The story
From death + star: star as in satellite; death as in the decimation of an industry. Influenced by the Death Star base in Star Wars media.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
death star
Today it means: a direct-to-home satellite television satellite (used by the cable television provider industry, to describe their competitors and the effect they would have in decimating the cable industry, prior to the introduction of digital satellite television and the three-foot dish revolution) Full definition →