 MULTIMEDIA MATTERS
Max Engel
May 5, 2008
 Last time we discussed the general North American model for the direct-to-home (DTH) business. This month we will consider another structure for delivering DTH programming.
Unlike North American DTH providers, those in much of the rest of the world operate on what might be called a wholesale model. Eutelsat Communications and SES Astra provide DTH transmission service over Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but they do not control programming in the same way that Echostar and DirecTV do in North America. As a result, there are more providers of video content in these areas. However, there are still only two major transmission platforms as in North America, with SES Astra and Eutelsat providing a majority of DTH transponders over Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Separating transmission from content is in part a historical accident and in part reflects the multicultural and multilingual nature of Europe. When the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat) was founded in 1977, it was an intergovernmental organization dedicated to provide satellite communications for Western Europe. Eutelsat offered Europe’s first DTH service — the English Sky Channel and the French TDF network — on its OTS-2 satellite in 1982. Because Eutelsat was part of the public infrastructure it was not tasked to provide DTH programming; it was intended to pave the way for the potential development of a commercial DTH industry. In typical European fashion, governmental expenditures were intended to support European commerce. This dream was realized in 1988 when Sky Channel leased four transponders on SES Astra’s newly launched Astra 1A. Eutelsat launched its first dedicated DTH satellite, Hot Bird 1, n 1995 at which point it supplemented capacity already in use on Eutelsat 2 F1.
So the first reason for the separation of platform and programming was that the initial commercial broadcasting was conducted on a satellite provided by European governments. When a more robust platform was needed a commercial solution was offered by SES, which had followed the business model demonstrated by Eutelsat.
Another more fundamental reason for the separation of transmission and programming was the issue of Europe’s many different cultures and languages. It would be difficult for a French company to keep its finger on the pulse of German viewers and vice versa. French-speaking Belgians might or might not be interested in the French-language programming produced in France. In addition, European countries already produced their own programming and their governments were loath to give up their national programming industries.
In fact, the initial response of many European governments was to launch their own DTH satellites — France with RDF-1, Germany planned TV-Sat, England had Unisat and Nordsat came from the Scandinavian countries. Although not all of these were actually built, they do demonstrate the interest European governments had in controlling the content of DTH broadcasts within their respective territories. The French even referred to the Astra satellites as the “Coca-Cola satellites,” fearing that Astra would become a tool by which American programs could penetrate and influence European culture.
In the end, SES Astra did fine, and the European model of DTH programming is one that enables localism in a way the American model does not. On the other hand, the North American continent is much less culturally and linguistically diverse than Europe and has correspondingly less need for diversity in programming. Cultural diversity and markets, far more than technology, set the pattern for the way in which satellite services are implemented.
As of 2007, there are six DTH packages broadcast to North America — two in Canada and four to the United States. In Europe, there are 34 different DTH packages being broadcast to Western and Eastern Europe. This disparity in the number of packages speaks to the essential difference between the European and North American models.
Not surprisingly, the European model is more common around the globe, because continental states like the United States are rare and satellite programming in most regions must offer something to an array of nationalities and linguistic groupings, opening the way for smaller, targeted video offerings and whole DTH services to support them.
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