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1999—THE
MEDIA YEAR IN PROSPECT
First quarter
Digital TV will
continue to replace analogue: EuroNews, a
multilingual European news channel, goes digital in
January and plans more languages and services. It
will cease analogue transmissions in April.
Ukrainian radio
and TV plans to broadcast to Europe via
satellite—again.
The US-run
broadcaster to Africa, Radio Democracy, should start in
1999.
From January the
international French TV5 will take advertising—up to
six minutes per hour—and concentrate more on news
programmes.
On 4th January
Intel launches the fastest consumer PC chip yet:
400 MHz.
The youth TV
station MTV Germany will move from subscription to
free-to-air satellite, with possible impact on other
pan-European channels.
The Isle of Man
is expected to announce the winner of its longwave radio
licence in January. A mast construction permit will
still be required.
Arabsat 3A is due
to be launched in February. It will provide Ku-band
direct-to-home TV for the Middle East.
Field tests of
the Lucent Digital Radio and USA Digital Radio in-band
on-channel systems are planned in the USA. Both
allow digital and analogue radio on existing channels.
Also in the USA,
satellite CD Radio will start to deliver 100 digital
radio subscription channels across the nation.
In February the
replacement for AsiaSat 1 will be launched to cover
two-thirds of the world’s population.
28th February is
the deadline for application for licences for legal radio
and TV broadcasting in Bosnia.
SES of Luxembourg
will launch Astra 1H, their ninth broadcast satellite,
and Russia plans a new 11 west satellite.
WorldSpace’s
AfriStar will start transmitting free-to-air live
programmes to dedicated radio and data receivers.
Second quarter
Internet traffic
will have doubled in the first 100 days of the year,
according to a Pricewaterhouse Coopers forecast.
This might impact on internet broadcasters.
The UK’s NTL
and Cable & Wireless plan interactive digital cable
TV.
BBC Learning, the
UK’s first dedicated public service educational
channel, will launch on cable and digital satellite in
May.
The six-month
period in which the Kurdish station Med TV had to take
steps to comply with the UK regulator’s programme
code expires on 20th May.
The Australian
government plans to sell off the National Transmission
Network and fund ABC and SBS transmission requirements
direct.
Comments on the
EC green paper on radio spectrum policy and the space
allocated to broadcasting have to be submitted by 15th
April.
SkyDigital’s
back-up satellite, Astra 2B, is planned for May and
WorldSpace’s AsiaStar radio satellite launches in
June.
Third quarter
In July, the new
Eutelsat Sesat at 36 east should bolster Russia’s
old satellites.
Bulgarian TV and
Radio says it will begin 24-hour broadcasts via Eutelsat.
The Internationale Funkausstellung consumer
electronics fair takes place in Berlin for a week from
28th August.
World Radio
Network plans to have the German and multilingual service
of European Radio Network, ERN, on air via DAB and
analogue radio.
The winner of the
first UK local digital radio (DAB) multiplex licences,
for Birmingham, will be announced.
Final quarter
Digital One, the
UK’s national commercial DAB operator, plans to
start 10 new digital radio services.
In November the
third terrestrial Israeli TV channel is due to
launch. This is against a background of new cable
and direct-to-home satellite TV services in Israel
starting in 1999.
Botswana TV plans
the first national TV broadcasts. The channel will
use former Bop-TV studios in Mafeking.
At the end of
1999 the media will follow the millennium event as the
date changes around the globe.
Reports on year
2000 computer bugs may fill the media—if the digital
studios, distribution systems and transmitters are
millennium compliant, that is.
BBC Monitoring
Research, December 31, 1998
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