Ekran was a Soviet-Russian type of geostationary satellite, developed for a national system of Direct-To-Home television. The first satellite of Ekran series was launched on 26 October 1976. Each satellite in the Ekran series was designed to provide one TV and two radio program channels to cable TV systems throughout the USSR and to individual home receivers in northern Siberia. Ekran's downlink is in the Ultra high frequency (UHF) range.