Fire with Fire

Stuart M. Lefkowitz, chief operating officer

WSNet

Private Cable and Wireless magazine

As we peer into satellite television’s crystal ball for 2002, it’s a tough to see anything past the elephant in our industry’s living room – the proposed merger between DirecTV and EchoStar, the two dominant direct-to-home providers. Unfortunately, while legislators and regulators fiddle over this expected monopoly, hundreds of small and rural cable operators face bankruptcy because they can’t afford to improve their physical plant to compete with the DBS titans.

Fortunately, the attention policymakers will focus on this merger can’t prevent the salvation of small and rural cable system operators from satellite television … by satellite television.

Satellite television technology evolved rapidly over the last year. With the initial deployment of Quadratic Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology by small, rural, and private cable companies, the operators who are most challenged by DBS were finally empowered with an option to affordably expand their programming that avoids the cost-prohibitive expansion of their physical plants. With digital video content delivered by satellite and distributed to end users with QAM, every American household can easily enjoy 200 channels of quality digital programming.

WSNet’s QAM technology also allows hundreds of small and rural providers to retain decisive competitive advantages over DBS: the delivery of local programming while continuing to brand, bill, sell, install, and maintain cable equipment and services under their known and trusted name.

With intensive lobbying on both sides, a conditioned DirecTV-EchoStar merger is likely to earn regulatory approval late in 2002. But, whether our industry ends up with two providers or only one, DBS will continue to drive small and rural cable customers away from local providers unless those providers expand their programming to compete. WSNet empowers small, rural, and private cable operators to cost-effectively deliver more than 200 channels of digital video, music, and pay-per-view alternatives to DBS, preventing the effective monopolization of satellite television.