Astra Satellite
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Astra Satellite
Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites), launched in December 1988. During its early days, it was often referred to as the Astra Satellite, as SES only operated one satellite originally. The satellite provided television coverage to Western Europe from 1989 to 2004. Astra 1A was retired and became derelict in December 2004. Channels Among the channels carried in the early years after launch were the entire four channel Sky Television (later British Sky Broadcasting, after the merger with rival British Satellite Broadcasting on the Marcopolo satellite), the services consisted of Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport, the Scandinavian TV3 and TV1000, the German Pro7, Sat.1, RTL plus, 3sat and Teleclub, the Dutch RTL 4 as well as FilmNet, Screensport, MTV Europe, The Children's Channel and Lifestyle. Astra 1A began television broadcasts on 5 February 1989. Until 1998 all of SES' satellites were co-locat ...
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Communications Satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. Communications satellites are used for television, telephone, radio, internet, and military applications. Many communications satellites are in geostationary orbit above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky; therefore the satellite dish antennas of ground stations can be aimed permanently at that spot and do not have to move to track the satellite. Others form satellite constellations in low Earth orbit, where antennas on the ground have to follow the position of the satellites and switch between satellites frequently. The high frequency radio waves used for telecommunications links travel by line of sight and so are obstructed by the curve of the Earth. The purpose of communications sate ...
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Astra 1B
Astra 1B was the second of the Astra communications satellites launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites) to add extra capacity to the satellite television (direct broadcasting) services from 19.2° East, serving Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Satcom K3 SES bought the satellite in 1989 from failed direct broadcast satellite (DBS) company Crimson Satellite Associates while still under construction by GE Astro Space (as Satcom K3). Twelve years later, in 2001, SES acquired GE Americom, which originally was to operate the Satcom K3 satellite (and was itself the result of General Electric's purchase of RCA Corporation in 1986) and renamed it "SES Americom". It was merged with SES New Skies to form SES World Skies before the company was merged into its parent company, SES S.A. in 2011. Mission On 4 June 1991, Astra 1B suffered an attitude control failure, causing minor drift in north–south direction, meaning that it became difficult to obt ...
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ProSieben
ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company. Although ProSieben produces some of its programming itself, it also airs many American imports. On 3 May 2012, the network launched a pay-TV channel called ProSieben Fun. A third channel called ProSieben Maxx started broadcasting on 3 September 2013. The three different feeds of the channel are: ProSieben (for Germany), ProSieben Austria (for Austria), and ProSieben Schweiz (for Switzerland and Liechtenstein). The main difference is that they have different advertisements and news for each target country. The channel uses an English slogan: "We love to entertain you." ProSieben broadcasts from the Astra 1L and 3A satellites and is uplinked by MX1 (now part of SES Video). History 1988–1993 On 13 October 1988, ProSieben T ...
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V Film
V Film is a group of premium movie channels broadcasting in the Nordic countries owned by Viaplay Group. History Viasat Film was started by Kinnevik on 27 August 1989 as TV1000, using one of the sixteen transponders on Astra 1A, the very first Astra satellite. In June 1991 TV1000 announced that they channel would merge with another pay movie channel called SF Succé. This gave the channel a content boost with several Swedish films. It also made TV1000 more able to compete with FilmNet which was the leading premium channel at the time. The merger took place on 1 September 1991. The name of the merged channel was initially announced to be "TV1000 Succékanalen", although this was not used on air. As TV1000 was much larger than SF Succé, Kinnevik would own 75 percent of the new channel, while SF Succé's owners only owned 25 percent. When Kinnevik spun off their media division into the Modern Times Group in 1997, TV1000 wasn't included. Kinnevik were eventually able to buy out ...
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TV3 (Sweden)
TV3 (''TV tre'') is a Swedish pay television channel owned by Viaplay Group. It was launched on 31 December 1987 by businessman Jan Stenbeck. The channel was initially broadcast across all of Scandinavia. In 1990, separate Danish and Norwegian feeds were launched. The channel's name refers to its launch at a time when television in Sweden was dominated by the two channels of SVT. History TV3 was launched on December 31, 1987 and was the first commercial channel to broadcast in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The channel was transmitted from London, in order to circumvent legislation that prohibited advertising being broadcast on Swedish television. TV3 was one of the first channels to be broadcast on the Astra 1A satellite when that launched in 1989; in addition, TV3 Sweden became available through cable television in many cities. In 1989, TV3 bought the rights to broadcast the Ice Hockey World Championships and the Wimbledon tennis championships: their purchase of the former cre ...
