BSB-A look back
LookHear!
1987 when the privately owned and
operated company British Satellite
Broadcasting contacted what is
known today as Hughes Space and
Communications Company to create
the HS376 satellites to deliver the
first ever UK direct broadcasting
service, know as DBS. The two
satellites known as 'Marcopolo' was
launched a couple of years on in
August 89 and the second
'Marcopolo II' on August 1990.
After the launch there was now a
choice for UK viewers of two
extra-terrestrial services. One being
the ever growing SkyTV and the
short lived BSB.
The TV services of BSB launched in
1990. They were backed by the
British government, which was
driven by recommendations from
the IBA. The two BSB satellites at
31 degrees west Marcopolo 1 & 2,
of which one supported the other, if
anything went wrong! BSB boasted
only 5 TV channels in comparison
to the 8 already offered by Sky, each
company were competing drastically
for a bigger market share.
But, Sky did have two big
advantages, firstly it belonged to the
News International group which
owned 3 big UK newspapers, The
Sun, Today and The Times, with a
readership of over 10 million, they
could get easy publicity for their
services. Secondly, Sky had
launched their channels a year
before BSB and were becoming the
name of satellite TV. EG, when
people see a satellite dish, they
instantly think of them getting Sky
and not Astra!
BSB was broadcasting its
programming in DMAC, which
offers better quality pictures to that
of standard PAL transmissions used
by Sky. The trend of the square and
more bearable family dish grew and
BSB were installing around 2000
dishes a week.
The main problem for the company,
was that they were over-spending
their budget, perhaps needlessly.
Their studios 'Marcopolo House'
were purposely built and are now
home to the shopping channel QVC.
Their programming of 5 channels
consisted of the following;
Galaxy (11.861 GHz)
This station was very similar to that
of Sky One and when BSB were
taken over by Sky, the general
entertainment channel Sky One took
its place.
Power Station (12.015 GHz)
This is what I would consider to be
the only ever UK music TV channel.
Unlike that of the current offerings
from MTV, VH-1 and the Box. This
one was not one of many sister
foreign music channels. It offered a
great mix of current and classic
tracks with youth appealing video
jockeys. In fact, this is where Chris
Evans got his first ever TV
appearance, he presented a breakfast
show called 'Power Up'.
The Movie Channel (12.091 GHz)
One of the only stations that was
unchanged 'name-wise' , until a
recent change to Sky Movies Screen
2.
The Sports Channel (11.938 GHz)
I think you can tell by the name, that
this was the early days of
multi-choice viewing in the UK.
Many of the presenters have moved
on to "bigger and better things?" as
BSB went off the air, many faces
appeared on Sky Sports.
Now! (11.785 GHz)
This station was very much like
Living/Sky News, it offered a mix
of talk shows and lifestyle
programmes. This was one of the
first stations to go when Murdoch
got his hands on BSB. He used
some of the library of US
programming to dish out on his own
networks.
One of the sad things about the loss
of BSB, was the set-up of the
service. The company used a rather
compact square dish, the squarial
was a flat plate small 28cm or 35cm
antenna. Their channels were
planned many times, but dates were
changed because of problems with
the complex DMAC chip sets and
with the makers of the squarials.
If anyone still has these systems at
home, it is strongly advised that you
keep with it! All these systems can
be adapted to act as a D2-Mac
decoder. The price of this
modification is barely a question of
figures, depending on who will
perform the mods for you! The BSB
receivers which are now ideally best
for these modifications are the;
Decca / Tateng BSB receivers,
Nokia BSB receivers, Philips STU
902 (pictured above), and the
Ferguson SRB1.
Many of these adaptions to D2-mac
will include a EuroCrypt card slot,
enabling "Scandinavian" viewers to
watch the multi-channels of
TV1000, Discovery, MTV, Canal+,
etc. Not that we are endorsing the
pirating of D2-Mac channels such as
Canal+, but the PIC16C84 chips or
equivalent are very freely available
and can be programmed to receive a
great list of Mac channels.
Along with the receiver still being
useful, so is the dish! If you still
have your squarial up in the loft,
dust is not the only thing it can pick
up! The dish is perhaps not as
useful as the receiver, the main
problem being that there are not
many satellites which can be
received with a dish of this size.
Most of the squarials can be taken
apart, inside the polarization can be
changed from left to right, which are
suitable for reception on part of the
Hispasat satellites.
Very soon after the total cut-off of
BSB transmissions, their receivers
were more and more frequently
being modified to receive D2MAC
signals and used with the squarial
for reception of the French channels
on the TDF satellite at 19 degrees
west. These transmissions ended due
to a lack of subscribers and constant
technical problems, well it was early
days!
It has been reported that in the North
East (nearest to Scandinavia), it is
possible to receive the old BSB
satellites, now re-owned and
re-named Thor. Although, good
reception should not be expected.
Back to the history lesson, and as
British broadcasting history was
being made in the early 90's with
two extra-terrestrial services, each
company were at war, whilst both
losing money. BSB were near to
closing point and this was the time
when in 1992 Mr Murdoch and his
friends stepped in and merged BSB
and changed the satellite packages
under a modified brand name of
"British Sky Broadcasting".
Now, if Sky just turn off all the BSB
channels it would make a lot of
people very rightly unhappy. So he
slowly dissected the 5 channels on
BSB and made them genetically
Skyfied. He kept the stations on air
and announced different closing
dates for each one of them, then
offered Sky equivalents. The Movie
Channel became, Sky-The Movie
Channel and Galaxy became Sky
One and so on...
