV and Radio now testing on the new Eutelsat KA-SAT at 9 degrees east
ARD/ZDF will show this year's Tour de France, but they will only be showing the last one and a half hours of the day's stages, the programme will begin daily between 1500 and 1515 uk time, this decision is still not a ringing endorsement of the Tour, specifically the Tour's 'cleanliness' in regards to the yearly doping allegations that happen at the end of each Tour, Of course viewers will be able to watch the every stage live daily on Eurosport Germany .
Italian state broadcaster RAI has secured extended coverage rights to show the Italian football international matches until 2015 (4 year contract costing 120 million ¢â€š¬) The deal also includes 11 friendly international matches.
Filming of 'The Transporter' TV series which is adapted from the film franchise which starred Jason Statham to start in June, filming taking place in Canada and Europe
ARD/ZDF have secured an extension to their TV broadcast rights to show the German International football games (mens and womens teams) from football season 2012/13 to 2015/16, the deal also includes coverage of the German '3 liga' and also the womens 'bundesliga'
SES Astra will focus more effort into attracting, securing and marketing more foreign/international TV and Radio channels for the 19 degrees east satellite position, obviously want's a chunk of Eutelsat's 13 degrees east market It has already started to take effect with the recent additions of Italian AB channel and Serbian RTS Sat and Radio Beograd (the latter 2 moving exclusively fron Hotbird to Astra)
German channel RTL secure the free to air TV rights to show the Formula 1 motor racing championship for a further 3 years taking it's continuing coverage of this event up until 2015, This news comes on the 20th anniversary of RTL's coverage of F1. As well as the Race itself, the deal also covers all qualifying, practice, warm ups, and the awards ceremony
Everyone's favourite cartoon series, The Flintstones to be remade and will be shown on Us network Fox Television, this new version devised by the creator of Family Guy Seth MacFarlane will air in 2013, MacFarlane said Fred Flintstone was the first cartoon character he ever drew, he was aged just two.
US TV network ABC announces it is to remake the 70's TV series Charlie's Angels, it will be remade along similar lines to the recent Hawaii five-0 TV series remake, actress Drew Barrymore who starred in the film versions of Charlie's Angels will be involved in the production.
This is important, Fox Broadcasting Company which owns the film studio 20th Century Fox, calls for Das Erste HD and ZDF HD to be encrypted, Fox says Germany can't carry on as it is in this age of the internet and the internet's rife copying and illegal distribution, Fox also says that the use of a copy protection system without encryption is nonsensical, Das Erste and ZDF will strongly resist any calls by U.S. broadcasters and studios for their channels to be encrypted, we must keep a close eye on this one as Fox is owned by 'Uncle Rupert'
Europe's largest broadcaster,RTL, in the first quarter of 2011 sees a decrease in it's profits due to disapointing advertising sales in Germany and increased investment in new programming,RTL said that compared to the first quarter of 2010 when most of the Western European TV markets had strong advertising growth, the first three months of 2011 were mixed, While in the Netherlands and France sales grew substantially, in the largest TV market, Germany, sales decreased. RTL saw it's profits, before interest, taxes and other payments, decrease by 11.7% to ¢â€š¬ 181 million, revenue rose slightly to ¢â€š¬ 1.25 billion. RTL has 41 TV channels and 34 radio stations in 10 European countries.
Satellite receiver manufacturer Pace lowers it's profit forecast for the coming year due to the situation in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami there, the main reason cites was the difficulty in the sourcing of the chips and components needed following the disaster. Pace supplies set top boxes to pay TV platforms worldwide , including to our very own BSkyB
OLDER NEWS
SKY IN EARLY TALKS WITH POTENTIAL PARTNERS OVER A BID FOR FORMULA 1 UPDATE - NEWS CORPORATION OWNER OF BSkyB AND AN ITALIAN INVESTMENT FIRM (EXOR) IN TALKS ON A POSSIBLE BID FOR FORMULA 1, BOTH FIRMS WILL TALK WITH MAJOR STAKE HOLDERS AND MINORITY PARTNERS IN MOTOR RACING A STATEMENT SAID, THERE IS NO CERTAINTY THAT AN OFFER WILL BE MADE TO FORMULA 1'S CURRENT OWNERS (EQUITY FIRM CVC PARTNERS)
GERMAN MUSIC CHANNEL iMUSIC HAS A NEW FORMAT WITH FOUR MAIN PROGRAMME STRANDS, "iPROJECT" WILL HAVE NEW BANDS AND MUSIC, "INTERNATIONAL" WILL HAVE CHART HITS FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD, "MUSIC NON STOP" AND "GREATEST HITS" NEED NO EXPLAINING.
