All markets

[Brett]

DirecTV has announced they'll carry the top 100 markets and maybe more. I expect will DISH carry about the same - 100 (but some different markets)? Can all 210 Nielsen markets get covered atleast through one provider, meaning atleast one DBS company will have locals there?

[Chris Freeland]

If I am not mistaken E* will likely top out at about 80 markets on the current spot-beam satellites and according to a statement made by Charlie, up to 60 additional markets may be added to E* new E9 bird being launched to the 121 orbital location in May. By the end of this year or early next year in theory E* could have as many as 140 markets up, however those last 60~ will likely require a larger dish. Many markets will overlap, I doubt very much all 210 dma's will ever be on one provider or another. My guess is that 170-180 dma's tops will ever be on E*, D* or both.

[Mike123abc]

It will be interesting to see what type of dish Dish comes up with to see all 3 at the same time. They could move the locals off the wings onto 121. The transponders on 121 will be as powerful as 148/61.5. They could use that fancy double reflector dish that has popped up here a few times ( http://www.multilnbdish.com ).

[SamC]

Markets 1-100 cover 86.2% of people. So the return for carrying markets 101-212 is roughly 1/7th as much as 1-100, at same/greater cost.

Further, after about market 150 or so, the situation on the ground is different from the neat SHVIA plan. Markets consist of less than 4 channels, with cable bringing in all or some of the affiliates from other places. For DBS to offer, say market #188, Parkersburg, WV, consisting of a single UHF NBC station that everybody in the 3 county market can receive perfectly OTA, while cable offers to double full set of networks from Huntington, WV and Columbus, OH, plus that one local, would not be competitive, or cost effective.