DIRECTV Transponder Map ~ Data 4/24/2024

[Tom Speer]

I wonder if the FCC is getting pressure from Dish to free up those transponder slots since Directv is no longer using them. They can provide a signal the US dishes can receive for a bit, then go back to an inclined orbit, then re-orient it again every time Dish complains.

I mean honestly, the only reason they haven't retired it is to make life hard for Dish. They are never going to use it! Maybe they keep it as a bargaining chip if they ever need anything from Charlie lol

I prefer to deal from facts, not speculation. But while we are speculating, I had a less sinister thought in mind. D9S is only licensed until July 31 2024, when it is sceduled to go to disposal orbit. D16 is going to pick up those spotbeam frequencies as national transponders, we think. They could move D5 to 101 to pick up some of the TPN slots and conserve power and fuel on D16, after D9S is gone.

 

[PioneerDJ]

For those wondering what happens if the report about the Coyotes moving to Salt Lake City next season ends up being true. Arizona will still be in their TV territory, however they will lose the exclusive status for the state, while over in Utah the Golden Knights and Avalanche will no longer be available as in market teams.

If the multi year deal they signed with Scripps included a clause that lets their stations keep the TV rights in the event of relocation, odds are Arizona 61 will air both teams next season like Utah 16 currently does. Idaho 6 and MTN Montana would likely be part of the new Utah NHL TV territory too.

We also need to keep an eye on the Oakland A’s next season when they move to Sacramento if the TV territory will change or be similar to the Sacramento Kings where it’s split between there and the Bay Area
I’m aware NBC Sports California will be renegotiating their contract with the team as a result of this move

 

[KyL416]

That's not that big of a move, so their current TV territory will likely remain the same. If it wasn't for that range of mountains between the cities and the need for the state capital to have its own set of allotments, San Francisco/Oakland and Sacramento are close enough that they could have been a single market.

The big change for the A's will be when they move to Vegas after 2028, which will make the California and Arizona MLB teams no longer available in the Vegas area, while the A's will likely lose Northern California, Western Oregon and Hawaii and potentially gain Utah, Idaho and Montana. They will also need to find a new broadcast partner or go the direct to MLB route as Vegas is Cox territory so I doubt Comcast will want to keep the rights and attempt to launch "NBCSN Vegas".

 

[TheRatPatrol]

That's not that big of a move, so their current TV territory will likely remain the same. If it wasn't for that range of mountains between the cities and the need for the state capital to have its own set of allotments, San Francisco/Oakland and Sacramento are close enough that they could have been a single market.

The big change for the A's will be when they move to Vegas after 2028, which will make the California and Arizona MLB teams no longer available in the Vegas area, while the A's will likely lose Northern California, Western Oregon and Hawaii and potentially gain Utah, Idaho and Montana. They will also need to find a new broadcast partner or go the direct to MLB route as Vegas is Cox territory so I doubt Comcast will want to keep the rights and attempt to launch "NBCSN Vegas".

I never understood how Vegas was claimed by 6 (or 5?) MLB teams. Imagine having to carry all those RSN’s.

 

[DirecTVFanSince2016]

Vegas was claimed by 6 (or 5?) MLB teams.

It's 6.
Dbacks, Padres, Angels, Dodgers, A's, Giants.
I believe, on COX LV, the Dbacks and Padres are on the YurView channels, with the Angels and Dodgers being available through BSW and SPSN respectively, while the A's and Giants are not available because NSBA/CA aren't carried.

 

[savarese04]

It's 6.
Dbacks, Padres, Angels, Dodgers, A's, Giants.
I believe, on COX LV, the Dbacks and Padres are on the YurView channels, with the Angels and Dodgers being available through BSW and SPSN respectively, while the A's and Giants are not available because NSBA/CA aren't carried.

the teams all agree to these territories, funnily enough, and they all agreed to let each other lay claim to that region. not to go off topic, but here's an interesting (albeit long winded story) about the A's territorial rights: Territorial Rights - A (Not So) Brief History

tl;dr the A's had the territorial rights to San Jose, but ceded them to the Giants in the early 90s because the Giants were looking for a new stadium in possibly San Jose. Giants did not end up building that stadium and then never gave back the rights. This stuff gets inshrined in the MLB constitution so impossible to overturn without all parties agreeing.

