Artist's impression of a Boeing 601 satellite, as configured for digital television transmission by SES Astra

Satellite television is television delivered by way of communications satellites, as compared to conventional terrestrial television and cable television. In many areas of the world satellite television services supplement older terrestrial signals, providing a wider range of channels and services, including subscription-only services. Image File history File links From media. ... Image File history File links From media. ... Boeing Satellite Systems is a major business unit of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. ... SES Astra SA, a subsidiary of SES Global, is a Luxembourg-based corporation which owns and operates the Astra series of geostationary satellites, which transmit approximately 1100 analogue and digital television and radio channels via 176 transponders to 91 million households across Europe. ... U.S. military MILSTAR communications satellite A communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. ... Terrestrial television (also known as over-the-air, OTA, or broadcast television) is the traditional method of television broadcast signal delivery, by radio waves transmitted through open space, usually carrying unencrypted signals. ... Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house. ...

History

The first satellite television signal was relayed from Europe to the Telstar satellite over North America in 1962. The first geosynchronous communication satellite, Syncom 2 was launched in 1963. The world's first commercial communication satellite, called Early Bird, was launched into synchronous orbit on April 6, 1965. The first national network of satellite television, called Orbita, was created in Soviet Union in 1967, and was based on the principle of using the highly-elliptical Molniya satellite for re-broadcasting and delivering of TV signal to ground downlink stations. The first domestic North American satellite to carry television was Canada’s geostationary Anik 1, which was launched in 1973. ATS-6, the world's first experimental educational and Direct Broadcast Satellite, was launched in 1974. The first Soviet geostationary satellite to carry Direct-To-Home television, called Ekran, was launched in 1976. World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of Earth; the term continent here referring to a cultural and political distinction, rather than a physiographic one, thus leading to various perspectives about Europes precise borders. ... The original Telstar had a roughly spherical shape. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... A geosynchronous orbit is a geocentric orbit that has the same orbital period as the sidereal rotation period of the Earth. ... U.S. military MILSTAR communications satellite A communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications using radio at microwave frequencies. ... Syncom (for synchronous communication satellite) started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications. ... Early Bird is the name of the first communications satellite to be placed in synchronous orbit on April 6, 1965. ... April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... A television network is a distribution network for television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many television stations. ... Orbita is a Soviet-Russian system of broadcasting and delivering TV-signal via satellites. ... Molniya (lightning) was a military communications satellite system used by the Soviet Union. ... In telecommunication, signalling (or signaling) has the following meanings: The use of signals for controlling communications. ... 1. ... Anik 1 was a Canadian geosynchronous communications satellite that was launched in 1972 by a Delta rocket. ... ATS-6, Advanced Test Satellite # 6 was the worlds first educational satellite as well as worlds first experimental Direct Broadcast Satellite. ... Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception, also refered to as direct-to-home signals. ... A Satellite dish antenna A satellite dish is a type of parabolic reflector antenna designed with the specific purpose of transmitting signals to and/or receiving from satellites. ... Ekran (Экран, Screen) is a Soviet-Russian type of geostationary satellite, developed special for national system of Direct-To-Home television. ...

Consumer satellite television reception in the United States began in the early 1980's with the introduction of the first home satellite systems designed for receiving the same TVRO signals used for distribution to cable systems. Early setups were very expensive and large, with 12-foot dishes. Many were motorized, allowing for reception of multiple satellites, and therefore a greater selection of channels. Originally, all channels were available in the clear, including premium movie services, a major draw and source of growth for the then-burgeoning industry. In 1986, movie channel HBO encrypted their signal, setting a precedent for most other mainstream cable television services. This led to a major decline in the sales of satellite systems. By the early 1990's, the industry recovered as a result of Videocipher decoders being bundled with systems. TVRO systems reached their peak around 1995 before declining as a result of consumer adoption of higher-powered, "small-dish" systems such as Dish Network. As of May 31, 2005, 215,076 big dishes were still subscribed to pay TV programming, as opposed to nearly three million at the peak in 1995, although more may be in use solely for free-to-air television reception. [1].

Technology

Satellites used for television signals are generally in either highly-elliptical (with inclination of +/-63.4 degrees and orbital period of about 12 hours) or geostationary orbit 37,000 km (22,300 miles) above the earth’s equator. The equator is an imaginary circle drawn around a planet (or other astronomical object) at a distance halfway between the poles. ...

Satellite television, like other communications relayed by satellite, starts with a transmitting antenna located at an uplink facility. Uplink satellite dishes are very large, as much as 9 to 12 meters (30 to 40 feet) in diameter. The increased diameter results in more accurate aiming and increased signal strength at the satellite. The uplink dish is pointed toward a specific satellite and the uplinked signals are transmitted within a specific frequency range, so as to be received by one of the transponders tuned to that frequency range aboard that satellite. The transponder 'retransmits' the signals back to Earth but at a different frequency band (to avoid interference with the uplink signal), typically in the C-band and/or K_u-band. The leg of the signal path from the satellite to the receiving Earth station is called the downlink. This article deals with Uplink in the telecommunications terminology. ... C band (compromise band) is a portion of electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 4 to 6 GHz. ... The Ku band (kay-yoo kurz-under band) is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 11 to 18 GHz. ... 1. ...

