The History of Satellite TV

Do you Know Where Satellite Comes From?

Communication satellites affect more than we often think about — from weather forecasting, cell phones and television, their effects are present in many aspects of modern living. So where did it all start? In 1945, Arthur C. Clarke wrote an article wondering about satellites that sat high in the sky to provide television programs around the globe. Today, satellites sit in an area of space known as the Clarke Belt, a geostationary orbit that is home to much of the world's operating satellites.

For the next couple of decades, people courted the idea of using satellites for commercial purposes. At first, there were no regulations in place for this kind of move, as NASA and the Department of Defense were the only entities developing satellites for launch into space, but soon, the FCC became involved and things were sorted out by the 1960's.

The very first time a television signal was broadcast by satellite was in 1962, when a signal was sent from Europe to a TelStar satellite over North America. A year later, the first geosynchronous satellite (a satellite that moves with the Earth's rotation) was put into orbit. This was Snycom 2. Throughout the next two decades, the world saw the launch of the first commercial communications satellite, the first satellite network and many other advents in technology.