(MONEY Magazine) – SMALL DISHES SERVE SOFA SPUDS--AT A COST

If your house is so far off the beaten path you can't get cable TV, or if you crave more sports or entertainment programs than your cable company provides, you may want to look into today's hottest consumer electronics gadget: the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) system. But bring your checkbook. Introduced just 15 months ago, the systems' pizza-size receivers have already been installed in 600,000 homes. Despite up-front costs of about $1,000 and some fancy price tags for premium programming, small dishes could attract more than 1 million users by year's end and 10 million by 2000, according to media analysts.

What makes compact dishes so appealing? Digital satellite transmission delivers as many as 150 TV channels with picture and sound quality cable can't match, and satellite lineups include programming unavailable elsewhere. Among offerings: scores of pay-per-view channels and multiplex premium channels that air at staggered intervals--so you can watch, say, an HBO film starting at any of a dozen times a day. There are specials for sports fans too. One program provider, DirecTV, sells a $139 football package that offers a dozen NFL games each Sunday.

The most popular small-dish hardware is RCA's Digital Satellite System ($699, plus installation of $200 to $300). The 18-inch DSS can receive two distributors: DirecTV (800-347-3288) and U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (800-204-8772). DirecTV transmits 150 channels, nearly 50 of which are pay-per-view, for $29.95 a month. USSB offers one package of six basic channels for $7.95 a month, and another that adds on 14 premium services (including five HBO and three Showtime channels at staggered starting times) for $34.95 monthly. The two distributors split the familiar cable channels between them--Direct has ESPN, for example, while USSB has MTV--so most customers subscribe to both.

Competing with the RCA systems is Primestar (800-966-9615), a cable consortium (including Time Warner Cable, a subsidiary of MONEY's parent, Time Warner.) Though Primestar's 39-inch dish receives half as many channels as the RCA, it has one cost advantage: You can lease the dish for $8 to $15 a month (plus $200 to $300 installation) instead of buying it. Programming comes from Primestar's affiliates for $30 to $50 a month.

There are a few drawbacks, besides cost. Most important: The satellites don't carry local stations, so to keep up with hometown news you need local cable or a regular antenna.

--PETER KEATING

CHARITY MARKETERS KEEP 80% OF YOUR MONEY

Your heart may go out to mothers Against Drunk Driving, but you should not necessarily give the group any money over the phone.

Reason: Much of the money that MADD and other of the nation's largest charities obtain over the telephone is raised by commercial telemarketers that usually keep 40% to 80% of what they bring in. The Marketing Corp. of America, for example, raised $12.3 million for the March of Dimes in one 1993 campaign, but less than half--$5.8 million--went to the charity. Likewise, Reese Bros. Inc. raised $2.3 million for MADD in 1993, but the charity saw only $1.2 million.

Most major charities use telemarketers at one time or another, says Jim Bausch, president of the National Charities Information Bureau in New York City. So if you get a call, make sure you are speaking to a volunteer for the charity--not a telemarketer. Or, to be absolutely certain that the charity gets all of your donation, send the organization a check directly.

--ELIF SINANOGLU