How much does satellite time for feeds cost?

[paulm]

Been loving hockey on the Fighting Sioux Sports Network, and a thought occurred to me: Why don't they show more sports? For example, the women's hockey games are covered by multiple cameras for the scoreboard video, and there's play by play on the radio. I'm sure they could sell the ads for it as the fssn gets picked up by local cablecos all over ND and MN.

There's other programming too... the weekly show that wdaz (their production company) airs locally, North Dakota's "Studio One" student-run television program that plays on the campus's cable system. All of the football games (I think FSSN broadcasts like one now). I'm not sure, but I think there are cameras running at the men's and women's basketball games too. Graduation. Press conferences. Etc.

So, is it a cost issue? Anyone know about how much it costs to buy satellite time? It seems to me like there's plenty of unused bandwidth up there....

 

[Mr Tony]

it does cost money but depends on how much bandwidth you need.

For the FSSN games there isnt much bandwidth used (symbol rate of 4880 means probably 1/6 or 1/4 of a transponder is used...if its a 30000 symbol rate like Big 10 uses then its probably the whole transponder).

But I know we've had this conversation at the Sioux board too and it all comes down to one thing....MONEY

Usually folks wonder about the road games...why dont they show more road games. Simple. If there is nobody else covering the games they have to run the whole production crew to the road site. Now this weekend its against UMD. Charter local is doing the games for UMD this wekeend so WDAZ only needs a partial crew instead of the whole crew. Some of the camera guys dont need to be there. But they have to run the uplink truck from Grand Forks to Duluth and that can cost some money on gas. Since its two days they have to hotel them somewhere. I dont think they all sleep in the rental cars

I wish they would show more home games but I wonder if the change to D-I this year has halted some of the options for bb. I know there are cameras at the bb games but usually that is for the TV stations for hilites. If they have a "crew" for possible replays it may only be one camera.

I think it comes down to one thing and thats money...Since WDAZ provides the main production part they don't have a heckuva lot of extra money laying around. And those folks that do the game obviously get paid (doubt they do it for free but that would be a heckuva gig if it was)

 

[qwert1515]

These are estimations: (I have seen the prices in a few PDF)

A symbol rate of 3978 = 5.5 MHz.
So if the 4880 uses the same FEC it should use up about: 6.8 MHz.

Price back when SBS6 was @ 74° West Ku, AMC 9 @ 85° (~2006):
(For an affiliate of a big broadcast company)
$0.92 * MHz * minutes
1 Hour (4880) ~ $375

Prices on another document, a little bit more recent:
(Non affiliate)
$1.54 * MHz * minutes
1 Hour (4880) ~ $630

Things to keep in mind:
- These prices are estimations, they could vary like gas prices
- More powerful transponders are more expensive.
- Higher FEC increases the needed bandwidth so it is more expensive.
- Location of the satellites (CONUS with good look angles) are more expensive.
- It is cheaper to purchase transponder time for a month or a year than for one event.
- Different satellite owners will have different rates.