A typical satellite has up to 24 transponders for a C-band only satellite and up to 32 for K_u-band, or more for hybrid satellites. Typical transponders each have a bandwidth of about 36 to 50 Mbit/s. Each geo-stationary C-band satellite needs to be spaced 2 degrees from the next satellite (to avoid interference). For K_u the spacing can be 1 degree. This means that there is an upper limit of 360/2 = 180 geostationary C-band satellites and 360/1 = 360 geostationary K_u-band satellites. C-band transmission is susceptible to terrestrial interference while K_u-band transmission is affected by rain (as water is an excellent absorber of microwaves). In satellite communications, rain fade refers to the absorption of a microwave Radio Frequency (RF) signal by rain or snow, and is especially prevalent in frequencies above 11 GHz. ...

The downlinked satellite signal, quite weak after travelling the great distance (see inverse-square law), is collected by a parabolic receiving dish, which reflects the weak signal to the dish’s focal point. Mounted on brackets at the dish's focal point is a device called a feedhorn. This feedhorn is essentially the front-end of a waveguide that gathers the signals at or near the focal point and 'conducts' them to a low-noise block downconverter or LNB. The LNB converts the signals from electromagnetic or radio waves to electrical signals and shifts the signals from the downlinked C-band and/or K_u-band to the L-band range. Direct broadcast satellite dishes use an LNBF, which integrates the feedhorn with the LNB. (A new form of omnidirectional satellite antenna, which does not use a directed parabolic dish and can be used on a mobile platform such as a vehicle, was recently announced by the University of Waterloo. [2]) This diagram shows how the law works. ... A parabolic reflector (also known as a parabolic dish or a parabolic mirror) is a reflective device formed in the shape of a paraboloid of revolution. ... In satellite dish and antenna design parlance, a feedhorn (or feed horn) is a horn antenna used to convey radio waves between the transceiver (transmitter and/or receiver) and the reflector. ... Look up waveguide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A low-noise block converter (LNB, for low-noise block, or sometimes LNC, for low-noise converter) is used in communications satellite (usually broadcast satellite) reception. ... Electromagnetic radiation or EM radiation is a combination (cross product) of oscillating electric and magnetic fields perpendicular to each other, moving through space as a wave, effectively transporting energy and momentum. ... L band (20-cm radar long-band) is a portion of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum ranging roughly from 0. ... In satellite dish and antenna design parlance, a feedhorn (or feed horn) is a horn antenna used to convey radio waves between the transceiver (transmitter and/or receiver) and the reflector. ... The University of Waterloo, also known as UW or U-Waterloo, is a medium-sized research-intensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. ...

The L band signal, now amplified, travels to a satellite receiver box, typically through coaxial cable (RG-6 or RG-10, etc.; cannot be standard RG-59). The satellite receiver then converts the signals to the desired form (outputs for television, audio, data, etc.). Sometimes, the receiver includes the capability to unscramble or decrypt; the receiver is then called an Integrated receiver/decoder or IRD. Radio-grade flexible coaxial cable. ... In telecommunications, a scrambler is a device that transposes or inverts signals or otherwise encodes a message at the transmitter to make the message unintelligible at a receiver not equipped with an appropriately set descrambling device. ... In cryptography, encryption is the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. ... An integrated receiver/decoder is an electronic device used to receive and decode digital signals. ...

Standards

Analog television distributed via satellite is usually sent scrambled or unscrambled in NTSC, PAL, or SECAM television broadcast standards. NTSC is the analog television system in use in Korea, Japan, United States, Canada and certain other places, mostly in the Americas (see map). ... PAL, short for phase-alternating line, phase alternation by line or phase alternation line, is a colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. ... SÉCAM (Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for sequential colour with memory) is an analog color television system first used in France. ...

If the signal is a digitized television signal or multiplex of signals, it is typically QPSK. Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave). ...

In general, digital television, including that transmitted via satellites, are generally based on open standards such as MPEG and DVB-S. MPEG-2 (1994) is the designation for a group of coding standards for digital audio and video, agreed upon by MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group), and published as the ISO/IEC 13818 international standard. ... Official DVB logo, found on compliant devices DVB, short for Digital Video Broadcasting, is a suite of internationally accepted, open standards for digital television maintained by the DVB Project, an industry consortium with more than 270 members, and published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of European Telecommunications Standards Institute...

The encryption/scrambling methods include BISS, Conax, Digicipher, Irdeto, Nagravision, PowerVu, Viaccess, Videocipher, and VideoGuard. A large number of these schemes are known to be ineffective, however. Basic Interoperable Scrambling System developed by the European Broadcasting Union and a consortium of hardware manufacturers. ... Conax is a crypting system for digital television. ... DigiCipher 2, or simply DCII, is the name of the digital signal compression standard used on many communications satellite television and audio signals. ... Irdeto Access is a provider of content protection technologies for digital video and IP networks. ... // Nagravision Nagravision is a company which develops conditional access control for Cable and Satellite TV systems. ... Viaccess is an encrypting system for Digital television developed by France Télécom, it is used by various providers, such as TPS and ART. There are four versions in use today, Viaccess PC2. ... VideoCipher is a brand name of analog scrambling equipment for satellite television invented in the early 1980s by Linkabit systems, which was bought out by MA/COM in 1985. ... VideoGuard, produced by NDS, is a digital encryption system for use with conditional access television broadcasting. ...

