Our squariel is still proudly displayed from my dad's TV workshop. It still looks nice now.
I had BSB since the beginning and I really liked the channels! Galaxy was the best and had great logo's, great presentation and great programmes. It was fantastic! It was a shame BSB didn't survive and make their own channels, they were really good!
I remember before its closedow at the end of 1992, a dramatic trailer which was running with the voiceover bloke from Sky saying 'Soon, transmissions will cease on the BSB system' and so on and then it gave a number to call so you could get Sky. I remember it was a receiver and a squariel in mist, it was weird but I'm pretty sure thats what it was. Can someone confirm this?
Finally, when the day arrived, the caption that appeared on all the channels. 'Transmissions from the Marco Polo satellite have ceased. For more information, please call...............' Or words to that effect.
Shame, in the end though the service was just BSkyB and there was very little point keeping two services owned by the same company that showed almost the same programmes. One of them had to go, and sadly DMac didn't have the room for expansion. Thats what you get when you had high quality DMac pictures.
AE
Ashley Elford
Isonstine posted:
One of them had to go, and sadly DMac didn't have the room for expansion. Thats what you get when you had high quality DMac pictures.
Sky
had
to leave 31' W before Jan 1993, they didn't have the choice of staying any longer (though it's more or less what they wanted). Interestingly enough, there was a rule imposed by the IBA, that channels at 31' W could only be encrypted for sports and movies (though sports were free until September 1992). Did you know that BSB and Sky spent so much money before 30th October 1990, you could comission the QE2 non-stop for the next ten years ? !!!!
The UK was only allowed five DTH frequencies whilst BSB was in service but in 1996, the Radio Comunications Agency manged to double the allowance to ten DTH frequencies. The slot is still empty, and any new applications now have the choice of DMAC and DVB-S! The reason why BT or NTL don't have any services at 31' W is because the slot was only given to the UK for DTH useage.
Shame, in the end though the service was just BSkyB and there was very little point keeping two services owned by the same company that showed almost the same programmes. One of them had to go, and sadly DMac didn't have the room for expansion. Thats what you get when you had high quality DMac pictures.
Yep - I got a BSB receiver and minidish and squarial after Sky stopped broadcasting from the MarcoPolo satellite. The receivers were really easy to convert to D2MAC and it was brilliant being able to point the dish at the French and German DBS satellites - where most channels were broadcast in the clear. I was the only student at my college with satellite TV I think in the early 90s. Particularly good to have the French version of MTV (MCM)
It was also great to be able to watch all of the Winter Olympics from Albertville and the Summer games from Barcelona in widescreen! They were broadcast in the European HDTV format of HDMAC - which was compatible with my receiver!
As for DMAC not having room for expansion... Afraid that is not the case - DMAC could easily have been used on Astra by Sky - and not taken up any more space. However the receivers for PAL on Astra were much cheaper to make! (So Sky chose to use it.) Astra was actually broadcasting on frequencies intended for broadcasters to distribute signals to each other, rather than direct to homes, so was not forced by law to use MAC.
Because BSB was using a different frequency band (designated for direct broadcasting to homes) they DID have to use MAC by law - and that is really one of the reasons they failed. The receivers cost more to make, and took too long to develop.
BSB only had access to 5 DBS frequencies because of the frequency band they occupied - whereas Sky were able to get more from Astra as they launched more channels. So it wasn't the MAC format which stopped BSB having more channels - it was the European regulations which only allocated 5 channels to each country!
Interesting that the BBC was originally allocated some (all?) of the channels BSB got - but decided it could not make it work financially!
AE
Ashley Elford
I'd question if any form of DMAC could have operated with the Astra satellites. PAL signals from satellites, such as Astra, are polarised with horizontal and vertical polarity. However, DMAC signals from satellites use Right-hand Circular and Left-hand Circular polarisation, thus the Astra satellite is incompatible with that meathod of transmitting signals.
The DMAC standard being used for 31' W was only a condition imposed by the IBA, it was not requirment of the internation community. Again, financing two satellites for 31' W was another condition of the IBA.
The BBC were not allocated any DTH frequencies for 31' W. The origional plan of the IBA was to allocate three DTH frequencies 31' W to one bidder (which was BSB), with a further two being made avaliable in the early 1990s to be bid for either seperately as a pair or individually (specualtion suggested the BBC were interested the two channels). In 1988 when News Corperation announced Sky, BSB begged the IBA to allow them the extra two DTH frequencies, and it did so on interests of being able to compete against Sky.
BSB would've lasted longer if only the directors had a clue about fiscal polices. It was spend spend spend at BSB and it was a total disaster.
They did have some of the strangest idents of all time. The Power Station - which indirectly merged with Sky News was the most bizarre looking channel around in the 90s.
AE
Ashley Elford
cheshirec posted:
BSB would've lasted longer if only the directors had a clue about fiscal polices. It was spend spend spend at BSB and it was a total disaster.
They did have some of the strangest idents of all time. The Power Station - which indirectly merged with Sky News was the most bizarre looking channel around in the 90s.
If I remember correctly:
April 1990:
1
Movie Channel
2
The Sports Channel
3
Galaxy
4
Now - The Channel For Living
5
The Power Station
At 01.00GMT 1st Nov 1990, Now - The Channel For Living handed over to Sky News. Sky Arts broadcasted during the weekend evenings on Marco Polo showing Now's back catalogue of programming.
At 02.00GMT 2nd Nov 1990, Galaxy closed-down for the last time, Sky One launches on Marco Polo at 06.00GMT the same morning. Much of the programming was stored, with UK Gold buying it a couple of years later.
The Sports Channel was rebranded at the new year as Sky Sports.
The Power Station was closed-down in April 1991 and Sky Movies replaced it. The decision was made by Sky, as Astra viewers were already receiving MTV. It is a mystery to me where the Power Stations content went to - it has never appeared on any other channel, and is presumably in storage, now destroyed ?
The Movie Channel survived right up until 1997, when it was rebranded.
So after the changes from Sky were finished, the line-up looked like:
1
Movie Channel
2
Sky Sports
3
Sky One
4
Sky News / Sky Arts (18.00-00.00 weekends)
5
Sky Movies
