[Stooky Bill]

It's a shame BSB didn't stay around long enough to develop its technology .

It wasn't theirs as such, it was an IBA/EBU standard that barely anyone else used and didn't catch on.

By the time it merged with Sky it was only 5 years before the first DVB-S broadcast, and 8 years away from the launch of digital broadcasting in the UK. MAC was already becoming obsolete and the IBA was abolished so they were left with it.

If they'd survived they'd almost certainly have ditched MAC and gone with the standard DVB transmission. If it was possible they could have got more channels onto their satellites of course but still no where near as many as Astra. Even if they could stay on Marcopolo, transitioning to digital with so few transponders would have been difficult.

With the cost of owning and running satellites being expensive they'd have ended up on the same satellite as Sky and everyone else. The DVB standard offers everything MAC could and a lot more