Who Needs Satellite?
Word came out yesterday that the upcoming XBOX 360 software update will support high definition movie streaming via Netflix. That news has a lot of people scratching their heads today wondering what the future holds; one reader even wrote me and asked me what this means for satellite television.
While I honestly do believe that IPTV is the future of television, I do believe it will take some time before IPTV could replace satellite reception. The reason for that is one word, “Bandwidth.”
Here in the United States our internet connections are slower then connections in many other countries and in addition most Internet Service Providers have download caps which would prohibit you from using your internet connection to view 24/7 IPTV broadcasts.
On October 1st Comcast implemented a new 250 Gigabyte per month data cap on it’s service. This might sound like a lot to many but watch a dozen HD movies from Netflix on your XBOX360 and there is a chance you might wake up to find your internet service discontinued.
Satellite technology on the other hand is far more efficient and can push any kind of content to customers homes without the worry of data caps. In emergencies satellite can get customers connected to the world almost instantly, while cable and telephone providers it may take them days, weeks even months to get customers towns rewired for their services.
Satellite technology is not going anywhere and I believe that in the future that satellite will be used in conjunction with IPTV services; this will allow satellite to deliver the most viewed programming which will conserve bandwidth for customers, while IPTV will be used to deliver niche programming and video on demand services.
We have already seen both satellite companies roll out initial VOD over the internet programs, however I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Satellite is not going anywhere.
Dish adds CW in HD in two Markets
Dish Network has added two CW affiliates in HD to its lineup. KTLA of Las Angeles and KWGN of Denver have been added into those cities locals HD package.
While KTLA and KWGN are available on Dish Network as “Superstations” the new HD versions of these channels are not available as part of the Superstation package nor are they available to anyone outside of the above listen markets.