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Of all the emerging technologies, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) has had the biggest direct impact on cable in particular. In the early days, DBS transmission was especially efficient in regions with rugged terrain or isolated farm regions where it’s difficult or cost prohibitive to install cable wiring. DBS differs from cable in that it allows individual consumers to downlink satellite-transmitted signals into their homes without having them relayed through cable companies that process these same signals and then send them out to homes via wires.

Japanese companies launched the first DBS system in Florida in 1978, but the early receiving dishes, which used to dot the rural landscape in the 1980s, were ten to twelve feet in diameter and expensive ($3,000). By 1994, however, full-scale DBS service was available, and consumers soon could buy satellite dishes the size of a large pizza. Today, there are two U.S.-based DBS companies: DirecTV, with close to twenty million U.S. customers, and the DISH Network (formerly known as EchoStar Communication), which has around fourteen million subscribers. These companies can offer consumers most of the same channels and tiers of service that cable companies carry, often at a slightly lower monthly cost.

DBS systems can carry between 350 and 500 basic, premium, and pay-per-view channels, which customers can purchase in various packages. In addition, DBS gives subscribers nationwide access (in packages that cost between $10 and $40 per month) to more professional sports leagues than most premium cable services—including hockey, football, baseball, soccer, and men’s and women’s basketball—that aren’t carried locally on broadcast networks or basic cable channels. Finally, DBS systems have the same ability as cable to bundle high-speed Internet and telephone service with their video programming so consumers pay one bill for phone, TV, and Internet needs.