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British Satellite Broadcasting |
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| Type | Defunct |
|---|---|
| Fate | (BSB plc) Merged with Sky Television plc to become BSkyB. |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Headquarters |  London, England, UK |
| Key people | Unknown |
| Industry | Media |
| Products | Pay TV services Programming |
| Revenue | Unknown |
| Operating income | Unknown |
| Net income | Unknown |
| Website | www.sky.com/corporate |
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. The company was merged with Sky Television in November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB).
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The British Satellite Broadcasting consortium was formed in 1986 by Granada Television, Pearson, Virgin, Anglia Television and Amstrad. In early 1988, the BSB consortium was awarded a licence to operate three channels by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). Around the time of the license award, Amstrad withdrew its backing and Australian businessman Alan Bond joined the consortium along with Reed, Chargeurs and London Merchant Securities amongst others.
Rupert Murdoch, having failed to gain regulatory approval for his own satellite service, announced in July 1988 that his pan-European television station, Sky Channel, would be relaunched as a four channel UK based service, Sky Television. The BBC had previously proposed its own satellite service, but pulled out when the Government insisted that the BBC should pay for the satellite's construction and launch. In addition to BSB's three channels, licences for two more channels would be put out to tender.
The stage was set for a dramatic confrontation. BSB, anticipated as the UK's only satellite service, was faced with an aggressive drive by Murdoch's Sky to be the first service to launch.
BSB was forced by the conditions of its licence to pay for the construction and launch of two satellites, named Marcopolo 1 and 2 after Marco Polo, capable of broadcasting five channels that could be received on 30cm (12") diameter dishes. The satellites were high powered versions of Hughes Space and Communications' HS376 satellites. As Britain's official satellite television provider, BSB had high hopes. The company planned to provide a mixture of highbrow programming and popular entertainment, from arts output and opera to blockbuster movies and music videos. The service would also be technically superior, broadcasting in the D-MAC (Multiplexed Analogue Components type D) system dictated by European Union regulation with potentially superior picture sharpness, digital stereo sound and the potential to show widescreen programming, rather than the existing PAL system.
In contrast to BSB's ambitious and costly technology; Sky chose to use the European Astra satellite and broadcast in PAL with analogue sound; this system would require 60cm (24") dishes, although 80cm versions were recommended for Scotland and the north of England. BSB criticised Sky's proposals, claiming that the PAL pictures would be too degraded by satellite transmission, and that in any case, BSB would broadcast superior programming. SES Astra had no regulatory permission to broadcast, had plans for only one satellite with no backup and the European satellite launch vehicle Ariane suffered repeated failures.
To distance itself from Sky and its dish antennas, BSB announced a new type of flat-plate satellite antenna called a "Squarial" (i.e., "square aerial"). The illustrative model Squarial shown to the press was a dummy and BSB commissioned a working version which was under 45 cm (18") in width. A conventional dish of the same diameter was also available. The company had serious technical problems with the development of ITT's D-MAC silicon chips needed for its MAC receivers. BSB was still hoping to launch that September, but eventually had to admit that the launch would be delayed. In the event, Sky Television began its four-channel service of general entertainment (Sky Channel), movies (Sky Movies), sport (Eurosport) and rolling news (Sky News) on 5 February 1989.
Meanwhile, since no other consortium had come forward to bid for the two spare channel licenses, BSB now had a licence to operate five channels rather than just three. The company continued to promote its Squarial with the slogan It's Smart to be Square. Despite the length of time since the service closed down, squarials can still be seen on some houses. BSB also had a "minidish" in addition to the squarial, these can also still be seen attached to some properties.
BSB's five satellite channels were:
Sky's headstart over BSB proved that the PAL system would give adequate picture quality and that many viewers would be happy to watch Sky's more populist output as opposed to waiting for the promised quality programming pledged by BSB. Sky had also launched their multi-channel service from studios at an industrial estate in Isleworth, west London with a 10-year lease on SES Astra transponders for an estimated £50 million without backup. BSB, on the other hand, would operate from more expansive headquarters at (Marco Polo House) in Battersea, south London with construction and launch of its own satellites costing an estimated £200 million.