So the A's will definitely stay on NBCSC until they leave for Vegas. They won't find much love in Sac though, which interestingly is a predominantly Giants town.

 

[slice1900]

I prefer to deal from facts, not speculation. But while we are speculating, I had a less sinister thought in mind. D9S is only licensed until July 31 2024, when it is sceduled to go to disposal orbit. D16 is going to pick up those spotbeam frequencies as national transponders, we think. They could move D5 to 101 to pick up some of the TPN slots and conserve power and fuel on D16, after D9S is gone.

According to D15/D16's original documents it was designed to power a lot of transponders at once. I can't remember the number, but powering all 32 Ku tpns is well within its capability. It would still have the capacity to light up some of its Ka transponders, if they had any dishes out there able to receive them.

 

[Tom Speer]

According to D15/D16's original documents it was designed to power a lot of transponders at once. I can't remember the number, but powering all 32 Ku tpns is well within its capability. It would still have the capacity to light up some of its Ka transponders, if they had any dishes out there able to receive them.

Agreed. They can't use the Ka transponders at 101, they are too close to 99 and 103. But D16 was designed to function at any of the DirecTV licensed locations. I've never seen anything about the total number of transponders it can power simultaneously (that I recall).

 

[Tom Speer]

DIRECTV did an overnight transfer of the Atlanta SD duplicates from a spot beam on D9S tpn 26 to a National beam on D16 tpn 26. So far they have shut down the spot beam transponders on D9S TPN 4 and TPN 26. TPN 18 has only one spot beam active (Chicago), and TPN 28 only has Los Angeles locals.

 

[KyL416]

The main thing they still have to take care of is the Minneapolis and NYC overlap on TPN 20. One of them will need to move to TPN 12 after they remove the final batch of markets (Dallas, Detroit, Greenville, Phoenix, San Francisco and St. Louis).

 

[doctor J]

DirecTV Satellite Transponder Updates for Apr 17 2024

Comparison of Transponder Data for Apr 17 2024 vs Apr 10 2024:


No changes in system tables for any transponder tuning parameters.

Changes to the use of defined transponders:

5 Transponders cleared of all Streams::
Net 0 TID 17 Beam BB21 is a Spot Beam Transponder on D9S@101, TPN 18
Net 0 TID 25 Beam BB21 is a Spot Beam Transponder on D9S@101, TPN 26
Net 0 TID 25 Beam BB22 is a Spot Beam Transponder on D9S@101, TPN 26
On 04/10/24 this transponder serves DMA 10-Atlanta, GA
Net 0 TID 27 Beam BB08 is a Spot Beam Transponder on D9S@101, TPN 28
Net 0 TID 27 Beam RB06 is a Spot Beam Transponder on D9S@101, TPN 28

2 Previously unused Transponders with current APG records::
Net 0 TID 25 Beam NAT + PR is a National Transponder on D16@101, TPN 26
Net 10 TID 137 Beam NAT is a National Transponder on D11@99cb, TPN 14

Stream (PID) counts:

LIVE Streams​	National​		Spot Beams​
	Count​	Change​	Count​	Change​
4K​	4​	​	​	​
HD​	274​	-2​	1450​	​
SD mpeg4​	139​	-1​	202​	​
SD mpeg2​	399​	14​	132​	-31​
RB​	​	​	​	​
Audio​	89​	​	​	​
Push​	31​	​	​	​
Slate​	20​	​	1​	​
​

TEST Streams​	National​		Spot Beams​
	Count​	Change​	Count​	Change​
4K​	​	​	​	​
HD​	​	​	3​	​
SD mpeg4​	​	​	1​	​
SD mpeg2​	​	​	​	​
RB​	​	​	​	​
Engr Work​	42​	8​	2​	​
​

The PID count Excel workbook provides much more count detail.

