a new TV thread

[Snowreap]

Satellite operates under similar bandwidth constraints as cable. you can't broadcast two different channels on the same frequency at the same time, regardless of whether you are sending your signal out over the air (or through vacuum for part of it) or through a wire.

actually cable may have better bandwidth, depending on the characteristics of the wiring, since you can send signals through a cable at the same frequencies other people are using for other things (for example you can use the frequencies normally reserved for FM radio to send something else, without actually interfering with over-the-air FM broadcasts). Satellite is constrained to only using the frequencies they've been allocated, so that they don't interfere with other frequency bands allocated to others.

-ken