Categories of usage

There are three primary types of satellite television usage: reception direct by the viewer, reception by local television affiliates, or reception by headends for distribution across terrestrial cable systems. Cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. ... Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house. ...

Direct to the viewer reception includes direct broadcast satellite or DBS and television receive-only or TVRO, both used for homes and businesses including hotels, etc. Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception, also refered to as direct-to-home signals. ... Television receive-only, or TVRO is a term used in North America to refer to the reception of satellite television from FSS-type satellites, generally on C-band analogue; free-to-air and unconnected to a commercial DBS provider. ...

Direct broadcast via satellite

Direct broadcast satellite, (DBS) also known as "Direct-To-Home" is a relatively recent development in the world of television distribution. “Direct broadcast satellite” can either refer to the communications satellites themselves that deliver DBS service or the actual television service. DBS systems are commonly referred to as "mini-dish" systems. DBS uses the upper portion of the K_u band. Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception, also refered to as direct-to-home signals. ... A Satellite dish antenna A satellite dish is a type of parabolic reflector antenna designed with the specific purpose of transmitting signals to and/or receiving from satellites. ...

Modified DBS systems can also run on C-band satellites and have been used by some networks in the past to get around legislation by some countries against reception of K_u-band transmissions.

DBS systems are generally based on proprietary transport stream encoding and/or encryption requiring proprietary reception equipment. Service providers sometimes license several manufacturers to provide equipment capable of receiving the proprietary streams. This equipment typically uses a smart card as part of the decryption system or conditional access. This measure assures satellite television providers that only authorised, paying subscribers have access to Pay TV content but at the same time can allow free-to-air (FTA) channels to be viewed even by the people with standard equipment available in the market. Television encryption, often referred to as scrambling, is encryption used to control access to pay television services, usually cable or satellite television services. ... Smart card used for health insurance in France. ... Conditional access (CA) is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to the content. ... Free-to-air is a phrase used to describe television and radio broadcasts which are available without subscription and without decryption (pay-TV). ...

Television receive-only

Television receive-only, or TVRO, refers to satellite television reception equipment that is based primarily on open standards equipment. This contrasts sharply with direct broadcast satellite, which is a completely closed system that uses proprietary reception equipment. TVRO is often referred to as "big dish" satellite television. Television receive-only, or TVRO is a term used in North America to refer to the reception of satellite television from FSS-type satellites, generally on C-band analogue; free-to-air and unconnected to a commercial DBS provider. ...

TVRO systems are designed to receive analog and digital satellite feeds of both television or audio from both C-band and K_u-band transponders on FSS-type satellites. TVRO systems tend to use larger rather than smaller satellite dish antennas, since it is more likely that the owner of a TVRO system would have a C-band-only setup rather than a K_u band-only setup. Additional receiver boxes allow for different types of digital satellite signal reception, such as DVB/MPEG-2 and 4DTV. U.S. military MILSTAR communications satellite A communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. ... In telecommunication, the term transponder (sometimes abbreviated to XPDR or TPDR) has the following meanings: An automatic device that receives, amplifies, and retransmits a signal on a different frequency (see also broadcast translator). ... Fixed Service Satellite (or FSS), is the official classification for geostationary communications satellites used chiefly for broadcast feeds for television and radio stations and networks, as well as for telephony, data communications, and also for direct-to-home (DTH) cable and satellite TV channels (although this role has been somewhat... 4DTV is the name of the digital TVRO communications satellite receiver box manufactured by Motorola. ...

The narrow beam width of a normal parabolic satellite antenna means it can only receive signals from a single satellite at a time. Simulsat is a quasi-parabolic satellite earthstation antenna that is capable of receiving satellite transmissions from 35 or more C- and K_u-band satellites simultaneously. Simulsat is a quasi-parabolic satellite earthstation antenna that is capable of receiving satellite transmissions from 35 or more C and Ku Band satellites simultaneously. ...

Direct broadcasting satellites which can be received by what are known in Chinese as little ears have had a major role in breaking the government monopoly of information on Mainland China. Although met with frequent and generally unsuccessful efforts to regulate them, these small satellite dishes are fairly common in urban China. Satellite television has also played an important role in broadcasting to expatriate communities such as Arabs, and overseas Chinese. The highlighted area in the map is what is commonly known as mainland China. Mainland China (Simplified Chinese: 中国大陆; Traditional Chinese: 中國大陸; pinyin: Zhōnggúo Dàlù; literally The Chinese Massive Landmass or Continental China) is an informal (disputed — see talk page) geographical term which is usually synonymous with the area... Overseas Chinese (華僑 in Pinyin: Huáqiáo, or 華胞 huábāo, or 僑胞 qiáobāo, or 華裔 huáyì) are either ethnic Chinese or people of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu) who live outside of China. ...

