Globecast - Who picks what channels are encrypted?

[Davage]

Globecast does a wonderful job of giving me a whole bunch of tv channels from all around the world to watch here in North America. Some channels like TV Polonia are encrypted, but meanwhile many others are in the clear. Is somebody subsidizing the free channels, or paying Globecast to put the channel on their system? Do they make enough money from advertisements to pay for the uplink costs?

Just wondering if anybody knows they they have so many channels in the clear, and then they chose to encrypt a select few?

 

[Anole]

I thought it was just a matter of Globecast buying time on a commercial bird and feeding their own stuff.
A lot of what else is on there, isn't put up by Globecast, is it?
My assumption was that they didn't own the bird.
...even if they imply that they do.
But they sure are renting a lot of it!

Something like all the Christian programming on IA-5 97ºw, and AMC-4 101ºw.
There is some literature that would make you think the religious groups had their own two satellites.
When in truth, they're just commercial customers, too.

And of course, if I wanted to start a channel, it'd be wise to buy time on a bird that already has a lot of viewers.
Unlike Whitesprings 129ºw, which is all alone on a satellite with lots of commercial usage, but no end-user programming.