For all this good news, BTV does face its share of business challenges. The first is attracting new clients. Even at today’s lower prices, setting up a BTV network can run into the millions of dollars. This is why BTV providers have to do their homework when approaching new clients, especially when it comes to finding a "champion", someone inside the company to promote this concept. "Nothing moves without a champion," notes Steinman. Unfortunately, he adds, many BTV providers are run by engineers who do not know how to promote their companies. For the industry to reach its full potential, the marketers need to be brought in.

The second challenge is consolidation. With more firms merging to cut costs, Steinman says the number of BTV networks has dropped from 500 a few years ago to about 175 networks today. "It’s not that BTV is losing its head of steam," Steinman says. "If you look closely at the BTV networks that have gone dark, you’ll find that most of them have closed due to industry consolidations and mergers."

The third challenge is satellite technology itself, namely the time delays associated with sending and receiving signals. "For the Harrah’s broadcasts, it is incredibly difficult to get all the dancers in different locations in sync," says Allen. "To make it work, you have to be very careful in how you structure the uplink path, and how you decide which sites get to lead, and which have to follow."

Challenges aside, the combination of our social culture and safety concerns, technological and economical changes, as well as the need for speed and versatility, plays entirely to BTV’s advantage. The fact is, this is a good time to be in BTV and the future looks to be even better.

Susan Trott is a contributing editor to Via Satellite magazine.