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Article: DBS direct satellite services: cable's farm system? (direct broadcast satellite TV; cable TV broadcasting industry)
- Article from:
- Multichannel News
- Article date:
- November 21, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Cable operators see the new generation of direct-broadcast satellite services, DirecTv and USSB, as pure competition gunning for cable subscribers. But for the programming networks, these new distribution pipelines (combined with the traditional home-dish market) are a valuable source of additional revenue, and for the newer, less widely carried networks, they're nothing less than a survival tool.
"For Court TV, direct-satellite is like freeing the slaves, because suddenly we have more than one distributor, and we need to be distributed," said Steven Brill, CEO and editor-in-chief of Courtroom Television Network. "So if Comcast isn't going to distribute us in ...