Satellite television by continent and country

Africa

South African-based Multichoice's DStv is the main digital satellite television provider in sub-Saharan Africa, broadcasting principally in English, but also in Portuguese, German and Afrikaans. Canal Horizons, owned by France's Canal Plus, is the main provider in French-speaking Africa. Satellite television has been far more successful in Africa than cable, primarily because the infrastructure for cable television does not exist and would be expensive to install since majority of Africans cannot afford paid cable television. Furthermore, maintaining a cable network is expensive due to the need to cover larger and more sparesly populated areas though there are some terrestrial pay-TV and MMDS services. M-Net (originally an abbreviation for Electronic Media Network) is a subscription-funded television channel in South Africa, established in 1986 by a consortium of newspaper companies. ... DStv is MultiChoices multi-channel digital satellite TV service in Africa, launched in 1995. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia with smaller numbers of speakers in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. ... The title of this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation). ... Multichannel multipoint distribution service, also known as MMDS or wireless cable, is a wireless telecommunications technology, used for general-purpose broadband networking or, more commonly, as an alternative method of cable television programming reception. ...

The Americas

Canada

In Canada, the two legal DBS services available are Bell Canada’s ExpressVu and StarChoice. The CRTC has refused to license American satellite services, but nonetheless hundreds of thousands (up to a million by some estimates) of Canadians access or have accessed American services [3] — usually these services have to be billed to an American address and are paid for in U.S. dollars. Whether such activity is grey market or black market is the source of often heated debate between those who would like greater choice and those who argue that the protection of Canadian firms and Canadian culture is more important. Bell Canada Enterprises TSX: BCE, legally BCE Inc. ... Bell ExpressVu is the division of Bell Canada which sells digital television services in Canada. ... StarChoice is Canadas second direct broadcast satellite television distributor (the other being Bell ExpressVu), and is majority-owned by cable TV operator Shaw Communications Inc. ... The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC, in French Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes) was established in 1968 by the Canadian Parliament to replace the Board of Broadcast Governors. ... This article is about general United States currency. ... The grey market (or gray market) refers to the flow of goods through distribution channels other than those authorized or intended by the manufacturer or producer. ... The black market or underground market is the part of economic activity involving illegal dealings, typically the buying and selling of merchandise or services (for example sexual services in many countries) illegally. ... The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

Most recently as of 2004, an October 2004 ruling by judge Danièle Côté of Québec has determined Canada's Radiocommunication Act to be in direct violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; the judgement gave the federal government a one-year deadline to remedy this breach of the Constitution as the fundamental law of the land. However this goes contrary to prior Supreme Court of Canada decisions and will likely be appealed. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Official languages French Flower White garden lily Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 75 24 Area Total  - Land  - Water    (% of total)  Ranked 2nd 1,542,056 km² 1,183... The Charter, signed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1981. ... The Supreme Court Building in Ottawa The Supreme Court of Canada (French: Cour suprême du Canada) is highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal for all litigants in the Canadian justice system. ...

In addition, Canadian satellite providers continue to be plagued by the unquestionably black market devices which "pirate" or "steal" their signals as well as by a number of otherwise completely lawful devices which can be reprogrammed to receive pirate TV. Pirate decryption most often refers to the reception of compromised Pay TV or pay radio signals without authorisation from the original broadcaster. ...

One cable TV CEO (Karl Péladeau of Québecor, which owns Vidéotron) is on public record as demanding conditions be placed on the CRTC license issued to Bell ExpressVu, due to BEV’s reputation for vastly inferior security compared to its cable rivals and Shaw Cable–owned StarChoice. Cable television or Community Antenna Television (CATV) (and often shortened to cable) is a system of providing television, FM radio programming and other services to consumers via radio waves transmitted directly to people’s televisions through fixed coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional... ... Vidéotron Limited is an integrated communications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand and Internet access services, serving Quebec, Canada. ... Bell ExpressVu is the division of Bell Canada that sells digital television services in Canada. ... Shaw is Canadas second largest cable television operator, after Rogers Communications. ...

Although there are no official statistics, the use of American satellite services in Canada appears to be declining as of 2004. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Some would claim that this is probably due to a combination of increasingly aggressive police enforcement and an unfavourable exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. currencies. As the U.S. dollar has been declining as of 2005 versus other international currencies, the decline in DirecTV viewership in Canada may well be related not to a cost difference as much as to the series of smart card swaps which have rendered the first three generations of DirecTV access cards (F, H and HU) all obsolete. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Latin America

Latin America’s main satellite system are SKY Television, which has up to one million subscribers in Brazil and Mexico and DirecTV Latin America, which provides service to the rest of the Americas. Pay-TV is not popular among Latin American TV viewers and fees are expensive in PPP terms. link titlelink titleThe name Sky Television may refer to: British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in the United Kingdom SKY Network Television in New Zealand This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A standard DIRECTV satellite dish with 1 LNB on a roof DirecTV is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service based in El Segundo, California, that transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States. ... World map showing the Americas America or the Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... In economics, purchasing power parity (PPP) is a theory which says that the long-run equilibrium exchange rate of two currencies is the rate that equalizes the currencies purchasing power. ...

