Taking your family on a long drive in your SUV doesn’t need to be a hair-raising experience any longer with the arrival of the car satellite TV. Most parents will understand and surely appreciate a car satellite TV as the screams of bored children are replaced with the peace and quiet that their favorite television program or DVD can provide. Car trips to grandma’s house are now a delight and that trip up the coast is over all too soon.
Clear, digital quality satellite signals are available at all times in all traffic conditions, no matter how congested the road might get. With hundreds of channels of constant entertainment to suit all ages and all tastes, a car satellite TV is an invention long overdue for many parents and family members.
The technology for this equipment has been available for years in the form of marine satellites or on buses or other larger modes of transportation. Recently, however, the sizes of the satellites have gotten smaller and are made considerably more accessible to sit right on top of the modern automobile.
Marketing Goals
Generally, the car satellite TV system is marketed at parents interested in some peace and quiet on the road. Commercials and other marketing campaigns have generally been directed at “soccer moms” or other parents involved in the daily grind of parenting and moving their children around from schools to church and sporting events.
The Consumer Electronics group, in fact, has reported that close to 1200 companies have expressed interest in producing their own form of this technology. Like other technologies, the corporate world is hoping to get in on the ground floor of this option with the intention of providing more features and competitive prices to the consumer.
The Details
The satellite systems usually strap onto the roof of the vehicle and utilize an antenna to gather the signal from the satellite. The devices vary in weight with some weighing almost 45 pounds and others weighing very little, so the addition of weight on the average vehicle is not necessarily noticeable depending on the owner’s preference. As technology grows, the size of the satellite and antenna apparatus grows smaller.
Other cable companies are now starting to partner with the car satellite TV system distributors to add packages and cost reductions to the consumer. This allows the selection of a broader group of channels as well as greater picture quality and greater reception. Rooftop antennas can cost upwards of 2000 dollars at the moment and coupled with the cost of the cable packages and other maintenance is still not the most affordable entertainment option, however with parents losing patience over hours of Barney songs, the cost may soon not be much of a factor.
