Satellite TV had its origin in the space history because
of satellite Sputnik launched by Russians in 1957.  The first communication
satellite was developed and launched by a joint effect of the business entities
and the government in 1963. This communication satellite was named as Syncom II. It reached the orbit with 22,300 miles over the Atlantic Ocean. The
first satellite communication was made between the US navy ship in Nigeria and
the US army naval station in New Jersey in July, 1963.

Broadcast networks adopted satellite based communication
as the distribution method from 1978 through 1984. As the satellite based
broadcasting purposes increased, everyone started to receive satellite signals
for free.

Direct to Home (DTH) satellite receivers were developed in the early 1980’s and rural areas started receiving television channels that were not able to receive Television broadcasting by
standard methods with the help of these DTH satellite receivers. The open
skies policy allowed anyone with a Television Receive Only (TVRO) receiver to receive and use the satellite television broadcasting signals.

The satellite providers with the intention to avoid free reception of their satellite broadcasted television channels started encoding the signals that they were broadcasting. Satellite Television Viewers, in turn,
had to buy a decoder from a satellite program provider who packed the
television channels as a package. Thus it started to emerge a new service
called Direct Broadcast Satellite or DBS.

This DBS consist of a broadcast satellite in
geostationary orbit, facilities for transmitting signals to the satellite in
the orbit and individual equipment to access these Television signals by
viewers in their home. Pay TV stations had the relief of saving their business
with this new DBS system.

The initial attempts to launch communication satellites for the mass consumer
market were led by Japan and Hong Kong during 1986 and 1990, respectively. The
first successful attempt by the United States was made by a group of major
cable providers and it was named as one entity “Prime star”. The
business started providing more opportunities and new Satellite Providers like
Direct TV, EchoStar Dish Network entered the market in 1996.

Thus for the last 2 decades satellite Television
broadcasting evolved and has now become the widely consumed Television
broadcasting service.

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