There still seems to be a lot of debate about whether satellite TV is better than cable TV or is it the other way around. You would think that such a debate would be relatively easy so settle--after all, there should be facts that we can reference in order to take an objective look at the two services. However, there has been so much spin in both directions that it's almost impossible to look at things in an unbiased way! When you think about it, though, just looking at the relative differences between the two services can provide a lot of insight into which one is better.
Dish Network is a good example of a satellite TV company that we can compare against the cable TV industry. Basically, Dish Network has a lot of advantages over the typical cable TV carrier in that it has a lot more bandwidth that it can use to transmit its programming. This difference in the bandwidth has to do with the differences in the underlying technology more than anything else. You see, satellite technology transmits data through air and space using electromagnetic waves while cable technology transmits data over coaxial cables. While there are a lot of technical and theoretical things that describe the differences between these two mediums, it really boils down to the fact that it's possible to transmit a lot more data through air and space than over coaxial cables!
The difference in bandwidth is evident when you look at the number of channels that Dish Network offers and compare it to the number of channels that the typical cable TV company offers. While the typical cable TV company struggles to offer fewer than three hundred digital channels, Dish Network offers roughly one thousand digital TV channels! That's a pretty impressive difference. Plus, it's relatively easy for Dish Network to expand its offering of channels. All it has to do is launch more satellites, while cable TV companies have to undergo labor intensive equipment upgrades that involve digging up hundreds or possibly thousands of miles of cable and replacing it with higher capacity cabling.
Now you might think that launching a satellite is a pretty tall order! While its true that launching a satellite is expensive in the total cost, it becomes fairly cheap when you look at the number of people that a single satellite can serve. For example, when you realize that Dish Network has over ten million customers who can all be better served by launching a single satellite, you can see how economical it can be to launch that satellite. In fact, it's possible to put a satellite in orbit for only a few dollars per subscriber and then have that satellite serve all of Dish Network's subscribers for years to come!
This also brings up another clear advantage that Dish Network has over its cable TV competitors. The fact that Dish Network's programming is available all over the United States means that it can provide TV programming to people who can't be reached by cable. You see, due to the expense of laying and maintaining cable, cable TV just isn't available in that many places. Sure, everyone in cities and suburbs can get cable, but cities and suburbs cover a relatively small portion of the land area of the country. This leaves lots of other people unable to get cable.
After looking at all of these fact, it becomes clear that Dish Network's satellite TV service is superior to any cable TV service. Dish Network is Better!
