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Inside view


Satellite TV may seem quite new, but its history actually spans over a fifty year period. The original concept of satellite television is often attributed to writer Arthur C. Clarke, who was the first to suggest a worldwide satellite communications system. Funding for satellite technology in the U.S. began in the 1950s, amidst the space race, and the Russian launching of the satellite Sputnik in 1957. The first communication satellite was developed by a group of businesses and government entities in 1963. Syncom II orbited at 22,300 miles over the Atlantic; the first satellite communication was on July 26, 1963, between a U.S. Navy ship in Lagos, Nigeria and the U.S. Army naval station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Overloaded land based distribution methods had the telephone companies utilizing satellite communication way before the television industry even came into the picture. In fact, it was not until 1978 that satellite communication was officially used by the television industry. In 1975, RWT's co-founder and BBC transmitter engineer Stephen Birkill built an experimental system for receiving Satellite Instructional Television Experiment TV (SITE) transmissions, beamed to Indian villages, from a NASA geostationary satellite. Birkill extended his system, receiving TV pictures from Intelsat, Raduga, Molniya and others. In 1978, Birkill met up with Bob Cooper, a cable TV technical journalist and amateur radio enthusiast in the U.S., who invited him to a cable TV operators' conference and trade show, the CCOS-78. It was there that Birkill met with other satellite TV enthusiasts, who were interested, and ready to help develop, Birkillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiments. Interest in Television Receive Only (TVRO) satellite technology burst forward. The American TVRO boom caught the attention of premium cable programmers, who began to realize the potential of satellite TV. Back in the mid1970s, TV reception was the under the control of international operators, Intelsat and Intersputnik. On March 1, 1978, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) introduced Public Television Satellite Service. Satellite communication technology caught on, and was used as a distribution method with the broadcasters from 1978 through 1984, with early signals broadcast from HBO, TBS, and CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network, later The Family Channel). TVRO system prices dropped, and the trade organization, Society for Private Commercial Earth Stations (SPACE), and the first dealerships were established. Broadcasters realized that everyone had the potential to receive satellite signals for free, and they were not happy.



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International Sattalite Magazine