A Third Satellite Company?

We all have heard of Dish Network and DirecTV but have you heard of Skyvision? For many long time satellite hobbyists many may remember Skyvision for incredible catalog of interesting satellite products and the old “Skyvision Show” which use to air 24 hours a day on it’s own C Band transponder.

We the Skyvision of today is much like the Skyvision of old, the only thing missing is the old Skyvision show. The catalog is still mailed out a few times a year and is still chock full of satellite goodies. Their catalog is like the old toy catalogs you use to look at around the holidays when you were a kid, except this catalog is geared for satellite geeks like me.

The other day I got a new catalog in the mail and in it was something that surprised me, it’s a new subscription satellite TV service that is available to customers using a small 33-inch KU band satellite dish.   It appears that I was not the only one to notice this new service and talks of this new subscription service lit up the Internet chat forums like wildfire.

And while Skyvision does not mention it anywhere this new service actually utilizes the existing “HITS” (http://www.hits.com) service. HITS, which stands for “Headend In The Sky” is used to feed digital cable channels to cable operators around the country and was started back in the late 90’s by TCI.

To subscribe to this service a customer needs a 33-inch KU band dish, a specially programmed Motorola DSR-410 satellite receiver, and a subscription package from Skyvision.   Installation is a breeze and once you point your dish to the Galaxy 16 satellite you can set it and forget it.

Subscription packages start at $19.99 a month for a 60+ channel package (which includes the DMX music service), larger package are available as are packages for pay TV channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz.

While the new service does not offer many of the standard cable channels such as ESPN or USA Network, nor does it offer local network channels or sports packages it does offer other popular channels such as HGTV, TV Land, GSN (Game Show Network), The Golf Channel and many others. I should also mention that there is no HD available via this service.

I have been saying not for the last few years that subscription KU service could be a viable service for home viewers and now it appears that others are seeing this as being true. As C-Band subscriptions continue to drop, it would not surprise me in the least to see subscription KU numbers start to take off. I would love to see additional subscription channels be made available on KU in the future.

So if you are tired of Dish Network or DirecTV, or just find yourself watching a handful of channels, this new service from Skyvision may give you the television utopia you have been looking for with a price that is much easier to swallow.