When did the age of cable television start?

Question

By the way, it is only when this system becomes available, that cable television channels are created, isn't it?

Answer 1

In the late 1940's and early1950's Cable television originated in the United States.  Cable television, started out as a service to relay TV stations to people that could not receive TV with an antenna thus the name Community Antenna Television or CATV came into existence.

The very first system is under dispute but one system John Walson, an appliance store owner in the small town of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania had difficulty selling television sets to local residents because reception in the area was so poor.  The problem was his location.  The town was in a valley and nearly 90 air miles from the Philadelphia television transmitters.  The signal could not pass through the mountains, and clear reception was virtually impossible, except on the ridges outside of town.  Mr. Walson put a TV antenna on top a large utility pole on top of the nearby mountain.  Television signals were received, and transported over twin lead antenna wire down to his store.  Once people saw the TV picture, interest in buying a TV set soared, but he had to get the signal to his TV set buyers.  It became his responsibility to improve the picture quality by using coaxial cable and self manufactured "boosters" (amplifiers) to bring CATV to the homes of customers who bought television sets.  So, one of the first cable television systems was born in June 1948.

In the late 1950's cable operators began to take advantage of microwave and other technologies to pick up broadcast signals from stations hundreds of miles away.  The ability to "import" signals from distant stations changed the focus of the cable television industry, from CATV to one providing new programming choices.

By 1962, almost 800 cable systems serving, some 850,000 subscribers, were in business

Pay television was launched in November, 1972 when Service Electric offered Home Box Office or HBO, over its cable system in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

In was in the 1980's that most of todays most popular cable networks were launched.

From 1984 through 1992, the cable industry spent more than $15 billion on the wiring of America, and billions more on program development.  This was the largest private construction project since World War II.

For the history of cable TV see this site http://www.k-state.edu/infotech/cable/hi...

Launch dates of cable networks

http://www.onetvworld.org/cgi-bin/cab_ne...

Answer 2

Got its start in the late 70's but it took off in the 80's, and by the 90's it was available almost everywhere.

I remember "Rabbit ears" and having to wrap them in tin foil, then moving them around til you got the best reception you could get (which sometimes was pretty bad).

Answer 3

In the mid 80's as an alternative to commercial television

Answer 4

as far as i can remember, in the 1980's