Today’s satellite television produces a bright and clear picture. 18 million subscribers to digital satellite television in the United States love it. It is also one of the fastest growing electronic consumer products in the world.

Satellite TV has a long and convoluted history. It all started with Sputnik, the very first Russian man made satellite which was launched into orbit above the earth on October 4, 1957. The space race continued between America and Russia and various space programs took place including a walk on the moon in 1961. This was all development background to satellite television. The actual birth of digital satellite television came about many years after the launch of Sputnik and Explorer I.

In 1976 Home Box Office (HBO) made history by initiating satellite delivery for its programming to cable. The first event offered through satellite was a heavyweight boxing match that came to be known as The Thriller from Manila, a match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, now considered to be the greatest fight of all time.

In 1976 the first consumer Direct to Home (DTH) Satellite System was created. While you may expect such a momentous event would take place in a historical laboratory of some sort, the invention happened in the rather mundane premises of the garage of Stanford University Professor Emeritus H. Taylor Howard. Howard used a large dish-shaped antenna to pick up the signals.

A year later, Pat Robertson launched the first digital satellite television that delivered basic cable service. I was called the Christian Broadcasting Network, which later became known as the family channel. That was it. The flood began with a tidal wave of basic cable services that followed, including the well known Turner Broadcasting System (TBS).

Satellite television continued to grow and the service became cheaper and cheaper as the programming came from multiple sources and competition entered the game. The cost to the television viewer began to drop steadily and by 1985 more and more people were looking into the multiple-channel capabilities of satellite television, especially since offers abounded for a one-time payment to receive over 100 channels for free.

The cable programming providers were quick to understand that there was no way to make a profit by giving away a free satellite television service. The Cable Act came into being. A troubled period followed and with it came a drastic drop in subscribers. By 1990, the digital satellite industry stabilized and service picked up again.

In the early 1990's, four large cable companies got together and launched a Direct Broadcast Satellite system called Primestar and the Hughes DIRECTV Satellite System was launched in 1994.