United States

Consumer satellite television reception began in the United States in the early 1980s with the introduction of the first home satellite systems designed for receiving the same TVRO signals used for distribution to cable systems. Early setups were very expensive and large, with 12-foot (3.7 m) dishes common. Many were motorized, allowing for reception from multiple satellites, and therefore a greater selection of channels. Originally, all channels were available in the clear, including premium movie services, a major draw and source of growth for the then-burgeoning industry. In 1986, movie channel HBO encrypted their signal, setting a precedent for most other mainstream cable television services. This led to a major decline in the sales of satellite systems. By the early 1990s, the industry recovered as a result of Videocipher decoders being bundled with systems. TVRO systems reached their peak around 1995 before declining as a result of consumer adoption of higher-powered, "small-dish" systems such as DirecTV, Primestar, and the Dish Network. As of May 31, 2005, 215,076 big dishes were still subscribed to pay TV programming 1, as opposed to nearly three million at the peak in 1995, although more may be in use solely for free-to-air television reception. HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television network with headquarters in New York City. ... Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house. ... VideoCipher is a brand name of analog scrambling equipment for satellite television invented in the early 1980s by Linkabit systems, which was bought out by MA/COM in 1985. ... A standard DIRECTV satellite dish with 1 LNB on a roof DirecTV is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service based in El Segundo, California, that transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States. ... PrimeStar is a now-defunct U.S. direct broadcast satellite organization formed in 1991. ... DISH Network is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service that broadcasts digital satellite television and audio to households and businesses in the United States, owned by parent company EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH). ... May 31 is the 151st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (152nd in leap years), with 214 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Free-to-air is a phrase used to describe television and radio broadcasts which are available without subscription and without decryption (pay-TV). ...

Hughes’s DirecTV, the first high-powered DBS system, went online in 1994 and was the first North American DBS service; it is now owned by News Corporation. In 1996, EchoStar’s Dish Network went online in the United States and has gone on to similar success as DirecTV’s primary competitor. Dominion Video Satellite Inc.'s Sky Angel also went online in the United States in 1996 with its DBS service geared toward the faith and family market. It has since grown from six to more than 30 TV and radio channels of family entertainment, Christian-inspirational programming and 24-hour news. Dominion, under its former corporate name Video Satellite Systems Inc., was actually the second from among the first nine companies to apply to the FCC for a high-power DBS license in 1981 and is the sole surviving DBS pioneer from that first round of forward-thinking applicants. In 2004, Cablevision’s Voom service went online, specifically catering to the emerging market of HDTV owners and aficionados, but folded in April 2005, with the service’s “exclusive” high-definition channels currently being migrated to the Dish Network system. Commercial DBS services are the primary competition to cable television service, although the two types of service have significantly different regulatory requirements (for example, cable television has public access requirements, and the two types of distribution have different regulations regarding carriage of local stations). Hughes Electronics Corporation was formed in 1985 when Hughes Aircraft was sold by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to General Motors for $5 billion. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Echostar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) is the parent company of Dish Network and the maintainer of the satellite fleet that provides the signal which Dish Network markets. ... DISH Network is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service that broadcasts digital satellite television and audio to households and businesses in the United States, owned by parent company EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Cablevision Systems Corporation NYSE: CVC is a cable television company that serves parts of the Northeast of the United States, with most customers residing in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. ... The VOOM logo Voom was a direct broadcast satellite television provider serving the United States. ... Projection screen in a home theater, displaying a high-definition television image. ... Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house. ... Public access television is a cable television service that allows members of the public to use a cable companys facilities and equipment to create and broadcast their own content. ...

The majority of ethnic-language broadcasts to North America are carried on K_u band free-to-air; the largest concentration of ethnic programming is on Intelsat Americas 5 at 97° W. GlobeCast World TV offers a mix of free and pay-TV ethnic channels in the internationally-standard DVB-S format, as do others. Home2US Communications Inc. also offers ethnic programming, the platform is on AMC-4 at 101° W, with several ethnic channels as well as free and pay-TV. Several U.S.-English language network affiliates (representing CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, Fox, WB, i and UPN) are available as free-to-air broadcasts, as are the three U.S.-Spanish language networks (Univisión, Telefutura and Telemundo). The number of free-to-air specialty channels is otherwise rather limited. Specific FTA offerings tend to appear and disappear rather often and typically with little or no notice, although sites such as LyngSat do track the changing availability of both free and pay channels worldwide. Download high resolution version (1323x1895, 67 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Globecast World TV, a division of France Telecom, is a direct-to-home provider of free-to-air and Nagravision-encrypted ethnic television and audio channels via the Intelsat Americas 5 satellite. ... Official DVB logo, found on compliant devices DVB, short for Digital Video Broadcasting, is a suite of internationally accepted, open standards for digital television maintained by the DVB Project, an industry consortium with more than 270 members, and published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of European Telecommunications Standards Institute... Home2US Communications, Inc. ... CBS (formerly an abbreviation for Columbia Broadcasting System, its former legal name) is one of the largest television networks, and formerly one of the largest radio networks, in the United States. ... NBC, (Formerly an acronym for the National Broadcasting Company until 2004), is an American television and radio network based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... This article is about the American network, for the Australian network, see Australian Broadcasting Corporation The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is a television and radio network in the United States. ... The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 349 member TV stations in the United States. ... The Fox Broadcasting Company is a television network in the United States. ... The WB Television Network, casually referred to as The WB, or sometimes as The Frog (referring to the networks former mascot, the animated character Michigan J. Frog), is a television network in the United States, founded as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ... The i Network: Independent Television, or simply i, is a broadcast and cable television network first broadcasted on August 31, 1998. ... UPN (which originally stood for the United Paramount Network) is a television network in the United States, owned by CBS Corporation, which also owns the more widespread CBS network. ... This redirect page is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Telefutura is a Spanish-language television network owned by Univision with headquarters in Miami, Florida. ... Telemundo is an American television network based in Hialeah, Florida. ...

