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Arianespace has successfully launched a dual payload on an Ariane 5 launcher. The craft put Worldspace’s AsiaStar and the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Insat 3B satellites into orbit. AsiaStar will reach its orbital slot at 105 degrees East early this month. Insat 3B is destined for 83 degrees East.

In what is claimed to be the first time in the UK that an Internet broadcast has included broadcast via satellite, Merlin Communications in conjunction with MediaWave Group has broadcast a live performance of Diva on the Verge for Online Classics from the Criterion Theatre in London. Merlin streamed the broadcast signal at 300kbit/s in DVB IP and uplinked to GE 1E (Sirius 2) at 5 degrees East for DTH reception.

Fox Kids has launched Italian and Russian web-sites. The launches take the channel’s total number of web-sites to ten.

Turner Broadcasting has signed a multi-year deal with Israel’s Yes digital DTH platform. Cartoon Network, TCM and CNNI will join the Yes bouquet later this year. The agreement calls for TCM to be subtitled in Hebrew. Also in Israel, on March 28 the Knesset gave its final approval to allow for the establishment of a second commercial television station.

WorldSpace’s second satellite was launched successfully on March 21 from Kourou. The satellite will reach its final geostationary orbital position at 105 degrees East in early April. According to the company it now has over 30 content providers broadcasting on its AfriStar satellite, which covers Africa and the Middle East. Similar services are expected for AsiaStar which will cover most of Asia, including China, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. In-orbit checkout of AsiaStar will be completed by June 2000, when commercial operations are expected to begin. AsiaStar will be controlled from the WorldSpace regional operations centre at WorldSpace’s Melbourne, Australia offices.

The National Geographic Channel added three hours to its daily transmissions, broadcasting now from 0800, to 1700.

The board of Pace Micro Technology has confirmed that Peter Morgan, non-executive chairman, has retired from the Pace Board after a four year term in office. As previously announced, Sir Michael Bett has been appointed as the new non-executive chairman.

The ITC has hit adult channel Babylon Blue, owned by Rolldale Ltd, based in Soho, London, with a pounds10,000 fine for a breach of the ITC’s programme code. The fine revolves around the channel’s programming content being transmitted unencrypted. Pending encryption, which the channel has promised is “imminent”, the ITC required Babylon Blue to edit broadcast material to make it more suitable for a general audience. The Black Tie Affair, shown last November 15, “failed to meet these standards”, according to the ITC.

UK Internet over satellite specialist Satellite Media Services has contracted with Fibernet to upgrade its terrestrial SDH connections from 155Mbit/s to 622Mbit/s, connecting its earth station at Lawford Heath to the Telehouse and Telecity gateways in London. The deal is worth pounds4 million.

Hallmark Entertainment Net-work will launch on May 1 as part of the Sky Digital service.

Eutelsat’s Sesat is now on the launch-pad at Baikonur awaiting lift-off, currently scheduled for April 17, with a launch window opening at 2106 GMT. The 18-transponder craft, built by NPO-PM Krasnoyarsk with a payload supplied by Alcatel and destined for 36 degrees East, will take off on board a Proton/Block DM.

German general interest channel SAT.1 will implement a bonus card system this summer through some 16,000 retail outlets. From June, SAT.1 will ask viewers questions about the content of its programmes via a hotline. A correct answer wins a number of points, each corresponding to DM 0.02. If 1,500 points are reached, the participants can swap them for credits – around DM 30.00 – and go shopping in the stores that take part. This novel marketing initiative is unlikely to lead to improved ratings, however, because viewers selected by research institute GfK to measure audience share will not be allowed to take part.

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