Posts from ‘April, 2007’

In conjunction with the annual meetings of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) and the USA DRM Group in Elkhart, Indiana May 10 and 11, at least three stations will be carrying out special DRM test transmissions, with the following schedules:
CBC Radio-Canada in Sackville, New Brunswick will broadcast 12 days of DRM transmissions with [...]

Surinam’s national TV station STVS was off the air for more than 24 hours over the weekend after heavy rain on Thursday and Friday placed the headquarters building and the transmitter room under several centimetres of water. According to Assistant Director Perdiepkomar Khedoe, the national broadcaster has suffered considerable damage, but they have succesfully removed some [...]

A Chinese-language version of News Corporation’s MySpace website was launched in China on 26 April, according to several reports. The beta MySpace China website has been late to launch compared to other social networking sites in the Chinese market.
The international version of the website, MySpace.com, is already one of the world’s most popular websites according [...]

The BBC Trust has today issued its final approval of the BBC Executive’s proposals for new on-demand services, with some modifications. The on-demand proposals are the first to go through a Public Value Test (PVT). The Trust’s provisional conclusions were subject to an open consultation. 10,500 individuals and organisations responded. In the light of those [...]

Russian broadcaster NTV-Plus has announced the launch of new premium HDTV services which will be available through the W4 satellite operated by Eutelsat Communications. The HD launch follows the signatures inked in October and November 2006 between Eutelsat and Intersputnik, on behalf of NTV Plus, of new contracts for four transponders on W4. The new capacity [...]

SES Astra announced today that its new satellite Astra 1L is ready for launch on May 3 at the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana. Astra 1L has been fully integrated into the fairing of the launch vehicle, an Ariane 5 ECA rocket. The satellite is an A2100 AX type built by Lockheed Martin Commercial [...]

We stumbled across the ShortWaveMusic blog which was recently reactivated. Myke Weiskopf is a writer, shortwave avatar, and sound-artist from Somerville, MA. He describes the purpose of the blog thus: “Shortwavemusic is not a hi-fidelity, Westernized “world music” experience. I celebrate the unique sonic characteristics of shortwave and frequently post clips which are subject to the effects of [...]

Today is the 80th birthday of Abie Nathan, founder of the famous offshore radio station The Voice of Peace. Gil Katzir reports: Radius 100FM (local radio station, located in Rosh haayin, about 15 miles north-east of Tel Aviv), will celebrate the event by having a special “VOP day”. All day long, 7:00 am till 6:00 pm [local [...]

Despite the widely-reported statement by Intelsat that it has switched off National Television of Tamil Eelam from its satellite, we received a report stating that the channel was, in fact, still being seen on the Intelsat12 satellite (45°E) as of 26 April.
Update 29 April: D Prabakaran in India says “Since, I am living in India, I checked Indian beam [...]

The Honourable Beverley J Oda, Canada’s Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, has announced the appointment of Montreal-born Timothy W Casgrain as Chairperson of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
“Mr Casgrain’s credentials will bring strong leadership to the CBC,” said Minister Oda. “I am confident that his experience and sound judgement will greatly benefit the [...]

The Summer 2007 edition of Broadcasts in English is now available from the British DX Club. It was compiled by Dave Kenny and includes details of all known international broadcasts in English on shortwave and mediumwave for the A07 schedule period, as well as selected domestic English-language broadcasts on short wave. As usual, the 32-page [...]

The UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) today reported to the Secretary of State on the completed acquisition by British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BSkyB) of a 17.9 per cent stake in ITV plc (ITV).  The OFT is recommending that the transaction be referred to the Competition Commission.
John Fingleton, Chief Executive of the OFT, said [...]

Nearly 20% of European households buy bundled telecom packages, according to an EU-wide survey of 27,000 representative households published today. Almost 30% are now connected to the Internet via high-speed ‘broadband’ links and households increasingly use mobile phones as fixed lines become less popular. 17% of Europeans having a home Internet connection use it for [...]

ABC-Australia will explore ways to raise revenue in a new commercial approach being taken by the national broadcaster’s Managing Director, Mark Scott. The plans may include charging people a fee to download popular programmes from ABC websites, The Australian reported.
Mr Scott told the newspaper the ABC had to look at new revenue sources. More than [...]

The BBC has today been given approval by the BBC Trust to launch a nationally available free-to-view satellite proposition as a joint venture with ITV. ”Freesat”, as it is currently known, will provide a Standard and High Definition (SD and HD) enabled digital satellite proposition with launch anticipated for Spring 2008.  
Consumers will be offered up to [...]