18.5 The WARC 77 DBS Plan for Europe

No review of satellite-television applications would be complete without some reference to the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) satellite-broadcasting plan of 1977. What follows here is a brief account of the plan and its current status.

The introduction of DBS in Europe had been planned on a technical level for several years during the 1970s. The CCIR had, in 1977, agreed a plan which allowed each European country to have spectral and orbit allowances. The main features of the plan32,33 are illustrated in Figures 18.5 and 18.6. It was not until 1987 that the five UK channels were considered to be commercially viable and, hence, given regulatory approval. Although, as a result of the commercial failure of British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) in the UK, the only truly commercial satellite broadcaster in Europe at the time using DBS frequencies, there is now no significant activity based on the plan, the spectrum portion, 11.7 12.5 GHz, designated for the use of MAC, has been replanned for digital applications and has thereby increased the number of channels available, but has retained much of its original basic form.

Figure 18.5: WARC 1977 Footprints for UK, France and Luxembourg

Figure 18.6: The Main Features of the WARC Plan of 1977