Chapter 254

There are public stations, cable stations and pay stations in the United States, but what is the essential difference between these TV stations? Henry has been living in the United States for so long, and he has made it clear.

At present, there are five public TV stations in the United States, ABC, NBC, CBS, fox, PBS (PBS is a non-profit public welfare TV station, CW TV station has not been established yet). The signals of these stations almost cover the whole United States, forming a huge TV network, so they are also called five public broadcasting networks!

These public stations are equivalent to China's CCTV, Hunan Satellite TV, Zhejiang satellite TV and so on... Almost all American families can watch them, and the profits of TV stations mainly depend on advertisements and TV series videos!

You may wonder why there are so few public stations in the United States. In fact, these stations have many sub channels. In prime time, such as 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., other sub channels will broadcast the programs of public stations, while at other times, different cities have different ABC channels, and the contents they broadcast can be different programs. ABC has more than 200 sub stations.

And cable TV stations have CNN, HBO, cinemax, * and so on. Some of them need extra subscription to watch, so they are also pay stations!

Usually, TV stations have packages.

The first is the most basic package: five public broadcasting networks plus about 20 cable channels, which belongs to the poor in the United States!

The second category includes five major public broadcasting networks and 70 cable TV stations, but the more popular cable TV stations such as HBO, Showtime, Starz, cinemax and so on are not included. Most Americans buy this kind of package!

The third is that you can customize HBO, Showtime, Starz, cinemax channels, and even some pure channels. Cinemax channels are basically "action blockbusters" and have no plot. Therefore, when watching such programs, you have to enter a password to prevent children from watching (you know)

Generally speaking, public broadcasting network covers a wide range, makes more profits than cable TV stations, and has greater influence!

The principle of public broadcasting network is to place a high-power signal transmitter in a central city, and then place a repeater every other distance (used to strengthen the signal, because the signal transmission distance is too long, it will be weak). In other small cities, a signal receiver and broadcasting system can be put. Ordinary families can watch this kind of public radio program as long as they have an antenna! And cable TV is different, to watch cable TV channel, you need to lay coaxial cable to connect to the home, it is very troublesome, and the speed of customer development is also slow!

Compared with the two, the public broadcasting network is obviously better.

Henry was very impressed by the TV sets in the past. At least one antenna was inserted at the back of the TV set, and some even two or three antennas were inserted. Naturally, the antenna was specially used to receive TV signals! But with the development of cable TV network, and the emergence of many good programs, the audience naturally want to watch cable TV station, so, can only cable access (connected to the back of the TV or set-top box above)! As for the public stations, they will be sold together with cable TV stations. Therefore, in cities or better developed suburbs, who still use the antenna to watch TV, basically use cable access!

However, although the public broadcasting network is more profitable, the investment in the construction of the public broadcasting network is also huge, such as transmitters, repeaters, base stations, towers, various electronic equipment and concrete equipment, etc; In fact, investment in equipment is only one reason. What's more important is that you don't have the construction qualification at all. If you want to build a launch station in a place, you need a lot of approval documents and the permission of the land owner. Without strong financial resources and contacts, it's almost impossible to do well!

Therefore, the use of coaxial cable is the inevitable choice for the development of CATV network! Just imagine, fixed line, broadband and TV all need to be connected to families. Why not get them together? How cost saving!

Therefore, cable TV operators are often telecom giants! However, it will be after 1996!

As for TV station and cable TV operator, they are two different concepts. TV station is "program provider"! The coaxial cable access, line laying, signal management and other work must be done by someone... Who will do it, that is, the "cable TV operators" will do it!

Before the development of cable TV network, the three major TV networks in the United States were TV operators themselves. But now most families are using cable TV, so cable TV operators emerge as the times require!

With the development of science and technology, in addition to cable TV operators, wireless TV operators have been born. In the future, the most famous one is DirecTV, an American Direct TV satellite company, which has been in the forefront of the world in terms of Direct TV satellite and high-definition satellite. It has many of its own "Direct TV satellites", with a market value of more than 50 billion US dollars! However, after that, the current DirecTV company has not been established, and it will wait until 1994

In fact, Henry can also buy "live satellite" and engage in the operation of TV live satellite! What's more, with the existence of SpaceX, a space exploration technology company, the rocket launch price can be much cheaper. As for the "live satellite", it can be purchased from other companies!

