Profiles of the Future: Satellite Communications
Chapter 16, Voices from the Sky

Mr. Clarke discusses at some length a couple of possible uses for the communication satellite, which involve (at least in the early part of the chapter) the rebroadcast of TV signals around the world.

This got me to wondering why this never really happened. Is it because there were technical problems with this approach to broadcasting en masse (unlike the type of satellite TV we see today), such as the large receiving antennas we saw through the 1980s? Was it because there were more profitable things to do with these satellites?

Let me know if you have the answer. I'm curious.

It's interesting to note that, even today, we see very little television programming from other countries. Again, I'm curious: Is the market for this just not there? Only very recently has even the BBC made inroads into American TV sets. Is it a language barrier issue? A matter of taste? A matter of ignorance or pride?
- posted @ 8:16 PM