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.

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 D2-MAC 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). 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.

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.

Nourmina Channel is the first satellite channel owned by a Jordanian national of the private sector, which broadcasts on Nile Sat reluctantly 12303H, which covers all the Arab countries, Africa and most parts of Europe – The first digital DTH pay-TV network to provide indian Entertainment was Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network broadcasting via Eurobird 2 (Ku 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 and Television Network(ART) now known as Arab Digital Distribution although a late comer, gained ground by broadcasting exclusive sports events. Most of the popular channels are transmitting from these satellites and orbital positions: Arabsat at 26E, AsiaSat at 100.5E and 105.5E, Eutelsat Hot Bird at 13E, Nilesat at 7W, and PanAmSat at 68.5E. + Currently, there are two primary satellite television providers of subscription based service available to Canadians consumers: Bell TV and Shaw Direct.

In Israel, Satellite TV services were introduced by YES! company, using Israeli based Amos (satellite).

See also

Satellite dish

Microwave antenna

Commercialization of space

FTA Receiver

Molniya orbit

References

^ Robertson, Lloyd (1972-11-09). “Anik A1 launching: bridging the gap”. CBC English TV. http://archives.cbc.ca/500f.asp?id=1-75-92-594. Retrieved 2007-01-25. 

^ BBC News: Country profile: Sudan. Page last updated at 13:38 GMT, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 14:38 UK. Accessed July 13, 2008.

^ LyngSat tracking

^ Eggerton, John (2009-10-06). “NAB Won’t Oppose Some Grandfathering Of Distant Signals”. Broadcasting & Cable. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/356999-NAB_Won_t_Oppose_Some_Grandfathering_Of_Distant_Signals.php?rssid=20068&q=digital+tv. Retrieved 2009-10-09. 

^ Eggerton, John (2009-11-05). “Leahy Looks for ‘Short-Time’ Agreement on Satellite Reauthorization”. Broadcasting & Cable. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/382942-Leahy_Looks_for_Short_Time_Agreement_on_Satellite_Reauthorization.php?rssid=20068&q=digital+tv. Retrieved 2009-11-10. 

^ Eggerton, John (2009-11-19). “Senate Passes Satellite Reauthorization Bill”. Broadcasting & Cable.

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