ZDF NEO TO GO INTO A "TV LAB" FOR A POSSIBLE RE-LAUNCH/RE-BRAND, VIEWERS ARE TURNED OFF BY THE "FUTURE" STYLE OF PROGRAMMING ON THE CHANNEL
GERMAN CHANNEL DAS ERSTE WILL SHOW LIVE AND EXCLUSIVE THE WHOLE SEASONS QUALIFYING AND RACES OF THE DTM GERMAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIPS
GERMAN CABLE TELEVISION COMPANY UNITY MEDIA SERVING NORDRHEINWESTFALIA AND HESSEN WILL CARRY ON WITH ANALOGUE TELEVISION EVEN AFTER THE ANALOGUE SATELLITE SIGNALS ARE SWITCHED OFF ON 30/04/2012
THE GERMAN VERSION OF SHOPPING CHANNEL QVC TO GO HIGH DEFINITION ON 1ST SEPTEMBER 2011, THIS WILL ONLY BE VIA THE ASTRA SATELLITE
ANALOGUE SATELLITE SWITCH OFF - MORE THAN 40% OF AFFECTED GERMAN HOUSEHOLDS STILL HAVE NO IDEA REGARDING HOW IT WILL AFFECT THEM AND WHAT THEIR OPTIONS ARE.
BSkyB NOW HAS 10.1 MILLION CUSTOMERS
SKY SPORTS SIGNS NEW DEAL TO SHOW THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE UNTIL 2014/2015, EVERY YEAR 129 LIVE MATCHES WILL BE SHOWN PLUS THE UEFA SUPER CUP, WEEKLY ON MATCH NIGHTS SKY WILL HAVE LIVE COVERAGE OF UP TO 15 GAMES. SKY SPORTS ALSO HAS THE MOBILE AND BROADBAND RIGHTS. UNDER THIS DEAL ITV STILL GET FIRST PICK ON THE ONE MATCH IT SHOWS WEEKLY, BUT IT'S NOW A TUESDAY MATCH NOT A WEDNESDAY MATCH, SO SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT THERE, ITV WILL SHOW 18 MATCHES YEARLY, AND ALSO WILL SHOW THE UEFA SUPER CUP.
UPDATE 19/05/11, TOOWAY ALSO TO LAUNCH IN GERMANY FROM 31 MAY 2011
EUTELSAT'S BROADBAND INTERNET SUBSIDIARY SKYLOGIC HAS SIGNED A DEAL WITH BRITISH SATELLITE SERVICE SPECIALIST AVONLINE TO MARKET ITS FAST BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICE TO THE WHOLE OF GREAT BRITAIN, IT WILL HAVE DOWNLOAD SPEEDS OF UP TO 10 MBITS, THIS SERVICE WILL BE TRANSMITTED VIA THE NEW KA-SAT SATELLITE LOCATED AT 9 DEGREES EAST, KA-SAT IS ALSO TO BE THE SATELLITE OF CHOICE FOR RTE IN IRELAND TO PROVIDE A "BACK UP" SERVICE FOR ITS NETWORK OF DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TRANSMITTERS AND "FILLER" COVERAGE FOR THE SMALL NUMBER OF THE POPULATION IN IRELAND WHO WONT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TRANSMISSIONS, SKYLOGIC RECENTLY SIGNED A DEAL TO PROVIDE ITS SERVICE TO FRANCE, BELGIUM AND SPAIN, MORE ON THIS FURTHER DOWN THE PAGE.
SES ASTRA SIGN A DEAL WITH THE ROMANIAN INTERNET PROVIDER E-SOURCING KNOWHOW AND SERVE LTD FOR THE MARKETING OF ITS ASTRA 2 CONNECT BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICE IN ROMANIA, SPECIFICALLY TARGETING CUSTOMERS WHO HAVE NO REGULAR INTERNET ACCESS.
