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I'm talking about the growing number of geosynchronous satellites which provide a vast array of services that affect each and every one of us every day.

The fact is that these devices keep chugging on delivering reliable communications services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, while resisting the incredibly harsh environment of space.

Despite repeated solar storms, meteorite showers and an array of other risks, the vast majority of these devices last well beyond their predicted service lives.

Every now and then however, one does die -- and that's what seems to have happened with the Intelsat Americas-7 satellite overnight.

For some unknown reason (perhaps an approaching alien mother-ship :-), the satellite has experienced what its operators describe as a "sudden and unexpected electrical distribution anomaly" -- which is engineer talk for "the lights have gone out".

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Fortunately for us down in the South Pacific, Americas-7 is positioned above North America and doesn't deliver any services to this part of the world.

But I wonder what would happen if the satellite used by SkyTV to deliver its payload of overpriced mental-dross were to suffer an equally catastrophic failure?

It would be interesting to know exactly what contingency plans the company had in place to cope with the total-loss of its delivery mechanism.

I wonder if Sky's investors are aware of the risk element associated with relying on satellite delivery of data or broadcast services?

Satellites are incredibly complex devices working in outrageously hostile conditions far beyond the reach of any serviceman. A single micro-meteoroid strike in the wrong place, an unfortunately large burst of solar radiation, failure of a key component, and yes -- even a passing alien spacecraft, could be enough to knock out SkyTV's orbiting transmitter.

Even if a company like Sky TV could grab spare capacity on an alternative bird, odds are that this would require hundreds of thousands of dishes to be re-oriented and that would be a major cost and logistical nightmare.

You can bet that lots of customers would not be at all keen on paying up to $25 per week for the time it took for their own service to be restored.

It will be very interesting to see whether the failure of Americas-7 has any effect on the shareprice of SkyTV -- one would hope that it might remind investors that their is a small but very definite risk factor associated with any broadcast venture reliant on a single satellite.

I suspect however, that the implications of this will fly (at 36,000Kms) right over the heads of most shareholders.

Spot what's missing?
The "New Look" Herald website has been slipped quietly onto our browser screens and seems to function satisfactorily (how's that for praise?).

Maybe I'm getting older but I'm sure some of those font-sizes are a little small for comfort and the update appears to be largely cosmetic.

However, there's one glaring omission from the new site -- can you spot it?

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