Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof.

Katina Petsas 3/24/10

Exploring Cable Television What are the origins of cable television? How has cable television changed today? What impact is the internet having on cable television? The Development of Cable Television Community Antenna Television (CATV) was the one of the first small cable systems, it originated in the late 1940s in Pennsylvania. CATV was originally designed to bring in TV signals that could not pass through hills, tall buildings, and mountains. Before cable television was developed, people received television stations through broadcast signals. In remote areas, obtaining these signals was very difficult and nearly impossible . In fact, many cities did not have any television and even some states including, Colorado, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire, had no stations within their borders. A local appliance store owner in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, named John Walson, had difficulty selling television sets to the local people simply because the reception was incredibly poor. These signals were poor due to the location of the town being at least 90 miles from the television transmitters in Philadelphia and the presence of large hills and mountains. In response, Walson decided to place an antenna at the top of a nearby mountain . This allowed

Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof. Katina Petsas 3/24/10

Walson to receive television signals through twin-lead antenna wires directly to his store. As a result, a few local residence noticed Walsons work and the television sets sales escalated. Once local residents saw these early results, television sales soared. Walson worked to improve the picture quality by using coaxial cable and self-manufactured amplifiers to bring CATV to the homes of customers who bought television sets. The Advancement and Alternatives of Cable Television As time passed, more methods of offering cable were explored. The amplification problems made cable television engineers to consider transmitting of signals through microwaves. These signals were captured by receiving towers that were located high enough to prevent being blocked. This increased the number of people who viewed television in the United States and opened up the possibilities of multiple-channel broadcasting from the TV networks.

In 1960, AT&T launched the first communications satellite called Telstar. Telstar was capable of receiving, amplifying, and reemitting signals. Telstars communicating process

Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof. Katina Petsas 3/24/10

resulted in receiving transmission from the ground and resending them to a dish called a downlink. Now that satellites could be used for communication, a completely new opportunity presented itself to the cable TV industry. Companies could import programs from broadcasters all around the country, package them up, and send them to homes throughout the country all through satellites. Satellite also increased the bandwidth or the rate that information could be sent through a channel. Originally, cable systems could only distribute 33 channels limited to 200 megahertz. Since then technology has allowed us to distribute at least 91 channels at 550 megahertz all on basic cable systems. New discoveries in bandwidth capacity led cable television technologists to discover MPEG compression, which converts signals from analog to digital. This allowed them to transmit a maximum of 10 channels of video in a 6-megahertz bandwidth. This would mean the previous 550-megahertz bandwidth and the ability to broadcast 10 channels within 6 MHz would propel the number of channels receivable to almost 1000.

Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof. Katina Petsas 3/24/10

The first Direct Broadcasting Satellites (DBS) systems were derived in the mid 1970s. DBS systems were essentially the idea of cable without the use of wires. However, these systems could not be used in households due to restrictions from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This was restricted because DBS systems would have to receive their programming from the same satellite channels that supplied regular cable television. By 1994, DBS systems were fully available. Consumers could could by relatively small satellite dishes to receive cable programming without wires. Amusingly enough, in the late 1980s, Bruce Springsteen created a song called 57 Channels. In the song, he explains how he had 57 channels and nothing he was interested was showing all while, inferring that that was plenty of channels. In reference to how many channels we can receive now it is amusing. Evolution of Cable and Television Services

As the new millennium began, cable companies began pilot testing video services that would possibly change how people viewed television. Cable companies brought the

Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof. Katina Petsas 3/24/10

introduction of video on demand, subscription video on demand, interactive TV, and Digital Video Recorders.

Video on demand systems allow people to watch/listen to video or audio content on demand or in a sense at their own will. It can be viewed as a form of time shifting people are allowed to pause, rewind, fast forward, stop and play media all through the selected cable or satellite service.

For instance, Comcast Digital Cable provides a video on demand service titled On Demand. Comcast defines their service as one that, allows digital cable customers to select from hundreds of movies and other programs using their existing Digital Cable box, in many cases, for no additional charge. Customers can rewind, fast forward and pause programs, and can store selections for up to 24 hours from the time of ordering, so they can watch programs whenever and however often they like.

Video on demand gives you the option to select from variety of genres like sports, news, history, movies, and television programs. They offer content from a list of networks, premium channels, and superstations including; Home Box Office (HBO), Cinemax, The Movie Channel (TMC), Showtime, MTV, VH1, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TBS, etc. Many other cable and

Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof. Katina Petsas 3/24/10

television services offer video on demand including; AT@T U-Verse, Dish Network, Direct TV, Time Warner Cable, etc.

Many of these same television and cable services introduced the Digital Video Recorder or DVR. The key difference between a VCR and a DVR is that the latter can record TV programs digitally.

Internets Impact on Cable Television

The internet opposes the problem that it could make people consider to watch their favorite cable programs via internet. Comcast Digital Cable has concluded that they could be leading to their own demise in providing cable television. One website that directly influences this top is Hulu, which allows people to stream television shows and movies from television networks.

The addition of these cable companies offering internet service could l result in a dangerous problem. Recently, Comcast introduced a website called Fancast.com. Comcast calls it as the first online destination that enables users to watch, manage and find entertainment content wherever it is available On Fancast, users can view an expanding free

Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof. Katina Petsas 3/24/10

library of full episodes and clips from top networks and movie partners, find the content they are looking for across multiple platforms and create a personalized entertainment experience .

Kiston Lee Media Literacy Prof. Katina Petsas 3/24/10

Works Cited

1.Richard Campell, Christopher R Martin, and Bettina Fabos. Media and Culture Seventh Edition. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011.

2.

"About - History of Cable Television." BCAP. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.pcta.com/about/history.php>.

3.

"How Cable TV Works A Basic Cable Package." HowItWorks.net. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.howitworks.net/how-cable-tv-works.html>.

4.

"The Video on Demand Dictionary and Business Index." The Interactive TV Dictionary

and Business Index. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://www.itvdictionary.com/vod.html>