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TV & VIDEO - March 27, 1987

<i> Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press</i>

The Soviet state television network launched an all-Russian-language channel in Poland on Thursday, featuring sports, news programming, films and classical music concerts. The only problem was that Moscow programming chiefs neglected to take into account the two-hour time difference involved, so the satellite-distributed programming intended to start off the broadcasting day at 7 a.m. was shown at 5 a.m. (Warsaw time) instead. The network broadcast for five hours Thursday but plans call for it to become a 14-hour-a-day service. Poles will pay the equivalent of $22 to $45 a year, depending on how much they watch the new channel. Poland’s telecommunications minister, Wladyslaw Majewski, told the government daily Rzeczpospolita that the satellite system could lead to a Warsaw Pact-wide system by the year 2000.

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