from: http://www.wotsat.com/


Planet Rock TV unveils launch plans
A new 24-hour music channel dedicated to punk and rock music called P-Rock TV will start on Sky Digital on November 28. According to a report in Metal Hammer magazine, "it will play contemporary as well as old, never seen before and classic punk rock video clips. You'll be able to see videos rarely shown and loads of punk and rock videos that have never seen the light of day in the UK before." The channel will include a weekly chart show, along with special programmes focussing on bands and labels in the scene. [Nov 10]

North American Sports Network to launch
The North American Sports Network has started test transmissions on Sky Digital ahead of its official launch on December 1. The 24-hour channel will cost £9.99 a month and will show the best of American and Canadian sports. It has already signed programming contracts with Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL) and US networks ESPN, Fox and CBS. It will screen professional and college sports action, including baseball, American football, basketball and ice hockey plus regular sports news bulletins. The test broadcasts can be seen at 11.623GHz/H (27.5 and 2/3) . [Nov 10]

Sky's profits and subscriber numbers soar
Sky has announced its first pre-tax profit since it launched its multi-billion pound digital spending spree four years ago. It made a profit of £43m for the three months to September, whereas in the same period last year the group lost £23m. Subscriber figures came in ahead of expectations, with BSkyB gaining 217,000 customers in the quarter, taking the total subscriber base to 6.32m. Churn - or the number of customers who quit the service - fell from 10.5% in the previous three months to 9.6%. Analysts said the growth in subscriber numbers, with more than 20,000 new subscribers coming from ITV Digital, had taken the market by surprise. [Nov 9]

Sky Digital news in brief...
E4 is to show extensive live coverage of Celebrity Big Brother, which begins on November 20 and runs for 10 days... Clubbing channel Rapture TV has confirmed it will relaunch on Sky channel 232 on December 7 at 18:30... Classic FM's soon-to-launch TV channel is showing test transmissions at 11.488GHz/V (27.5 and 2/3) under the label 850-4.2... Rupert Murdoch has ruled out an acquisition of Channel 5, saying Sky is "not interested" in terrestrial broadcasters.


New free-to-air Asian channel to launch
A new Asian language channel called Simply Asian has announced it will start on Sky Digital channel 826 on November 25. The channel, which will be on air 24 hours a day, is part of the Simply Shopping group and will provide news, drama, comedy, kids shows, movies and, naturally, home shopping segments. [Nov 8]

Sky poaches VH-1 man for new music channels
The head of programming at VH-1 has been hired by Sky to run its three new music TV channels. Lester Mordue has worked with MTV for 12 years and will become Sky's first ever Head of Music Television. He will oversee the launch of the trio of new channels early next year. [Nov 8]

BBC's digitals demands 'absurd' says Sky boss
Sky's chief executive, Tony Ball, has dismissed the BBC's calls for cheaper fees for distribution on the satellite network, labelling the corporation's demands "absurd", according to the Daily Telegraph. He said he was sick of rivals' demands for discounts and said the company was justified in charging what it did after four years of capital investment. ITV has already lodged an official complaint against the £17m fee Sky charges the channel to appear on its satellite TV network, but Oftel, the telecoms watchdog, rejected its case two weeks ago. Mr Ball said the broadcaster would not back down in the face of a threatened BBC boycott, which could also see Channel 4 withdrawing from Sky's basic package. [Nov 8]

TV channels meeting EU demands
European productions accounted for about 62% of the broadcasts by television networks across the European Union last year, according to the latest figures released by the European Commission, the EU's executive body. The EC figures also reveal that the European share of TV broadcasts has risen steadily despite the plethora of new channels that have emerged in recent years. The data shows that the EU had 820 TV broadcasters last year, up from 670 in 2000 and 550 in 1999. Of these channels, 72.5% met or exceeded the EU target of broadcasting European fare for at least half of their airtime. Among the 15 EU nations, Portugal was the only one not to reach the target. [Nov 6]