History of Cable,

Home Video, and the

Internet
Chapter 2

Quick Facts
Monthly cable service, 1950: $3.
Monthly digital cable service, 2010: $75.
First satellite TV broadcast: NBC, 1962.
Cost of satellite dish, 1979:$36,000.
Cost of direct TV satellite system, 2010: $0
(but you have to sign up for a year of
service.)

History of Cable

In 1998, ratings revealed that more Americans

were watching cable than watching broadcast
networks.
At first broadcasters welcomed that their
signals were reaching homes that otherwise
couldn't receive them.
UHF stations could not make a profit unless
they were carried on the cable.
The FCC was reluctant to get involved in 1958,
because cable was not broadcasting and used
no spectrum space.

Cable changing concept

In addition to carrying local stations, they

began to import the signals of distant stations
that were not available to the community.

Most communities had only 3 to 4 stations,

new ones suddenly available in a market, the
audience shares and ads revenues of the
existing stations would decline.

They asked FCC for protection.

FCC restrictive rules

Cable systems had to carry all TV stations

within 60 miles and could not carry shows
from distant stations that duplicated those
offered by local stations.

Cable changing concept

In 1968, the commission ruled that CATV
systems in the top 100 markets had to get
approval before importing the signals of
distant stations.
The major impact of these rules was to
discourage the growth of cable in urban
areas.
Cable was insignificant to city residents,
they received good reception from a
number of local stations.

Cable changing concept

Cable system operators were not

encouraged to bring service to urban areas
because the stringing and installation of
cable were expensive in densely populated
areas and operators would have a big job
making sure that no imported signal
duplicated local programs.

Pay TV

In 1953, Paramount Pictures built a cable

system and offered movies for $1.35 in
California, and football game for $1.

Only about 75 homes signed up for this

pay as you look service and it ended.

Cable growth
Two basic reasons for the explosive growth of
cable in 1970s; Technological:
Home Box Office (Pay TV) rented a transponder
on the communications satellite Satcom 1 and
announced plans for a satellite-interconnected
cable programming network.
Cable systems could set up their own receiving
dish and HBO would transmit to them first-run
movies.
HBO new arrangement meant wider coverage of
cable systems at a lower cost (Showtime, CNN.)

Cable growth
Regulatory:
FCC realized that its rules were stilling cables
growth.
It changed its philosophy: it would encourage
competition between cable and traditional TV.
Eventually FCC dropped most of its rules
concerning cable.
FCC was given definite but limited authority
over cable. The local community was the major
in cable regulation through the franchising
process.

Cable growth
Regulatory:
The spurt of cable growth attracted large
media companies to invest in cable which
caused cable to grow even faster.

By 1988, the cable industry had become

dominated by large 10 multiple-system
operators (MSOs.) it passed the magic
number: more than 50% of all households
in USA were cable subscribers.

Cable growth
Regulatory:
The growth of cable continued through
2000s.

Annual revenue from these television

services amounted to about $53 billion in
2009.

The cable boom was cooling off losing

subscribers to sattelite broadcasters.

Alternatives to cable

The rise of cable led other innovators and

entrepreneurs to the multichannel
bandwagon.

Leading the way were satellite;

multichannel, multipoint distribution service
(MMDS.)

The Satellite Sky

In 1945 science fiction writer Arthur Clarke
theorized that global communications could
be possible by reflecting signals off three
satellites parked in orbit at equal distance
from one another.
After 20 years, the dream became reality
spurred by (space race) between the Soviet
Union and the United States.

The Satellite Sky

In 1962 the first satellite TV transmission
was made using Telstar1.
In 1979 Neiman Marcus featured a home
satellite dish and sold it for $36,000, than
the price began to drop aided by FCC
legalizing the private reception of satellite
TV programming .
Dishes began to proliferate rural areas
unlikely to be served by cable TV due to low
population density.

The big dish

By the late 1980s direct-to-home satellite
(DTH) became a growth industry.
The backyard satellite dish was dubbed
TVRO (TV receiver-only.)
The dishes were too big and heavy to
supplant cable TV in suburban homes.
To take off, satellite TV would have to
become physically smaller and cheaper.

Direct Broadcast Satellite

In the 1990s, direct broadcast satellite

(DBS) service provided for nationwide
distribution of TV programming from a new
generation of orbiting satellites to compact
(18-inch) home dish receivers.

The dishes were aimed at one of three

satellites.

Direct Broadcast Satellite

These satellites could beam over 200

channels to subscribing households offering
different packages by competing
organizations.

In the 1990s the new dish mounted on a

window ledge or near the chimney became
a new TV status symbol, not unlike the
rooftop antennas of the 1950s.

Direct Broadcast Satellite

Subscribers to DBS grew from 2.2 million in

1995 to more than 32 million by 2009 for
two factors:
1- DBS systems dropped in price.
2- Congress softened regulation allowing
DBS systems to include local channels in
their offerings.

Wireless Cable

Because of construction costs, utility problems, and

franchise disagreements, cable service lagged in
the inner cities.
In major urban areas satellite dishes are available.
Yet people in major urban areas also want cable
services, one solution was wireless cable known as
(MMDS) which makes use of short-range microwave
transmissions to beam channels from a central
transmitter location. Receiving households use a
small microwave antenna to pick up the signals and
a special decoder called a down converter to turn
them into TV channels.

Home Video
Peter Goldmark was a visionary in
telecommunications from his laboratory at
CBS had come high-fidelity sound recording.
He was talking about buying movies for
home viewing and video rentals.
Today broadcast, satellite, and cable and
Internet TV are just part of a total home
video environment.

