Filipino satellite service

Chicago-based RCT International has launched Filipino channel filsat, the first of nine 24-hour direct-to-consumer specialty satellite channels serving North America and set for launch through Los Angeles-based Asian Broadcasting Network.

The new channel will focus on 10 major North American markets, four of which are Canadian – Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Calgary.

filsat will offer more than 7,000 hours of programming a year from Manila-based network GMA-Ch 7, consisting of dramas, films, sitcoms, magazine and sports shows. As well, filsat will produce original programming in its l.a. studios.

Other channels set to launch through abn in 1995 include those targeted at Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian and Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking populations, with two additional ‘pay-per-view’ channels targeted for one or more of these markets.

A + for Chilean viewers

solomon International Enterprises, Los Angeles, has joined Canal+ on the European-based network’s first Latin American venture tailored to Chilean viewers, Canal+Chile. The new channel, expected to reach about two million homes when it begins broadcasting in the second quarter of 1995, will feature a mix of first-run feature films and sports.

The investment in Canal+Chile is part of a broader agreement between Canal+ and sie to take advantage of emerging opportunities in pay-tv. A new holding company, 75% owned by Canal+ and 25% by sie, will be set up to oversee the new operation.

AIDS claims Valiquette

filmmaker and Genie Award winner Esther Valiquette died last month at La Maison d’Herelle, an aids hospice in Montreal. She was 31.

Valiquette’s Le Singe bleu won best short film prize at the 1993 Rendez-vous du cinema quebecois. The film, described by the director as ‘a lyrical meditation on the accidents of nature,’ later went on to win the Genie in the short film category.