Anyone understand satellites?

[SteveBentley]

Im guessing the reason for the tighter beam width and focus is primarily to improve reception in the target footprint whilst keeping transponder power usage as low as possible.

A side effect is keeping the broadcast contained within UK borders thus complying with the distribution rights of the content owners.

 

I suspect the rights owners are the main reason for this. For a while certain ITV regions weren't available on Freesat (you got a neighbouring region) because there wasn't space on the UK beams for them. They went onto a wider beam and had to be encrypted, so weren't available to Freesat, only Sky.

 

The broadcasters have to pay Sky for the encryption platform, so being able to use a UK targetted beam is cheaper for them.

[sted]

I suspect the rights owners are the main reason for this. For a while certain ITV regions weren't available on Freesat (you got a neighbouring region) because there wasn't space on the UK beams for them. They went onto a wider beam and had to be encrypted, so weren't available to Freesat, only Sky.

 

The broadcasters have to pay Sky for the encryption platform, so being able to use a UK targetted beam is cheaper for them.

 

is that why dave isnt on freesat but is on freeview/sky for instance?

[Michael]

is that why dave isnt on freesat but is on freeview/sky for instance?

 

Sky pay certain channels to keep them exclusive to Sky on satellite. This is how/why in a of respects they have the majority of the market.