Boxes, dishes and the country’s transformation. The early days of satellite television in Poland

Abstract

This article describes the expansion of satellite television within the context of the socialist system. In the first part of the study, the broader technical and political background of the process have been characterized. In the second part, which is mainly based on interviews conducted with satellite TV equipment dealers and satellite dish manufacturers, the author explores the ways in which the medium was adopted by Poles in the 1980s.