Here is just another reason to be invested in the satellite industry. Starting in November 1998, HDTV transmissions will be provided to the 10 largest US markets. That means ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox will be providing an HDTV signal as well as the NTSC signal that they presently provide. The good news is that HDTV requires one transponder per channel. Loral provides the feeds for ABC and Fox to their respective affiliates. Chalk up more transponders for Loral--recall that Telstar 5 is 100% booked. If they want to backup these feeds, add more transponders. News clips? More transponders.
What about cable channels? The cable industry cannot decide on a standard to get the HDTV over the cable and into your home. But they will decide eventually, probably in the next 1 or 2 years. At that point, every cable channel, every HBO/Showtime/Starz/Cinemax, etc., every pay-per-view will require transponder space to broadcast their HDTV signal to the cable headends. The standard signal will still be broadcast, by the way, until 2006+.
What about satellite TV you say? Now that will be interesting. One channel per transponder will eat capacity like no other. Even compressed(it is a stretch now to get 2:1 for HDTV, compared to 8:1+ for today's digital signals), HDTV will consume transponders like a Long March landing on its nose. My DISH Network has 60 basic channels, 10 pay-per-view, an ungodly number of movie channels, 30 music channels, and a variety of optional programming. to provide an HDTV signal for all of these will require many new sats.
So, just add these facts to your list. |
