by Katie McConnell

International relationships in the satellite community are not at their best. The U.S. decision to transfer the exporting of satellite licenses from the Commerce Department to the State Department has strained an already volatile relationship with the People’s Republic of China. The war in the Balkans recently pitted the governments of NATO and non-NATO countries against each other, creating an even more uncertain future for satellite and rocket manufacturers. And as we went to press, officials in China had basically turned off CNN’s coverage of the Tiananmen Square anniversary activities. But, for the most part, programming continues to be broadcast all over the world. And while exporting tapes is still a popular way to send non-real-time productions to other countries, satellite technology is undoubtedly the best method to broadcast live events internationally. As evidence of this, some of the largest names in broadcasting have made use of satellite technology.

ABC

To date, ABC does not have a large distribution presence. Of all the ABC Inc. businesses such as ESPN and the Disney Channel, ABC News has a relatively small live international distribution presence. Only five and a half hours per week of live broadcasts of ABC News are distributed to international clients. These live, international programs include World News Tonight, World News Saturday, World News Sunday and Nightline. The majority of its international distribution comprises non-real-time programs, which are distributed to international clients using the old-fashioned method of mailing them out on video tape. Even so, those five and a half hours of live news programming are sent via satellite.

ABC employs APTN International Satellite Services to distribute its live broadcasts to the channel’s international clients. Those clients include Canal Plus in France, KBS Korea, RMN in the Philippines and CTS Thailand, among others. Intelsat 706 at 307øE, Intelsat 601 at 34.5øW and Eutelsat Flight 2 at 10ø E are used by ABC to get its programming to the European/Asian region. For final delivery to the Pacific Rim, ABC uses Asiasat 2 at 100.5øE.

For its domestic distribution, ABC employs Telstar 4 at 89øW and Telstar 5 at 97øW for its full time C- and Ku-band distribution. Telstar 6 at 93ø W is employed for ABC’s ad hoc and occasional use feeds. Due to the nature of the footprints provided by the Telstar 4 and 5 satellites, "international clients have the physical ability to receive ABC’s U.S. domestic satellite footprint," says Rich Wolf, director of telecommunications and distribution services for ABC. Those international clients are located in the Caribbean, Canada and Latin America.

According to Wolf, ABC has been a loyal customer of the Telstar satellites since 1984. First, the company enjoyed a 10-year stay on the Telstar 3 satellite for its U.S. distribution. The company migrated to Telstar 4 and Telstar 5 when those satellites were launched to their respective orbits in 1995 and 1997.

The criteria ABC uses to sign up for one satellite service over another differs in the domestic and international marketplaces. For its domestic satellites, Wolf says, the company gives priority to pricing, footprint and ancillary service opportunities such as satellite newsgathering, occasional use and "a strong satellite operations service mentality." Neighborhood is not as important a criteria for ABC to buy time on a satellite, but "if you’re a broadcaster, the more program services that can be on one satellite, the more efficient the affiliate receive systems can be," Wolf adds. "So, just like cable, one satellite dish can receive network programming, syndication services and news services, which creates an easier operating environment at the local level."

While neighborhood isn’t a deciding factor for distributing ABC’s programming to the domestic marketplace, it is an important consideration for choosing international satellites. According to Wolf, the company chose its international satellites because they carry a lot of program distribution services that ABC’s clients are most likely receiving through their earth stations. "So neighborhood is very important in international program distribution," he adds. Other deciding factors in choosing international satellites for ABC include footprint, price and reliability.

In addition to these distribution channels, the ABC television network has a component called News One, which is an ABC affiliate news service that is distributed to subscribers. Although these subscribers are predominantly ABC affiliates, the list does include other clients. "ABC’s News One domestic service is distributed on Telstar 5 and during peak conditions on Telstar 4 to distribute approximately 14 to 15 hours per day of news service to News One subscribers," Wolf says. "When the news service originates from New York, it is through ABC New York teleport. However, that news service also has regional news origination, and ABC makes use of many teleports in the United States to distribute news in the regional locations." Those teleports include, but are not limited to, Vyvx in Atlanta, ATC Teleport in Dallas, Dallas Fort Worth Teleport, KOMO Seattle and the Denver Uplink. The ABC New York teleport includes two 9.1 meter Andrew antennas that are fixed to both the Telstar 4 and Telstar 5 satellites. "The primary network feeds and the News One feeds are uplinked from ABC New York’s own rooftop uplink facility," Wolf adds.

