Why is E* moving HBO-HD and SHOW-HD to 110?

[Sean Mota]

If you have been lurking around the E* General Forum, you will find that there are happy and unhappy subscribers about this latest move from E*. Charlie announced this last night and he also added that there is no more HD channels available today than what E* is currently carrying.

I am going to go in a wild goose chase (I admit). Maybe somebody (the FCC) is putting pressure on E* to clear space on 61.5 and maybe VOOM will end up with more TP. Why? I do not know but does it sound logical to you to move these two channels when you know that most of your HD subscribers already have a 61.5 dish installed. Does he thinks he can capture more subs by moving these two to 110? You may say well CBS-HD is still at 61.5. Yes, it is but only 30% of people get this. This is a very questionable move and I hope I am right and VOOM eventually ends up with the free space.

Hey! nothing wrong with speculation...What are your thoughts?

 

[sampatterson]

Anyone know when Voom will have a PVR?

 

[Sean Mota]

Late 2004 but it's not clear. Two OTA tuners and Two Satellite Tuners and any combo will work. This is what I read... no more details yet.

 

[mike123abc]

The space on 61.5 belongs to E* and no way are they going to give it up to VOOM unless VOOM forks over mega $$.

There is currently 2 unassigned transponders on 61.5 that the FCC told Dish after they had free use of them for a few years, it was VOOM's turn. These are supposed to be auctioned off soon. VOOM will have to out bid E* and anyone else that wants them.

My current thought is that E* wants to move HBO/Showtime as an excuse to change them to 8PSK. Dish needs to just bite the bullet and change all the HDTV to 8PSK and give a free 811 to the last few 5000 hold outs who at the cut off date happen to sub to the channels in question. If they did that Dish would free up 2 transponders. Enough for StarZ/Cinemax and some new HD.

 

[Dan Berndt]

satellites?

I've read several articles about the Cablevision satellite that was sent up last July that Voom uses. How can Dish have used transponders for years on a satellite that was just sent up a few months ago? If it is a Cablevision satellite, why does Dish have any transponders?

 

[mike123abc]

There are 32 transponder frequencies at the 61.5 satellite slot:

11 belong to EchoStar
11 belong to VOOM (Cable vision)
8 belong to Sky Angel
2 are unassigned (coming up for auction).

Dish's satellite Echostar 3 (E3) is capable of broadcasting on all 32 transponder frequencies. Dish currently provides the satellite transmission for Sky Angel. Echostar provides transmission of the Sky Angel programming on E3 in exchange for 6 of the 8 transponder frequencies via a lease. So Dish has the 11 they are licensed for plus the 6 Sky Angel ones they lease. Dish was also broadcasting on the VOOM frequencies and the unassigned frequencies until VOOM got ready to launch their own satellite. Dish was using E3 to broadcast on all the frequencies.

 

[Dan Berndt]

I still don't understand. Is there two satellites in the 61.5 slot, E3 and the Cablevision satellite? What has Dish using Voom frequencies got to do with Voom launching their own satellite? If the Voom satellite is not at 61.5 where is it.

Assuming that the Voom satellite is not at the 61.5 possition and that all Voom dishes are pointing at the 61.5, why are the Voom dishes not pointing at the Voom satellite? From your posting it sounds like Voom is using Dish's Echostar E3 satellite. If Voom has their own satellite why are they using Dish's satellite?

 

[Sean Mota]

Dan,

the way I understand it is that there are two Satellites are 61.5. E3 own by Echostart (DishNetwork) and Rainbow1 own by Rainbow DBS (VOOM). The FCC has assigned transponder (TP) to transmit. There are 32 transponder at 61.5 orbital location. As mike pointed out

11 belong to EchoStar (Dish)
11 belong to VOOM (Cable vision)
8 belong to Sky Angel
2 are unassigned (coming up for auction).

Once these transponder are assigned each provider needs to use it to send the your video back to earth. So right now VOOM has 11 TP that they have licensed. The 2 unassigned TP were given to VOOM by the FCC and are due for auction in 4/04.

 

[Cyclone]

Both Voom and Dish have satellites up at 61.5. They are parked right next to each other. They can likely see each other from where they sit.

Dish's Satellite could broadcast on all 32 Transponders, but they are not allowed too. So they just broadcast on the ones they are allowed to broadcast on.

Voom's satellite also likely could broadcast on all 32 TPs. But they are only allowed to use 11 that are assigned to them, and 2 more that "unassigned" at this time.

Dish receivers are told only to pay attention to the TPs that belong to Dish. Voom receivers are told only to pay attention to the TPs that belong to Voom. Both Companies receivers can see both Company's satellites, they are just told to ignore the one that doesn't belong to them.

Cyclone

 

[Dan Berndt]

That makes more sense, but not much. You've got two multi-billion dollar satellites siting right beside each other that are capable of doing the same thing. But both of them are doing half of what they could be doing.

I think I'm still missing something here.

 

[mike123abc]

You are not missing anything. E3 is an older satellite and is somewhat broken (it overheats if it tries to go to full power). Rainbow-1 is a new modern satellite. Both can do all 32 frequencies.

In fact most satellites are built this way so they can be moved around if needed. For example E4 was at 119 now it is at 157. Echostar has 21 frequencies at 119, 29 at 110, 32 at 148, 11+6 at 61.5, 3 at 157. They have in orbit extra satellites just in case something happens. E5 is sitting at 119 turned off. E6 is at 110 running 6 frequencies. Both E5 and E6 can do up to 32 if needed. If E3 were to be hit by a meteor or something, E5 could be moved over. IF something happened to E7 at 119 E5 would be turned on. If something happened to E8 at 110, E6 could pick up more frequencies.

Look at http://www.countitdown.com/cjoldradios/satellite/satfailure.html and you can see lots of satellite problems. In orbit spares are needed.

Rainbow-1 and E3 sit right next to eachother. VOOM could have paid Echostar to broadcast from E3, but Echostar probably would have refused or charged way too much. E3 is also getting old and rainbow-1 has much more power and other features that makes it worth it to launch.

 

[glimmie]

There is only so much space in the electromagnetic spectrum. Having two satellites next to each other doesn't change that. There are 32 frequencies allocated to that spot. Either satellite can use them but not both at the same time.

Example - you can't have two TV stations both in the same city both on channel 3 at the same time.

 

[geekygizmo]

Look at it this way, right now each sat could take up the slack for the other. Sould one fail (god forbid) watch the aggrements fly to use space on the remining good bird. Even if another sat failed at another slot, one of the 61.5 sats could be moved to recover service quickly.

The powers to-be know that if service fails then the whole game is over so the more spare tsponders the better.

Just my 2c
GG

 

[dlsnyder]

...My current thought is that E* wants to move HBO/Showtime as an excuse to change them to 8PSK. Dish needs to just bite the bullet and change all the HDTV to 8PSK and give a free 811 to the last few 5000 hold outs who at the cut off date happen to sub to the channels in question. If they did that Dish would free up 2 transponders. Enough for StarZ/Cinemax and some new HD.

They would also have to bite the bullet and give a free 8PSK module to the last few older 6000 model holdouts. The phones are probably ringing right now from anyone who heard about this on the Charlie Chat!