Digital Satellite TV

In many ways, digital satellite TV is similar to traditional television broadcasts in that its content is transmitted through the airwaves and captured by an antenna (in the case of traditional TV) or satellite dish (in the case of digital satellite TV). Also, the types of content that can be broadcast by both systems are analog and digital.

Unlike traditional television, however, digital satellite TV is able to deliver digital broadcasts at more practical prices because of its significant coverage advantage. This advantage is brought about by the fact that in the satellite broadcasting the content is positioned thousands of kilometers above the ground (unlike the radio transmission towers used in traditional television which are, at best, just hundreds of meters above the ground), which translates to a much wider footprint and economies of scale that is applied to its pricing consideration.

Digital satellite TV compresses and encrypts the digital signals of the information prior to broadcast. These broadcasts are transmitted from satellite ground stations to the satellites, which are, in turn, blindly transmitted by the satellite to all areas within its...