Newly updated tables of Streams on each transponder are available in the DataDigesters TPN Grids

More details of changes in individual channels will follow in the Weekly Analysis
and Gary Toma's Domestic TPN Map Excel files

Weekly Analysis soon.
Continued work on Shutting down Sat 101 D9s and transfer to D16
Enjoy
DataDigesters

 

[doctor J]

Weekly Analysis for 4/17/2024:

 

[KyL416]

In addition to Atlanta moving from D9S to D16, the SigView records of the dropped SD locals were remapped to the slate, while KTXD Dallas was removed from the Wichita Falls DMA

Goodbye NBA Mix and Masters, welcome back Kids Mix

The Japanese INFO channels have been removed

Prep for another transponder reshuffle involving some D11/D12 channels moving to D11 TPN 14 (which was vacated last week when the former D11 TPN 14 channels moved to D11 TPN 2)

Adding "for Business" to the labels of the ESPN+ channels

 

[slice1900]

Agreed. They can't use the Ka transponders at 101, they are too close to 99 and 103. But D16 was designed to function at any of the DirecTV licensed locations. I've never seen anything about the total number of transponders it can power simultaneously (that I recall).

AFAIK they nudged 99/103 slightly inward to 99.25/102.75 to reduce potential interference with other Ka users at 97/105, but I figure if they wanted to use 101 they could move those satellites to 99/103 and it would work though perhaps at a slightly worse SNR.

FWIW, Directv filed a couple patents for a Slimline LNB able to receive Ka at 99/101/103 and Ku at 101, so they were clearly thinking about this as a possibility at one time. D8 & D9 have Ka spot beams they did some testing with - similar to the early testing they did with reverse band (can't remember which satellites did the reverse band testing, was it D11/D12?)

Maybe Ka@101 was the backup plan if reverse band didn't pan out.

 

[Tom Speer]

Thursday morning. The spot beam on D9S TPN 28 was shut down overnight Wednesday
and TPN 28 on D16 was activated.

 

[PioneerDJ]

Expect some changes with CW stations owned by Scripps this Fall

 

[Tom Speer]

This morning DIRECTV removed the slate displays that replaced the SD duplicate locals for Baltimore, Birmingham, Houston, Seattle, and Washington.

 

[doctor J]

DirecTV Satellite Transponder Updates for Apr 24 2024

Comparison of Transponder Data for Apr 24 2024 vs Apr 17 2024:


No changes in system tables for any transponder tuning parameters.

Stream (PID) counts:

LIVE Streams​	National​		Spot Beams​
	Count​	Change​	Count​	Change​
4K​	4​	​	​	​
HD​	275​	1​	1450​	​
SD mpeg4​	139​	​	202​	​
SD mpeg2​	397​	-2​	132​	​
RB​	​	​	​	​
Audio​	89​	​	​	​
Push​	31​	​	​	​
Slate​	20​	​	1​	​
​

TEST Streams​	National​		Spot Beams​
	Count​	Change​	Count​	Change​
4K​	​	​	​	​
HD​	​	​	3​	​
SD mpeg4​	​	​	1​	​
SD mpeg2​	​	​	​	​
RB​	​	​	​	​
Engr Work​	43​	1​	2​	​
​

The PID count Excel workbook provides much more count detail.

Newly updated tables of Streams on each transponder are available in the DataDigesters TPN Grids

More details of changes in individual channels will follow in the Weekly Analysis
and Gary Toma's Domestic TPN Map Excel files

Changes for 101 SAT SD LILs as above
Weekly Analysis soon
Enjoy
DataDigesters

 

[doctor J]

Weekly Analysis for 4/24/2024:

 

[KyL416]

Besides SHOPHQ HD going live on channels 73 and 316, the removal of the Center Ice and League Pass ordering channels and the previously mentioned SD LIL slate removals nothing else really changed