Overview

Ted Carlin, Ph.D.*

* Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Communication and Journalism, Shippensburg University (Shippensburg, Pennsylvania).

What is the best way to get multichannel video programming today? The answer is becoming more complicated. As discussed in Chapter 3, cable television is changing, upgrading to digital service that offers more channels, better picture quality, and extras such as Internet service. Recent cable price hikes, primarily due to increased programming costs, have given consumers more reasons to consider another option for their television service. Already frustrated by the typical cable problems of signal quality, channel capacity, and customer service, higher cable prices from 1999 to 2002 have pushed many consumers to search for an alternative.

Waiting for these consumers are the communication technologies of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems, wireless cable systems (MMDS and LMDS), home satellite dishes (HSDs), the telephone, and the Internet. With the increasing development of digital production, transmission, and reception equipment, the multichannel video program distribution (MVPD) field is growing crowded as companies race to develop digital systems that will entice consumers away from firmly established cable television providers. The digital revolution in television technology is starting to give consumers what the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has always promoted: a level playing field of multichannel video program distribution services from which consumers can pick and choose.

This chapter will focus on the fastest growing multichannel video program distribution service: DBS systems. Providers of DBS systems are actively competing with cable television for subscribers and currently offer...