Space organisations such as NASA and ISRO build man-made satellites, things that orbit the earth.
These satellites help scientists in multiple ways such as predicting weather, communication, tracking calamities etc. and are launched using owned or hired rockets.
The ones for communication – beaming TV signals – have transponders, which receive and transmit content.
One satellite can have up to 100 transponders and each transponder can carry many channels; so one satellite has a capacity of hundreds of TV channels.
Let us say CNN wants to broadcast its programmes to the audience.
So, it will rent a transponder with one of the satellites (national or foreign) e.g. ISRO-owned GSAT-16 communication satellite and beam its signal to that transponder.
DTH providers, who have signed a deal with CNN for broadcasting it, will access the signal from the transponder that CNN has rented and work on the format and encryption of the content.
After formatting, DTH providers will beam the signal to one of their many rented transponders on another or same satellite.
The consumers’ DTH antenna (Dish) must bepositioned to face a particular DTH operator’s satellite to receive the signal.
These signals are encrypted to prevent piracy and the card in the set-top box decrypts the content before you can watch programmes.
