What Can Satellite Do Now?

The past year has been an amazing year technology wise for both satellite companies, the question now is what can they do next?

Both companies worked hard and heavy over the past year bringing customers exciting new features and services.  Such services include Video On Demand,  major rollouts of MPEG4 technology and even 1080p High Definition movies.

So what’s next in the way of technology for the satellite companies?  First thing I think we will see is the merging of some technology, such as Dish Network taking one of its DVRs and adding Slingbox technology.  I got a sneak peek at this over the summer and we can expect for it to be shown officially the first time at this coming CES.

However I think that is just the start of something bigger, I see satellite receivers ultimately becoming a combination of satellite receiver and home computer.  With HDTV’s is will be very easy for folks to check their email, chat with friends and play games all from their EZ chairs.

We could soon see the line between television and computers blur even more with additions of things like widgets and interactive applications which actually place you on the sponsors website.

If someone could take an XBOX360 and a High Definition satellite receiver  / DVR that would be huge!  A  few years ago there were talks of being able to watch and IPTV service  such as UVERSE on your XBOX360, but imagine doing that with satellite.  Satellite would deliver all of today’s popular content channels and content while the internet could deliver all the rest of the niche content that exists out there. With a receiver that is properly built the consumer will see everything as if it’s one service no matter how the content is delivered.

It seems like a farfetched idea, but we are already so close now.  The problems with this idea are a few.

First off who is going to deliver the broadband to make this all work?  It seems like the United States is going backwards when it comes to broadband. Instead of expanding broadband speeds and access providers now are putting up limits of how much broadband you can use.

Secondly how are companies going to profit if they are getting content from providers on the internet?  No satellite company will let you watch what you want if they are not getting money, instead they will only let you watch content with which they have agreements with the content providers. Selling hardware for these companies is not going to be enough in order for them to survive and grow they are going to have to have a business model which gives them continued income.

So how does a satellite company proceed? We can see where the technology wants to go, but it is up to the satellite companies, content providers and internet providers to work together to make this all work. And that might be a hard thing for them to do as they will all have their hands out as they are all in business to make money.

So the question remains, where does satellite technology go from here?