When BSB finally went on air in March 1990, 13 months after Sky, the company's technical problems were resolved and its programming was critically acclaimed. But its D-MAC receivers were incompatible and more expansive than Sky's PAL equivalents. Many potential customers compared the competition between the rival satellite companies to the format war between the VHS and Betamax video systems - many consumers chose to wait and see which company would win outright as opposed to buying potentially obsolete equipment.
In October 1990, an enterprising manufacturer came up with a dual satellite dish that could be used to receive both Sky and BSB services, although separate receivers would still be required - it was almost instantly obsolete.
Both companies had begun to struggle with the burden of making huge losses and by November 1990, the companies were merged 50:50 financially, operating as British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) but marketed as Sky. The Marco Polo House headquarters were vacated leading to redundancy for most BSB staff with only a few moving to work at Sky's HQ in Isleworth.
In terms of broadcast service itself:
The Marcopolo satellites were withdrawn and eventually sold in favour of the Astra system which was not subject to IBA regulation. (Marcopolo I in December 1993 to NSAB of Sweden and Marcopolo II in July 1992 to Telenor of Norway. Both companies had already one HS376 in orbit at the time). The merger may have saved Sky financially - Sky had very few major advertisers to begin with. Acquiring BSB's healthier advertising contracts and equipment helped to solve the company's problems. Ironically, Sky News began broadcasting services to Scandinavia from the Thor satellites.
NSAB operated Marcopolo I (as Sirius 1) until sending it to junk orbit in 2003, Marcopolo II was operated (as Thor 1) until 2002 and shared the same fate.
BSB's headquarters, Marco Polo House, remained owned by the new company, and in 1993 became the home of shopping channel QVC when the channel launched in the UK. Broadcasting platform ITV Digital moved into part of the building as part of the settlement that saw Sky forced out of the original company.
Technically, two BSB channels still exist. The Movie Channel kept its name until 1997, being briefly rebranded as "Sky Movies Screen 2", Sky MovieMax and then Sky Movies 2. The channel is now Sky Movies Premiere +1. The Sports Channel retained its name for a while, then was rebranded to Sky Sports, and rebranded to its current name, Sky Sports 1, in 1996, when Sky Sports 3 was launched.
This is a prime example of commercial technology warfare via Regulators.
A new TV transmission system MAC was orginally developed for High Definition TV but European TV manufacturers developed patented variants and successfully lobbied regulators such that it was adopted by the EU as the standard for all Direct Broadcast Satellites. This had the effect that the low cost Far Eastern TV manufacturers would not only have to pay royalties to the EU manufacturers but would also not have direct access to the technology and hence would always be behind with new developments.
In the UK, the Independent Broadcasting Authority developed a variant D-MAC which had marginal audio channel improvements, and insisted on its use by UK Satellite TV licencees.
On the continent of Europe, satellite TV manufacturers standardised on another variant, D2-MAC, which used less bandwidth and was more easily tramsmitted over the existing extensive european cable systems.
With the launch of BSB the IBA became a member of the secret "MAC Club" of European organisations which owned patents on MAC variants and had a royalty sharing agreement for all TV and set top boxes sold.
This attempt to block the free market in technology failed as it transpired that lower power satellites such as SES-ASTRA were not included in the legislation and so were free to use the existing lower cost PAL transmission.
Ironically, the late delivery of the MAC silicon chip technology by the European manufacturers was the primary reason for BSB having to merge with Sky and hence the Far Eastern TV manufacturers had largely unfettered access to the market when MAC was dropped in favour of PAL.
Peter Chippindale, Suzanne Franks and Roma Felstein, Dished!: Rise and Fall of British Satellite Broadcasting,(London: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1991).
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