Exxxtasy International Update


Venus TV (VTV) will be relocating at midnight Dec. 31, 1996 from Anik E2/22 to Telestar 402R/19. This move will benefit subscriber as this satellite is stronger and covers a greater southern area of North America. The Venus channel now broadcasts to the C-band and DBS satellite industries.
Venus TV, previously known as Exotica, was renamed Nov. 1, to facilitate the move of all former XXXtreme and CimaXXX subscribers to the Exxxtasy International channels. Those channels consist of Exxxtasy on T401/24, True Blue on T401/15 and now Venus T402R/19.

No Sugar Ray For TVKO


The Feb. 28 "Sugar" Ray Leonard-Hector "Macho" Camacho PPV fight in Atlantic City, NJ has been turned down by TVKO due to "business considerations". The NJ Division of Game Enforcement has requested that the Casino Control Commission ban the fights promoter, New Contenders Inc., until further investigations continue on information alledging New Contenders Inc. may have ties to organized crime.

Fox Sports Southwest To Air Horse Racing

A joint venture between four Southwestern states throughbred associations and Fox Sports Southwest will create an annual Mid-South Championship which features horses bred in Texas, Oklahoma, Lousiana and Arkansas. The first series of races will begin Jan. 11 at Fairgrounds Racecourse in New Orleans. The group will sponsor races to determine which horses run in the Championship. Fox Sports Southwest will make the races available to Fox Sports Net's other regional services.

Turner Drops DirecTV Ads In Mexico


Turner International, facing a Mexican boycott of its cable networks, gave in to demands from the country's cable operators and dropped an advertising campaign for DirecTv Latin America.
Mexican programming broker PCTV's affiliated operators, which represents over half of Mexico's 1.8 million cable TV subscriber base, dropped The Cartoon Network, TNT and CNN International after Turner said it would broadcast the commercials.
DirecTv Latin America, supported by Hughes' Galaxy Latin America, is taking the DirecTv brand name and the satellite TV service across the continent. DirecTv also operates in Venezuela and Brazil.

PrimeStar Snags Showtime Channels

When its medium power satellite launches early next year, PrimeStar Partners will add three movie channels from Showtime Networks. Showtime, Showtime 2 and the Sundance Channel will join a growing list of networks that will be carried via the GE-2 satellite. Outdoor Life, Speedvision, The History Channel, BET, the TV Food Network, CNN/SI and Court TV are expected to be added next year. PrimeStar's channel selections will increase to more than 150 with the new satellite.

DirecTv Gets Go Ahead In Chile



Galaxy Latin America's local operating company, VTR Galaxy Chile, has been awarded a license by Chile's telecommunications ministry, to receive and distribute DirecTv across the South America country.
DirecTV will become the first digital DTH service in Chile. The service is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 1997 with 100 channels of movies, sports and special events from the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Discovery And BBC Join Forces

In an effort to develop programs and launch new channels in the United States and worldwide, Discovery Channel has joined forces with the BBC in a $500 million venture.
In a statement from Discovery Communications, the parent of the Discovery Channel, and BBC Worldwide Ltd, the BBC's commercial arm, the new venture will aim to create hundreds of hours of new programming. Discovery will finance the venture and will have access to the BBC's vast programming library.

Former AT&T Head Mandl Joins GI Board

Alex J. Mandl, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Associated Communications and former AT&T president, was elected to General Instrument's Board of Directors.
"We are pleased to have someone with such a broad and in-depth knowledge of the broadband and telecommunications industries as a director of GI," said Richard Friedland, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Alex should be a tremendous addition to an already excellent board."
Mandl is a member of the Global Business Management Council, American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research and the Management Policy Council. He serves on the Board of the Warner-Lambert Company, as well as several non-profit organizations, including Carnegie Hall and Willamette University. In January 1994, Vice President Gore appointed Mandl to the Advisory Council of the National Information Infrastructure.

AlphaStar Television Network, Inc.

AlphaStar is America's first DVB world standard direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television provider to serve all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Stamford, CT - based company currently provides more than 115 digital video, audio and data channels, which will increase to 200 channels in 1997. News, sports, movie, specialty, superstation, international, and pay-per-view programming are beamed via satellite to homes and commercial properties using a small dish and a set-top receiving system.
AlphaStar celebrated Thanksgiving with New Multicultural Channel Asian Television Network which targets the rapidly growing Indian population, tracing its roots to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the West Indies.
"It's fitting that we launched a new multicultural channel on Thanksgiving Day," said Murray Klippenstein, AlphaStar's President and CEO. "America is a country built on the hard work of people who have come here from dozens of countries around the world. By offering both a connection to their cultural roots, as well as the best of American programming, AlphaStar hopes they will feel more at home in their adopted country."
The Asian Television Network will be offered 24-hours a day, seven days a week in several major South Asian languages as well as English. The programming includes South Asian movies, sports, news, music, dance, children's TV and talk shows. It will also feature the international programming service of India's Doordarshan broadcasting organization, a network that reaches 900 million people across the Indian subcontinent.
"AlphaStar's network offers the first opportunity to broadcast specialized programming across all 50 states to this culturally unique audience," said Shan Chandrasekar, President of ATN. "Before this option was available, it would have been prohibitively costly for us to reach our audience. This is an exciting example of how technology can enrich lives."
ATN's launch represents AlphaStar's second recent entree into the world of multicultural programming. On November 8, 1996, the company introduced three channels of programming produced by the Egyptian Radio & Television Union in Cairo, Egypt.
The cost of the Asian Television Network is $9.99 per month. For more details, consumers can call (888) AlphaStar. AlphaStar is a subsidiary of Tee-Comm Electronics, Inc.

Bell Atlantic/NYNEX Looking Toward ASkyB

Bell Atlantic and merger partner NYNEX are reportedly considering a stake in American Sky Broadcasting (ASkyB), the DTH venture between News Corp. and MCI Communications, to solve its video delivery problems.
The two regional phone companies were going to use wireless cable technology to deliver video, but problems with their partner CAI Wireless Systems and new technology may force the two companies to consider the satellite option.
Both Bell Atlantic and NYNEX have expressed disappointment with CAI Wireless Systems after the MMDS operator failed to meet expectations and penetrations along the East Coast. CAI Wireless also faces a lawsuit filed by shareholders who allege the company provided misleading information.
ASkyB is looking for another partner after MCI, which announced merger plans with British Telecom in November, said it would drop its stake in the satellite venture from 50 percent to around 10 percent.

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