Satellite X News

    Done for Rubber Ron

XplicitXXX fined £35,000 for hardcore snippets

From OfcomWatch

Ofcom, has fined Digital Television Production Company Limited (DTPC) £35,000 for broadcasting material, under PIN encryption on XplicitXXX, that was the equivalent of BBFC R-18 content (Hard Core Porn). Apparently, back on 13th December 2005 an impressive audience of 62 people tuned in the an episode of Rubber Ron which featured a 21 minute sequence showing graphic images of a woman using a dildo for vaginal self-penetration, One person complained to Ofcom.

It has been said before, but there has to be something wrong when we allow a regulator to ban the broadcast of a whole section of legally available films, which have been classified by the body charged with deciding if films can be legally shown in the country - our Film Classification Board.

Even when you read Ofcom's own research on this matter, it is hard to find the justification - but, don't forget, Ofcom is an evidence based regulator, that makes it decisions on the basis of the evidence, nothing else.

    Babes Away

From The Independent

The telecoms and media regulator Ofcom has also taken action against Television Concepts, the company behind the adult station Look4Love. It has revoked the company's broadcasting licence and imposed a £175,000 fine as a result of repeated breaches of the advertising standards code.

It said the licensee transmits adult material under the title "Babestar.TV Live XXX". The regulator said the material transmitted by the company was deemed "seriously unacceptable".

Ofcom said: In particular, the extreme explicitness of the language transmitted was of such an adult sexual nature that it was wholly unsuitable for transmission on a free-to-air service.

The Advertising Standards Authority referred the case to Ofcom, after voicing concerns about advertising on the channel. Including the fact that premium rate phone callers were invited to talk live to the models when in fact the programme seemed to be pre-recorded.

    No Extra

News from WildSat

Babestar Xtra (Sky channel 959) was removed from the Sky platform on 13th November 2006

    Finest French

From Transponder News

Dorcel TV has started on Hotbird 12,692 GHz horizontal (SR 27500, FEC 3/4) and Astra 1 12,574 GHz h (SR 22000, FEC 5/6)

From www.dorceltv.com , Oct 2006:

DORCEL TV is the European channel devoted to sexy, high-quality entertainment for couples. Up-market and high-class, DORCEL TV is your best accomplice.

Every night, pretty announcers present naughty reports, hot programmes and 3 films selected by the most famous producer : MARC DORCEL!

DORCEL TV is a 24/7 multi-lingual channel. It broadcasts simultaneously in English, French & German.

    Hard and Pink

From Out in America

France's first gay television channel, PinkTV, is an eye-opener. And that's the point. Pink's founders believe there's a ready audience for the channel, and not just among France's estimated 3.5 million gays.

Pink says it will take part in the debate on homosexuality and other topics but not does plan to be militant. The channel launches Oct. 25 on cable and satellite. Subscription will cost $11 a month.

Pink is the first nationally broadcast gay channel of its kind, said its founder and president, Pascal Houzelot. Pink is aiming for at least 180,000 subscribers. Houzelot said he expects half the audience will be in the Paris region.

Aside from daily doses of Wonder Woman and Japanese "manga" cartoons, Pink plans to broadcast movies, documentaries, music programs, experimental video and series including Queer as Folk.

There'll be debates Mondays on homophobia, gay unions, gay parenthood and other topics, a chat show Thursdays and X-rated films four nights a week after midnight. The actors will wear condoms.

    A Cryptic Court Case

From Satellite.co.uk

Further to a decision dated 18/07/06 by the commercial court of Marseille (tribunal de commerce de Marseille) notifying Nedersat company (Full-X TV) that "Neotion company (Encryption providers) considers that the contract between them has been terminated", as such Nedersat Company will temporarily be unable to broadcast Full-X TV channels.

It seems that in the short term at least the channels have stopped broadcasting. It would seem quite a large task to swap cards etc and the channels are a low subscription service so are probably not awash with money anyway.

