There were some folks here in the United States who had satellite dishes starting in the 70s and became increasingly popular in the 1980s. Unlike the smaller dishes we're used to these days, these were monstrous dishes that took up a lot of room in someone's yard. A lot of people were able to pick up premium channels like HBO without having to pay fees as well as other broadcasts from far, far away. It didn't take HBO long to scramble their signal and rent out descramblers for those who want to watch. I don't think any of my friends had satellite when I was a kid and they weren't the norm in any neighborhood I lived in. They were always an unusual sight.
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We rented a house in the early 2000s that had an old satellite dish in the yard (not pictured here).
