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 figured it out.

There are currently five public channels in the United States: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBS (PBS is a non-profit public welfare television station, and CW television station has not yet been established). The signals of these stations cover almost the entire United States, forming a huge television network. Called the top five public broadcasting networks!

These public stations are equivalent to China's CCTV, Hunan Satellite TV, Zhejiang Satellite TV, etc....Almost everyone can watch it, and the profit of TV stations mainly depends on advertising and TV drama tapes to make money!

You may wonder why there are so few public stations in the United States. In fact, these TV stations have many sub-channels. During prime time, such as 8:00pm-10:00pm, other sub-channels will uniformly broadcast public station programs, while at other times, different cities have different abc channels, and they can broadcast different programs. ABC TV station has more than two hundred sub-stations.

The cable TV stations include CNN, HBO, cinemax, ***, etc. Some of the cable TV stations require additional subscriptions to watch, so they are pay stations!

Usually, TV stations have packages.

The first category is the most basic package: five major public broadcasting networks plus about 20 cable channels, this is a package for 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, etc. are not included. The average American buys this package!

The third category is that you can customize channels such as HBO, showtime, starz, Cinemax and even some pure pornography. Cinemax channels are basically "action blockbusters", and there is no plot. Therefore, when watching such programs, you must enter a password to prevent children from watching (you know that)...

Generally speaking, public broadcasting networks cover a wide range, make more profits than cable TV stations, and have greater influence!

The principle of the public broadcasting network is to place a high-power signal transmitter in a central city, and then place a repeater at intervals (used to strengthen the signal, because the signal transmission distance is too far will weaken), other ordinary small cities Just put a signal receiver and broadcasting system. Ordinary families can watch this kind of public broadcasting program as long as they have an antenna! Cable TV is different. If you want to watch cable TV channels, you need to lay coaxial cables to connect to the home, which is very troublesome, and the speed of developing customers is also slow!

Compared with the two, the public broadcasting network clearly wins.

The previous TV sets impressed Henry very deeply. At least one antenna was inserted behind the TV, and some even had two or three antennas. The antennas were naturally used to receive TV signals! However, with the development of cable TV networks and the emergence of many good programs, viewers naturally want to watch cable TV stations, so they can only access it via cable (connected to the back of the TV or on the set-top box)! As for those public stations, they are packaged and sold together with the cable TV stations. Therefore, in cities or suburbs with better development, whoever uses antennas to watch TV basically uses wired 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, the investment in equipment is only one reason. What's more important is that you have no qualifications at all. You need a lot of approvals to build a launch station in one place, and you also need the permission of the landowner. Without strong financial resources and contacts, it is almost impossible to do it!

Therefore, the use of coaxial cable is an inevitable choice for the development of cable TV networks! Just imagine, fixed lines, broadband, and TV are all connected to the family, why not get them together? What a cost saving!

Therefore, cable TV operators are often telecommunications giants too! However, this will be after 1996!

As for TV stations and cable operators, they are two different concepts. TV stations are "program providers"! Then someone has to do the coaxial cable access, line laying, signal management, etc.... Who will do it? The "cable TV operator" will do it!

When the cable TV network has not yet developed, the three major TV networks in the United States are themselves TV operators. But now most households are using cable TV, so cable TV operators came into being!

With the development of science and technology, among TV operators, in addition to cable TV operators, wireless TV operators were born. In the future, the most famous is the American direct broadcast satellite company DIRECTV. The company has been in the field of direct TV satellite and high-definition satellites. In the forefront of the world, it has many of its own "live broadcast satellites" with a market value of more than 50 billion US dollars! However, after that, the current DIRECTV company has not been established yet, and it has to wait until 1994...

In fact, Henry can also purchase "direct broadcast satellites" to operate TV direct broadcast satellites! What's more, with the existence of space exploration technology company SpaceX, the price of rocket launches can be much cheaper. As for "live broadcast satellites", they can be purchased from other companies!

In the mid-1980s, Europe and Japan successively established Ku-band direct-broadcast satellites based on analog technology. Up to now, the technology has been very mature!

