| The history of satellite TV service providers | | | | locations.In 1976, HBO became the first |
| in the United States goes back farther than | | | | programmer to deliver satellite programming |
| you might think. Most people are familiar | | | | to cable companies; many other programmers |
| with popular current providers such as the | | | | like Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and the |
| Dish Network and DirecTV, but very few know | | | | Christian Broadcasting Network (later called |
| how satellite TV has developed and evolved | | | | The Family Channel) followed suit, and the |
| since its earliest beginnings in the | | | | satellite television industry was poised for |
| 1970s.The Beginnings of Satellite TVThirty | | | | tremendous growth.Big Dishes, Free |
| years ago there was no such thing as | | | | ProgrammingAs more and more programmers used |
| satellite TV service providers, but that was | | | | satellites to deliver their programming to |
| about to change. Several private companies | | | | cable companies across the country, a |
| banded together in the early 1970s to launch | | | | Stanford University professor developed a way |
| a series of geosynchronous satellites | | | | to receive those signals in his own home. His |
| (geosynchronous means an orbit that keeps the | | | | receiver dish, later known as a C-band dish |
| satellite directly above one area of the | | | | for the frequency that it received, was quite |
| earth at all times) to transmit signals from | | | | large and quite effective. |
| an originating source to multiple receiving | | | | |