UPDATE - ARD/ZDF ONLY SHOWING THE CLOSING STAGES OF TOUR DE FRANCE THIS YEAR, THE LAST ONE AND A HALF HOURS OF STAGES
ARD/ZDF WILL NOT BE SHOWING THE TOUR DE FRANCE LIVE IN 2012, IT'S AS A RESULT OF YET ANOTHER DOPING SCANDAL AND THE LACK OF INTEREST FOR CYCLING NOW IN GERMANY, ARD/ZDF HAVE MANY TIMES PREVIOUSLY SAID THEY WOULD NOT BE SHOWING THE FOLLOWING YEARS EVENT ALWAYS COMING AFTER ANOTHER DOPING SCANDAL, THIS TIME TOGETHER WITH A LACK OF GERMAN PARTICIPANTS HAS MADE THAT DECISION SO MUCH EASIER, FOR US SATELLITE TV VIEWERS THIS IS NOT TOO MUCH OF A PROBLEM AS EUROSPORT GERMANY WILL BE SHOWING THE TOUR LIVE, AS WILL ITALIAN CHANNEL RAI, NOT FORGETTING FRANCE 3 FREE TO AIR AT 5 DEGREES WEST, AND IF MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT ONE OF THE POLISH CHANNELS AND MORE TOO INCLUDING OUR VERY OWN ITV 4
GERMAN REGIONAL CHANNEL BR (BAYERN) HAS THE OLDEST VIEWING PUBLIC OF ALL THE FREE TO AIR GERMAN TV CHANNELS, AVERAGE AGE 64, REGIONAL CHANNEL SWR HAS VIEWERS SLIGHTLY YOUNGER, AVERAGE AGE OF 63, THE YOUNGEST VIEWERS OF A GERMAN TV CHANNEL ARE VIEWERS OF PRO SIEBEN, AVERAGE AGE 35, RESEARCH SHOWS THAT THE AVERAGE AGE OF VIEWERS OF ALL THE GERMAN STATE RUN REGIONAL CHANNELS (THE THIRD CHANNELS) ARE OVER 60, ALSO THE GERMAN FIRST CHANNEL (DAS ERSTE) AND THE SECOND CHANNEL (ZDF) ARE NEAR THE 60 YEAR OLD AGE GROUP, SAT 1'S VIEWERS AGE ON AVERAGE 51, AND RTL ON AVERAGE 46.
EUROSPORT SECURE THE RIGHTS TO SHOW 2011 TO 2013 THE NEW "INTERCONTINENTAL LE MANS CUP" MOTOR RACING, AS WELL AS KEEPING THE RIGHTS FOR THE LEGENDARY LE MANS 24 HOUR RACE FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS, THESE EVENTS WILL BE SHOWN LIVE ON EUROSPORT AND WILL ALSO BE SHOWN IN HD ON THE EUROSPORT HD CHANNEL.
GERMAN CHANNELS EINS FESTIVAL AND EINS PLUS, (PREVIOUSLY SAID TO BE MERGING), NOW TO BE RELAUNCHED, EINS FESTIVAL WILL BE A ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE CHANEL, EINS PLUS WILL TARGET THE 14 TO 29 YEAR OLD AUDIENCE WITH A NEW FORMAT
EUTELSAT'S SUBSIDIARY SKYLOGIC SIGNS CONTRACTS WITH FRENCH INTERNET PROVIDER SAT2WAY, SAT2WAY WILL FROM MID 2011 PROVIDE "TOOWAY" BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICES TO FRANCE BELGIUM AND SPAIN VIA THE NEW EUTELSAT SATELLITE KA-SAT AT 9 DEGREES EAST, KA-SAT AT 9 DEGREES EAST IS RUMOURED TO BE THE SATELLITE OF CHOICE FOR RTE IN IRELAND TO PROVIDE A "BACK UP" SERVICE FOR ITS NETWORK OF DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TRANSMITTERS AND "FILLER" COVERAGE FOR THE SMALL NUMBER OF THE POPULATION IN IRELAND WHO WONT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TRANSMISSIONS, THIS SATELLITE WILL USE A DIFFERENT PART OF THE FREQUENCY RANGE WHICH WILL REQUIRE A DIFFERENT LNB TO RECEIVE IT, ALSO AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THIS SATELLITE WILL BE USING VERY SMALL, TIGHT BEAMS, MEANING ANYONE HOPING TO RECEIVE RTE IN THE UK WILL BE DISSAPOINTED, THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE UK WITH ANY CHANCE OF A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF SUCCESS WILL BE PEOPLE LIVING IN NORTHER IRELAND, AND PEOPLE LIVING ON THE WEST COAST OF WALES.
LAUNCH WAS STOPPED 01/07/11 NEW DATE TBC - ASTRA 1N ARRIVES AT KOUROU (19/05/11) IN PREPARATION FOR LAUNCH DATE - THE NEW ASTRA 1N SATELLITE, WHICH IS TO BE PLACED AT 28.2 DEGREES EAST, WILL BE LAUNCHED 29TH JUNE 2011 ABOARD THE ARIANE 5 ROCKET FROM KOUROU, THIS SATELLITE WILL BE AT 28.2 DEGREES EAST UNTIL THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2013 WHEN ASTRA 2E IS LAUNCHED TO BE POSITIONED AT 28.2 DEGREES EAST, THEN ASTRA 1N WILL BE PLACED AT 19.2 DEGREES EAST, ASTRA 2E WILL HAVE ACTIVE TRANSPONDERS IN THE KU AND KA BANDS.
