[Steve in Pudsey]

I think BSB's fate was sealed as soon as Astra launched. Didn't matter if everything went to plan, and the service was up in 1989. heck, I would argue that they were doomed by the contract making them have to use D-Mac. Had it all gone to plan, I reckon they'd have survived maybe into 1992-1993, and even then, they'd have probably sold off the other satellite. However, if they were allowed to use PAL to launch the service, and then work on D-MAC channels, I think it would have arrived quicker.

Yes Astra had more channels and the benefit that nobody had to keep the IBA happy.

I'm surprised by the comment that BSB had to pay for both satellites, I'm sure I saw on one of the IBA Engineering Announcements a piece about the uplink facility which certainly implied it was an IBA operation, remotely supervised from Croydon iirc

[WillPS]

Who else could/would they have merged with? There were only two satellite companies at the time. 

A cable company. They could have effectively become what NTL ended up being. No doubt the IBA would have been unhappy about that, as they were about a merger with Sky.

[James2001]

The IBA were gone a matter of weeks after the BSB merger anyway no matter how annoyed they were by things.

[WillPS]

Yes Astra had more channels and the benefit that nobody had to keep the IBA happy.

I'm surprised by the comment that BSB had to pay for both satellites, I'm sure I saw on one of the IBA Engineering Announcements a piece about the uplink facility which certainly implied it was an IBA operation, remotely supervised from Croydon iirc

You might be right but either way it was BSB money, not IBA paying for it ultimately.

[Blubatt]

Sort of going full circle, I found this on the YouTube about the technical side of BSB. Apologies if it was shared, but looking at it, it isn't hard to see why the company struggled so much financially.
www.youtube.com 

[Stooky Bill]

A cable company. They could have effectively become what NTL ended up being.

The cable companies then were all small franchises (franchised by the Cable Authority, not the IBA) and were probably struggling as much as BSB on a smaller scale. 

I don't see why any of them would want to merge with BSB, there's nothing in it for them even if they had the will and the money to. The cable companies already carried BSBs programmes, theg didn't need to lumber themselves with a money pit of a satellite company

[WillPS]

The cable companies then were all small franchises (franchised by the Cable Authority, not the IBA) and were probably struggling as much as BSB on a smaller scale. 

I don't see why any of them would want to merge with BSB, there's nothing in it for them even if they had the will and the money to. The cable companies already carried BSBs programmes, theg didn't need to lumber themselves with a money pit of a satellite company

Not sure I follow your logic. History tells us that many of them in fact did merge together to form Telewest, who along with NTL were essentially giant loss making debt ridden entities before they too merged together. Both sides had content interests to varying extents - particularly Flextech in the case of Telewest. 

I'm not sure I see a reason why BSB couldn't have been part of that mix.

[Technologist]

Yes Astra had more channels and the benefit that nobody had to keep the IBA happy.

I'm surprised by the comment that BSB had to pay for both satellites, I'm sure I saw on one of the IBA Engineering Announcements a piece about the uplink facility which certainly implied it was an IBA operation, remotely supervised from Croydon iirc

I think that the operation was by the IBA but that BSkY owned the Satellites -
just like the BBC had to contract with Hughes for its (ill fated) government directed Satellite operaion

[i.h]

Boeing (Hughes' successor) certainly says it was BSB - secure.boeingimages.com  - and the rockets had BSB's logo on it, rather than the IBA's.

Boeing Images - 376 Satellite, BSB, in Orbit
Welcome to The Boeing Company's official source for licensed aerospace photograp…
  Source: secure.boeingimages.com

So a weird mix - BSB's studio, IBA's uplink and monitoring, BSB's satellite and BSB's set top boxes, using the MAC technology developed in large part by the IBA. (I wonder who did the telemetry and control of the satellite, as separate to the uplinking of the individual channels?)

At least the uplink centre is still in use today by Sky, as I understand it

[Technologist]

That operational model kept the IBA as the broadcaster ... and kept the major costs off the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement.
Rather different from the BBC who signed up in 1983 to buy a satellite www.bbceng.info  and thanks to the Part comittee was to emit C-MAC page 4 www.bbceng.info 
until it was canceled in1985 page 2 www.bbceng.info 
but Ithink in those days the BBC was outside PSBR....
Of course the BBC eventually got into Satellite broadcasting in 1990 www.bbceng.info