The beginnings of today's satellite television as an industry began by providing the dish and electronics to receive the signals from satellites in space that coincidentally was the same way that HBO and other entertainment was distributed to cable systems across the country.
The ability to reach this entertainment starved market was important to the fledgling experiment and this markets appreciation and monetary encouragement was key to SAH's progress. The first shopping channel (Home Shopping Network) had just appeared out of Florida, so the network was launched as a rival. Since Overholt and a few others in the Knoxville area were in the process of pioneering the satellite to home backyard dish concept it was logical to search for the programming to go along with it. Homeowners many of whom had no access to cable and a minimal number of off-air television channels were looking for a way to receive some of the same programs their urban cousins had access to. The technical difficulties caused by the hills and valleys of East Tennessee and prohibitive cost-per-mile across the vast expanses of the rural flatlands west of the Mississippi had created a pent up demand for television programing. After pulling together some very limited funding from a few local East Tennessee small business men and individuals around Knoxville SAH began the search for affordable satellite distribution time. It soon became apparent that these inconsistent excursions would not make a shopping channel successful. The low budget production was aired over unused satellite transponders to an audience that consisted of individuals who had large satellite dishes installed at their house. Located in a strip mall just off of Interstate 40 in Newport, Tennessee, the original programs were taped in segments and mailed to head-end origination studios to be played when time was available on satellite. Shop At Home (SATH (Shop At The Home) stock symbol) was started by Joe Overholt in the middle 1980s.
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