AFTER MANY MONTHS OF SPECULATION ARD CONFIRMS THAT NDR, WDR, SWR, AND BR WILL START BROADCASTING IN HD FROM 1 MAY 2012 ON THE ASTRA 1 SATELLITE AT 19 DEGREES EAST, THESE CHANNELS ARE THE GERMAN REGIONAL CHANNELS (3RD CHANNELS) AND THEY WILL BE BROADCASTING FREE TO AIR, ARD HAD PREVIOUSLY SIGNED A CONTRACT WITH SES FOR MORE CAPACITY ON THIS SATELLITE AFTER THE ANALOGUE SIGNALS ARE SWITCHED OFF.
DAS ERSTE BACK ON HOTBIRD AFTER A SHORT BREAK , FREQ 11.541 HORIZONTAL SR 22.000 FEC 5/6, THIS SERVICE IS PROVIDED FOR THE GERMAN SOLDIERS SERVING IN AFGHANISTAN AND IS FUNDED BY PARLIAMENT/TAXPAYERS VIA ARD, ARD SAY THIS TIME DAS ERSTE ON HOTBIRD IS HERE TO STAY AND THAT THIS CHANNEL NOT ONLY SERVES THE GERMAN SOLDIERS IN AFGHANISTAN BUT ALSO IT'S THERE FOR GERMAN HOLIDAY MAKERS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST AREAS. FUNDING FOR THIS SERVICE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A BIG ISSUE, HENCE WHY THE CHANNEL HAS BEEN TAKEN OFF HOTBIRD ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION IN THE PAST YEAR
NEW ASTRA SATELLITE TO BE PLACED AT 28" EAST JUNE 2011 - LAUNCH HAS BEEN DELAYED NEW LAUNCH DATE TBC
ANALOGUE SWITCH OFF 19" EAST 30 APRIL 2012 IT'S BEEN ANNOUNCED THERE WILL BE NO EXTENSIONS TO THIS DATE
ANALOGUE SWITCH OFF 5" WEST 30/11/2011 TIME TO GO DIGITAL
TERRESTRIAL ANALOGUE TELEVISION IN THE LONDON REGION TO BE SWITCHED OFF FROM 4TH APRIL 2012
92.5% OF BRITONS NOW WATCH THEIR TV DIGITALLY
SPORT 1 GERMANY SIGN A THREE YEAR DEAL TO SHOW COVERAGE OF ATP TENNIS TOURNAMENTS, THEY PLAN TO SHOW OVER 400 HOURS OF LIVE TENNIS EVERY YEAR ON THEIR SPORT+ PAY CHANNEL.
CURRENTLY ONLY 48.8% OF GERMAN HOUSEHOLDS GET THEIR TV DIGITALLY EITHER BY SATELLITE, TERRESTRIAL OR CABLE
GERMAN PUBLIC BROADCASTER ZDF WINS THE FTA RIGHTS TO SHOW CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCHES FROM 2012, PREVIOUSLY SAT 1 HELD THE RIGHTS, THIS DEAL IS FOR 18 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCHES EVERY YEAR FOR THREE YEARS. ZDF BID 14 MILLION EURO'S MORE THAN THE PRIVATE CHANNELS, RTL SAY IT'S A WASTE OF TELEVISION LICENCE FEE MONEY, SAT 1 SAY COVERAGE ON ZDF WILL BE PROBLEMATIC AND THAT THEY ARE LOOKING AT THEIR LEGAL OPTIONS.
EUROSPORT NOW WITH NEW ON AIR GRAPHICS "LOOK AND FEEL" DESIGN
GERMAN BROADCASTING GROUP PROSIEBENSAT.1 ANNOUNCE THEY WANT TO EXPAND INTO GREAT BRITAIN,
FRENCH CHANNEL M6 ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR TWO MORE FREE TV CHANNELS
AUSTRIAN TV CHANNEL PULS 4 GET THE FREE TV CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RIGHTS FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS (PREVIOUSLY ORF HAD THE RIGHTS), IT WORKS THE SAME AS THE GERMAN DEAL, ONE GAME PER WEEK
2011 ATHLETICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN SOUTH KOREA TO BE SHOWN LIVE ON DAS ERSTE AND ZDF
LOTS MORE NEWS WILL BE POSTED HERE IN THE NEAR FUTURE