Update: View the End of Full-X

From Caledoniaguy & gosh on The Melon Farmers' Forum

Sadly, it appears as though Full-x has gone for good, and is to be replaced by a single, new, Sex View channel:

From Sex View Site:-

As from around 14th August 2006, SEX VIEW will introduce anther channel on our exiting frequency 12,360G......, SEX VIEW XXX, this channel will only be able to received by Neotion Zeta cams and STBs. It will have 3 new films a day, 24 hours a day.

SEX VIEW will also have extra hardware in place as from 14th August 2006 to increase our picture quality for your better enjoyment

Sex View have been testing already on hotbird. Picture quality is excellent even with STB`s like mine and after you screen capture and zoom there is a remarkable improvement. Full introduction is 14th August. This bouquet is now around 22 channels and is good value for money after the troubles caused the switch in transponder provider earlier in the year.

This is probably now the best Adult Package for quality and variety.

PS: Premier is back too on Astra at 19E.

    Secretive And Restrictive

First rate work from Ofwatch in getting Ofcom to reveal a little more about how they made the decision to ban R18s.

More details and commentary at Ofwatch

After pressure from Ofwatch, Ofcom have now published minutes from some of the key meetings to discussion the issue of R18s on TV.

As far as the Content Board minutes were concerned it would appear that there was considerable disagreement at Ofcom over what should have happen regarding the R18 issue:

T he (non unanimous) recommendation of the executive was:

That the transmission of "R18" sex material was acceptable under Article 22(1) of the TWF Directive i.e. the transmission of such material might not 'seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors'; and

That generally accepted security standards could be applied, so that members of the public would be adequately protected from offensive and harmful material.

But that the executive had decided not to make a recommendation on the third test whether people under the age of 18 could be protected by means of adequate security mechanisms.

The Content board was divided over the first point, agreed with the second point but after considerable, the Content Board agreed that the current level of protection available would not adequately protect people under the age of 18.

It was also noted that should the R18 ban be lifted that Ofcom would need to identify what level/form of protection would be required and that any such requirements would need to be potentially achievable by all broadcasters/platform providers.

On balance (although the Board was very evenly divided), the Content Board felt that there was insufficient evidence to indicate whether or not the physical, mental or moral development of minors might be seriously impaired by the transmission of such material, and therefore until such evidence was available they should take a cautious approach to this issue.

    Clues from the Secret Programme Code

So where is the midnight restriction in Ofcom's programme code? and where are the 'revised' guidelines published? The published guidelines allow free to air channels to broadcast 18 rated material after the 9pm watershed.

There is a new forum devoted to the UK free to air softcore channels at The Babewatch Forum

From Ofcom

Babeworld TV , 11 April 2006, 22:15

A viewer complained about the explicit sexual content of this channel, which is transmitted free-to-air on satellite TV.

Response

Babeworld said that it was unable to supply a recording of the relevant part of the channel's output for 11 April 2006 . This was due to a technical failure by the company administering the channel's compliance recordings.

Nevertheless, it acknowledged that some of the content carried before midnight on Babeworld was "too explicit for our market". As a result, it had changed its production and editorial partners, and the output was now being produced to revised guidelines.

Babeworld also confirmed that it was now producing its own compliance tapes, and was no longer dependant on outside contractors.

Decision

We welcome the steps Babeworld has taken to avoid any future failure to supply recordings.

It is a condition of a Cable and Satellite Licence that the licensee retains recordings of its output for 60 days, and provides Ofcom with any material on request. Failure to supply the recording from 11 April 2006 is a serious and significant breach of Babeworld TV's licence. This will be held on record.

Breach of Licence Condition 11

    Less Spice

From gosh on The Melon Farmers' Forum

Private Spice (Spice Platinum) has lost it`s battle with French law and has now stopped broadcasting 24 hours per day. Shows in the UK start at 11pm til 5am. The TP has also changed to 19011V encryption type TPSAES keys updated every 20 minutes. Unless you can get Auto Update or Card Sharing.