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Eurosport
Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, and streams on Discovery+, which superseded Eurosport Player. Originally a joint venture between the European Broadcasting Union and Sky Television (1984–1990), Sky established in 1989, it was briefly shut down in 1991 following complaints by competitor Screensport. It was subsequently acquired by TF1 Group, and later merged with Screensport. For a period, it was a joint venture between TF1, Canal+ Group, and Havas Images. TF1 Group later bought out the other owners' shares. In 2012, Discovery, Inc., Discovery Communications began to take an ownership in Eurosport, eventually leading towards a full buyout in 2015. Eurosport is the main rightsholder of the Olym ...
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Sky Cinema
Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on demand content are available through these as well as via Now TV, BT TV and TalkTalk TV. In 2016, Sky rebranded its television film channel operations under one single branding on 8 July, the channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland were rebranded from Sky Movies to Sky Cinema; on 22 September in Germany and Austria, the Sky Cinema brand (originally used for the flagship network) was extended to the German channels in the group formerly known as Sky Film; the Italian Sky Cinema channels followed suit on 5 November by adopting the brand packages introduced in the United Kingdom and Ireland earlier. History 1989–1998: Early years Launched on 5 February 1989, Sky Movies was originally a single service as part of Sky's original four- ...
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Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the head of Sky News, a role he has held since June 2006. In 2019, Sky News was named Royal Television Society News Channel of the Year, the 12th time it has held the award. The channel and its live streaming world news is available on its website, TV platforms, and online platforms such as YouTube and Apple TV, and various mobile devices and digital media players. A sister channel, Sky News Arabia, is operated as a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation. A channel called Sky News International, simulcasting the UK channel directly but without British advertisements, is available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Asia Pacific, Australia, and the Americas. Narrated segments (which generally cover lighter issu ...
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Sky One
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, it became Sky One and broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Ireland as British Sky Broadcasting's flagship channel, being the most watched television service in history. It existed until 1 September 2021, when it closed down as part of a restructuring with its EPG position taken by Sky Showcase and much of its content library moved to Sky Max. Sky One included some very popular broadcasts both the original programmes such as '' An Idiot Abroad'', '' Brainiac: Science Abuse'', ''The Russell Howard Hour'', ''Battlestar Galactica'', and many imported from North America – including: '' 24'' (seasons 3–9, and its spinoff '' Live Another Day''), '' X-files'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', ' ...
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Thor (satellite)
Thor (previously known as Marcopolo) is a family of satellites designed, launched and tested by Hughes Space and Communications (now part of Boeing Satellite Systems) for British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), and were used for Britain's Direct Broadcast Service. Thor is owned by Telenor. Marcopolo 1 launched on 27 August 1989 on the 187th launch of a Delta rocket, and Marcopolo 2 launched on 17 August 1990, on a Delta II rocket. Marcopolo I had the Hughes designation HS376. Although the satellites performed as designed, BSB merged with Sky Television to form British Sky Broadcasting and the BSB satellites were sold off and renamed. This also resulted in the obsoletion of the Squarial satellite-reception antenna, which was designed to operate with Thor 1 only. Marcopolo 1 (Sirius 1/Sirius W) Sirius W, previously known as Sirius 1, was launched on 27 August 1989. It was Hughes Space and Communications's first satellite. Marcopolo 1 was sold in December 1993 to Nordic Satellite ...
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British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with Sky Television plc on 2 November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting. History Development In January 1977, the World Administrative Radio Conference assigned each country five high-powered direct broadcast by satellite channels for domestic use. In 1982, after being awarded two of the channels, the BBC proposed its own satellite service, but the government imposed two conditions on it: * Use of a satellite built by United Satellite, a consortium of British Aerospace and Matra Marconi Space (now Airbus Defense and Space), with costs estimated at £24 million per year. * A supplementary charter was agreed in May 1983 which allowed the BBC to borrow up to £225 million to cover the cost of the project, as it was not allowed to call on pu ...
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Sky UK
Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Sky Group and from 2018 onwards, part of Comcast. It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster with 12.7 million customers as of the end of 2019 for its digital satellite TV platform. Sky's flagship products are Sky Q and the internet-based Sky Glass, and its flagship channels are Sky Showcase, Sky Sports and Sky Atlantic. Formed as British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in November 1990 through the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, it grew into a major media company by the end of the decade, notably owning all the television broadcasting rights for the Premier League and almost all the domestic rights of Hollywood films. Following BSkyB's acquisition of Sky Italia and a majority interest in Sky Deutschland in 2014, i ...
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