Why are there MPEG FTA channels?

[animalhead.com]

Or, to ask the same question another way: how does someone make money by putting the signal of a UPN affiliate from Little Rock up on a Ku-band satellite in a format that hardly anyone can receive?

Is it a substitute for the old CATV towers, so that the signal can be received and rebroadcast by repeaters in other part of Arkansas?

And for that matter, is there any answer to "why are the Arkansas stations FTA but the Albuquerque stations scrambled?" other than "the people who uplink them think differently"?

 

[Shawn95GT]

Short answer - it's cheaper than encrypting them.

We aren't the target audience.

 

[animalhead.com]

OK, then

my main question can be restated as "who is the target audience of MPEG FTA signals?"

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

usually in cases like the UPN description above it is for Cable companies as it is cheaper for them to send a FTA signal then to run fiber runs to each cable company headend.

 

[Mr Tony]

The stations in question are owned by the same company, Equity. They do all their broadcasting and such in one central area (Little Rock) and beam them out to the areas of the US that those channels are in. Not all of them are licensed for Arkansas (only 3 or 4 of them technically are). The rest is for other areas of the US (the city of license). It is easier to beam them to the cable companies and the OTA towers via C & KU band than scrambling them. One reason is a lot of these are low powered stations, so the cable company picking them up OTA is tough. The Univison in Minneapolis is owned by Equity and is on cable in Mpls/St Paul. The station is only broadcasting at like 1500 watts (versus 316000 watts for other channels on VHF…Univision is on 13) so the cable companies probably just pick up the KU feed.

As noted, we are not their intended audience.

 

[animalhead.com]

Thank you Iceberg, you are the heart and soul of this forum.

Let me try to reword what you said, and if you agree, don't reply, we are done.

"FTA/MPEG stations like those in Arkansas are uplinked because a company like Equity wants to distribute programming originating in a place where they have access to programming, like Arkansas, to other places where they can distribute programming."

Is that why FTA MPEG network stations exist?

Best Regards,
animalhead.com

 

[jh98]

The Equity stations are all run out of a big, computerized system in Little Rock, then sent to the local stations around the country by Ku-band FTA.

Really the same as the news and sports feeds... it's a relay to get the signal from one place to another and we're sort of eavesdropping on it.

The only channels FTA in English that are aimed at the general public are some of the religious ones.

 

[Cold Winter]

Or, to ask the same question another way: how does someone make money by putting the signal of a UPN affiliate from Little Rock up on a Ku-band satellite in a format that hardly anyone can receive?

Simple... you eliminate a high power transmitter, eliminate most if not all gov't regulation ( you should see the regs in Canada ) and your x-mitting to a growing ( possibly worldwide ) market segment.

Seems to me that there are a lot of FTA STB manufacturers out there and they must be selling something to someone, 'cuz its certainly moving here in North America.

In effect, you could just about run any kind of broadcast system via satellite and completely bypass all jursidictions... that alone has all kinds of potential. Practically the broadcast equivalent of the InterNet. Potentially, you could put up a "freeware" files broadcaster ( along with say weather data, stocks, other commonly accessed data types ) , with a front page like say Google full of adware and infomercials. The MPEG technology would permit it. Can you see all the STB "code monkeys" scurrying off to look into this about right now:devil: ?

The outlay on your part as a user is maybe $750 tops. For a "broadcaster" FTA has similar economies. You really only need an uplink, a highspeed internet link to the uplink, and maybe freelance "reporters" ( TV "personalities" ) with camera equipped cell phones... your in business. And thats a world wide audience!

 

[Mr Tony]

Seems to me that there are a lot of FTA STB manufacturers out there and they must be selling something to someone, 'cuz its certainly moving here in North America.

alot of manufacturers that are coming out seem to cater to one type......yep the ones that I have the big "hack talk will get you banned" thread for.

 

[Pepper]

Once FTA becomes anything more than a niche market in the USA, expect ALL transmissions other than raw feeds or religious and infomercials and government propaganda (foreign and domestic) to be encrypted.

The entities who own the broadcast rights, for example the other UPN affiliates who have bought exclusive rights to air a specific program in a specific market, will not tolerate people getting the same signal from somewhere else while bypassing their local advertisers.

 

[Stargazer]

National channels would not have to worry as much about being encrypted as the network channels because they do not have local commercials/content that needs to be added in.

