Satellite TV, Cable, & Internet TV: What's the difference?
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Satellite and Cable TV is what is considered “Traditional TV” and also known as Linear Television. Linear TV means your TV programs run in a straight line on a schedule. Meaning the viewer must watch a scheduled TV program at the actual time of broadcast.
Although satellite and cable subscriptions have been falling off due to other media alternatives such as Netflix, HULU and other choices, the video industry as a whole has only grown. This is because there are more ways than ever to check out your favorite shows than ever before in history.
4 Different Types Of Television
1. Cable TV – TV that comes through a cable wire into your home. Common cable providers are AT&T, Comcast, Charter and so on…..
2. Satellite TV – TV that is beamed down to a dish from a satellite. Providers like Dish and Direct TV are some of the most popular here in the USA.
3. Broadcast TV – TV that comes through your antenna
4. Internet TV AKA OTT – TV delivered through the internet to different platforms like the web, Roku, Apple TV and more.
There are basically two ways to get video content into your living room: You can tune in through a satellite, cable or antenna, or it can be streamed through the internet.
Broadcast TV includes Satellite, cable and Antenna reception. Broadcast networks essentially operate by broadcasting video content from a central location. For cable it is broadcast and delivered to your home through a coaxial cable.
Satellite it comes from radio waves that you pick up with your satellite dish attached to your home.
Cable and satellite both work by allowing you to “tune in” to specific channels within that signal. The big difference is that cable comes into your home through a wire and satellite through the air.
What Is Internet TV?
Internet TV accomplishes the same goal (to put content on your TV) but is delivered through the internet either to your Smart TV (Via a smart TV app) or connected TV device (Roku, FireTV, Apple TV etc…). Internet TV can also be delivered to your mobile phone or desktop either through a app (like YouTube) or a browser.
Pros & Cons for Consumers
Cable TV Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Quality: No buffering and a dedicated line for video. Video is always high quality.
- Hundreds of channels to choose from with a dedicated program guide.
Cons:
- It’s only available in areas in which cable has been run.
- Cost is typically high
- Requires a cable box and can be a mess of wires in the home.
Satellite TV Pros & Cons
- Programming is very similar to cable.
- It’s available nationwide
- Video quality is generally good.
Cons:
- You must have a large box attached to your TV’s
- You must have a dish attached to your home
- Storms can cause outages.
- It’s generally expensive.
Internet TV Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Price can be quite a bit lower.
- You only pay for what you want to watch and many channels are free.
- No need to install anything (no dish or cable wires to run)
- There are many choices to pick from.
- You can offer VOD (does not have to be Linear)
- Is available globally
Cons:
- Video quality can suffer if connection speeds drop.
- You may not have access to some of your favorite shows that are only broadcast on cable/satellite.
Build Your Internet Network with Ease
So as a broadcaster the obvious choice today is starting your network via the internet. You can literally start your network for just a few hundred dollars on the internet vs millions it takes to acquire your own satellite or cable channel.
When I first started back in 2004 all we did was satellite channels. However, as technology evolved we quickly adapted to help our satellite customers get their network onto the internet.
We had to “mimic” the same type of quality and system that our customers had on satellite and duplicate that onto the internet. This led us to develop our “Channel Manager” which was built from the ground up with TV distribution in mind for our satellite TV clients.
It’s now available to the general public and if you would like to try it you can check it out here. Our channel manager is the first step in starting your internet TV network.