Channel 5 distribution

Towards the end of 1995 NTL was awarded the contract to transmit and distribute Channel 5's national UK television service to the UK public in the first "total" solution contract of its kind in the UK with a terrestrial broadcaster. Throughout 1996 NTL has been upgrading its UK transmitter network to support Channel 5 and has been building a comprehensive satellite distribution network using MPEG2 equipment. This paper describes the added functionality of the distribution network which convinced Channel 5. One of the first European terrestrial broadcasters to use satellite as its delivery mechanism.