ABSTRACT
Telecommunication by satellite relay and direct broadcasting from satellites are innovations of the last sixty years. Space telecommunications began with hybrid international organisations creating global systems in the public interest. Direct satellite broadcasting has a different history, being brought about entirely by commercial companies. Private commercial interests now heavily influence both services, but space law remains the context within which they operate. Satellite telecommunications go a long way to meet the requirement of Art. I of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) that space should be used for the benefit of all. The European Conference on Posts and Telecommunications (CEPT), an obvious body within which to consider such matters, formed a European Conference on Satellite Communications (CETS) precisely in order to take matters further. The CETS continued to exist, studying the potential of space telecommunications and encouraging other organisations and associations active.