Asia

Malaysia

Malaysia's sole satellite television operator, Measat Broadcast Network Systems (a subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks plc) launched Astro in 1996. It currently holds exclusive rights from the Malaysian government to offer satellite television broadcasting services in the country through the year 2017. Current Astro Logo Previous Astro Logo Astro is a subscription-based direct broadcast satellite (DBS) or direct-to-home satellite television and radio service in Malaysia. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Japan

NHK started experimental broadcasting TV program using BS-2a satellite on May, 1984. After these successful experiments, NHK started regular service (NTSC) and experimental HDTV broadcasting using BS-2b on June, 1989. On April, 1991, Japanese company JSB started pay TV service while BS-3 communication satellite was in use. In 1996 total number of households that receive satellite broadcasting exceeded 10 million. NHK (日本放送協会, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai), or the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, is Japans public broadcaster. ... High-definition television (HDTV) means broadcast of television signals with a higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL) allow. ... JSB is a TLA that can stand for: John Seely Brown, an US researcher in organizations and computing JumpShot Basketball, an online text-based game A Japanese pay-TV operator Category: ...

The modern two satellite systems in use in Japan are B-SAT and JSAT; the BS digital service uses B-SAT, while SKY PerfecTV! uses JSAT. SKY Perfect Communications Inc. ...

India

India has the indigenously built INSAT series satellites from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) alongwith some private operators [4] . INSAT-2E, INSAT-3C and INSAT-3E carry multiple channels for Indian television viewers. Thaicom-2 and Telstar 10 are the other major private satellites over India. Notable service providers offering a bouquet of multiple channels are state-owned Doordarshan, News Corporation owned STAR TV and Sony owned Sony Entertainment Television. Image taken by INSAT 2-E Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) is a series of multipurpose satellites launched by ISRO for telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue services. ... It has been suggested that Indian space program be merged into this article or section. ... The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is Indias national space agency. ... Doordarshan (दूरदर्शन) is a public broadcast terrestrial television channel run by Prasar Bharati, a board nominated by the Government of India. ... News Corporation (abbreviated to News Corp) (NYSE: NWS) is one of the worlds largest media conglomerates. ... For the Turkish television channel, see Star TV. STAR (Satellite Television for the Asian Region) is an Asian TV service owned by News Corporation. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sony Entertainment Television is the name of two cable television channels available in Latin America and India, both owned by Sony. ...

Middle East & North Africa

The Middle East has a high penetration of homes receiving TV channels via DTH satellite. One of the pioneers of free-to-air digital satellite television is considered to be MBC, which began broadcasting in c band through Arabsat and is the first network in the world to offer a free-to-air Western based English language movie channel to the Middle East audience via its spinoff channel MBC 2. Its direct rival is considered to be Dubai, UAE based One TV, earlier called Channel 33, which was the first channel in the Middle East to provide English language general entertainment programming for the expatriate community. A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Free-to-air is a phrase used to describe television and radio broadcasts which are available without subscription and without decryption (pay-TV). ... The tone of this article is inappropriate for an encyclopedia. ... C band (compromise band) is a portion of electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 4 to 6 GHz. ... MBC 2 is the first free-to-air to show non-stop movies 24/7. ... Flag Coordinates , Government Emirate Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Geographical characteristics Area     City 4,114 km² Demographics Population     City (2006) 1,570,779     Density   293. ... One TV is an English language channel available in the Middle East and based in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and provides the latest in Western entertainment 24 hours a day. ...

The first digital DTH pay-TV network to provide Western Entertainment was Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network broadcasting via Arabsat (C band), later on Showtime Arabia a joint venture between Viacom (21% stake) and KIPCO (79% stake) started broadcasting, via PanAmSat (C band), but later switched over to Nilesat (KU band). Arab Radio & Television (ART) now known as Arab Digital Distribution although a late comer, gained ground by broadcasting exclusive sports events. Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network was the world’s first fully digital, multi-channel, multi-lingual, pay television service, providing perfect sound and picture quality at all times. ... Arabsat is a satellite built by Aerospatiale. ... C band (compromise band) is a portion of electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 4 to 6 GHz. ... Showtime or Showtime Arabia (Gulf DTH F.Z. L.L.C., the operating company behind digital pay TV broadcaster Showtime) as its called to distinguish itself from its U.S. counterpart, is the dominant subscription television service in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Levant territories. ... Viacom is a media conglomerate with various worldwide interests in cable and satellite television networks (MTV Networks and BET), video gaming (part of Sega of America), and movie production and distribution (the Paramount Pictures movie studio and DreamWorks). ... Kuwait Projects Company (Holding), popularly known as KIPCO, is one of the premier investment holding companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. ... Founded in 1984 by Rene Anselmo, PanAmSat Corporation (NYSE: PA) is a satellite service provider headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut. ... C band (compromise band) is a portion of electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 4 to 6 GHz. ...

