Where were you 40 years ago?

[WhiteBeard]

True. 1990 is the year satellite TV started becoming a thing in Europe, with Sky Television (Sky one, Sky News, Sky Movies, etc.) in the UK on Astra1A @19.2 East. Entry-level systems (fixed 60cm Ku dish) became affordable (I paid 149 UK pounds for a 60 cm dish and a simple Amstrad receiver in March 1990). German channels also came to Astra, and that market also took off. By 1991 dishes were a more common sight, but only small Ku dishes.

If Europe is providing television via the small Ku dishes, then why isn't North America? They have rain and snow in Europe also.

 

[Brct203]

If Europe is providing television via the small Ku dishes, then why isn't North America? They have rain and snow in Europe also.

good question and I've been wondering the same...

some differences I can think of are that the US has some more tropical areas, possibly with heavier rain than what Europe usually gets, and also the different historical deployment of satellite transmissions. Maybe I'm wrong but I think Ku band was not a thing when satellite TV started in the US/Canada in the 70's, but was becoming mainstream when satellite TV started in Europe in the early 80's. So while North America was used to having the large dishes for C-band, maybe that was seen as unnecessary in Europe. Also, the Ku satellites used in Europe often have a stronger signal than the FTA satellites used in North America, and often use more resilient FEC/modulation combo

And Ku band can be quite resilient to rain/snow fade - just look at the NHK mux on 101W, which has such a low threshold that there is a big margin on most systems, and I lose it only during the heaviest rain/snow

 

[primestar31]

If Europe is providing television via the small Ku dishes, then why isn't North America?

The robber barons can't monetize it. Dish and DirecTv already stole the market, so they certainly aren't going to give away FTA "good" channels for free...