[BC] Starguides: Going Away

[Rich Wood]

------ At 08:05 AM 4/23/2007, Tom Taggart wrote: -------

>X-Digital, the San Diego company that's making ABC's new receiver, 
>announced the purchase of patents and other assets of DG 
>FastChannel--the people who make the Starguide.
>
>ABC satellite carries the network feeds of dozens of smaller 
>networks, including MRN/PRN Nascar races, Salem, and Rich Wood's old 
>employer, WOR.  I doubt that all these nets will be rushing out to 
>buy new receivers for their affiliates. So I suspect old Starguides 
>will remain useful for a number of years.

I've been through this twice. Once at ABC when we went SEDAT, then at 
WOR when Starguide came in. Starguide bought the rights to the old 
receivers and shut the system down. It looks like deja vu, all over, again.

What's happened in the past is that the satellite providers gave a 
limited number of SEDAT cards or Starguide receivers to affiliates of 
their own networks and their major satellite customers. The stations 
that did not get receivers were affiliates of individual shows, even 
though those shows were leasing time on the satellite.

In both cases it was a major undertaking as stations found they had 
to buy more receivers than they thought.

Rich