Originally posted by Keith4USC
Where is that site that shows Columbia being listed?
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2370
Has become the topic for all things related to R/L DBS. Columbia is slated for spotbeam #08.
Steve has summed up 61.5 pretty well. Echostar owns 11 licenses (TPs), Dominion (Sky Angel) ownes 8 licenses, R/L DBS owns 11 licenses, 2 licenses aren't owned by anyone. R/L DBS will be launching their satellite fall of next year and will offer a different and competing DBS service.
I'll try to present spotbeams is layman terms. Maybe that will help you understand them better. Also if you haven't been to my website that shows the spotbeams for all the DBS satellites I would suggest having a look. Seeing the maps may also be a help for you in understanding spotbeams.
http://www.stratuswave.net/~bryan27/dbsbeam.html
Basically all satellites transmit a footprint. This is where the signal strikes the Earth. Not everywhere on the planet is in the satellite's footprint. For example the satellites at 119 beam to the US, but those in say Panama aren't in the footprint and can't receive the satellite. Now lets put everything on a smaller scale and make the US New York City, Panama Chicago, and lets say Europe is Kansas City. A small beam is sent to New York on TP1, instead of covering the entire US it only covers the metropolitan area. Those in Chicago are rather close to New York, but are slightly out side the beam. To avoid interference a beam is sent to Chicago on TP2 instead of TP1. Since Kansas City is so far away from New York the transmission on TP1 doesn't reach them at all so another beam is sent on TP1 for those in Kansas City. All three beams have completly different programming although two of the beams are using TP1.
To think of it another way Broadcast Television is only on a select few channels. For example there are 100's of stations in the US on Channel 2. Channel 2 in New York has a certian area on the Earth it reaches. Since it doesn't reach the entire country other areas can transmit on the same channel for example Channel 2 in Pittsburgh. In the middle is Philadelphia instead of a station transmitting on Channel 2 a station instead transmitts on Channel 3. All three stations reach a different area and have different programming even though 2 of them are on Channel 2. The same occurs with spotbeams since say TP1 doesn't reach the entire US TP1 can be used in several different areas, much like the same TV Channel can be used in several different areas.