Why Big Dog is Green

Why Satellite TV and not Cable? From a green perspective, Satellite TV has a far smaller footprint on the Earth than Cable. It helps to understand how TV service is delivered by both technologies to see the advantage of Satellite delivery.

How the two TV delivery systems work.

The primary difference between cable and satellite TV services is in how TV is delivered from the satellite to the subscribers home. Dish Network delivers the television signal from the satellite directly to a small dish mounted on the subscribers home. From there, the signal is conditioned and distributed throughout the house to one or more receivers, and from there, to the TVs.

On the other hand…

Your Cable Company has one or more large satellite dishes that receive the satellite TV signal at their "head end" facility. The signal is conditioned and sent to to an array of signal processors where the TV channels are extracted, assigned a channel number, assembled in order, amplified and sent downstream on the main trunk line. The trunk line may continue for miles, twisting and turning to accommodate roads and utility easements. Every mile or so, depending on equipment and design, an amplifier is installed on the cable to boost the signal and keep it watchable. Distribution amplifiers are added as needed as branch lines are laid out to deliver the service to the subscriber.

As for reliability...

A typical cable system has hundreds to thousands of miles of cable and hundreds to thousands of in-line amplifiers. These amplifiers are powered by power inserters that are placed, depending on design, for every 6 to 12 amplifiers. As long as they have power, the line powered amplifiers can do their job.

If your home looses power, whether or not your signal is available becomes a moot point, but these days, there are a number of options to keep your home or electronics powered for short or extended periods of time. Your TV, receiver, and dish or just TV and receiver if you have cable, can easily be powered from a small generator or Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

So, if you have power at home in the middle of a power outage, then you can watch TV regardless of what kind of service you have… Right? Well maybe. Since the entire delivery chain from the program supplier to the satellite in orbit is secure, Dish Network's service will work flawlessly.

Although the cable companies head-end facilities has very good power back up, the in-line amplifiers, powered by the power inserters, relies on the electrical grid being available. Many of them have short term battery back-up but are good for only a few hours at best. So, if you loose power for more than just a few hours, and you have cable TV, you are out of luck even if you have a whole house back-up generator.


A small dish, attached to the home provides all of the programming the customer wants.

A massive array of dishes is required to reach all of the satellites required to build programming for a cable system. A system of this size also has hundreds to thousands of inline amplifiers and hundreds to thousands of miles of cable to deliver service to the customer.

Both cable TV companies and satellite based TV services rely on the same technology to get the base programming signal.

Your cable company adds an incredibly complex system to deliver the programming to the customer. By delivering the programming wirelessly direct to the home, the satellite TV provider has a much simpler delivery system and in that, much more reliable.

What about impact on the environment?

Since both delivery systems are identical to a point, we will compare the infrastructure from the satellite to the customers TV. Big Dog Satellite has a small dish that typically attaches to the house and provides the connection with the satellite and delivers the programming to the receivers and from there to the TV. That is it, a very simple system that can serve millions of customers across half the word, with little impact on the local environment.

Your cable company adds the impact of millions of tons of installed cable and equipment on the environment. Polystyrene, polypropylene, copper and aluminum, sheathing, waterproofing, and jacketing that is unrecoverable due to contamination and high cost of recycling, so it is usually just left buried in the ground or when removed from the utility poles, put in landfills.

They also have to add hundreds to thousands of in-line amplifiers and hundreds of power inserters to their infrastructure. Even the most balanced of observers would agree that of the two types of TV delivery systems, Big Dog Satellite TV is by far the easiest on the environment.

So Big Dog Satellite has the Greenest TV delivery system and has the least negative impact on our environment, what else makes them green?

Starting with our corporate offices, we are constantly striving to do our part in making the earth a greener place. As with any corporate office, we are associated with paper pushing, administrating, mediating strategies and inner workings of our company. Typically this involves more than an abundance of paperwork.

In doing our part, we strive to give back to the environment by practicing the 3 R’s; reduce, reuse, and recycle. In 2008, the company went to a digital system within our corporate office to receive documents electronically. Through this technology, we are able to send and receive the majority of necessary documentation to keep our company poised for success while cutting down on cost and wasted paper products to transfer information.

We find ways to reuse products as well. Since we handle the re distribution of equipment and office supplies through our corporate office, we practice reusing anything from card board boxes, plastic cups, and office furniture.

For recycling purposes, we have been aspired to become a more conscientious operating office by concentrating on small items that can be recycled to make a big difference.

Any confidential documents that have become out of date are processed by a shredding company who then recycles the paper. Boxes are placed in various locations around the building so that scrap paper can be dropped off and recycled properly.

We have designated a recycling bin, inside and out, where we can all contribute by recycling plastic, cardboard, and aluminum among other recyclable items. By practicing a combination of these things, we feel that we are creating our own little niche in making the earth a greener place.