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About Satellite-TV
1945: Arthur C. Clarke's Dream
The entire satellite communications industry - not just the DTH segment - can trace its common heritage to one man, noted futurist and author, Arthur C.
Clarke. Long before Clarke took us to the farthest reaches of the universe in his legendary epic, "2001: A Space Odyssey," he penned a paper entitled, "Extraterrestrial
Relays." Published in October 1945 by "Wireless World Magazine," which advanced a theory that worldwide communications could be accomplished by placing three space platforms into special orbits 22,300 miles above the equator. Clarke explained that at this altitude, the "platforms" would orbit the earth at exactly the same speed the earth turned, thus appearing to remain motionless in space when viewed from the ground. Obviously, Clarke's paper was far ahead of its time. The world had yet to see the widespread development of TV - let alone the ability to place any object, much less a large communications platform, into orbit. The world would have to wait a dozen year before the first manmade object, Sputnik, found its way into orbit. This basketball-sized satellite carried a transmitter which delivered a non-stop Morse code-based political message touting the technological superiority of the Soviet Union. Spurred into action, America embarked on one of history's largest technology development programs. The $20-plus billion space program saw the United States not only put men on the moon, but also lead to the development of Intelsat, an international consortium which deployed a network of geosynchronous communications satellites. In fact, the first live global television broadcast, realizing Clarke's dream, came as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in July of 1969. By the mid-1970s, private companies like Western Union, AT&T and RCA widely utilized the same satellite technology to support the rapidly growing telecommunications needs of the United States. In addition to telephony, data circuits and program links for television networks, the satellite played a key role in the growth of cable television, at the time a nascent industry delivery over-the-air TV signals to subscribers.

1976: HBO Moves to Satellite, Taylor Howard Builds a Dish

In 1976, premium programmer Home Box Office (HBO) made history by initiating satellite delivery of programming to cable headends with the heavyweight boxing battle dubbed, "The Thriller From Manila." The move by HBO was followed quickly by Ted Turner, who began to uplink his then unknown Atlanta UHF-TV station, now known as WTBS. Tuner branded it "America's Station" and the "Superstation" was born. In 1977 Pat Robertson launched the first satellite-delivered "basic" cable service, CBN Cable Network, the predecessor of The Family Channel. While all this was happening with the cable operator in mind, Stanford University Professor Emeritus H. Taylor Howard was also busy in his garage.

Howard, a lead scientist on several interplanetary NASA probes with key communication systems on the Apollo Program, would soon build America's first consumer DTH system. In a strange-but-true story, he also became the first consumer to actually pay (or attempt to pay) HBO directly for its signal (the check was returned with a letter explaining that HBO only sold its signal to cable operators). As "techies" began to grasp the capabilities of satellite TV, a small group of entrepreneurs moved from hobbyists to business people. These pioneers - many operating out of their garages - gave birth to an "industry" which sold approximately 5,000 systems in 1980. Each of these systems, boasting an antenna 12 feet or more in diameter, fetched a whopping $10,000. The journey to

satellite tv