The Independent Television Commission, which takes over from the IBA
at the end of the year, begins life with an almost impossible task. it must
find something to do with BSB鈥檚 two Marcopolo satellites.
Last week the IBA told BSB that its merger with Sky was in 鈥榮erious
breach鈥� of its contract with the IBA and that it will terminate the contract.
It has asked interested parties for ideas for the satellites 鈥榓s soon as
辫辞蝉蝉颈产濒别鈥�.
The manner of BSB鈥檚 collapse has undermined confidence in the MAC TV
system used by BSB, however. Technical compromises on the design of the
MAC receiver, which BSB quietly made a year ago, handicap anyone trying
to use Marcopolo to transmit business data (see This Week, 20 January 1990).
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The firms making BSB鈥檚 MAC receivers have already stopped production
and shops are unlikely to stock BSB MAC equipment again. Without the recievers,
no one will want to broadcast entertainment channels from Marcopolo. This
rules out a plan to broadcast BBC and ITV terrestrial TV channels from the
satellites as a way of offering better quality pictures. The high cost of
MAC reception equipment also rules out using Marcopolo for schools broadcasts.
The satellite鈥檚 beams are too tightly focused on Britain and its frequencies
are too high for most communications paging links.
