Before satellite television, there were limited options for those who enjoyed watching television. However, in 1962, the first satellite television signal was received in Europe to the Telstar satellite over North America. From then on, satellites were created for communications and television purposes in the Soviet Union and Canada, as well as other areas of the world. By 1972, the first domestic North America satellite, Anik 1, was launched for television purposes.

Ever since the advent of satellite TV there has been an ongoing head-butting contest between satellite and cable TV providers with regards to the actual channel numbers each can provide. The fact is, that satellite TV providers have always had the upper hand in this game of one-oneupmanship all along, although cable service providers have put up a good fight.

While during a few periods of time some years back some cable providers did manage to have a few more channels than the leading satellite TV service providers they were in analog format while satellite TV has always been entirely digital. Recently Dish Network upped its total standard channel numbers to 375 and their high definition number to 38, which tops anything that any cable service provider has to offer.

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