DiSEqC was developed by European satellite provider Eutelsat, which now acts as the standards agency for the protocol.

Eutelsat apparently developed the system to allow satellite users in Continental Europe to switch between the more popular SES Astra satellites at 19.2° east and Eutelsat's own Hot Bird system at 13° east.

As a result, the vast majority of European satellite receivers support DiSEqC 1.0 or higher, with the exception of all set top boxes manufactured under the Sky Digibox name.

DiSEqC is commonly used to control switches and motors, and is more flexible than 13/18 Volt and 22 kHz tone or ToneBurst/MiniDiSEqC techniques.

A number of versions of DiSEqC exist: First four variations were standardized by February 1998, prior to general use of digital satellite television.