Migration of Satellite Broadcasting

As I always said, broadcast operators are migrating from satellite to internet broadcasting. The satellite broadcasting costs over $7,000 per channel per month for Mpeg4 transmission format. Mpeg-4 transmission requires the bandwidth at around 1.5 Mbps to transmit a single channel via network to uplink to the satellite. 
In the other hand, the older process, which uses Mpeg2 type of transmission, would costs more since the bandwidth required has to be at about 2 Mbps. You can click on this link to learn the different between Mpeg2 and Mpeg4. The cost of Mpeg2 transmission over the satellite would cost an operator about $14,000 per channel per month to operate and maintain services. This cost is only cover the uplink company to obtain a space on a satellite slot. Broadcast operator also needs to concern about networking cost, which would be around $2,000 – $4,000 per month.

So the total cost to operate a satellite company is about $15,000 - $20,000 per month. They must have to gain advertising or income at about $700 a day for a 30 days period. It is very tough in today’s economy.  A lot of companies, from my experiences, assumed that earning income would be easy to gain $700 a day from the sponsors, sales, and etc., they are underestimated the market size. 
At the beginning of 2012, there were about 5 Thai/Lao television stations opened up in the same satellite, but as of right now, only 2 stations survive and not doing well.

Many companies could not compete with the cost of production and demand from the viewers. Viewers would love to see good programs, operators would try to save production cost as much as possible. With the limited income from product sales and sponsors, the broadcasting company could not survive in the satellite market. Many new comers are starting their company as Internet Broadcasting.

Financial issue is the main reason people are migrating from satellite broadcasting to Internet broadcasting instead.  Many people are starting the company as an IPTV.