Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites), launched in December 1988. During its early days, it was often referred to as the Astra Satellite, as SES only operated one satellite originally. The satellite provided television coverage to Western Europe from 1989 to 2004. Astra 1A was retired and became derelict in December 2004. Channels Among the channels carried in the early years after launch were the entire four channel Sky Television (later British Sky Broadcasting, after the merger with rival British Satellite Broadcasting on the Marcopolo satellite), the services consisted of Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport, the Scandinavian TV3 and TV1000, the German Pro7, Sat.1, RTL plus, 3sat and Teleclub, the Dutch RTL 4 as well as FilmNet, Screensport, MTV Europe, The Children's Channel and Lifestyle. Astra 1A began television broadcasts on 5 February 1989. Until 1998 all of SES' satellites were co-located with Astra 1A at 19.2° East, leading that position to be known mostly as Astra 1 (later, Astra 19.2°E). History The satellite came into its position on 7 January 1989. FilmNet became the first channel on the satellite when it launched on transponder 11 on 1 February 1989. Other channels such as Sky Channel, Eurosport, Sky News and Sky Movies from Sky Television, as well as the Scandinavian TV3 (Sweden) and MTV Europe all launched in February 1989. The Children's Channel/Lifestyle and Screensport followed in March 1989. The Scandinavian pay channel TV1000 launched in August 1989. Sky Television had originally planned to launch The Disney Channel and Sky Arts on the Astra satellite in 1989, but these plans failed to materialize. The transponders intended for these channels, were used for Eurosport and the Dutch RTL Veronique (which would later become RTL4), respectively. The first German language programmes, RTL plus, Sat.1 and Pro 7 all launched on 8 December 1989. With the launch of 3sat in March 1990 and Teleclub in June 1990 all transponders were occupied. Lifestyle was replaced by VOX in January 1993. Soon thereafter, Screensport merged with Eurosport and its transponder was replaced by RTL2. RTL 4 moved to Astra 1D in 1995 and was replaced by Super RTL. Teleclub was replaced by Kabel 1 during the same year. TV3 and TV1000 left Astra in 1996 and their transponders were taken over by BSkyB who used them for Fox Kids/Sky Two and Granada Plus/Granada