[j (Unverified) Posted Oct 18th 2006 1:07PM]

The launching of a new spot beam satellite for SD operations is very good news for DirecTV HD subscribers. Basically what all the HD subscribers are asking for are more national HD channels, it only makes sense to carry these channels on the orbital slots (101 deg, 110 deg etc) that blanket the country since these are nationally syndicated networks (read: not spot beam satellites). However, currently the 101 and 110 orbital satellites are totally full up with existing programing including SD local channels. Think about it, DirecTV offers local channels over the satellite in almost 200 markets; 200 markets X 4-6 channels per market = a whole lot of bandwidth that they have to send into space and beam back down. What spot beam allows them to do is focus the signals on different areas of the country. In this way they can use the same frequency range on the same orbital slot to carry different data, just focused on the east coast or the west coast or somewhere in between. With spot beam they can dramatically increase the capacity of each satellite. Therefore, if they launch a new spot beam satellite for SD operations, that means they can move many existing SD local channel offerings to the new spot beam satellite and free up space on the national orbitals for MORE HD CHANNELS. Furthermore, just because this satellite is slated for SD operations now doesn't mean it can't be used for HD later or for their MPEG4 AVC systems down the road. I'm a DirecTV HD subscriber and I don't think a day goes by where I don't curse myself for not getting Dish (as I flip endlessly between channels 70 and 90); DirecTV is way behind the competition on HD. However, the launch of the new satellite and the continued build out of a all new MPEG4 network is keeping my fingers crossed that DirecTV will leapfrog Dish in the not too distant future. More satellite capacity is never a bad thing folks.