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Definition: Cable television from Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies

Below-ground cable networks were introduced in the United States in 1948, subscription services becoming available in the following year. They were introduced in the UK in the 1930s to replay radio services and later adapted to transmit TV to areas which received poor ‘off-air’ signals. Interest in cable services was greater in the United States where some 60 per cent of households subscribe to cable services. Until the election of the UK Conservative government in 1979, the commercial potential of cable in developing information technology had stimulated only modest interest. In March 1982 the Tory cabinet's Information Technology Advisory Panel (ITAP), appointed in July 1981, recommended a rapid and substantial expansion of cable networks, to be established and operated by private companies.

The Hunt Report (see hunt committee report on cable expansion and broadcasting policy (uk), 1982) also urged the ‘wiring up’ of the nation, with a minimum of rules and regulations. Today cable networks compete in broadcasting and internet services with satellite transmission, often carrying the same TV programmes. A development that has attracted criticism in the United States is the bundling of cable services forcing subscribers to carry tens of channels they never opted to watch and leading to higher profits for providers but higher costs for subscribers. See fibre-optic technology.

cable television

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the transmission of televised images to viewers by means of coaxial cables. Cable systems receive the television signal, which is sent out over cables to individual subscribers, by a common antenna (CATV) or satellite dish. Early cable systems developed in the late 1940s to improve reception of commercial programming in rural areas. In the 1960s, cable systems expanded to large urban areas, where reception can also be poor, and the cable television industry began introducing its own networks, such as Home Box Office (HBO), founded in 1972, to provide programming exclusively to subscribers. Beginning in 1975, cable networks began distributing their shows to local cable operators via satellite, thus increasing the amount of programming available nationally. Heavily regulated in their early years, cable systems in many instances were required to provide channels for community access programming, and rate increases were controlled by local authorities. The financial problems caused by the…
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Full text Article cable television; cable; CATV

From A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms
A system for transmitting television signals over wire to subscribers, as opposed to over-the-air broadcast (terrestrial or satellite). Cable television began in 1948 to provide television service in pockets of low signal coverage where consumers could not pick up clear television reception off the…
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Full text Article cable television

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the transmission of televised images to viewers by means of coaxial cables. Cable systems receive the television signal, which is sent out over cables to individual subscribers, by a common antenna (CATV) or satellite dish. Early cable systems developed in the late 1940s to improve reception of…
| 418 words
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Full text Article cable television and elections

From Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections
Cable television serves as an option to commercial broadcast television in more than 70 percent of American homes. It provides an alternative method of communicating with potential voters. Successful political campaigns must send the right message to the right people in the right way. Changes in…
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Full text Article cable television

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
System that distributes television signals by means of coaxial or fibre-optic cables. Cable television systems originated in the U.S. in the late 1940s to improve reception in remote and hilly areas, where broadcast signals were weak. In the 1960s they were introduced in large metropolitan areas…
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Full text Article Cable television

From Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies
Below-ground cable networks were introduced in the United States in 1948, subscription services becoming available in the following year. They were introduced in the UK in the 1930s to replay radio services and later adapted to transmit TV to areas which received poor ‘off-air’ signals. Interest in…
| 219 words
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Full text Article Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.; CableLabs

From A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms
A not-for-profit research organization founded on May 11, 1988 for the benefit of the cable television industry. The CableLabs Web site is www.cablelabs.com . The concept for CableLabs was first presented in 1984 by Richard S. Leghorn in a paper entitled An R&D Entity for the Cable Industry? …
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Television, Cable and Satellite
In the early days of television experiments, transmission of signal was by wire connections and transmissions over phone lines. Radio communications came later. For example, the demonstration in April 1927 by Bell Telephone Labs between Washington, D.C. and New York City was transmitted by both wire…
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Full text Article cable television

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article cable television premiere

From A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms
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Full text Article pay and cable television version

From A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms
| 52 words
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