Voyage around BSB

[@danishbacon.]

For the first time in my life I just discovered that BSB absolutely were ahead of SKY, regarding Broadcasting system & quality! I was not aware they used DMAC, untill SKY took over & went back to primitive PAL. I live in Denmark. We had D2MAC in those same days, which amongst Scansat TV3 DK, NO, SE & TV1000 used. Also FILMNET & others in D2MAC. The Marcopolo satellite was later sold to Nordic TeleNor & renamed TELE X. She changed position to 5 degrees, for Scandinavia!

[@gower23]

D2-MAC was a reduced bandwidth version of D-MAC to ensure that each channel would fit into the existing raster of cable distribution systems. But it didn't really have any significant impact on picture quality versus D-MAC.

[@sjcuk7]

When Sky ditched their analogue service and went over to Sky Digital they were effectively finally giving their surviving BSB customers back what they had enjoyed before. The quality, dish size and technology were on a par with that which had been offered almost an entire decade earlier!

[@irtbmtind89]

Love the dude sitting on reels of cable.

[@darryltester5376]

Brilliant station that was years ahead in technology... sadly crushed by tech problems when they were setting up, Rupert Murdoch and political decisions........

[@danishbacon.]

Very sad. I gues you know. But The Marcopolo satellite was sold to Scandinavian Telenor & renamed Tele X & relocated to 5 degrees for Scandinavia. Soon after, she received a high powered spot beam sister satellite, named THOR I & later i believe THOR II. Also located at 5 degrees, for Scandinavia! I live in Denmark. Accually when BSB closed, their unused equipment for UK customers was amongst sold here in Denmark! My satellite dish for TELE X, the BSB logo was printed on the satellite dish, here in Denmark, interesting enough. Not all BSB antennas were squarials. But just normal small 35cm dishes, as mine was parabolic, but still had BSB logo, printed on.

[@sjcuk7]

​​@@danishbacon.BSB didn't only use squarials, some standard parabolics were employed too, presumably either due to manufacturing hold ups or for a better reception in some areas.

[@richardhedderly]

The voiceover at the beginning and end sounds like the late actor Michael Jayston.

[@rtc9063]

There was too many restrictions placed on BSB by the utter incompetence that was the IBA. But then the shareholders employed the wrong management which ended up in it being an utter shambles

[@clivecouldwell56]

I probably wouldn't disagree with that. Did you work at BSB at the time?

[@rtc9063]

@@clivecouldwell56 No. But I so wanted it to succeed.

[@gower23]

It was actually thanks to the IBA that the MAC standard was developed. They weren't just a regulator, they were a technical pioneer. OK so the IBA did sometimes act like they were a broadcaster themselves such was their intervention in content requirements but that resulted in the golden era of ITV and C4 programming and legendary producer-broadcasters like Thames, LWT and TVS.

[@gower23]

And maybe if Ofcom had a modicum of the IBA's prowess we wouldn't have ended up with vacuous crap like Big Brother and Love Island.

[@chrism2279]

True. BSB were hamstrung by regulatory restrictions and launched late. Their problems were compounded by paying too much for programming before having sufficient customers to generate ad revenue. Meanwhile, Sky managed to gain customers with a line-up of low-cost filler crap from the USA combined with a couple of heavily promoted "headline acts".

[@BrooksterMax]

Just seen Marco Polo House was demolished. Shame looked like a very interesting building.

[@scottpeacock5492]

The Marco Polo House was also the home of the failed ITV Digital Subscription service. Shame The Marco House been demolished.

[@clivecouldwell56]

It was. An amazing production environment.

[@guksack]

Hell of an operation! Sad that it didn’t quite go to plan

[@martinhodgkins9856]

Loved BSB and was upset when Sky bought them out in December 1990. Really missed the Galaxy channel. 😔

[@clivecouldwell56]

You and me both. After all our hard work, superior technology and production standards, the first we heard about it was a news item on the evening news of that Friday evening, only to find out we were redundo on the Monday.

[@davidmackenzie8441]

You can tell from watching this that it's a state-run bureaucracy. They're clearly delighted at the apparent efficiency of their call centre, computer system, and robot that pulls Beta SPs off the shelf and loads them into VTRs (which is really cool for the time, at least to a nerd like me). But the audience doesn't care. They want to watch Lethal Weapon and have more channels outside BBC and ITV.

[@domininic]

have to remind myself this whenever i get pissed that sky won in the end...