These networks can be easily received via 60cm to 180cm satellite dishes. Most of the popular channels are transmitting from these satellites and orbital positions: Arabsat at 26°E, Asiasat at 100.5°E and 105.5°E, Eutelsat Hot Bird at 13°E, Nilesat at 7°W, and PanAmSat at 68.5°E. Arabsat is a satellite built by Aerospatiale. ... Eutelsat S.A. is a French corporation which operates 24 telecommunications satellites in geosynchronous orbit. ... Hot Bird is the common name of a family of 6 satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13°E over the Equator (orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. ... Founded in 1984 by Rene Anselmo, PanAmSat Corporation (NYSE: PA) is a satellite service provider headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut. ...

Lyngsat satellite charts prove, the Middle East enjoys the highest number of FTA digital satellite channels in the world, with One TV and MBC 2 airing blockbuster movies like The Lord of the Rings film trilogy without any encryption. One TV is an English language channel available in the Middle East and based in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and provides the latest in Western entertainment 24 hours a day. ... MBC 2 is the first free-to-air to show non-stop movies 24/7. ... The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie poster (2001) The Lord of the Rings film trilogy comprises three live action fantasy adventure films, directed by Peter Jackson and released by New Line Cinema, based upon the fantasy book The Lord of the Rings by J. R... In cryptography, encryption is the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. ...

Australia

Satellite television in Australia has proven to be a far more feasible option than cable television, due to the vast distances between population centres. The first service to come online in Australia was Galaxy Television, which was later taken over by Cable Television giant Foxtel, which now operates both cable and satellite services to all state capital cities (except Darwin and Hobart) and the whole of Western Australia. Its main metropolitan rival was Optus Vision, while rural areas are served by Austar, both of which just rebroadcast Foxtel as of 2005. Foxtel is a cable television and satellite television company in Australia, formed through a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation. ... Optus Television is the cable television division of Australian telecommunications company Optus. ... An Austar Remote Austar is an Australian telecommunications company. ...

In New Zealand, SKY Network Television offers multichannel digital satellite TV, in addition to its terrestrial UHF service. The upcoming FreeView service will also be available on satellite. SKY Network Television Limited (ASX: SKT; NZX: SKT), often trading as SKY, was New Zealands first pay television service and is at present, 2006, New Zealands largest pay television operator. ... This article is about the radio frequency. ... Freeview logo Freeview is an operator of free digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom, using the DVB-T standard. ...

Europe

Continental Western Europe

In Europe, DBS satellite services are found mainly on Astra satellites and Hotbird (operated by Eutelsat), with Sky Italia, Canal Digitaal and UPC being the main providers in Italy, Western Europe and Central Europe. BSkyB (known as Sky) also serves Northern Europe and many channels can be received as far away as Cyprus. SES Astra SA, a subsidiary of SES Global, is a Luxembourg-based corporation which owns and operates the Astra series of geostationary satellites, which transmit approximately 1100 analogue and digital television and radio channels via 176 transponders to 91 million households across Europe. ... Hot Bird is the common name of a family of 5 satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 degrees East over the Equator (orbital position) and transmitting in free-to-air towards 98 million households in Europe, North Africa &, the Middle East. ... Eutelsat S.A. is a French corporation which operates 24 telecommunications satellites in geosynchronous orbit. ... Sky Italia is an Italian digital satellite television platform owned by News Corporation. ... A Dutch satellite broadcaster. ... United Pan-Europe Communications N.V. (UPC) also provides satellite television services across Europe and cable television in the Netherlands and Slovakia. ... A common understanding of Western Europe in modern times. ... Regions of Europe Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ... British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB — formerly two companies, Sky and B.S.B.) is a company that operates Sky Digital, the most popular subscription television service in the UK and Ireland. ... Northern Europe is marked in dark blue Northern Europe is a name of the northern part of the European continent. ...

The overall market share of DBS satellite services in 2004 was 21.4% of all TV homes, however this highly varies from country to country. For example, in Germany, with many free-to-air TV-stations, DBS market share is almost 40%, and in Belgium and the Netherlands, it’s only about 7%, due to the widespread cable networks with exclusive content.

Russia

Since creation of its national network of satellite television in 1967, Russian satellite broadcasting service based on powerful geostationary buses which provide mostly free-to-air television channels to millions of householders. Pay-TV is not popular among Russian TV viewers and only the NTV Russia news company has a few encrypted channels. Pay television, or pay-TV, usually refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analogue and digital cable and satellite, but also increasingly by digital terrestrial methods. ... The Russian NTV channel (НТВ in Cyrillic) was a pioneer in the post-Soviet independent television media. ...

United Kingdom

Sky Digital "mini-dish"

The first commercial DBS service in the United Kingdom, Sky Television, was launched in 1989, providing 4 analogue TV channels. In the following year BSB was launched, broadcasting five channels in D-MAC format; the two services subsequently merged to form British Sky Broadcasting. In 1994 17% of the group was floated on the London Stock Exchange (with ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange), and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation owns a 35% stake. Image File history File links Sky_minidish. ... Image File history File links Sky_minidish. ... Sky Digital is the brand name for British Sky Broadcastings digital satellite television service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28. ... Sky Television corporate identity from 1989, maintained by British Sky Broadcasting until 1995 Sky Television plc was a four-channel satellite television service launched by Rupert Murdochs News International on February 5, 1989. ... BSB logo British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a company set up in 1986 to provide direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. ... Multiplexed Analogue Components (MAC) is a high-definition television transmission standard, originally proposed in 1995 for European HDTV. MAC transmits luminance and chrominance data separately in time rather than separately in frequency (as other analog television formats do, such as composite video). ... British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB — formerly two companies, Sky and B.S.B.) is a company that operates Sky Digital, the most popular subscription television service in the UK and Ireland. ... The Source by Greyworld, in the new LSE building Paternoster Square. ... An American Depositary Receipt (ADR) is how the stock of most foreign companies trades in United States stock markets. ... New York Stock Exchange (June 2003) The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) , also nicknamed the Big Board, is the largest stock exchange in the world in dollar volume and second largest by number of companies listed. ... Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch AC, KCSG, (commonly known as Rupert Murdoch) (born 11 March 1931) born in Australia of Scottish and some claim Jewish ancestry, but this is unfounded. ... News Corporation (abbreviated to News Corp) (NYSE: NWS) is one of the worlds largest media conglomerates. ...

