Starting your own satelite channel

[Ayub]

Morning all, does anyone work in the tv industry?
I am interested in finding out the cost of satellite channels. More and more are springing up.Does anyone know the cost of having a channel on air and the cost etc.

 

[CDR]

I remember listening to Chris Moyles one day and they had the women who did those "most haunted" programmes on TV, she set up a Satellite Channel showing that program virtually all of the time and she said it cost in excess of £1m just for the channel. Not including the cost of producing, editing, airing the shows.

 

[Bill Hicks]

I remember listening to Chris Moyles one day and they had the women who did those "most haunted" programmes on TV, she set up a Satellite Channel showing that program virtually all of the time and she said it cost in excess of £1m just for the channel. Not including the cost of producing, editing, airing the shows.

Your talking about the delicious Yvette Fielding who with her partner has set up the Paranormal channel.

Drop in the ocean for them I guess considering she's worth around £15,000,000!

 

[kBm]

Drop in the ocean for them I guess considering she's worth around £15,000,000!

how?

Edit - Wiki gave me the answer, i guess your own production company kinda helps....

 

[Bill Hicks]

But still a big gamble if your assets total £15,000,000, considering that total set up/running costs of the operation must exceed £5,000,000!

 

[kBm]

But still a big gamble if your assets total £15,000,000, considering that total set up/running costs of the operation must exceed £5,000,000!

Indeed - i think she put everything on the line. (Expect her motors of course....)

 

[Ian J]

I was talking to someone a couple of weeks who said that a really cheap satellite channel would cost about £1m a year

 

[Ayub]

The Asian channels on the Sky satelite network increase around 1 per few months. They are mostly crap channels and i wondered how much it cost to run them.
I now know why they have the £1.50 phone in's and the provocative subjects.

 

[PoochJD]

Hi,

Running a satellite TV channel is very expensive, and way out of the reach of most mere mortals, who frequent these Forums.

Apart from running a TV Station company itself, your biggest costs (before you even take into consideration programming) will be:

- the actual "channel number" or EPG slot on Sky or Virgin Media
- the bandwidth you'll need to transmit
- the actual electronic/digital equipment and/or kit you'll need to broadcast your channel, and make it available to the whole of the UK
- the advertising budget to promote your channel initially
- staffing costs
- a broadcast location or studio
- a head office
- approval from OFCOM for a broadcasting licence
- a solicitor or lawyer who will make sure you keep on the right side of OFCOM and don't breach any of their regulations (and there's a LOT of regulations that are easily breached, not even taking into consideration ones like broadcasting sex, violence or strong language prior to the watershed!)

Only then, can you even begin to consider what kinds of programming or movies you want to show, and the costs will be phenomenal except for the most offbeat Public Domain material (like that which sometimes appears on Sumo TV, e.g. old public information films, adverts, or very old films that are in cruddy condition).

To be honest, you'd have a better chance of winning the Lottery or getting knocked down by a car, then of running your own channel these days!

It's a nice idea though, but the realities are simply not practicable for 99.9% of the population. You could always pitch your idea to the Dragons though, in the next series of "Dragons Den"! I can see it now:

"Welcome Dragons. I'm Michael Smith-Jones, and I own Craptastic TV, my very own TV station, currently based out of a bedsit, on the 12th floor of a rundown Council estate in St Swithins. I'm here today to ask for a sum of £2.5 million, for a 5% equity share in any potential profits we might make. I have no experience at all in the broadcasting industry, but a few good mates of mine on the well-known AV Forums website, said you might be able to help me out, and get my channel off of the ground. We're looking at an average audience base of about 26 people, mainly from Newmarket and The Outer Hebrides, and our programming budget is currently nil. If we can get Peter Jones onboard as both a financial backer, investor and presentor, then that'd be freaking awesome. Ideally we'd like to compete against Sky 1, the BBC and Five, and aquire US dramas and blockbuster films from both Hollywood and around the World. We're currently striking a deal with Tartan Video to buy their entire Asia Extreme catalogue, but I've only written the prospective letter so far, and even that's not going too great at the moment. So, how about it?"

Obviously, I jest, so please - I hope no one takes offence at my little fictional speech above.

There's always Jimmy Saville or Bob The Builder, who might be able to fix it for you.


Pooch