Hello everyone,

I am currently doing research on the viability of a low-cost basic C-Band subscription service similar to the current HITS TV in order to provide a selection of Canadian and US channels which are normally not available on FTA satellite.  As all channels would be carried on a single satellite, people who currently don't have a C-band dish would have the option of installing a fixed dish instead of motorized in in order to simplify the installation and reduce equipment costs.

The service would initially provide the following channels with more being added in the future:

- CBLT - CBC Toronto HD
- CFTO - CTV Toronto HD
- CITY TV Toronto
- TVO Toronto
- PBS
- PBS World
- KTLA Los Angeles
- WGN Chicago HD
- WPIX CW New York HD
- WWOR My Network TV New York HD
- Bounce TV
- The big 4 US networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX)

I understand that some people are fortunate enough to receive one or more of these channels via OTA with an antenna but many Canadians are not so fortunate as they located outside of the coverage area.

Interested in hearing from everyone if you would be willing to subscribe to such a service and if so, the maximum subscription price you are willing to pay.

Few questions..

1. why not KU band?

2. how much cost were you thinking

3. what other channels would you add later?

4. would it be on a c-band sat that a 1.2 motorized could get reliably? thus not losing the rest of my OTA channels yet not having to put up another dish.

C band transponders are cheaper in cost to lease then Ku. I would go with Ku as you'll have a greater market that can install a 30 inch dish. Here in Mississauga there is a bylaw against 6 foot+ BUD's.

That mux with all of that HD you might just squeez it on a single transponder running 8psk and mpeg4... and possibly S2.

Just so you know, a transponder leased full time will cost you around 2 million USD per year. This does not include the teleport and all of these other fees and licenses.

What kind of price point would you be looking at for subscription?

Are the channels mentioned mostly HD (720i or better)?

Particular receiver required for the subscription service?

Receiver/dish package(s) available?

I think it is a great idea if the price is low enough, would have to be in the $20/mo or less range or DBS services would be more appealing to the public...

Maybe a yearly charge of say $80...?

Have you crunched the numbers on this business venture?  You will need at least 2.5 million dollars just for the satellite transponder and teleport fees, this does not even include signal collection, licensing, encoding & data transport costs.

You will need 125,000 subscribers in the first year paying $20 a month just to break even.

As for HITS they sell their service 'Direct-to-Home' only as a side business... they really make their big money as a "Headend In The Sky" (HITS) to Cable operators across the USA.

You would have a better chance at making it big by going the IPTV route. IPTV is relatively cheap to deploy these days and most everyone has a fast enough internet connection to support IPTV streaming. IPTV set top boxes are only around $100

Problem with IP services is that the target audience likely does not have access to bandwidth for video. I am thinking rural or small towns that do not have a major cable company supplying reletively cheap cable or internet services. Where I live, I have to pay more than $100/mo for internet service that is really too slow for video; but it is the only service I have access to other than satellite which would cost even more plus bandwidth charges.

"You would have a better chance at making it big by going the IPTV route. IPTV is relatively cheap to deploy these days and most everyone has a fast enough internet connection to support IPTV streaming. IPTV set top boxes are only around $100"

I am in a fairly well populated area of southern Manitoba close to the US border. Most rural or small town residential and small businesses here only have access to 100-300Kb low speed DSL or RF. Local data from cell providers is very expensive and throughput is dismal, worse during the daytime. We have no access to Bell Canada other than Bell Satellite with dial-up uplink. No fibe IPTV here, I don't even think this service is available in Winnipeg.

One local company (Manitoba specific) installed LTE systems on their cell towers, but have no connectivity to the cell towers to support the bandwidth, so they haven't even bothered to turn them on... Smart phones do work here but loading web pages is very slow. VOIP services like Skype work but with voice only. Many rural residents still use dial-up because it's all they can afford or all that's available.

There is really no incentive for large telecom companies to provide services to rural or small town residents in this country. Their shareholders want to see more profit for their investment, and only covering the highest density population areas is the only way to achieve this.