A dream come true: satellite broadcasting

Arthur C. Clarke´s famous 1945 paper in Wireless World was the first technical attempt to define direct-to-home satellite broadcasting. The author and colleagues described a technically feasible satellite to demonstrate this in 1965, and in 1966 the author described market services that could be offered. Studies by the National Academy of Sciences for NASA in 1967 defined three classes of broadcast satellites, leading to ATS-6 and CTS satellite programs and a series of service demonstration experiments using them over the period 1974-1979. Results led to operational satellite broadcasting systems in Japan, India and Europe in the 1980s. The United States, having developed the technology and disseminated it internationally, launched its own commercial systems in 1993-1995. The author participated in the NAS studies, ATS-6 and CTS programs, the India National Satellite procurement, and system definition of satellite digital radio broadcasting over the period 1963-1993. This paper is a history of developments in response to the 1996 Pioneer Award.