4,500 Satellite Channels Predicted By 2000

At yesterday’s Financial Times New Media and Broadcasting Conference, a leading European satellite broadcaster predicted a dramatic expansion in the number of television channels to be available in the next few years.

Koos Bekker, chief executive of NetHold said that by the year 2000 there could be as many as 4,500 television channels available because of advances in digital compression technology. Currently technology allows 10 satellite channels to be squeezed into the capacity occupied by one channel; compression levels of 1,000 to one are being achieved in the laboratory, he said.