The foreign services platform Fremdsprachenplattform (FSP) which wants to provide independent German cable operators with international radio and television channels from September, will use capacity on Eutelsat’s new ‘Hot Bird’ position at 8 degrees West. FSP had originally eyed Eutelsat W3 (7 degrees East). The plan was made public last week during an FSP presentation at the media conference Medienforum NRW in Cologne. Deutsche Telekom’s rival MediaVision platform will shortly transfer to the Eutelsat 13 degrees East position.

The bouquet will feature ART Movie, EDTV Dubai, TV Bulgaria, BBC World, MCM, TV5 Europe, ERT Greece, Bollywood 4U India, Apna-TV India, Team TV Italy, HRT1 Croatia, Show TV Turkey, TGRT Turkey, ATV2 Turkey, NTV Turkey, TV Polonia, RTP Internacional Portugal and TVE Internacional Spain as well as multilingual services Muslim TV, Euronews and WWW Travel. In addition, the radio stations ToProto Greece, Metropol FM Turkey und MagicStar from Germany are on board. FSP’s managing director Wolfgang von Reinersdorff stressed that contracts with further broadcasters will be signed soon. “We expect to offer 30 attractive foreign TV and radio channels when we launch in September,” he said. FSP was founded earlier this year to faciliate the carriage of channels that target foreigners, for example by clearing copyright, licencing and encryption issues. The channels will be multiplexed at a playout center operated by Thyssen-Krupp subsidiary MediaGate and transmitted in an encrypted format cable headends.

It is thought that most small to middle-sized cable networks welcome the plan and are ready to sign. Deutsche Telekom has its own rival international bouquet.

For reception, cable viewers need a set-top-box that complies with specifications set up by FSP and its supporting partner FUN, the independent digital technology alliance that opposes the proprietary d-box system. The boxes called “FSP-FUN Plus” for example contain a telephone modem, Dolby AC3 output, two common interface slots and an embedded FSP- specific encryption system. The first company that will supply the boxes is Lubeck-based Galaxis Technology, which will begin shipment in July.

Besides radio and television services, FSP also intends to offer multimedia applications such as interactive games. Eutelsat currently operates 22 Ku-Band transponders at eight dergrees West following the integration of France Telecom’s Télécom 2D satellite into the Eutelsat fleet. The satellite was co-located from 5 degrees West on June 8.