As it enters year 9, MIPCOM JUNIOR, the youth screenings event held in Cannes from 6 to 8 October, will open amidst a hyperactive and rapidly changing children‘s content market.

To cater to the growing number of MIPCOM JUNIOR delegates, an extra 30 screening booths will be added this year, bringing the total number of booths to 230, according to an official release.

Last year MIPCOM JUNIOR saw 386 companies from 51 countries and 418 buyers attending. A total of 771 programmes were presented and 12,572 screenings took place.

Kids‘ programming faces new challenges. With the emergence of additional outlets - enhanced TV and the web - and children‘s growing attraction to interactivity, producers are creating content suitable for a wider variety of platforms. As a result an increasing number of programmes are now launched with both broadcast and web versions. On the technology side, CGI development is offering vast creative opportunities and is driving programme production towards a new level of sophistication and eye-appeal.

However, the basic premise for children‘s prgramming stays unchanged. "Innovation and creativity are the key element if you want to create series that will be picked up by the major channels," comments Roberto Mitrani, director of international business, Neptuno Films.

As the competition between terrestrial, cable, and satellite channels for an unpredictable and selective young demographic gets tougher, it is essential to offer content that stands out. Producers must go all-out to crop up quality driven properties with innovative storytelling, strong characters and merchandising spin-offs that will provide broadcasters with longer-lasting brands and allow them to capture audiences.

Andy Heyward, president and CEO, DIC Entertainment - a pioneering participant - says: " MIPCOM JUNIOR is an indispensable event for the children‘s television business, the only conference where all the children‘s TV broadcasters participate. I cannot imagine launching a new property without it!"

MIPCOM JUNIOR 2001 is a marketing event and learning forum with global sales opportunities and co-production prospects, the release states.

Arianespace has successfully orbited the Atlantic Bird 2 satellite for international telecommunications operator Eutelsat.

Conducted its second mission in 25 days, Arianspace used an Ariane 4 nighttime launch to place Atlantic BirdTM 2 into geostationary transfer orbit on 27 September.

The Flight 144‘s liftoff took place on 25 September nad was initially delayed by a telemetry problem at the Spaceport, which was resolved within the 57-minute launch window.

The Alcatel Space-built Atlantic BirdTM 2 satellite is a key element of Eutelsat‘s global service expansion, and the spacecraft will provide relay capacity from the Americas to Europe and beyond, utilizing the telecommunication operator‘s Atlantic Gate orbital slot at 8 deg. West. Atlantic Bird 2 carries 26 transponders and will cover four continents, reaching North and South America, Europe, and countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

Flight 144 used an Ariane 44P version of the Ariane 4 family, equipped with the four solid propellant strap-on boosters for augmented thrust during the initial ascent phase. The mission was the 15th - and final - flight of an Ariane 44P in the Ariane 4 family‘s operational career. It also marked the 106th launch of an Ariane 4 - and the vehicle‘s 64th consecutive success.

Arianespace‘s next flight is set for November 27, when another Ariane 4 will orbit the DirectTV-4S satellite for US operator, DirectTV.

India‘s next generation communication satellite Insat-3C, which was originally scheduled to be launched in September, will not be placed in orbit before January at the earliest. And that is dependent on it‘s getting space aboard Arianespace‘s Ariane 5 rocket.

The failure of Ariane 5‘s flight 142 to reach a proper orbit on July 12 led to the indefinite suspension of further Ariane 5 flights as a seven-member independent inquiry board went into what went wrong. The panel, which submitted its report to Arianespace on 1 August, notified all its customers, including the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which had launched the Insat series on French Ariane rockets.

The summary of the findings state that the malfunction was due to a combustion instability at the ‘EPS‘ upper stage ignition due to the abnormally high pressure gradient in the combustion chamber.

The return-to-flight program for the Ariane 5 is moving ahead at present with more than 60 ignition tests of the Aestus upper stage engine having been performed on a test rig in Germany. The data will be used in determining the new ignition sequence.

Modifications of the Aestus engine test rig will be made to validate flight conditions during the ground-based static firings. To allow these modifications to be carried out, and to provide time for the upper stage‘s qualification, the Ariane 5‘s next flight is now targeted for January 2002, Arianespace CEO Jean-Marie Luton has said.

Arianespace at present has a backlog of 50 payloads to be launched, which include 41 satellites and nine ATV missions for the international Space station. This is for both its Ariane 4 and 5 series.

The 1,170 kg Insat-3C will provide fixed satellite services (FSS) in the normal and extended C-bands, as also broadcast satellite services and mobile satellite services in the S-band.

Insat-3C will replace India?s current workhorse, Insat-2C, whose capacity will be transferred to the new bird. Insat-2C is expected to reach the end of its seven-year life span in another six months.

The launch of Insat-3C will be the first phase of ISRO?s efforts to add more than 50 transponders to its capacity, ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan had told a conference of V-SAT service providers some months ago.

The demand for V-SATS is expected to increase from the 14,000 currently in operation to 20,000 in the next couple of years with broadband V-SATs coming in with new technology.

Insat-3C has cost ISRO $40 million. In addition, it is paying $77 million to Arianespace as launch costs.