For its international distribution, the APTN service that ABC obtains makes use of Micronet’s uplink facility in New Jersey. Here the signals are beamed to the Intelsat 601 satellite with turnaround in the United Kingdom for transmission to the Eutelsat satellite and yet again with another turnaround in Moscow for transmission to Asiasat 2. "Essentially, the footprint coverage of being on Intelsat 601, Eutelsat and Asiasat can provide near real time global reach," he says.

As mentioned earlier, the broadcaster still relies heavily on video tape distribution to deliver non-real-time video content to television customers. Wolf says it’s still a cheaper way to deliver time-insensitive programs than any other method. However, he is quick to add, "I foresee a future where digital technologies could allow for pricing models that compete very favorably with video tape distribution and allow for delivery with a collaboration of video file server technology and store-and-forward type technologies." And he believes that this future is not very far off and expects satellite delivery will better compete with video tape duplication and delivery within 36 months.

CNN

There’s a saying that states "Wherever you go, there you are." That could easily be changed to "Wherever you go, there is CNN." Broadcast to 212 countries, CNN continues to be the leader in worldwide news coverage and distribution. Needless to say, the Cable News Network is quite adept at delivering its programming around the world via satellite.

According to Alastair Hamilton, senior vice president of worldwide distribution technology, the news channel looks for five criteria in picking its birds: neighborhood, coverage, signal strength, orbital position and price factors.

"Domestically, our principal distribution bird is Galaxy 5 [at 125øW] for analog feeds and Galaxy 1R [133ø W] for our digital feed," Hamilton says. "We have a massive uplinking facility at our Techwood Drive offices in Atlanta, GA. So any satellite, whether it is a U.S. domestic or international bird, that we can see, we do our own uplinks to." Additionally, CNN has non-exclusive deals with all the direct-to-home providers in the United States.

In Latin America, CNN broadcasts via Panamsat 3R at 43ø W. All of the uplinking done to reach the Latin America region is also sent through the Cable News Network’s Techwood facility. In addition, the region’s main DTH providers, Galaxy Latin America and Sky Latin America, carry CNN.

In Asia, the principal transport satellite within the Pacific Rim is Panamsat 8 at 166øE. In addition, CNN began in early May to broadcast to the Pacific Rim via Asiasat 3S at 105.5ø E. "And that will provide us a very good footprint for the Asian region," Hamilton says. "And we have an analog feed of CNN serving Indonesia on Palapa C2 at 113øE. Now we also have an analog and digital feed on Panamsat 4 at 68.5ø E. So that’s a total of four birds for the Asian region."

Furthermore, the programming for CNN is distributed by most of the regional DTH providers serving the Asian region. In Japan, the programming is on the Superbird B satellite, operated by Jcsat. CNN also distributes to various other DTH services around the region. Hamilton, however, was reluctant to list all the DTH services that distribute CNN in Asia. "I don’t want to get into those, because we’re providing our programming; we’re not involved in the satellite costs or uplink costs," he says. "We have a deal with these companies. On Thaicom, for example, we are on the Ku-band DTH bird, and we simply have a revenue-sharing arrangement."

The primary uplinking facility for CNN in the Asia region is Hong Kong Teleport. "We have a relay station for CNN in east Malaysia-a Palapa uplink site in the province of Sabah, which is one of the Malaysian states on the island of Borneo," Hamilton says. "But Hong Kong Teleport is the primary one for all of us."

Moving further west, CNN serves the Middle East using Panamsat 4 as well as Arabsat 2A at 26øE. The principal analog distribution system of the network for this region, Arabsat 2A, is also used by CNN to serve the North African region. "Other packages like Orbit are carrying us on their DTH platforms," Hamilton says. "They’re running in the Ku-band on the 57ø E, NewSky platform. So, again we’re on various DTH packages, but our primary delivery is PAS 4 and Arabsat 2A." The Arabsat uplink is done through Telespazio from Fucino, which is located just outside Rome.