The Kinescope Recorder

It was a film camera especially equipped to
shoot an image from a TV screen.
The quality was poor, fuzzy images and
dark picture, the difference between the
film frame and TV frame, it sometimes cut
off parts of the picture.
After a single replay, the kinescope was
generally discarded.

The Videotape recorder

(VTR)
In 1956, the VTR made its debut.
Kitchen debate: a debate between US vice
president Richard Nixon and Soviet premier
Nikita Kruschev was captured on videotape
at an exhibition in Moscow in 1959 (a
demonstration of a modern US kitchen)
It was made for TV stations, networks and
production facilities not for home viewers.

The videocassette recorder

(VCR)

The VCR revolution began with the introduction

of the Betamax VCR by Sony in 1975.
The table model machine could record up to
one hour of video.
Sony was promoting the machines ability to
tape broadcasts off the air.
Betamax case: Piracy, Universal Pictures in
1984, US Supreme Court ruled that home taping
did not violate copywright law.
Another Japanese firm introduced a competing
format VHS (video home system) in 1977.

The two formats were incompatible.

VHS had a longer recording capability Betamax
produced better picture quality.
They battled for marketplace superiority,
eventually VHS won the battle.
Home VCRs were table models, designed mainly
to record TV shows off the air for later playback
time shifting.
A second growth industry was created: home
video moviemaking (camcorders) which replaced
8-millimeter film as the medium of record.

DVDs & DVRs

Over the past 10 years, DVD has replaced
videotape as home video medium. (more content,
better picture and audio quality, doesnt wear out
after repeated plays.)
A new revenue stream for production companies
emerged with the advent of DVD boxed sets of TV
programs.
As the new century opened, digital video records
(DVR) record content on a hard disk drive.
Possibility to record up to 300 hours of program
and pause live TV and resume it at any point.

Video store by mail

Technology has created opportunities to download

video, and now the outlook for these stores is
cloudy.
Cable and satellite providers are experimenting
with video on demand: allow subscribers to choose
movies and view them at their convenience.
Traditional video store now stock video games and
movie tools on its shelves.
In 1998, two entrepreneurs started a mail-order
business to rent and sell DVDs over the Internet,
then offered Netflix: allowed users to search for
videos similar in taste to previous rentals.

The Internet & The World Wide

Web
The Internet refers to the global
interconnection of computer networks made
possible by using common communication
protocols.
The World Wide Web is just one service
available on this global network.
Other Internet services we use, like e-mail,
video chat function within a Web browser,
but they are separate network technologies.

The birth of the Internet

Like radio, the Internet was developed for military
preparedness and assurance that it could
communicate in time of emergency.
The cause behind its development was the Cold
War between the USA and the former Soviet
Union, which marked the end of World War 2 in
1945 until the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989.
In order to make a communication system less
vulnerable to attack, that system need to take
many paths to send messages. Similar to the way
neural networks work inside the human brain.

The birth of the Internet

A distribution network of information could
provide redundancy of information.
Data should be broken up into small strings
of bits that could be enclosed in electronic
packets which would be able to move
quickly within a communications network
having many different connections packet
switching.

Pc-the new mass medium

Pc contribution to the growth of networking
cannot be overestimated.
It made it affordable for businesses to
provide their workers with individual
computers.
To meet the growing demand for
interconnection, domain name servers such
as .gov, .edu, and .mil were developed.

The Internet

The Internet was officially born in 1986.

Private Internet service providers (ISPs),

such as AOL, gave consumers access to the
Internet, while large telecommunications
corporations, such as AT&T, provided new
backbone capability.

The birth of the World Wide

Web
In March 1989Tim Berners-Lee circulated a paper
called for the creation of a program using a
graphical interface for requesting information
available on networked database.
He called his concept the World Wide Web.
Broadcasters and Web-centric companies
developed a wide variety of services that run on
todays computers, along with increased
bandwidth capability of the Web. YouTube,
Facebook, Flickr, and other media services have
gained widespread acceptance as alternatives to
TV & cable.

Blackberries, iPhones, and

Androids
In the 21st century, technology made it possible to
develop portable devices called personal digital
assistants.
In 2002, Canadian company introduced the first
smart phone called Blackberry. It combined e-mail,
mobile telephone, text messaging, and Internet
access.
In 2007, the first iPhone was introduced to fans. It
was audio/video player, Web browser, game unit,
telephone, and personal digital device all in one. It
used the iTunes Store interface to sell third-party
application.

Blackberries, iPhones, and

Androids
In 2007, Google announced that it would
develop an open-source smart phone
system. These Android phones
manufactured by a variety of companies
went on sale on 2009 as direct competitors
to Apples iPhone.
In 2007, computer manufacturers
introduced netbooks. Apple once again
surprised the public by introducing the iPad.

In the 21st Century

The cable TV industry continued to consolidate. In

2002 Comcast acquired the cable assets of AT&T
Broadband.
Cable continued to draw audiences away from the
traditional TV networks. In 2005, about 60% of
prime-time audience were watching cable.
Cable companies began using its lines to provide
other services to subscribers, including high-speed
Internet access, video on demand, and local
telephone service.
By mid-decade, about 75%of all cable systems
offered telephone service.

In the 21st Century

The phone companies fought back by
offering TV services.
In 2010, 50 million households had
broadband.
The Internet allowed everyone a chance to
be a mass communicator.