It would seem that the time restrictions may only apply to the French TPS feed for this channel

On a brighter note, the Sexview Bouquet has VASTLY improved in both show quality and image quality. Some excellent, crystal clear movies now showing 24/7. This week on Sexview 247 is "Seventeen Week" Some classics mixed with new shows in high quality RGB.

Multi Channel Television has also started broadcasting all 21 channels of its new, wider bouquet.

    Live XXX goes Live PG

Is this a temporary problem or is something up with LiveXXX TV?

Thanks to Jason

I have just noticed that the encrypted content of channel LiveXXX TV (943) is being broadcast freeview on channel BABECAST (911) and features no full nudity at all.

This is a bit if a con as LiveXXX TV recently changed their subscription status to monthly with a minimum 12 month signup. What about people who have done pay-per-night on 943 only to find that the same content is free on 911.

Any idea whats going on? Why the big change in content? Is this yet another example of UK adult channels treating their subscribers like shite? Getting so pissed of with this.

Update: A Kick in the Teeth

From Babewatch

Check out liveXXX and how they have treated their new subscribers. They started offering a subscription service with a 12 month minimum contract a couple of months ago. Then Sex Station Started up and the encrypted late show suddenly disappeared without any warning or any explanation since.

The free show on liveXXX is still running but the encrypted paid for service has turned into a farce. You used to get a harder live show and some admittedly naff films.

Now if you turn to sky channel 146 and watch a programme called Porn Star Diaries that is all they are showing and then only for a couple of hours, rest of the night is just their logo. It would struggle to get a 15 rating.

Talk about kicking their subscribers in the teeth.

Update: Neither Live Nor XXX

Thanks to Jason

Live XXX on Sky Channel 943 has gone off air. The channel has also  been deleted from the EPG

Update: Live XXX More at Home on the Web than on UK TV

From Karina Currie on the bgafd forum

I apologise for the lack of web action over the weekend but I can assure you that on mon, tues, weds, tonight and from now on there has been and will be girls on the webcam. do make sure you try all of the cameras as sometimes the guys forget that all of them are streaming and concentrate on using one of the main cameras in hand. Once again I can only apologise for the weekend but this has been rectified and you can finally see all the open wide, filled pussy in full view that you have always requested, yeah I really don't mind that we are only on web now as it means we can do everything (to a point) that you ask, instead of the constant tirade of slating we were used to and all we were doing was just trying to keep our jobs!

    Men and Motors was more Explicit

Private 1 & Private 2 have started on Sky. Softcore of course and hardly made a splash with the first review I read

From bgafd forum, June 2006:

Private make some of the best porn in the world. They have the best models, no question. So how the fuck do they put out the worst channel ever to hit the airwaves? Tried the new channels, Private 1 & Private 2, on SKY last night. Should be free to air. No close ups, no erections, virtually no pubic hair, absolute garbage. You will see more on Bravo or Playboy's FTA channel. In fact Granada Men & Motors was more explicit........

    Dark Star

From vbsx on The Melon Farmers' Forum

For the last 2 nights there was no Babestar TV, and 1 or 2 nights before they were paranoid about saying certain words. (so OFCON spoke to them?, if the problem was `liveness of show` or cashflow, why did they stop using those words? Babeworld channel is still on air). [The channel was pretending to be 'live' when clearly it wasn't]

It looks like owners of said channel have been informed by ofcon, and owner removed the 3rd party production.What rule says you can't use words likely to cause arousal if they are used in BBFC 18?

Update: Star Struck

From babestartv

A few people have been asking about why the channel is off air. To clear up the confusion I'd like to let everyone know that here at Babestar TV we have been experiencing "artistic differences" among the crew. Girls have been disturbed to find camera men playing with sex toys in the studio and have been refusing to come to work.

This was reported to ofcom who approve every script before the show goes on air and monitor it at twenty minute intervals to check it is really live. Ofcom have therefore had to investigate the matter and the police have been involved. The whole situation has been very distressing for all those concerned. We hope that the channel will be back soon.

thank you for your patience,
Bridgit,
executive producer

Update: Not Even a Hint of Nipple

From babestartv

Finally, we are glad to announce that Babestar TV will be back. live, tomorrow evening, Thursday 25th May.