In the mid-1980s, Europe and Japan successively established Ku band direct broadcast satellites based on analog technology. Now, the technology is very mature!

There are also many companies in the United States that can produce live broadcast satellites!

There are 20 high-power Ku band transponders inside the ordinary direct broadcast satellite. Each transponder can transmit 4 to 8 TV channels, and the system capacity is larger. Generally, it can store 100 or 200 channels. Think about it, buy a hundred live satellite, and then the TV channels of all countries around the world can basically watch, this is a kind of rhythm against the sky!

Who can match such a TV operator?

However, if we really want to do this, I'm afraid the satellite manufacturing company will not be able to close its mouth

Henry thought, at least until SpaceX can develop its own satellite. You have a way is not to flow to outsiders, how can you give so much money to competitors? How many of those who make satellites are not engaged in rocket research and development?!

Williams telecom company itself has the advantage that it can enter the cable TV operator industry, and Williams Film and television media group can acquire the broadcasting company!

In fact, all telecom companies want to engage in cable TV business very much, and Williams telecom company is no exception. It's just one more cable left and right... Unfortunately, in the 1970s and 1990s, in order to protect the new cable TV industry and avoid the monopoly telecom companies using unfair competition means to crowd out cable TV companies, The Federal Telecommunication Commission forbids mixed operation of cable TV business by telecommunication companies.

However, at the beginning of this year, a number of U.S. telecom companies, including Williams Telecom, formed an alliance, and then filed a lawsuit to the Federal Court on the ground that the Federal Telecommunication Commission's policy violated freedom of speech, and finally won! This victory eventually led to the promulgation of the telecommunication act of 1996. Since then, the telecommunication and television industry in the United States has been free to do whatever it wants!

Now it's 1992, and it's going to take a few years. However, Williams Telecom can make preparations as early as possible... Its subsidiary, CommScope fiber manufacturing company, has started to study the integration of three networks, namely telephone, TV and broadband.

After the integration of the three networks, it can not only enhance the competitiveness, provide users with better services, but also reduce costs!!!

There are three important technical foundations for triple play

1. Mature digital technology, that is, voice, data, image and other information can be encoded into 0 and 1 bit stream for transmission and exchange, which is the basic condition of triple play.

2. Adopt TCP / IP protocol. Only based on the independent IP address, can we realize the point-to-point, point-to-multipoint interaction, and make all kinds of IP based services interworking in different networks.

3. Optical communication technology. Only optical communication technology can provide enough information transmission speed, ensure the transmission quality, optical communication technology also makes the transmission cost drop significantly!

IP phone is one of the applications in the integration of three networks, and it is also one of the most important competitive fields for all telecom operators in the future.

IP phone is also called network phone. It is a new communication technology that uses Internet as the medium of voice transmission to realize voice communication. Its cost is much cheaper than the traditional call price, and its development trend is very rapid!

At present, ICQ company is developing ICQ voice system "Skype", and this is the rudiment of IP phone application... At a certain stage of development, it is also possible to directly dial the phone number of the other party with the computer, and even "mobile phone dialing mobile phone" also uses the IP phone function, so as to reduce the phone charges!

The emergence of IP phone is undoubtedly a great challenge to traditional telecom companies. Obviously, it is the interests of the telecommunication companies that will be lost in the reduction of telephone charges. But if you don't make changes, then users will run to the competitors and lose more!

Henry summed up that the top priority is to speed up the acquisition of TV stations, among which ABC ABC and TBS Turner are their own acquisition targets! However, these two companies are not cheap, Disney acquired ABC ABC with 19 billion US dollars, Time Warner acquired TBS turner with 7.6 billion US dollars! Among them, the acquisition negotiation is also protracted, took more than a year!

TBS Turner Broadcasting Company is OK, Ted Turner himself has the intention to retire! He wants to enjoy life, live in the countryside, and engage in environmental protection. In his manor, he can often see endangered wild animals such as wood stork, vulture, Canadian argali, black footed ferret and black tailed prairie wolf dog. The money he spent on wildlife protection is more than the money he spent on land with a huge sum of 500 million dollars!

ABC American Broadcasting Company is a bit difficult. It has a good relationship with Disney. Many Disney programs are broadcast on ABC TV. In fact, you don't have to think about it. Once the news of ABC ABC's acquisition comes out, Disney Company will definitely intervene