Concept
The Anik satellites are a series of geostationary communications satellites launched for Telesat Canada for television, voice and data in Canada and other parts of the world, from 1972 through 2013. Some of the later satellites in the series remain operational in orbit, while others have been retired to a graveyard orbit. The naming of the satellite was determined by a national contest, and was won by Julie-Frances Czapla of Saint-Léonard, Québec. In Inuktitut, Anik means "little brother". The Anik A satellites were the world's first national domestic satellites. (Prior to Anik A1's launch, all geosynchronous communications satellites were transcontinental, i.e. Intelsat I and others.) The Anik A fleet of three satellites gave CBC the ability to reach the Canadian North for the first time. Each of the satellites was equipped with 12 C-band transponders, and thus had the capacity for 12 colour television channels. Three channels were allocated for CBC, two to TCTS and CNCP Telecommunications, two to Bell Canada, one for Canadian Overseas Telecommunications. Two channels were to put on reserve and the remaining two were unallocated (future use). It was launched on December 15, 1978, and was the successor to the Anik A series and Hermes (aka Communications Technology Satellite, or CTS) experimental satellite. Most of the transponders were devoted to CBC Television — East and West feeds of CBC North, CBC Parliamentary Television Network, CITV-TV Edmonton, CHCH Hamilton, and TVOntario. CNCP Telecommunications also used Anik B as a relay for its services. The Globe and Mail used Anik B to transmit copy to printing plants across Canada. The Anik C satellite series tripled the power output of the Anik A series. Anik C also allowed a significant increase in telecommunications capacity over Anik A. Each Anik C satellite had sixteen Ku-band transponders. Anik C3 was used to distribute Canada's first pay television networks -- First Choice, Superchannel, C-Channel, Star Channel, AIM Pay-TV since February 1983.
