The ESA TV Service Diversifies

As of 1 March 2001, the ESA TV Service will diversify into four products; each is focusing on a specific area. At the same time, the distribution will be enlarged through cooperation with another, freely available television news feed. We should be able to announce more details in a few days.

The four products are:

ESA TV Live: Live or near-live coverage of main space events like Ariane launches, missions to and events on the International Space Station. Transmissions continue using Eutelsat W1 or NSS-K, and the time slots depend on the time of the event.

ESA TV Exchanges: Topical space stories from Europe, or with a European angle. These are made of an A-roll with English voiceover (<5 min.) and a B-roll with int. sound (typ. 8 min.). Transmissions are in the morning, initially on Eutelsat W1, but soon on a more easily accessible satellite.

ESA TV Footage: Every Wednesday, all transmissions from the preceding week are re-fed together as a library feed, from 11:00-12:00 GMT, on Eutelsat W1.

ESA TV Interviews: ESA experts answer questions in the TV studio. Communication is via telephone into an earphone. Interviews are recorded on tape or transmitted via satellite, and are exclusive to the requesting broadcaster.

For further information and a daily update of the transmission schedule, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For all enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail chabfast@hq.esa.fr.