By 1999, following the launch of several more satellites (at 19.2°E by SES Astra, the number of channels had increased to around 60 and BSkyB launched the first subscription-based digital television platform in the UK, offering a range of 200 channels broadcast from the Astra satellites at 28.2°E under the brand name Sky Digital. BSkyB’s analogue service has now been discontinued, with all customers having been migrated to Sky Digital. SES Astra SA, a subsidiary of SES Global, is a Luxembourg-based corporation which owns and operates the Astra series of geostationary satellites, which transmit approximately 1100 analogue and digital television and radio channels via 176 transponders to 91 million households across Europe. ... Sky Digital is the brand name for British Sky Broadcastings digital satellite television service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28. ...

Nordic countries

The first satellite service specifically set to the Nordic region was TV3 which launched in 1987. With the launch of Astra 1A, getting the TV3 channel got easier. The first Nordic-specific satellite, Tele-X, was launched in 1989. The services directed at Scandinavia were then scattered among several satellites. In 1993, the former BSB satellites were bought by a Swedish and a Norwegian company, respectively. These two satellites were renamed Thor 1 and Sirius 1, moved to new positions and started broadcasting services intended for people in the Nordic region. With the launch of additional Thor and Sirius satellites later in the 1990s, Astra and other satellites were abandoned by the Nordic services with almost all Nordic satellite television migrating to the Sirius and Thor satellites. TV3 is the largest commercial television channel of Viasat, which is part of the Swedish media company Modern Times Group. ... Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by Société Européenne des Satellites (SES), now SES Astra. ...

Initially the basic channels were free-to-air. This caused several rights problems since viewers throughout Europe were able to see very much acquired English language programming as well as sports for free on the Nordic channels, although the channels only held broadcasting rights for specific countries. One way of avoiding that was to switch from PAL to the D2MAC standard, hardly used anywhere outside the Nordic region. An unencrypted channel could still be seen in all the Nordic satellite homes, so eventually all channels went encrypted (several of them only being available in one country). Free-to-air is a phrase used to describe television and radio broadcasts which are available without subscription and without decryption (pay-TV). ... PAL, short for phase-alternating line, phase alternation by line or phase alternation line, is a colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. ...

There are two competing satellite services: Canal Digital (Norwegian Telenor) and Viasat (Kinnevik). Canal Digital launched in 1997 and was digital from the start, broadcasting from Thor. Kinnevik had been operating an analogue subscription service since the late 1980s, but waited until the year 2000 before launching a digital service. All analogue services from Thor and Sirius will have ceased in 2006, when the three remaining Danish channels go digital-only. The competition between Viasat and Canal Digital has caused some homes in Scandinavia to have to buy two set-top boxes and have two subscriptions to get the full range of channels. Viasat doesn't provide their own channels (TV3, TV3+, ZTV, TV1000 and the Viasat-branded channels) on the Canal Digital platform. Canal Digital does however have exclusive distribution of channels from SBS Broadcasting, Discovery, TV2 Denmark and Eurosport; for several years the Swedish SVT and TV4 channels were also exclusive to Canal Digital. Canal Digital was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay-TV company CANAL+ and the Norwegian state-telecommunications operator Telenor. ... Telenor is the incumbent telco in Norway. ... Caption Viasat is a DTH distributor and a television network, founded by Jan Stenbeck and owned by Modern Times Group. ... SBS Broadcasting Group SA, a media group from Luxembourg, was founded in Scandinavia in 1990. ... See also Discovery Channel Discovery Communications Inc. ... TV 2 is a Danish government-owned television station broadcasting from Odense on Funen. ... Eurosport is the largest European sports satellite and cable network available in 54 countries and broadcasting in 18 different languages. ... Sveriges Television (SVT) is a national publicly-funded television broadcaster based in Sweden. ... TV4 is the largest commercial television channel in Sweden. ...

See also

• Satellite dish
• Microwave antenna
• Commercialization of space

Special dish for up to 16 satellite positions (Ku-band) Satellite dish antenna for C-Band DTH redirects here. ... This page is about the radiation; for the appliance, see microwave oven. ... Commercialization of space is the use of outer space for the purpose of generating a profit, either by a corporation or state. ...

External links

• Satellite Terminology and Glossary
• Lyngemark Satellite Charts
• Broadcast Engineering
• C-Band FAQ List
• Satellite TV in Thailand
• Linowsat PID-Lists and Videobitrate Charts
• How satellite tv works