High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This was initially meant to distinguish the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television distribution services that sometimes carried on the same satellite. The term DTH predates DBS and is often used in reference to services carried by lower power satellites which required larger dishes (1.7m diameter or greater) for reception. In Europe, prior to the launch of Astra 1A in 1988, the term DBS was commonly used to describe the nationally-commissioned satellites planned and launched to provide TV broadcasts to the home within several European countries (eg BSB in the UK, TV-Sat in Germany).