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Satellite TV Communications

By Editor | March 8, 2008

Satellite TV communications provide television broadcast using artificial satellites put up in space. Satellite television as opposed to terrestrial television and cable television uses satellite dish communications. Satellite television satellites are either in highly elliptic orbits (HEO) or geostationary orbits (geostationary satellites appear to be in a fixed position to an observer on earth as they revolve around the earth at a constant speed).

Global communications satellites form a constellation or a system of interlinked satellites. As one goes farther away from earth, the coverage of the satellites increases and thus lesser satellites are required. For geostationary satellites, 4 to 6 satellites are enough to cover the whole surface of the earth.

For highly elliptic and medium earth orbit satellite systems, more number of satellites is used. For low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, about 24 would be required at least. Iridium, the satellite communications service provider has 66 LEO satellites along with a few spare satellites in LEO orbits which can start functioning to maintain Iridium’s 66 satellites required to complete its constellation in case any of the satellites stop working properly.

There are two types of satellite dishes used in satellite TV communications: single dishes serving one dwelling (Direct to Home or DTH) and collective dishes serving several dwellings (communal antenna broadcast distribution or CABD or satellite master antenna television or SMATV).

There are three principal kinds of satellite TV communications: reception direct by the viewer (DTH), reception by headends for distribution across terrestrial cable systems or reception by local television affiliates. Direct to the viewer satellite TV communications reception includes direct broadcast satellite or DBS (also known as direct to home or DTH) and television receive-only (TVRO) both of which are used for homes and businesses.

Molniya satellites are useful for telecommunication near the poles as geostationary satellites revolve around the equator. Molniya satellites are inclined for optimum use at the poles and are primarily used for telephony and satellite TV communications over Russia.

This is a list of some satellite TV communications providers.

AlphaStar (USA)
ART (Saudi Arabia)
Astro (Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia)
Astro Nusantara (Indonesia)
Athina Sat (Cyprus)
Austar (Australia)
Bell ExpressVu (Canada)
Boom TV (Romania)
Canal Digital (France)
Canal Digitaal Satelliet (The Netherlands)
CanalSat (France)
Cyfra+ (Poland)
DD Direct Plus (India)
DialogTV (Sri Lanka)
Digi TV (Romania)
Digital+ (Spain)
Digiturk (Turkey)
DirecTV (USA, Caribbean and Latin America excluding Mexico)
Dish Network (USA)
Dish TV (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and parts of South East Asia)
Dolce (Romania)
Dream Satellite TV
DStv (Africa)
Euro1080 (Europe)
Focus Sat (Romania)
Freesat (Britain)
Freesat from Sky (Britain)
Freeview (NZ)
Foxtel (Australia)
GlobeCast World TV (North America and Europe)
Globosat (Brazil)
Glorystar
HiTV (Nigeria)
Indovision (Indonesia)
Home2US (USA)
Kristal-Astro (Brunei)
Max TV (Romania)
N (Poland)
NTV Plus (Russia)
NOVA Cyprus
NOVA Greece
Orbit (Middle East)
Premiere (Germany)
SelecTV (Australia)
Showtime Arabia
Sky Angel (USA)
Sky Digital (UK and Ireland)
SKY Italia
SkyLife (South Korea)
Sky PerfecTV! (Japan)
Sky TV (NZ)
Star Choice (Canada)
STAR TV (Asia)
Tata Sky (India)
TPS (France)
TrueVisions (Thailand)
TV Cabo (Portugal)
TVTEL (Portugal)
TV Vlaanderen Digitaal (Belgium)
UBI World TV (Australia)
Viasat (Nordic and Baltic countries)
WOWOW (Japan)
yes (Israel)