Anthony Simmonds-Gooding a former senior advertising executive with Saatchi & Saatchi and who from 1988 headed up British Satellite Broadcasting, the official licensee of the UK’s 5-channel DBS satellite transmissions, passed away on October 20^th. BSB used D-MAC (Multiplexed Analogue Components-type D) as its high-definition transmission system to a ‘Squarial’ receiving dish.

Simmonds-Gooding brought together the likes of Granada Television, Pearson, Virgin Group and Anglia TV (and Amstrad initially) to bid for, and subsequently win in December 1986, the 15-year broadcasting franchise granted by the British government.

Rupert Murdoch had also bid for the franchise but was unsuccessful, and went on to use Luxembourg-based satellite telecom frequencies from Astra to extend his existing Sky Channel to a re-launched 4-channel system, using Amstrad-built set-top boxes and transmitting in analogue PAL.

BSB launched on March 25^th 1990, but Murdoch’s Sky had launched 14 months earlier. The losses for both BSB and Sky were massive, and by November 1990 a merger deal (resulting in BSkyB) had been struck.

Following the merger redundancy notices were handed out to the BSB staff, and this included Simmonds-Gooding. He went on to rescue and reform the creative Design & Art Direction (D&AD) institution. He died, aged 80, following a short illness.

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