We apologise again for the delay which was due to paperwork having to be finalised regarding the buying out of the company after the split from Clear Vision who are now Babeworld TV.

Thank you to all the viewers for their support and patience.
regards
Bridgit

From Babewatch

Well, Babestar is back, or at least a very poor imitation of it has returned.

So what's the same ? Well the set looks the same. A couple of the presenters are the same.

So what's changed then ? Well, for starters there was no nudity whatsoever. None. Not even a hint of nipple. I wonder how long this channel will remain in business with this policy?

It also appear that the presenters' mothers have spoken to their previously foul-mouthed daughters and also washed their potty-mouths out with soap. No more swearing or suggestive comments this time round. Instead, we had "call the girls guys, we're single" repeated again and again.

It raises the question, if Ofcom have not been in touch with this channel, then why has the behaviour of the presenters changed so drastically? The only answer I can think of is that the presenters have seen the light and are now practising to become Nuns.

    Warts and All Not Appreciated in High Definition

From X Biz

DirecTV has announced that it was dropping Spice HD from its US channel lineup.

According to Robert Mercer, spokesman for DirecTV, Spice HD just ate up too much bandwidth for the broadcaster's taste.

But a report from TVPredictions.com, a site that covers the broadcasting industry, suspects that there was more to the move than gaining broadcast capacity. Since the launch of hi-def TV, experts have differed over whether the adult industry would be helped or hurt by the ultra-realistic picture , Phillip Swan, a reporter for the site, wrote. Some have questioned whether porn fans would want to see the facial flaws (and other shortcomings) of their favorite performers.

According to Swan's report, the decision to drop the Playboy-owned channel probably had more to do with the performer's "shortcomings" than broadcast capacity.

Hi-def broadcasts require more capacity, by some estimates as much as seven times the capacity of regular broadcasts. The satellite carrier continues to broadcast Spice and Playboy content on standard definition channels

    South Africa Panics

From X Biz

Satellite TV viewers may be one step further away from tuning in to porn according to a ruling from a Pretoria high court judge.

Judge Ben du Plessis denied the application of Pretoria-based OtherChoice to sell smart cards that would enable viewers to pick up porn programs on their satellites from Spain's Don't Panic Television.

OtherChoice unsuccessfully argued that it did not need a broadcasting or signal license to sell the cards.

Du Plessis ruled that OtherChoice's distribution of the cards violated South African law. Since local law would prohibit Don't Panic from broadcasting pornographic material, the Judge ruled that distribution of the cards, which are required to access the programs, would circumvent South African law.

It is clear that Don't Panic TV, assisted by OtherChoice, is broadcasting into South Africa. Similarly, the two entities are providing a broadcasting service , Du Plessis wrote. By requiring a person who renders a service in this country to be licensed — albeit that person is in a foreign country while rendering the service — our legislature is not prescribing to that person what he or she may do in the foreign country. The legislature is prescribing what the effect of what the person does may be in this country.

Concluding that the service provided by OtherChoice and Don't Panic requires a license under South African law, Du Plessis found that the South African government was free to interdict the applicant from unlawfully selling smart cards."

    Red Hot News

All Girls and Movies channels have been replaced by Raw and Reality . Same old softcore content though.

From Payback on The Melon Farmers' Forum

I have just noticed the new Red Hot channels freeview They have renamed 2 of the channels and are claiming they have 2 NEW channels

Quite clever really, because not only have they upped their prices again, but this will no doubt get quite a few folks thinking that it might be worth a gander to see if there is any new stuff.

    A Goulash of Regulation

From Pestiside.hu

The Hungarian National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) is taking a stand against foreign-produced porn channels broadcast on cable and satellite TV, even though laws prohibiting them have been in effect for four years. But even as Hungarian TV attempts to button up its blouse, the chances are still good that it is going to get well and truly fucked up the ass.