At 31 degrees east this lasted a short
while. In 1992 the Marcopolo I
satellite was then re-owned by
Telenor in Norway, it is now known
as the Thor I satellite. Then the
second satellite, Marcopolo II was
re-owned (also in-orbit) by Nordiska
Satellitaktiebolaget-NSAB), later in
1993, this satellite now operates as
Sirius 1. Both of the Marcopolo
satellites were re-located the first
was moved to 0.8 degrees east and
the second was moved to 5 degrees
east.
As we get into the future, there will
be more choice via digital
transmissions. It will be a wait and
see case for the future of Sky's
rivals.
--
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[As featured in What Satellite TV magazine and Better Satellite]
Oilyrag
<neil....@which.net> wrote:
> The reasons for this has not been
>announced, but is thought to be due to Ondigital attracting only 50,000
>subcribers since May 1999 when transmissions first started.
1999 ?
Be Happy.
Regards...Chaz<oil...@nospam.mindless.com>
Please remove the obvious to reply.
Neil Brumby
Today Ondigital announced that it would be freezing all 15 digital
terestrial subscription channels at the end of the year and announced a new
venture with a as yet unnamed company. The reasons for this has not been
announced, but is thought to be due to Ondigital attracting only 50,000
subcribers since May 1999 when transmissions first started.
The new venture will utilise a unused satellite slot at 31 degrees east
and will have room for 500 channels using the latest 50:1 MPEG 8 standard.
The satellites are understood to be ready by late October this year, and the
service will launch on December 1st 2002 and will require a 25cm dish
instead of the huge antennas required by the Ondigital multiplex's in weak
service area's.
The service will hopefully attract present Sky customers who want the
extra channel choice without the hassles that have happend to them over the
past few years, Sky digital presently running 350 channels with 3.5 million
subcribers is presently the largest Pan-European service after it's buyouts
of Canal + and Premiere/DF1 - Ondigital hopefully wants to gain the custom
of Sky's widely hacked analogue system that Sky plan to phase out on
December 31st and which now offers 57 channels.
SatGod
<neil....@which.net> wrote:
>Newsfeed Article - 3/2/02
Damn 2002 already that must have been one hell of a new millennium
party, to block out the past 3 and a half years of memories.
Still fun post is not greatly biased.
SatGod.
jjess@globalnetdotcodotuk
Neil Brumby wrote in message
<6s24so$rqc$1...@nclient1-gui.server.which.net>...
>Newsfeed Article - 3/2/02
>
> Today Ondigital announced that it would be freezing all 15
digital
- Ondigital hopefully wants to gain the custom
>of Sky's widely hacked analogue system that Sky plan to phase out
on
>December 31st and which now offers 57 channels.
>
>
>
Sky's widely hacked analogue system?????? Have I missed something
somewhere?
Pete Rixon
<neil....@which.net> wrote:
>Newsfeed Article - 3/2/02
ROFL
Thanks Neil, that was superb!
>
--
Best Regards
Pete Rixon of Stoke on Trent
UIN 4390407
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~satman/
James Follett
>It all started during a hot summer of 1987
An excellent potted history snipped. Just a couple of points --
observations rather than criticisms:
>company were at war, whilst both
>losing money. BSB were near to
>closing point and this was the time
>when in 1992 Mr Murdoch and his
>friends stepped in and merged BSB
The above is slightly misleading. The major shareholders in BSB
made approaches to Murdoch.
You also suggest that Sky started on Astra. Some might find this
hard to believe but there was a good deal of life in the Clarke Belt
before Astra. The Sky Channel (Arts Channel at night) on Eutelsat Flight
4 was around for a number of years and went through a number of odd
scrambling systems. IIR Sky started around 1983 and was bought by
News International about a year later. The first picture I picked up
using a K1 SkyScanner was a black-and-white, upsidedown pop video on
the Sky Channel.
Can anyone correct or confirm Sky's Eutelsat dates please?
Congratulations on a well-thought-out post. Much appreciated.
--
James Follett -- novelist http://www.davew.demon.co.uk
Neil Brumby
>somewhere?
>
Nah thats just one vision off the future, after all with a PII 400 you can
now decode Sky at 5 frames a second. With faster computers and better
software comming out, sky's analogue system could probably be fully cracked
in less than a year.
J.M.Jahn
wrote:
>>Sky's widely hacked analogue system?????? Have I missed something
>>somewhere?
>>
>
>Nah thats just one vision of the future, after all with a PII 400 you can
>now decode Sky at 5 frames a second. With faster computers and better
>software comming out, sky's analogue system could probably be fully cracked
>in less than a year.
>
Just got a *flyer* in the door from DELL for a PII 450.....They'll be so
fast soon you*ll be back to square one ie. they'll be so fast you won't be
able to see them:-))
Less than a year?
Well that would be nice. Do Pace Videocrypt Decoders rust?:0)
--
Regards,
Joe
Valsted, Denmark
ja...@post8.tele.dk
J.M.Jahn
wrote:
> The two
>satellites known as 'Marcopolo' was
>launched a couple of years on in
>August 89 and the second
>'Marcopolo II' on August 1990.
Um, *were* launched
>Philips STU
>902 (pictured above), and the
>Ferguson SRB1.
Let's hope not ( cut and paste should mean edit)
> but the PIC16C84 chips or
>equivalent are very freely available
16F84's are most suppliers are sold out of the older 16c84's
Otherwise Thanks for the memories:-))