Dan Berndt said:
I guess my real question is does a satellite service provider need to OWN a satellite in order to have a satellite service?
No, it does not. However, none of the DBS satellites are Common Carriers. Which means they have chosen to privately own, operate, and program their satellites. Satellites which are Common Carriers own and maintain the satellites and satellite services lease space on the satellite. Common Carriers must provide satellite space for those who want to use it, provided whoever wants to use the satellite can pay for the space, there is enough space to accomidate them and the satellite service can uplink it's programming.
For an example of mulitiple providers using a Common Carrier satellite for DTH (Direct To Home) service see the KU-Band portion of
Intelsat Americas 5 at 97w.
http://www.lyngsat.com/ia5.html current program providers include GlobeCast World TV using 9 transponders, Pittsburgh International Telecom with 2 transponders, ABS/CBN International and ETTV America with 1 transponder each. To subscribe to channels from all 4 providers you would need 4 different receivers, but all of them have free channels that work with standard MPEG-2 receivers.
Maybe someone more knowledgable than I can tell us if Rainbow will still have uplink capabilities after the sell of the satellite. Even if Rainbow sells its' uplink equipment it could still lease uplink from someone else. Does anyone know how leasing uplink services would work?
Yes, Rainbow still has an uplink facility. So it will not need to lease an uplink facility. Nearly all cable channel owners have an uplink facility. There are literally 1000's of uplink facilites around the country. Don't forget that Rainbow owns Fox Sports Net, AMC, IFC, and Fuse and their uplink facility on the East Coast uplinks those channels along with VOOM's channels.
It is possible to have another company do the uplink for you, but it is not typical to have another facility uplink more than a few of your channels. Many facilites uplink hundreds of channels, but they are uplinking for several dozen providers.
Rainbow has an uplink facility. The receivers which are manufactured by Motorola and also are the same ones used by Star Choice will work on any satellite frequencies, it is the dish size and LNB that determines the band you will receive. Finally Rainbow has a long term lease for frequencies on AMC-6 at 72w. It is possible service could be continued on AMC-6, but nothing has been released to indicate that Rainbow will continue the lease.
We also have no word on the Rainbow contract on the five new satellites.
Partially True. New satellites are ordered, designed, and custom built, but any future satellites Rainbow had on order were so early in the planning stages it would be very easy to cancel the order without penality.