It all boils down to the usual and deliciously subjective debate on the gaping grey area between art and porn, not to mention the fact that many channels broadcast from abroad. ORTT spokeswoman Éva Vékony told index.hu (in an article indignantly headlined "Fighting Windmills against Anal Fisting") that the organization is redoubling its efforts to enforce the 2002 law prohibiting pornographic programming at all times. This is more of a challenge than it sounds, largely because the law doesn't give any definition of porn, here in Hungary or anywhere else in the EU.

Predictably, the Swedes lead the way. There, nothing is porn that happens with the consent of two or more adults, even if the camera zooms in really, really close. Even the "Television without Borders" EU directive that allows regulatory bodies like the ORTT to punish porn channels with the help of foreign authorities has proved as useless as a pair of crotchless panties in the courts. And although no one likes to admit it, these channels do have their followers. Annual polls carried out by UPC indicate that few people are interested in adult TV, but that complaints come raining in whenever a porn channel is considered for cancellation.

    Spiced Up

Of course the only improvement for the long suffering viewers of the UK softcore variant, is that they will now get high production value plant pots blocking the view.

From Caledoniaguy on The Melon Farmers' Forum

Platinum Spice, the European hardcore channel on Hotbird has now rebranded to Private Spice (The start of their daily schedule is 22.10 CET, and I assume that's when the change was made). Great news, hopefully lots more movies from Private.

Only problem is the DOG, which is very intrusive!

    Lots of Redeeming Features

Thanks to Nick

Redemption TV is now up and running on Sky Digital completely free-to-air. Channel 368 (from Feb 28th), 11222H, SR 27500, FEC 2/3.

It's an odd mix of dark metal goth type bands (underrepresented elsewhere), reports from various rubber and S&M clubs, various related interviews.

And at 1.30am UK time a film from the Redemption archives. They are no ad breaks so its a chance to leave the video/DVD recording. Well worth a look.

    Sky Dongled

A worrying observation and question from Max.

Macrovision is generated by the Sky Set top box and messes up the colour and brightness levels and is seen on a video recorder as wildly varying colours/brightness. DIgital DVD recorders are programmed simply to refuse to record the signal if Macrovision is detected. Fortunately the screwed up part of the signal can be easily blanked by simple circuitry that is even simple enough to incorporate into a scart plug. Look out for a device/scart cable that restores/regenerates/cleans synch pulses.

Let me know if anyone can shed more light on when or on which channels is the copy protection being implemented.

I Don't know if you aware that most of the Sky adult channels seem to have instigated [Macrovision] copy protection on all of their unencrypted output.

I've not seen any mention of this anywhere and was wondering if it was another one of Sky's annoying "Family Friendly" features or whether it's something to do with Ofcom.

I don't know if this affects any of the encrypted content. If it does then I can't see this helping subscriber numbers.

Is this the first time copy protection has been used for unencrypted output of any channel?

Haven't got Sky+ so don't know if it affects this. Was channel hopping with the DVD recorder turned on when I found this out.

I was going to mention this on your discussion link to the Melon Farmers but the registration process seems broken.

Update: Macrovision Confirmed

Thanks to AS, See previous article for a little about Macrovision

From a few days ago I found myself unable to watch any of the porn channels - bar, bizarrely, the RedHot channels - through my video recorder and, consequently, cannot properly record any of their programmes. The quality of the recorded picture I do get is reminiscent of VHS copies I used to see years ago.

Videos used to (or, perhaps, still do) include an encoded signal which I think was called Macrovision the purpose of which was to produce a distorted picture in the 'illegal' recording if you connected your VCR to another in order to make a copy of the film.

