Television receive-only
Television receive-only is a term used chiefly in North America, South America to refer to the reception of satellite television from FSS-type satellites, generally on C-band analog; free-to-air and unconnected to a commercial DBS provider. TVRO was the main means of consumer satellite reception in the United States and Canada until the mid-1990s with the proliferation of encryption and the arrival of direct-broadcast satellite television services such as PrimeStar, USSB, Bell Satellite TV, DirecTV, Dish Network, Sky TV that transmit Ku signals. While these services are at least theoretically based on open standards, the majority of services are encrypted and require proprietary decoder hardware. TVRO systems relied on feeds being transmitted unencrypted and using open standards, which heavily contrasts to DBS systems in the region.
The term is also used to refer to receiving digital television "backhaul" feeds from FSS-type satellites. Reception of free-to-air satellite signals, generally Ku band Digital Video Broadcasting, for home viewing is still common in Europe and India, although the TVRO nomenclature was never used there. Free-to-air satellite signals are also very common in the People's Republic of China, as many rural locations cannot receive cable television and solely rely on satellites to deliver television signals to individual homes.
"Big ugly dish"
The term "BUD" is a colloquialism for C-Band satellite dishes used by TVRO systems. BUDs range from 4 to 16 feet in diameter, with the most popular large size being 10 feet. The name comes from their perception as an eyesore.History
TVRO systems were originally marketed in the late 1970s. On October 18, 1979, the FCC began allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license. The dishes were nearly in diameter, were remote controlled, and could only pick up HBO signals from one of two satellites.Originally, the dishes used for satellite TV reception were 12 to 16 feet in diameter and made of solid fiberglass with an embedded metal coating, with later models being 4 to 10 feet and made of wire mesh and solid steel or aluminum. Early dishes cost more than $5,000, and sometimes as much as $10,000. The wider the dish was, the better its ability to provide adequate channel reception. Programming sent from ground stations was relayed from 18 satellites in geostationary orbit located 22,300 miles above the Earth. The dish had to be pointed directly at the satellite, with nothing blocking the signal. Weaker signals required larger dishes.
The dishes worked by receiving a low-power C-Band frequency-modulated analog signal directly from the original distribution satellite – the same signal received by cable television headends. Because analog channels took up an entire transponder on the satellite, and each satellite had a fixed number of transponders, dishes were usually equipped with a modified polar mount and actuator to sweep the dish across the horizon to receive channels from multiple satellites. Switching between horizontal and vertical polarization was accomplished by a small electric servo motor that moved a probe inside the feedhorn throat at the command of the receiver. Higher-end receivers did this transparently, switching polarization and moving the dish automatically as the user changed channels.
By Spring of 1984, 18 C-Band satellites were in use for United States domestic communications, owned by five different companies.
| Satellite name | Owner | Orbital location |
| Comstar 1 | Comsat/AT&T | 76 |
| Comstar 2 | Comsat/AT&T | 76 |
| Comstar 3 | Comsat/AT&T | 87 |
| Comstar 4 | Comsat/AT&T | 127 |
| Telstar 301 | Comsat/AT&T | 96 |
| Galaxy 1 | Hughes Communications | 134 |
| Galaxy 2 | Hughes Communications | 74 |
| Satcom 1 | RCA | 139 |
| Satcom 1R | RCA | 139 |
| Satcom 2 | RCA | 131 |
| Satcom 2R | RCA | 72 |
| Satcom 3R | RCA | 131 |
| Satcom 4 | RCA | 84 |
| Satcom 5 | RCA | 143 |
| Westar 1 | Western Union | 79 |
| Westar 3 | Western Union | 91 |
| Westar 4 | Western Union | 99 |
| Westar 5 | Western Union | 123 |
The retail price for satellite receivers soon dropped, with some dishes costing as little as $2,000 by mid-1984. Dishes pointing to one satellite were even cheaper. Once a user paid for a dish, it was possible to receive even premium movie channels, raw feeds of news broadcasts or television stations from other areas. People in areas without local broadcast stations, and people in areas without cable television, could obtain good-quality reception with no monthly fees. Two open questions existed about this practice: whether the Communications Act of 1934 applied as a case of "unauthorized reception" by TVRO consumers; and to what extent it was legal for a service provider to encrypt their signals in an effort to prevent its reception.
The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 clarified all of these matters, making the following legal:
- Reception of unencrypted satellite signals by a consumer
- Reception of encrypted satellite signals by a consumer, when they have received authorization to legally decrypt it
HBO and Cinemax began encrypting their west coast feeds services with VideoCipher II 12 hours a day early in 1985, then did the same with their east coast feeds by August. The two networks began scrambling full time on January 15, 1986, which in many contemporary news reports was called "S-Day". This met with much protest from owners of big-dish systems, most of which had no other option at the time for receiving such channels. As required by the Cable Communications Policy act of 1984, HBO allowed dish owners to subscribe directly to their service, although at a price higher than what cable subscribers were paying. This sentiment, and a collapse in the sales of TVRO equipment in early 1986, led to the April 1986 attack on HBO's transponder on Galaxy 1. Dish sales went down from 600,000 in 1985 to 350,000 in 1986, but pay television services were seeing dishes as something positive since some people would never have cable service, and the industry was starting to recover as a result. Through 1986, other channels that began full time encryption included Showtime and The Movie Channel on May 27, and CNN and CNN Headline News on July 1. Scrambling would also lead to the development of pay-per-view, as demonstrated by the early adoption of encryption by Request Television, and Viewer's Choice. Channels scrambled with VideoCipher and VideoCipher II could be defeated, and there was a black market for illegal descramblers.
By the end of 1987, 16 channels had employed encryption with another 7 planned in the first half of 1988. Packages that offered reduced rates for channels in bulk had begun to appear. At this time, the vast majority of analog satellite TV transponders still were not encrypted. On November 1, 1988, NBC began scrambling its C-band signal but left its Ku band signal unencrypted in order for affiliates to not lose viewers who could not see their advertising. Most of the two million satellite dish users in the United States still used C-band. ABC and CBS were considering scrambling, though CBS was reluctant due to the number of people unable to receive local network affiliates.
The growth of dishes receiving Ku band signals in North America was limited by the Challenger disaster, since 75 satellites were to be launched prior to the suspension of the Space Shuttle program. Only seven Ku band satellites were in use.
In addition to encryption, DBS services such as PrimeStar had been reducing the popularity for TVRO systems since the early 1990s. Signals from DBS satellites are higher in both frequency and power and therefore require much smaller dishes than C-band, and the digital signals now used require far less signal strength at the receiver, resulting in a lower cost of entry. Each satellite also can carry up to 32 transponders in the Ku band, but only 24 in the C band, and several digital subchannels can be multiplexed or carried separately on a single transponder. General advances, such as HEMT, in noise reduction at microwave frequencies have also had an effect. However, a consequence of the higher frequency used for DBS services is rain fade where viewers lose signal during a heavy downpour. C-band's immunity to rain fade is one of the major reasons the system is still used as the preferred method for television broadcasters to distribute their signal.