In the world today, we are able to get our favorite TV programs through three basic types of broadcast technology: conventional “terrestrial” television, cable television and satellite television.  The first two methods deliver television programming signals within the confines of the Earth, while the latter method uses communications satellites to broadcast the signals to your home.

In North America, satellite television was launched on the market in the early 1990’s. At that time, satellite dishes were gargantuan and took up huge sections of a subscriber’s back yard. Those dishes were also very expensive and only the most determined fans of watching television would make the effort to put in their own dish, despite the fact it was tougher to get than regular broadcast or cable TV.

Compact Dishes for Convenience

Advances in technology have taken satellite television to the place where dishes are small and compact and much more reasonable for the average subscriber’s budget. It’s not uncommon to see satellite dishes on just about every house in communities where cable is not available. The quality of reception for both picture and sound is superb, and with the availability of numerous local, national and international channels, the demand by consumers for the service is on the rise.

There are distinct advantages to using a satellite television service:

• It’s a wireless system  like broadcast TV that doesn’t require major installation of fiber optic cable networks
• Unlike broadcast TV, the curve of the Earth does not interfere with receiving the satellite signals
• The problems inherent with range and distortion are eliminated because the satellite points directly at the subscriber’s dish
• The satellite dish is required to be pointed at the satellite once, during installation and setup, because the satellite maintains a geosynchronous orbit that matches the pace of the Earth’s rotation
• It offers movie theater quality picture and sound
• Hundreds of channels from around the world are available to the subscriber
• The service is readily available in both rural and urban areas, with access to digital, high definition programming

Hundreds of TV Channels Available

In the early days of satellite television, viewers were interested in unique programming that was not specifically created for a general public audience. In fact, they were able to pick up foreign stations, private feeds between broadcast stations, NASA data and other information that was transmitted via satellite. Now, subscribers are more interested in satellite television for the hundreds of sports, movie, news and entertainment channels.