Historical survey of communication satellites for television transmission

This paper presents a survey of data related to development of the communication satellites for TV broadcasting, located in the geostationary orbit, for the period starting with the emergence of the first commercial satellite television broadcasting in 1965 up to 2018. It presents development of the satellite network technology through the number of satellites and active satellite transponders in the Ku and C bands at the end of each year for the mentioned period. These numbers are presented graphically for different geographical zones. Moreover, a list of satellite TV operators with their basic characteristics and availability, as well as their numbers of satellites and active Ku and C transponders are given as a tabular presentation.