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IT’S THE tobacco that counts,’ the advertisements used to claim, back
in those comforting black and white days when the tar was someone who smoked
Senior Service and not the stuff that accumulates in your lungs.

In the full colour of modern times cigarette advertisements in Britain
now have to carry a health warning, under a voluntary agreement between
tobacco advertisers and the Department of Health.

From 1992 the EEC will require all tobacco products, including cigars
and pipes, to have a health warning, which is currently the cause of much
apoplectic spluttering in the columns of the magazine Tobacco (subtitle:
The voice of the tobacco market). This is one place where the industry can
peddle its wares without a health warning (trade magazines are exempt from
the agreement on advertising health warnings). We’re not sure of the reasoning
behind this, but perhaps the idea is that the industry cannot be damaged
by its own products.

That said, the message on the cover of a recent issue of Tobacco takes
some beating. It features Clan pipe tobacco, and the slogan: ‘Every day
our aroma gets up more and more people’s noses.’

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BRITAIN got its first taste of scrambled entertainment from satellite
last week. We fear it may be some time before the show is fully underway.

On Monday 5 February the Sky satellite movie channel encrypted the science
fiction film Robocop using its VideoCrypt system so that only paying subscribers
could watch. Plans to encrypt other films were postponed because too few
people have the necessary decoder and smart card (a credit card with built-in
computer chip) needed to make it work.

One reason for the shortage is that Sky lost a computer list of paid-up
subscribers. Also, the film companies insist that Sky’s engineers must install
each decoder so that they can check whether the house really does have a
satellite dish. Sky’s contracts with the film companies do not extend to
showing programmes in France and Spain, and the companies fear that, without
this precaution, people might export decoders to those countries. Unfortunately,
it slows things down. The engineers who came to install the decoder for
one of Feedback’s colleagues seemed to have had no idea how to connect it,
and our colleague ended up doing it for them.

There will be more fun when British Satellite Broadcasting starts broadcasting
sometime this spring, from a different satellite using a different encryption
system called EuroCypher. BSB has warned that viewers should not use a single
‘steerable’ dish that moves under remote control to point at either satellite.
This is because BSB’s decoder needs to receive digital authorisation codes
from the BSB satellite. If the dish is pointed at another satellite, the
decoder may miss a vital code and stop working. Then, when the dish is steered
back onto BSB, the receiver will not be able to receive anything until a
fresh authorisation code arrives. How long will this take? BSB says it’s
a ‘secret’, but viewers can phone the control centre and ask to be switched
on again.

The simple answer, of course, is to use two separate aerials, and risk
objections from the local council planning department. But the need to receive
authorisation codes regularly does raise the question of what happens if
people want to unplug their decoder. If people disconnect their receiver
from the mains overnight, or unplug the aerial in a thunderstorm, they may
find the decoder disabled when they plug in again.

* * *

FEARS that Europe could lose the battle with Japan over high-definition
television received some confirmation last week, from the unlikely direction
of the British Museum. Europe is investing millions in the development of
high definition television, even though the Japanese already have a working
system on sale. Critics have compared the European effort with the Maginot
Line (see ‘Europe misses the picture’, by Barry Fox, New Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ, 3 February).

Last week, the British Museum gave a demonstration of high-definition
television to a group of historians. ‘Originally developed with general
broadcasting in mind,’ the museum explained, ‘it is now clear that the system
has great potential in many fields such as public exhibition.’ The system
being demonstrated was Japanese Hi Vision, and visitors were given glossy
brochures explaining the wonders of the technology.

Why, we asked, was the British Museum using the very technology which
European researchers are trying so hard to beat? The answer is simple. When
the museum last appealed for money, it was the Japanese broadcasting station
NHK which made it an offer it could not refuse. NHK is giving the museum
Pounds sterling 200 000 in return for the rights to make six programmes
and to publish a series of books about the museum’s treasures.

Not surprisingly, NHK and the consortium of Japanese manufacturers making
Hi Vision equipment are making the most of the liaison, and one can hardly
blame them or the museum for that. But it does seem to bolster the argument
that, in developing high-definition television, Europe has been slow off
the mark.

* * *

TRAVELLERS from the country, visiting London for the day, may purchase
from British Rail a ‘One Day Travelcard’, for use on trains, buses and tube.
As Londoners know, there are five fare-zones in the capital, arranged concentrically.
It’s hardly earth-shattering, but the BR Travelcards purchased by one of
our colleagues on several occasions recently specify that they are valid
for travel in zones 1,2,3,5. Can anyone inform our colleague how he can
get from zone 3 to 5 without going through 4?