 

[Cold Winter]

alot of manufacturers that are coming out seem to cater to one type......yep the ones that I have the big "hack talk will get you banned" thread for.

I'm not sure that market will hold up for that long. Too easy for the law to monitor. OTOH, the argument that everything will get encrypted is probably right, right up to the point that market breaks down. I know a lot of people who go to the cable guy and only want internet and NO TV. Trends already there.

Besides there are still an aweful lot of national advertisers out there and they represent a lot of untapped potential in the FTA arena. Think of this as nothing more than your old fashioned over the air TV station gone satellite with an advertiser base to match.

 

[Mr Tony]

Cold Winter
I don’t think you understand. All FTA boxes come legal…it’s what they do to them that it becomes illegal. They download 3rd party software into the boxes to unscramble subscription programming.

How come one of my receivers still has the original software in it yet the illegal stuff is 15 version ahead of the legal stuff?

 

[RVD420]

I would be afraid the the illegal firmware would burn out my FTA box. I love my Viewsat too much.

 

[sharris]

As for the unencrypted signals out there....A person can speculate all they want. Those of us that have been doing FTA even before the "Hack software" issue even came around know that FTA is here today and gone tommarow. What I mean is, some channels go, while others appear. My two cents...I don't think that this will ever change. All the satellite owners (pansat, intelsat etc.., ) want is someone to purchase time off of there satellite, they don't care if it is encryted or not. A person could make the argument that with increases in technology and cheaper electronics, satellites will be cheaper to make and deploy, thusly making small TV stations (independents) out there to have cheaper access to more people. Of course the larger the audience the more money the TV station can make on advertisments.

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

As for the unencrypted signals out there....A person can speculate all they want. Those of us that have been doing FTA even before the "Hack software" issue even came around know that FTA is here today and gone tommarow. What I mean is, some channels go, while others appear. My two cents...I don't think that this will ever change. All the satellite owners (pansat, intelsat etc.., ) want is someone to purchase time off of there satellite, they don't care if it is encryted or not. A person could make the argument that with increases in technology and cheaper electronics, satellites will be cheaper to make and deploy, thusly making small TV stations (independents) out there to have cheaper access to more people. Of course the larger the audience the more money the TV station can make on advertisments.

I agree with most of what you say and I too think that FTA has the potential to be a huge money maker. It could be like OTA used to be with an unlimited audience. One issue is being able to prove how many people are watching you. Of course, if they wanted to bad enough they could surely work this out. There is probably more money in what the DBS services are doing. As for encryption, there are things that are such as the stations that went black recently mainly because of NFL football.

I am old enough to remember when all TV wa free, so I am thinking of putting my money where my mouth is and going to only FTA for myself. My wife has a TV in the bedroom and I am thinking of getting Directv for her in there and just using FTA on the main TV. We have Adelphia now but I am getting sick of paying them and their constant increases. I also plan on putting up a really good OTA antenna and rotor sooner or later as I can get around 20 stations with that.

 

[Mr Tony]

I agree Tracy...but you are near the border so you can get CBC

I wish I was near a CBC translator station

 

[Larry1]

He probably will not get CBC once the analog signals are switched off. The digital signal of the Canadian channels are very low powered. I think CBC Toronto is only 38kW. I am about an hour east of Toronto and can get the analog signals, but nothing of the any of the digital signals. Have a look at this link for station power levels:
http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/index.html

 

[Wholeshoe]

Canada may not switch the analog signal off. THat is a US thing so if you picing up a canadian station it may not apply.
I have no idea if Canada is making the transition too.
BTW I am working in KY right now building a DSL Headend. We put in a Simusat and had antennas for OTA hung on the tower. The real nice thing I found on the digital OTA is that the Tube is on one of the boradcaster in this area and the system may add it as a channel.

Here is a pic of the simulsat going in.

Wholeshoe

 

[techpuppy]

I hope this isn't getting too far off topic. It would seem to me that eventually some broadcasters will realize that there is a great potential market in FTA. Think how inexepensive it would be to launch an FTA weather channel or news headline channel using today's technology. Equity seems to be forward thinking enough and FTA friendly to try this. It's restating the obvious, but TBS, etc. got its start by throwing their WTBS signal up on satellite, Unscrambled, years ago.