New FTA service with 20 english channels

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You know if it happens it happens, and I will be watching, if it doesn't it doesn't and I will be watching what I am watching right now, I am not loosing any sleep over it, and I am not going to bad mouth them either, you never know what some investors will do, and you never know who might invest money just to get the money off of the tax records.
Terry
 
These guys appear to be blowing lots of smoke and getting a lot of people excited over their "vapor-vision" service.

Their business plan appears to have been assembled by eighth graders without a lot of practical business sense.

I agree with you. The website looks as if it is from 1994. The names of the "channels" that they are supposed to launch show absolutely no creativity at all. Such as "The New Sci-Fi Channel" which I am sure would cause a trademark war with NBC-Universal. I also wonder where they are going to get any content for all of these new channels? How are they going to broadcast these NBC, ABC, and CBS "Superstations" as they refer to them as, does anyone really think that the networks will allow them to broadcast unencrypted network feeds? I would think that there would be significant hurdles with the NAB, etc... I think that these people are either terribly delusional or this is all a very well played out farce.
 
IHow are they going to broadcast these NBC, ABC, and CBS "Superstations" as they refer to them as, does anyone really think that the networks will allow them to broadcast unencrypted network feeds? I would think that there would be significant hurdles with the NAB, etc...

They have said the stations would be from Louisville which is where they are located

The NAB I dont think would have any issues....Equity ring a bell? ;)
 
They have said the stations would be from Louisville which is where they are located

The NAB I dont think would have any issues....Equity ring a bell? ;)

Were the equity feeds specifically meant for the TVRO market? It would seem that "free" network feeds meant for TVRO would make lots of local affiliates and the networks mad. Is that not the reason, or at least part of it that the networks began to scramble their feeds in the late 80's and that PT24 was always scrambled. What about the NFL? Do you really think that the NFL will not get aggrevated and thus CBS and FOX get aggrevated when feeds meant for the TVRO market are distributed without scrambling?
 
The Equity feeds were for cable companies/satco's. They were on satellite because all the stations were uplinked in Little Rock and the only way some cable co's could get a decent feed was from the satellite feed.

Were they technically for the TVRO market? not really...but Equity made it very clear they were here for the FTA'ers :)

They usually had 2 Fox stations on G10 but at the end they had 4 (3 in Montana and Marquette, MI) and they had NFL games (although I wouldnt consider the Lions NFL Material :D ) with no issues.

NFL feeds for CBS are unencrypted each week...they are on C-Band
 
You know if it happens it happens, and I will be watching, if it doesn't it doesn't and I will be watching what I am watching right now, I am not loosing any sleep over it, and I am not going to bad mouth them either, you never know what some investors will do, and you never know who might invest money just to get the money off of the tax records.
Terry

Well said..........
:up
 
[snip]. The names of the "channels" that they are supposed to launch show absolutely no creativity at all. Such as "The New Sci-Fi Channel" which I am sure would cause a trademark war with NBC-Universal. [snip]

I won't cause a copyright issue. Sci-Fi, cannot be Trademarked. This is why they changed the name to SyFy. (which is just dumb)
 
The Equity feeds were for cable companies/satco's. They were on satellite because all the stations were uplinked in Little Rock and the only way some cable co's could get a decent feed was from the satellite feed.

Were they technically for the TVRO market? not really...but Equity made it very clear they were here for the FTA'ers :)

They usually had 2 Fox stations on G10 but at the end they had 4 (3 in Montana and Marquette, MI) and they had NFL games (although I wouldnt consider the Lions NFL Material :D ) with no issues.

NFL feeds for CBS are unencrypted each week...they are on C-Band

I suppose that my point is, if there were a lot (several million) who CBS and the NFL knew were intercepting those feeds, I am sure that they would begin to encrypt them. The same for Free DBS if it ever gets off the ground, initially there would not be an issue with the Louisville locals being uplinked, however, if the service catches on with several million users, then I am sure that encryption would become an issue.
 
Yes, but they ARE improving! :p

hey I cant complain. That is how I was able to record the infamous 0-16 season ending game....was only available to Michigan & Wisco folks and those that had NFL ST

oh and the FTA'ers at the time :)
 
These guys appear to be blowing lots of smoke and getting a lot of people excited over their "vapor-vision" service.

Their business plan appears to have been assembled by eighth graders without a lot of practical business sense.