[@anthonyperkins7556]

Only lasted nine months, the idiology was good, the technical quality was excellent, but for all it's brilliant prowess, just 5 channels on a technically superb broadcast standard? It was plain to see from the outset, Sky Television and 16 channels from Luxembourg's Astra Satellite would be the clear winner, quantity ruled over quality, and not necessarily for the better either.

[@solsburian]

Looking back, even without Sky as a competitor, BSB would have likely struggled badly for the first years. While the tech and programming seemed top notch (excluding Heil Honey I'm Home! of course), they were not exactly a "lean and mean" operation with their lavish HQ in London. While they were tied down to the tech and having their own satellites, perhaps they should have done what Sky first did, in operating out of a smaller HQ out of some industrial estate on the outskirts of London, and perhaps did their "soft launch" of their channels on Cable far sooner when it became clear the MAC technology would not be ready for a 1989 launch.

[@clivecouldwell56]

Certainly wouldn't disagree with that. It was full of Price Waterhouse consultants as well as former BBC staff. Fabulous offices and studios. I think we could all see it wasn't going to last, so made the most of it while we could.

[@telenikros]

as others have said, the issue was that they went for top quality images and technology, focused purely on the UK with very free channels, where Sky went for a cheaper option as it serviced more of Europe and had a greater channel option, yes they merged up, but Sky is the name that everyone remembers now as they took the majority shares of the BSkyB company.

[@gedhession]

That bloke wrote Ballykissangel.

[@AndrewSouthgate.]

Thank You for this upload :)

[@train4905]

Fasinating,thankyou

[@JoshuaGalka]

Cool!

[@notsorandumusername]

BSB had the better technology but Sky had the better offering for the masses. Tech savvy versus street savvy. At least a few years later when digital satellite broadcasting arrived with it came also better picture quality by means of RGB pictures over Scart - essentially the same as BSB was to offer over D2-MAC. RGB was a major improvement for picture quality - also when watched on an ordinary analog PAL TV. In the US, the same was achieved by means of so-called 'component' connections to their NTSC TV's, but the basic principle is the same: a separation in the primary colors Red, Green and Blue. This also helped with more accurate brightness and sharpness and a more steady picture.

[@sjcuk7]

Sky's offering was not better for many viewers, far from it. What Sky went for was the lowest common denominator, films and first run american programmes that were exclusive to them, the Simpsons and Alf were just two of them. BSB offered a movie channel but Sky had the bigger or newer offerings. BSB tried to appeal to a classier customer with their arts channel, which backfired. They also had exclusive football contracts for both England and Scotland national team matches, all of this was a couple of years before the advent of The Premier League and subscription league football. The Galaxy Channel was a forerunner of UK Gold, they really were the better offer - not necessarily the most popular one though.

[@anglosaxon361]

Digital TV before anyone else?

[@leecastle3938]

well almost but wont good enough for future sky win the day

[@LuthansaTerminal]

Anglo Saxon no, they broadcast in D-MAC. MAC is an abbreviation for Multiplexed Analogue Components

[@wrtlpfmpf]

Well it's one of those "hybrid" standards which were popular around that time. Those were often designed to have a compatible upgrade path to HDTV, but when Astra came along with its much cheaper receivers that idea kinda died out.

[@gower23]

Not entirely. The sound was digital, the video was analogue but with the picture and colour transmitted separately in time and then reconstructed by the receiver. Was far superior to the traditional analogue standards like PAL and Sécam because the colour saturation problem was resolved and bandwidth per channel was higher.

[@watchviewer]

Such a shame sky won

[@kaw203]

What were the library or playout machines called? Where those sort of things standard in broadcasting

[@clivecouldwell56]

Goodness me, I can't remember. Yes, they were AFAIK.

[@kaw203]

@@clivecouldwell56 thank you

[@decibel_tastic2869]

Sony BetaCart machines. Started in about 1986 with 30 slots, 4 machines and the Betacam tape format, the original ENG analogue tape. They evolved to more slots, larger long play cassettes, and thence Sony Digital formats. The tapes were managed by printed stick on barcodes on the edge. Tapes cued-up by time-code (low speed data) on an extra audio track, and also coded into the Vertical Interval (VITC). If you're nodding, your question for 10. What or who was Bruch Blanking ?

[@peterainsworth8026]

BSB was effectively punished for sticking to the rules and trying to deliver a quality British centred service. Sky meanwhile was allowed to do as they pleased. Yet another example of Thatcher's venality and corruption.

[@Covid-me1xf]

spent millions on the satellite and building and have no money for a chair