Direct Broadcast Satellite-Video (DBS-V) to the home is attracting substantial interest as a medium for providing a wide variety of services to individuals and organizations. Technically, DBS-V is feasible and offers several advantages with respect to competing technologies and media. However, the economic feasibility of DBS-V versus competing technologies has not been completely assessed. In this thesis, we provide a detailed model, supported by an interactive decision aid for the financial analysis of DBS-V systems. The software developed is compatible with Microsoft WindowsTM and requires modest computational resources.

The purpose of the model is to provide an economic analysis of the cost of providing DBS-V services and the cost of the DBS-V service to the customer. The user is required to enter a satellite network configuration consisting of broadcast satellite service network components. The model will estimate the cost of investing in, operating, maintaining and retiring the system using the given network configuration. Specific parameters of the model components may be varied in order to observe the effects of varying the components on the system costs.