In that video it talks about there being 2 satellite positions for the UK at that time, does anyone know what they were? I know 13 East was around back then, so I'm presuming that was one. Not sure what the other one was though, 19.2 wasn't around till Astra launched a few years later.
28 degrees East wasn't "launched" until just before Sky Digital came along, moving Astra 1D to get it going until new satellites came along, then it was moved back.
19.2 degrees East is the "classic" satellite position and Astra 1A that started it in 1988.
The satellites for British Satellite Broadcasting, which launched as the Marcopolo/Thor satellites were launched at 31 degrees West. After the merger with Sky to form BSkyB, the BSB satellites were sold off to a Scandinavian company and moved a considerable distance in the sky.
In fact looking at the way the dish moves in the video, its moving a considerable distance.
In fact looking at the way the dish moves in the video, its moving a considerable distance.
Of course that doesn't mean it's the actual distance between the two satellites on at that time, they might just have moved it a large difference so it looked good on video.
Last edited by james-2001 on 12 September 2016 11:06pm
Could such a range of independent channels (independent of sky/bsb style branding) have made an impact a'la sky
The channels are an afterthought because most of the costs of satellite broadcasting in the 1980s came down to basically getting them going and then getting the equipment into homes and putting dishes on walls. Such an operation and the startup costs almost bankrupted Sky and the BSB project was burning money like there was no tomorrow. It could be argued the merger saved Sky financially.
If you have no satellites in geostationery orbit you have nothing to uplink channels to. Simple as.