Cable

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Cable
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Technology and the Development of Cable

• Cable originated in the 1940s, when TV dealers
  and electronic firms tried to give rural and
  small-town communities access to television
  signals, which were blocked by mountains and
  hills.
• CATV originated in areas where mountains and tall
  buildings blocked signals.

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• National cable programming is downlinked from
  satellites and then sent out to households in a
  service area from the headend, or computerized
  nerve center.

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Cable Threatens Broadcasting

• Cable began to grow in the 1970s, but the FCC
  acted to protect conventional over-the-air
  television with must-carry rules, syndicated
  exclusivity, and access channels
• Cable companies argue that they are electronic
  publishers, entitled to pick and choose the
  channels they carry

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• By the end of the 1970s, entrepreneurs were
  engaging in intense competition to acquire cable
  franchises.
• By the mid-1980s, Congress, the FCC, and courts
  had repealed most early cable regulations,
  stimulating growth in the medium.
• Through the Telecommunications Act of 1996,

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• Congress knocked down regulatory barriers,
  allowing regional phone companies, long-distance
  carriers and cable operators to enter one
  anothers markets. But the results have been
  mixed for consumers and citizens.

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Cable Comes of Age

• Cable has emerged as a serious challenger to
  and partner of broadcasting.
• Most basic cable packages include local signals,
  nonbroadcast access channels, a few regional PBS
  stations, and a variety of satellite services,
  including two channels that have made their mark
  on global culture CNN and MTV.

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• Today, more than 1 billion people worldwide have
  access to a CNN service.
• MTV and its global offspring reach about 400
  million homes worldwide.
• Besides basic programming, cable offers a wide
  range of special, or premium, services.
• A subsidiary of Time Warner, HBO is the dominant
  premium service

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• Launched in 1985, pay-per-view services allow
  customers to select a particular movie or
  sporting event for a one-time charge.
• Digital cable and DBS services have helped to
  expand the market for commercial-free cable radio.

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Direct Broadcast SatellitesCable without Wires

• Formerly a minor service in rural communities,
  full-blown DBS services began in 1994 and have
  become a significant rival to cable for offering
  multichannel video services.

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Ownership and Business Issuesin Cable

• Although there are more than 10,500 cable systems
  in the United States, most of them are controlled
  by a shrinking number of multiple-system
  operators.
• Comcast and Time Warner are by far the largest
  MSOs.
• Total revenue from cable rival those of
  broadcasting.

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• Publicly owned municipal cable systems treat
  cable as an essential public service and offer
  broadband cable and Internet services at rates
  far below those of commercial providers.

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Cable, DBS and Implicationsfor Democracy

• Cable and DBS have both increased the number of
  channels, but they have also undermined the
  common bond provided by the network era.