Independent Broadcasting Authority rival Sky Television plc was able to launch an analogue service and intended to overshadow BSB by leasing transponders from Société Européenne des Satellites' RCA Astro-built satellite, Astra 1A. After around a year, the company merged with BSB. The IBA was disbanded as part of the Broadcasting Act 1990, being replaced on New Year's Day 1991 by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) (which also absorbed the Cable Authority), and the Radio Authority (RAu), which have since been merged with other regulators such as Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) and Oftel (Office of Telecommunications) to form one regulator, Ofcom. All of the
Satellite television in the United States bands (i.e., Ku-band) in addition to C-band. C-band (from the mid-1970s to the late-1990s/early-2000s) was the band the vast majority of cable operators used to receive television channels from. (Ku-band TV satellites were becoming more common around the mid-/late-1980s, very few channels were on them at the time of its launch). KEY: Satellite television in the United States Currently, there are two primary satellite television providers of subscription based service available to United States consumers: DirecTV and Dish Network, which have 21 and 14 million subscribers respectively. Over the past three decades, various U.S. satellite services have come and gone