The History and Future of Satellite TV

1980 was a year that seen an enormous growth of satellite TV. The previous decades had produced a trend of computerization and technology with control systems becoming smaller than ever had been imagined. Then the satellite receiver equipment was born. At that point in time, there were only a handful of companies that were broadcasting TV shows through satellite, including the Home Box Office. There were many more lining up to be included in this phenomenon though.

As popularity and demand grew, the cost of obtaining a satellite dish drastically dropped and the number of users continued to rise. It was quickly obvious that this was going to be a monster of an industry. However, the satellite equipment was difficult to operate, they were very large and required just as big amount of bandwidth to run.

The advances in computer technology made way for the possibility of the signals to be transformed into digital. This was much more user friendly and used less bandwidth at the same time. It wasn't small enough, though. The study and development was continually growing to compress these signals, and once they finally did it, smaller satellite dishes were able to be used. By 1992, companies were able to encrypt signals well enough that Pay-Per-View was developed and released to the public. Millions of people have flocked to satellite TV, and the dishes are small enough to be used by anyone today.

They can be bought at very small sizes, even 18inch and there will probably be even smaller ones in the near future. Satellite TV is here to stay, especially with advance being made everyday that allow the home user to interact with the source. No one can say what exactly is going to happen, but you can bet that it is coming soon!.

Vincent is a Problogger from the Netherlands and writes among others for The World of Office, XP and Vista Tips and Tricks and more info about this article can be found in his PC satellite TV review in our Modern Men Magazine The World of Modern Men.