British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. The company was merged with Sky Television plc on 2 November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. In 1977, the World Administrative Radio Conference assigned each country five high-powered channels for direct broadcast by satellite (DBS) for domestic use. In 1982, after being awarded two of the channels, the BBC proposed its own satellite service, with two conditions: During Autumn 1983, the cost of Unisat was found
British Satellite Broadcasting (230 watts) satellite was dropped, and no winner was precluded from buying a foreign satellite system. The IBA received five serious bids for the Direct Broadcast Satellite franchises. It also received submissions from The Children's Channel and ITN to make sure their programmes were used on any successful bid. British Satellite Broadcasting won the fifteen-year franchise on 11 December 1986 to operate the Direct Broadcast Satellite System, with a licence to operate three channels. BSB forecast 400,000 homes would be equipped during its first year, but some doubts were cast whether this was possible. The Cable Authority welcomed the service,