Echostar files to move E6 to 61.5W

[TheKrell]

Sorry, this was too long to read through. Is this referring to the new HD channels? (E!, Sportman's, etc.) I didn't get the satellite that those were launched on.

Yes, the 9 new HD channels were put on 72.7 rather than 61.5. Some have speculated that these channels might go back to 61.5 once E6 was there, but that apparently will never happen, even when E15 is there.

Can I get these HD channels now?

Only if you put up a dish that gets either 61.5 or 129.

[tkrandall]

What has been speculated is that Dish will add back the international programming to 61.5 W so that EA folks won't need to have a dish for 118 W

Despite the fact that EA is all MPEG-4, it has limited transponders compared to the WA. Maybe after reverse band sats show up in a few years that would change but for now no thanks. EA was lunached as being purposed for core and local programming and I would hate to see international or Latino programming eat up the limited bandwidth the EA has. Otherwise picture quality would have to suffer it would seem.

[digiblur]

Despite the fact that EA is all MPEG-4, it has limited transponders compared to the WA. Maybe after reverse band sats show up in a few years that would change but for now no thanks. EA was lunached as being purposed for core and local programming and I would hate to see international or Latino programming eat up the limited bandwidth the EA has. Otherwise picture quality would have to suffer it would seem.

Here's an analysis I did a while back on EA vs WA... even after throwing the 32 KU transponders on 118.7 into the mix I'd say EA has more room than WA. Their big power house will be at 72 once they have all 32 TPs.

Comparing DBS owned and leased licenses from WA to EA:

119 - 21 TP license
110 - 28
129 - 32

81 on WA (not counting the 32 on 118.7)

61.5 - technically 30 (but with the STA 32)
72 - 32
77 - 24

86 on EA - plus EA is using mostly 8PSK and MPEG4 which offers a huge savings. An easy calculation is to use is one QPSK 100% MPEG2 transponder is a base of 30. When you convert that to 8PSK you move up to 40. Now convert it to to MPEG4 and it jumps to 80. So basically it takes about 2.6 transponders on WA to do what one transponder can do on EA. Now of course all the HD on WA is already converted to 8PSK and MPEG4.

You can see they'll have plenty of bandwidth to throw around on EA when it is at the full potential after full build out.

[rocatman]

Despite the fact that EA is all MPEG-4, it has limited transponders compared to the WA. Maybe after reverse band sats show up in a few years that would change but for now no thanks. EA was lunached as being purposed for core and local programming and I would hate to see international or Latino programming eat up the limited bandwidth the EA has. Otherwise picture quality would have to suffer it would seem.

Dish could deploy reverse band on the E-16 satellite to be launched to 61.5 W in 2012 but in the near term Dish should be rapidly gaining TP space for the EA. Dish is still not providing programming from all the new CONUS TPs they gained at 72.7 W where next week's new HD will be placed for the EA. I also expect Dish to gain at least another 3 - 6 TPs by the middle of this year at 72.7 W and should have use of all 32 TPs by early 2011. Dish could start providing programming from E-6 at 61.5 W which would add another 4 CONUS TPs for the EA. Even before the E-16 satellite is launched in 2012, the E-15 and QuetzSat-1 satellites will have been launched to 61.5 W and 77 W respectively giving Dish use of 88 TPs for the EA. This compares to only 82 TPs for the WA not including the Ku band at 118 W. Even before Dish starting moving CONUS programming off of 61.5 W and 77 W, I had speculated that 72.7 W will eventually have most if not all of the CONUS programming for the EA and 32 TPs is plenty of space for that especially when Dish removes the duplicate SD channels that they provide in HD. 61.5 W and 77 W will be used primarily for locals but there will still be some CONUS TPs at both slots. Expect the Latino package to be put on 77 W and it would be quite logical for Dish to put all the international programming on 61.5 W so EA subscribers won't need a second dish for that programming. I believe Dish has re-thought their plans when they were able to obtain use of all 32 TPs at 72.7 W. Obviously this is my big picture speculation for the EA.

[TheKrell]

Comparing DBS owned and leased licenses from WA to EA:

119 - 21 TP license
110 - 28
129 - 32

81 on WA (not counting the 32 on 118.7)

61.5 - technically 30 (but with the STA 32)
72 - 32
77 - 24

Nice chart. How many TPs does Dish have at 118? (I know these are FSS transponders, but still...

I know! Put the internationals back on 61.5 and devote that FSS sat to horse racing.

[mike123abc]

I think that someone at Dish finally decided that they were going to standardize what the customer installs were going to be. The got tired of trying to support a haphazard assortment of possible satellite combinations. Mixed installs definitely limits what Dish can do. By enforcing one arc or another they are able to move stuff around as they need and not have to worry about the phones starting to ring because someone had 72.7/119/129 or some such odd combination.

It is good in the long haul, and this migration should clear up a lot of support issues.

[rocatman]

Here's an analysis I did a while back on EA vs WA... even after throwing the 32 KU transponders on 118.7 into the mix I'd say EA has more room than WA. Their big power house will be at 72 once they have all 32 TPs.

Comparing DBS owned and leased licenses from WA to EA:

119 - 21 TP license
110 - 28
129 - 32

81 on WA (not counting the 32 on 118.7)

61.5 - technically 30 (but with the STA 32)
72 - 32
77 - 24

86 on EA - plus EA is using mostly 8PSK and MPEG4 which offers a huge savings. An easy calculation is to use is one QPSK 100% MPEG2 transponder is a base of 30. When you convert that to 8PSK you move up to 40. Now convert it to to MPEG4 and it jumps to 80. So basically it takes about 2.6 transponders on WA to do what one transponder can do on EA. Now of course all the HD on WA is already converted to 8PSK and MPEG4.

You can see they'll have plenty of bandwidth to throw around on EA when it is at the full potential after full build out.

Slight correction on your numbers. Dish has 29 TPs at 110 W giving them 82 on the WA. It is also interesting to look at spotbeam TP capability. On the WA with using the full spotbeam capability of E-14 at 119 W, Dish can use 37 TPs on the WA for spotbeams, 10 on E-10, 10 on E-14 and 17 on Ciel-2 (TP 17 on Ciel-2 can be used both in CONUS and spotbeam mode). That leaves 45 TPs for CONUS programming. This is probably enough room to move all the international programming off of 118.7 W to 110/119/129 eventually after full WA MPEG-4 conversion. The real question is whether Dish will have enough spotbeam capability overall. This points to the fact that a majority of Dish subscribers in the future will be on the EA. We don't know the spotbeam cabilities for E-16 or QuetzSat-1 but I have to believe both will be massive spotbeam satellites.

[tkrandall]

...TPs they gained at 72.7 W where next week's new HD will be placed for the EA...

what new channels?

[whatchel1]

what new channels?

Pay to be a member & find out in the Pub Members section.

[hellomann]

You dont need to be a pub member to know that. It is all over the place. Just listen to the satellite radio blog talk.