All the news has been about AMC-15 launching to 105 to replace AMC-2... Has anyone thought about what AMC-2 will be doing after AMC-15 checks out and takes over?
It occurred to me that Echostar has 2 more Ku-FSS slots leased (was in their annual report)... I wonder if AMC-2 will start drifting towards one of those 2 slots and suddenly a new SuperDish would be born. It is possible in a little over 2 months a whole new satellite location could suddenly open up for LIL. Yes I know AMC-2 is weak, and the coverage of the CONUS is not that good, but it serves about 2/3rds of the US (east and west coast), and I am sure that there are a lot of markets under its footprint.
Dish has been pretty quite about those 2 satellite slots it has leased, other than saying that they are building satellites to place there over the next 2 years. They could move AMC-2 to one slot, then next year when their new satellite launches, move AMC-2 again to the last slot.
This is all assuming SES will allow Dish to continue leasing AMC-2. But, considering the amount of business that Dish is giving SES and that AMC-2 is pretty much worthless (it would probably be turned off after Dish is through to be a backup maybe).
Lets see, Dish could open up a whole new slot for LIL, next year the new slot gets its real satellite and E10 launches. Dish moves the wing stations over to E10 and probably has a lot of room left over to move the big 105/121 markets to E10. I could see them having all 210 local markets up by the end of next year...
It occurred to me that Echostar has 2 more Ku-FSS slots leased (was in their annual report)... I wonder if AMC-2 will start drifting towards one of those 2 slots and suddenly a new SuperDish would be born. It is possible in a little over 2 months a whole new satellite location could suddenly open up for LIL. Yes I know AMC-2 is weak, and the coverage of the CONUS is not that good, but it serves about 2/3rds of the US (east and west coast), and I am sure that there are a lot of markets under its footprint.
Dish has been pretty quite about those 2 satellite slots it has leased, other than saying that they are building satellites to place there over the next 2 years. They could move AMC-2 to one slot, then next year when their new satellite launches, move AMC-2 again to the last slot.
This is all assuming SES will allow Dish to continue leasing AMC-2. But, considering the amount of business that Dish is giving SES and that AMC-2 is pretty much worthless (it would probably be turned off after Dish is through to be a backup maybe).
Lets see, Dish could open up a whole new slot for LIL, next year the new slot gets its real satellite and E10 launches. Dish moves the wing stations over to E10 and probably has a lot of room left over to move the big 105/121 markets to E10. I could see them having all 210 local markets up by the end of next year...