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Space-Based Broadcasting The Future of Worldwide Audio Broadcasting (1985) / Chapter Skim
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Section 5: The UHF Space Segment and Surface Feeder Ownership and Operation and Maintenance Costs
Pages 41-44

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From page 41...
... With allowance made for depreciation tax deductions, investment tax credits, etc., the cost after taxes would be approximately 15 percent per year. Assume that the annual operating cost of the surface feeder site, including Intelsat audio channel charges for channels from the individual government broadcasters and surface monitoring sites, would be $10 million.
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From page 42...
... systems and conventional methods of high-quality sound broadcasting." The paper's Annex 2 gives the cost estimate for providing two audio programs via a terrestrial VHF-FM network to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and Annex estimates the provision of such a Ukrainian service were it to be provided by a space segment. A comparison of the two methods "...shows that the establishment of terrestrial sound broadcasting systems is 5-40 times cheaper...." The paper's main conclusion is: "In view of the fact that sound broadcasting-satellite systems are not economically justified, the U.S.S.R.
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From page 43...
... This broad conclusion cannot be reached on the basis of such a narrow compari son and i s i ncorrect. A common-user, comon-carrier system of the character outlined in this paper takes advantage of the fact that, using sophisticated space technology and operating methods, enormous areas can be appropriately served and a very large number of sound channels can be made available to the large number of broadcasting users of the service offered.
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From page 44...
... (At the present time, of the $160 million per year the VOA spends for other than the acquisition of equipment and facilities, it spends approximately t50 million to broadcast to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and, approximately $~10 million to broadcast to the rest of the world. If the YOA could use lO percent of a DBS-A service to broadcast to countries other than the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at a cost of SlO to 20 million per year, it could then reduce its ongoing broadcasting costs by about $100 million per year.)
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Key Terms

  • square miles
  • annual cost
  • space segments
  • regional space
  • sound broadcasting

  • acquisition cost
  • broadcast throughout
  • individual government
  • segment designed
  • government broadcasters

  • cost estimate
  • beams x
  • surface feeder
  • evening hours
  • operating cost

  • audio broadcasting
  • using sophisticated
  • paper takes
  • sufficiently accurate
  • broadcasting costs

  • service channels
  • red ate
  • soviet socialist
  • million square
  • eastern europe

  • economic power
  • normalized square
  • ukrainian service
  • including intelsat
  • terrain features


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