The channels, themselves, including all the 'mainstream' ones, remain unchanged when watched directly i.e. from the T.V. channel receiving the signal directly from the set-top box,

    Softly Softly Towards Hardcore

From The Melon Farmers' Forum

From blackjaques

I have to remind you that R18 IS shown on Sky. Not fully, of course but in part. Cunnilingus can be viewed in graphic close-up on both live channels every night. I think that it is a huge mistake to give to our opponents the perception that all that is shown of a sexual nature is soft core. On the "Live" shows ( and this includes the so- tame TVX), you can see full-on close ups of the girls' vulvas; some shots even show you the inside of the vagina. If those shots were submitted for classification they would receive the dreaded R18; no doubt about it. The Daily Mail readers need to know that R18 is already allowed on British TV ( even if it is watered down a bit). Fellatio, penetration, and "point of exit" of urine from the vulva are the only acts not shown on British TV. Of course, for many of us these are the images that we really want to see, the images that are the most erotic. We are run, and always have been run, by governments who are scared of sexuality.

From payback

Not actually true

Over the past few months I have watched some of the pay per night channels, and apart from Hustler (which was 2 levels below shit) they all showed penetration, oral and vaginal.

The redhot channels contain quite a lot of clearly visible and prolonged penetration, but very little oral. whilst it is nearly always shakey cameras and not in close up, they certainly go way beyond what BBFC would class as 18.

xxxbabes will show extreme close up graphic details of held open vagina and oral sex. I have only watched this channel a few times though as the women tend to be of a lower calibre than on livexxx

I saw livexxx a couple of weeks ago and they had close up and prolongued vaginal penetration with toys and fingers...and I mean prolongued and close up!  so it would not get an 18. they will also quite happily show hour after hour of close up female oral too.

I might give xplicit a retry too. Apparently, if you have previously had a subscription with them and want to return, you only have to commit for a month.

From blackjaques

Great to hear that more R18 rated material is being shown. The more that is shown, the more facile the Ofcon position becomes. From reading the Ofwatch site, it seems obvious that the people who made the ban on R18 material knew sweet F.A. about what was proposed and what was currently allowed on TV. The difference between full R18 and Sky R18 is marginal, to say the least. As we all know, images of cunnilingus and full open vaginas are as unsuitable for children as images of fellatio and penetration.

From payback

The only difference between what's on sky and R18 is duration of shot. And it could be argued that this is acceptable by the current definitions laid out by ofcom. They quite often refer to whether the shot was `prolongued`

But one has to question whether a 10 minute shot of a woman sucking a penis is any more damaging than a 10 second shot.

The only clear breach of ofcoms rules is that regarding semen. Ofcom have explicitly stated this is taboo. but its been clearly visible any time I have ever watched Sky.

    Channel 18+ Sky

From The Business

Rupert Murdoch, the born-again Christian who chairs media giant News Corporation, has been buying into adult channels after years of hosting third-party content only.

Historically BSkyB, under its licence agreement, had no choice but to host every channel that won permission from the industry regulator Ofcom. The regulator agrees a fixed fee for the use of the platform by third parties. But BSkyB has been secretly expanding its activities in the growing business of adult television with its wholly owned 18+ Movies offering. The company has also been entering into partnerships with companies that broadcast pornographic television channels on BSkyB, such as Sport XXX Babes, XXX Housewive and Playboy.

BSkyB has agreed retail distribution agreements with these companies. With Playboy, for instance, BSkyB now not only hosts the channel but sells its service, and collects and shares in the revenues from Playboy customers.

BSkyB has been reorganising its pornographic offering. By the end of this month it will have completed the roll-out of a new adult section on its electronic programme guide. It is currently available in some parts of the country.

This will separate channels such as Turn On TV, Xplicit XXX and Adult Nightly from the same category as The God Channel, Teachers TV and The Gospel Channel. Previously all have been grouped in the same Specialist category but the new electronic programme guide (EPG) will have separate sections for Religion, Adult and Specialist.

A BSkyB spokesman said: All channels with an Ofcom licence are entitled to broadcast on the satellite platform irrespective of any retail agreement with Sky. Sky gives customers control over their TV service – they can choose to remove all listings for adult channels or restrict access using a pin number as they wish.