I have been involved in start up tv networks before and believe me, this is no way to start out. They may just be trying to be honest, but I seriously doubt if this project will ever see the light of day. For example, lets says they secure space segment (for example, a 18 meg slot on AMC9 @ $400/hr x 24 = $9600/day x 365 = $3, 504, 000 per year!). I'm basing this on an 18 meg slot because of the amount of content (i.e. channels) that they need to mux together. Anything smaller would be suicide. There are other ways to get the signals out in a smaller carrier, but that involved statistical multiplexing. And, if they are planning on viewers to use traditional STB's (i.e. FTA receivers) then their transmission technology needs to be dumbed down.

The channels that they are going after are either public domain channels (NASA, etc.) They'll never get any of the major cable movie channels - only third, fourth and fifth tier cable programming. Further, there is still their playback infrastructure, which can be done on the cheap (i.e. RTV). But how are they going to fund this thing? They're not going to be charging a subscription fee, so the only other means of generating revenue is advertising. And we're not talking top flight advertisers here. I'm talking about Mesothelioma ads, etc.

I'm sorry to throw water on their fire, but the only thing these guys have done is managed to still up interest in something that'll never see the light of day.

Unless, they have someone with deep pockets that's willing to fund this thing, but that's doubtful.

Do me a favor KING go to this link : www.google.com
look at this page...just a simple search box ....so simple a 5th grader could have designed it!
Just because the FreeDBS plan goes aginst the grain of Corporate America I would not say they don't have practical business sense. Even if this never does "see the light of day" I admire their fire for having the guts to try. As for you throwing water on it, I think your water is a drop in the in the Corporate ocean that very well may swallow this company up. But I pray that their fire burns on for long time to come.
 
Any of you guys know how to start up a petition site to present to freedbs without it becoming a spam generator? All it would need is a vote button and an IP counter.

voteforfreedbs.com, makefreedbsreal.com or something like that
 
$400/hr divided by 20 channels would be $20/hr per channel. This is only for the satellite space, not other costs. If this was only a fifth of the cost and it was $100/hr per channel and they had commercials on 4 times per hour (every 15 minutes) and 4 commercials every time, then that would still be $25 per commercial break, $6 per commercial. Sounds to me like there is money to be made in FTA if this is the case. They say 100 channels in the future so it would seem even better than this.
You are correct about space segment not being the only cost....you've got to have an origination center (playback, etc), uplink facility, etc. They ARE NOT and WILL NEVER get any main stream advertising because there will be no real way to confirm their viewership (i.e. Nielsen, etc), so their advertising will consist of what is known as P-I or per inquiry advertising. You've seen them....lawyers pitching wrongful death, debt consolidation, left handed screwdrivers, etc. They don't pay for the ad space, they provide the commercial spot and any revenue is based upon those viewers that call the 800 number. It's not a real money maker, unless you are CNN or USA or some other major cable channel that actually CHARGES for the time and also gets money from each inquiry. Oh yeah....what about the salaries for employees, and other overhead. I smell smoke being blown up my ass.
 
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I agree with you. The website looks as if it is from 1994. The names of the "channels" that they are supposed to launch show absolutely no creativity at all. Such as "The New Sci-Fi Channel" which I am sure would cause a trademark war with NBC-Universal. I also wonder where they are going to get any content for all of these new channels? How are they going to broadcast these NBC, ABC, and CBS "Superstations" as they refer to them as, does anyone really think that the networks will allow them to broadcast unencrypted network feeds? I would think that there would be significant hurdles with the NAB, etc... I think that these people are either terribly delusional or this is all a very well played out farce.

They won't have to deal with NAB, but with the owners of the stations that charge rather hefty retransmission fees. Think the battles that Directv and Dish Network have with local stations extorting money for their signals.
 
Do me a favor KING go to this link : www.google.com
look at this page...just a simple search box ....so simple a 5th grader could have designed it!
Just because the FreeDBS plan goes aginst the grain of Corporate America I would not say they don't have practical business sense. Even if this never does "see the light of day" I admire their fire for having the guts to try. As for you throwing water on it, I think your water is a drop in the in the Corporate ocean that very well may swallow this company up. But I pray that their fire burns on for long time to come.
Just because their business plan sucks, it could work, until their satellite space is shut down due to missed payments, etc.

Say what you will, but I'd bet anything (even the Lions winning the Superbowl!) that this will be yet another example of someone with an ideal that just doesn't gel properly.

P.S. I'm still waiting to see something like "Meeting with John's Grandma" in their timeline! :D
 
Just because their business plan sucks, it could work, until their satellite space is shut down due to missed payments, etc.

Say what you will, but I'd bet anything (even the Lions winning the Superbowl!) that this will be yet another example of someone with an ideal that just doesn't gel properly.

P.S. I'm still waiting to see something like "Meeting with John's Grandma" in their timeline! :D

John's Grandma could be the money infuser. (Is that a word?) :p
 
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