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

Ordinary direct broadcast satellites are equipped with ten or twenty high-power KU-band transponders, and each transponder can transmit 4 to 8 TV channels, but the system capacity is larger, and generally can store one or two hundred channels. Think about it, buy a hundreds of live satellites, and then basically all TV channels in all countries around the world can be watched, this is simply a rhythm against the sky!

Who can compare to such a TV operator?

However, if you really want to do this, I am afraid that the smile of the satellite manufacturing company will not be able to close...

Henry thought, at least wait until SpaceX can develop its own satellites. It is true that the fertilizer does not flow to outsiders' fields, how can you give so much money to your competitors? Of those that make satellites, how many do not engage in rocket research and development? !

Williams Telecom Company has its own advantages, it can enter the cable TV operator industry, and Williams Film and Television Media Group can acquire broadcasting companies!

In fact, all telecommunications companies very much want to engage in the business of cable TV operations, and Williams Telecommunications is no exception. There is only one more wire left and right... It is a pity that between the 70s and the 90s, In order to protect the nascent cable television industry and avoid monopolistic telecommunications companies from using unfair competition to squeeze cable companies out, the Federal Telecommunications Commission prohibits telecommunications companies from operating cable TV businesses in combination.

However, at the beginning of this year, many telecommunications companies in the United States, including Williams Telecom, formed an alliance, and subsequently filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court on the grounds that the Federal Telecommunications Commission policy violated freedom of speech, and finally won! This victory eventually led to the promulgation of the "Telecommunications Act of 1996". Since then, the US telecom and television industry has done whatever it wants, with no restrictions and complete freedom!

It is 1992, and it will take a few years. However, Williams Telecom can make preparations early... its subsidiary CommScope Optical Fiber Manufacturing Company has already begun to study triple play at this moment!

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

The triple play has 3 important technical foundations:

1. Mature digital technology, that is, voice, data, image and other information can be transmitted and exchanged through bit streams encoded into 0 and 1. This is the basic condition for the integration of the three networks.

2. Use TCP/IP protocol. Only based on independent IP addresses can point-to-point and point-to-multipoint interactions be realized, and various IP-based services can be interconnected on different networks.

3. Optical communication technology. Only optical communication technology can provide sufficient information transmission speed and ensure transmission quality. Optical communication technology also greatly reduces transmission costs!

IP telephony is an application in the triple play, and it is also one of the most important competitive areas for all telecom operators in the future.

IP telephony is also called Internet telephony. It is a brand-new communication technology that uses the Internet as the voice transmission medium to realize voice communication. Its cost is much cheaper than the traditional call price, and it is developing rapidly!

At present, ICQ company is developing the ICQ voice system "skype", and this is the embryonic form of IP telephony applications... At a certain stage of development, it is also possible to dial the other party's phone number directly with a computer, and even "phone to mobile phone" also uses IP Telephone function, thereby reducing call charges!

The emergence of IP telephony is undoubtedly a huge challenge to traditional telecommunications companies ~ lightnovelpub.net ~ Obviously, the call charges are reduced, and the loss is the interests of the telecommunications companies. But if no change is made, then users will go to the competitor's side and lose even more!

Henry summed it up, the top priority is the need to speed up the acquisition of TV stations. Among them, ABC American Broadcasting Corporation and TBS Turner Broadcasting Corporation are their own acquisition targets! However, these two companies are not cheap, Disney bought ABC American Broadcasting Company for 19 billion US dollars, Time Warner bought TBS Turner Broadcasting Company for 7.6 billion US dollars! Among them, the acquisition negotiations were also protracted and took more than a year!

TBS Turner Broadcasting Company Fortunately, Ted Turner himself has already intended to retire! He wants to enjoy his life, to live in the countryside, and to engage in environmental protection with peace of mind. In his manor, he can often see wood storks, vultures, Canadian argali, black-footed ferrets, and black-tailed prairie wolfhounds. Wild animals, the money he spent on wildlife protection is more than the money he spent 500 million dollars on buying land!

But ABC American Broadcasting Company is a bit difficult. This company has a very good relationship with Disney. Many Disney programs are broadcast on ABC TV. In fact, there is no need to think about it. Once the news of the acquisition of ABC American Broadcasting Corporation comes out, then Disney will definitely step in...

(To be continued.)