Indeed, satellite TV is one of the best things to happen entering the 20th century. It’s like having your very own movie theater where you don’t have to queue for tickets and popcorn, and you can rewind and backtrack as you please.

Although it is a widely recognized and popular subject, satellite TV is poorly understood, and how its works remains a mystery to most people. In this article, we will find out how does satellite TV works and how it changed the landscape of TV viewing.

What is Satellite TV?

Satellite TV is a television broadcasting service that utilizes a communications satellite, a satellite dish and set-top box to convey communication via a radio signal. Primarily, satellite TV offers 100 times more channels, with better audio and video clarity, and highly customizable service than contemporary TV service such as cable TV. Also, because satellite TV uses the atmosphere to relay signals, it isn’t limited by the topographical and geographical difficulties of most cable TV systems.

How does it work?

Satellite TV utilizes geo-stationary satellites to relay signals. Geo-stationary satellites are satellites that orbit around the Earth matching the speed of the Earth’s rotation, such that these satellites will appear motionless in the sky.

Geo-stationary satellites allow the satellite TV providers to steadily stream information. In the illustration below, the satellite TV provider receives the programming from the programming source (in red line), then relays it to a geo-stationary satellite (blue line), which in turn relays it to a receiving satellite dish.

Illustration courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com

Since anyone with a satellite receiving dish can collect the signals, satellite TV providers encrypt their signals so that only their customers can have access these. Using a commercial set up box or satellite TV receiver, customers can watch the programming relayed by satellite TV providers.

Satellite TV is clearly the future of TV broadcasting. It is not bound by topographical and geographical limitations, it does not have the physical limitations of existing television services, and as time goes by, it becomes more and more accessible.