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Why do we have satellite television? What's wrong with the terrestrial broadcasts that we have enjoyed for five decades or more? Well the real benefit lies in the fact that you get more channels. You get more channels because satellite broadcasts are able to utilise more bandwidth than conventional terrestrial systems and can therefore fit more separate channels into the space allowed. Another competitor for your viewing time is cable television of course. Cable has some benefits in being more reliable perhaps but it is also limited by the fact that you must live somewhere where the cable companies are willing to connect you up.

Sattelite television is very important in areas where it isn't possible to install cable and the terrestrial television reception is weak or non-existent. Both systems use radio frequency signals to transmit and they travel in straight lines. That means that for broadcast television, which is transmitted and received by land-based antenna, the natural curvature of the earth will break the signals' direct line of sight. It also means that other land based obstacles like mountains and trees are likely to interfere with the TV signal and cause some weakening and distortion.

Satellites that transmit TV are placed in orbit over 22,000 miles above the Earth and they rotate around the planet once every 24 hours and in the same direction that the Earth is rotating in. Because the Earth rotates once every 24 hours and the satellite moves around the Earth at the same velocity in the same direction, the satellite always stays over the same point on the surface. The satellites are said to be in geostationary orbit. Because they are high in the sky a satellite beams signals over a wide area of the planets surface. The satellites are also in communication with each other so that they can relay the same broadcast to all satellites in orbit over different parts of the world. This is how we are able to get TV live from anywhere on the Earth and view it at the same time as everyone else on the planet receiving a signal from a satellite. When you think about it it's a pretty amazing feat of technology.

When satellite television was first introduced the dishes required to receive the signal were very expensive and people were able to set them up to receive programmes that were not really intended for everybody to see. Nowadays people tend to subscribe to a 'Direct Broadcast Satellite' (DBS) provider such as DirecTV or Dish Network in the US and Sky in the UK. These providers are able to select programs and broadcast them to people as set packages, for example the 'Family', 'Sports' or 'Movie' packages. Cost will depend on which one you choose to buy.

Satellite TV companies make money from their networks in a variety of ways. There are three methods that are in general use today.

Showing Adverts

Organisations pay the network to broadcast adverts. We all hate it but it does pay for our entertainment, or part of it at least.

Regular Subscriptions

Payment of a monthly fee for the privilege of being able to view encrypted channels. For your subscription you generally get a smart card that is loaded with the decryption keys and inserted into your receiver equipment.

Licence Fee

If you are in the UK and you have equipment that is capable of receiving TV signals then the law states you must pay for a TV licence. Note that you don't have to use the equipment; you just have to possess it. The money from the licence fee goes to pay for the British Broadcasting Company or BBC and in return we don't see any advertising or encryption on any BBC channels. This was a good idea in the early days of radio and TV and it helped to produce and maintain high standards of broadcasting all over the world. My personal opinion now however is that the licence fee is nothing more than yet another tax that we have to pay and I feel that the BBC should begin to stand on it's own two feet. I doubt that it will happen anytime soon though.

If a broadcaster uses only advertising to pay for their service then you may receive and view the signals without payment or subscription. If you live in the UK you still have to pay the licence fee though.

There are five main components required to make this whole system work. To get the programmes from the producers to the end customer they must all be in place and they must all be working properly. It's surprising how it works at all.

Distribution

The DBS provider does not create the programmes themselves, they pay for the right to be able to broadcast them via satellite television. They act as a 'middleman' between the 'programming sources' or channels and you.

Satellite Television Provider

Signals from the broadcast sources are received by the provider and then transmitted to the network of orbiting satellites.

Satellites

The signals are received by the satellite network and retransmitted back to Earth.

Receiving equipment

Usually a DBS provider will provide you with the equipment to receive the signal. This will include a dish to be fixed to your house by professional installers to receive the signal.

Decoding and viewing

That signal is then transferred to and decoded by the receiver, which is usually sited next to your television so that you can view the channels you have chosen to purchase.

I bet you never realised that there was so much involved in satellite television. It is indeed a marvel of technology and provides us with high quality up to date entertainment from all over the world. Television technology has come a very long way in such a short time.