From One Extreme To Another

Here is a quiz for you… 

Did you know that there are currently three DBS providers? You know Dish Network and DirecTV but do you know the third?

The answer to that is Sky Angel, which is a provider that providers a Christian faith based satellite service to subscribers. 

However sometime next year Sky Angel will be shutting down it’s DBS service and will be moving its service to an IP based service. That will leave only two DBS companies left. When the service goes dark the transponder licenses that Sky Angel holds at 61.5 will be transferred to Dish Network.

Today Sky Angel official launched its new website at http://www.skyangel.com which give full details of its new IPTV service. The basic monthly service called the “Faith Package” will cost $14.99, another package called the “Family Package” which has regular cable television fare such as The Discovery Channel, TLC, and the Fox News Channel. In addition they will offer a combo package, which gives customers access to all the channels in both package for $24.99.

In addition Sky Angel will offer customers VOD services and will also allow customers to watch some programming up to 48 hours from the past.

In order for customers to view the new Sky Angel IPTV service they will need broadband access with speeds of 1.5Mbps or greater in their homes.

While many Sky Angel customers are sad to see that the satellite service is going away they also understand that this is what Sky Angel must do if they want to survive. However other Sky Angel customers are upset that they will no longer be able to get Sky Angel via satellite, these folks are also upset that they will not be able to get Sky Angels new IPTV service as broadband service is not currently available to them.

I personally know many of the folks that run Sky Angel, and I am sure the decision to stop the satellite service was a tough one. I wish the folks from Sky Angel the best as they move forward with their new IPTV based service.

Talk about going from one extreme to another we move from Christian television to Bubba the Love Sponge.

This morning it was announced that Bubba The Love Sponge has extended his contract with Sirius Satellite Radio for another year.

While the press release put out by the Sirius PR department did not give any details on the contract, Bubba was a guest on Sirius’s own Howard Stern show, where he announced this extension was a one-year deal.

Bubba the Love Sponge has quickly built a large national following since coming to Sirius last year. His rude crude often X-rated program features a strange selection of talk, prank calls and funny songs. It’s not uncommon to turn in and hear Bubba talking about NASCAR or having a conversation with his best friend, legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan.

In the recent ratings released for satellite radio the Bubba The Love Sponge Show was the number two show on all of satellite radio. Who was number one? That spot belongs to Bubba’s Boss, the legendary Howard Stern.