Moving west from the Middle East, Africa is served primarily on the C-band portion of New Skies 803 at 27.5ø W. "In South Africa, we have an arrangement there with Multichoice," Hamilton says. "We are in the Multichoice DTH package both in the C- and Ku-band, which actually is carried on Panamsat 4." Because the New Skies bird is visible from the Techwood facility, CNN does its own uplinking for this region. The Multichoice uplinking is done through the Randburg facility in South Africa. As previously mentioned, the northern Africa region is served by Arabsat 2A and PAS 4.

Finally, Europe is served by a slew of different birds. "The New Skies 803 feed that goes to Africa is also the primary feed coming in from Atlanta, carrying CNN into all of Europe and the Mediterranean area," he adds.

CNN is on the Astra direct-to-home fleet-Astra 1B at 19.2øE in analog form; Astra 1G in digital form, also at 19.2øE; and Astra 2A in digital form at 28.2ø E, serving the U.K. market. In addition, the programming is on a number of other birds for secondary distribution such as Telenor’s Thor at 359.2øE, covering the Nordic region. CNN has plans to be on Eutelsat’s Hot Bird 5 at 13ø E by the end of the year.

The analog feed of CNN for the European market comes out of Madley, England, which is a British Telecom facility. The other Astra feeds come from NTL, which is based in Winchester. The Thor uplink is sent directly from London from Telenor’s own uplinking facility.

BBC

Like CNN, BBC World is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Not surprisingly, its programming is distributed using many of the same satellites employed by CNN.

The BBC is distributed into North and South America via C-band transmissions on Panamsat 5, which is located at 58ø W. According to Tony Troughton, chief engineer of BBC Worldwide, the BBC has two digital channels on the satellite, which was chosen because of its wide coverage. In addition, "the two channels enable us to insert alternative material for North and South America," he says.

Europe is covered by Eutelsat’s Hotbird 5 satellite at 13øE. "This carries two channels in one 36 MHz transponder," Troughton says. "BBC World is analog and occupies 27 MHz and BBC Prime is digital and occupies the remaining 9 MHz." In this example the uplink is provided by Globecast.

In the Middle East, the British Broadcasting Corp. employs both Hotbird 5 and PAS 4 at 68.5ø E. Just like CNN in South Africa, the BBC has a distribution arrangement with Multichoice via its PAS 4 Africa beam. The signal is uplinked by Multichoice’s facility in South Africa. East Asia is covered by C-band transmissions on PAS 2 at 169ø E and is a digital transmission. PAS 4 is uplinked by Singapore Telecom, with whom the company has "a direct contract and a good relationship."

The PAS 2 and PAS 5 uplinks are provided by Panamsat as part of an all-inclusive contract, although the PAS 5 uplink is subcontracted to British Telecom. PAS 2 is uplinked by the Asia Broadcast Center, which is also part of an all-inclusive contract with Panamsat. In addition, the channel has a facility in Singapore to play out commercials and regional programs to both PAS 2 and PAS 4. The equipment is owned and maintained by Singapore Telecom, and the commercial play out and regional program insertion is managed by Hallion Productions.

"All of these satellites were chosen for their competitive pricing and wide coverage," Troughton says. "The widespread use of Panamsat is a reflection of the excellent support we receive from their London office. Apart from Europe, transmissions are intended for cable headends where C-band transmission is not a problem and offers greater reliability in adverse weather conditions."

Onward And Upward

Broadcasters clearly use satellites to get their programs distributed internationally. And while some telecommunications experts were predicting just five years ago that a wired world that would eliminate the need for satellites, that is undoubtedly not going to happen. With their ability to cover whole countries and send signals around the world in a matter of minutes, satellites will continue to be a critical piece of the puzzle for international program distribution. And with the adoption of more digital technologies, some experts believe satellites will make obsolete the laborious task of exporting programming via video tape distribution. Stay tuned to Via Satellite for more developments in the relationship between the satellite industry and its best customer, the broadcaster.

Katie McConnell is the senior editor of Via Satellite.