Overview

Cable television (originally known as Community-Access Television, or CATV) is primarily an entertainment medium.Originally, it was deployed to bring entertainment and local news to remote, rural areas where broadcast television signals could not be received. Community-access television deployment was highly popular during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Early television broadcasting was not widespread, and there were many broadcast fringe areas during those days of television broadcasting. The fringe areas could be described as poorly covered areas in which a television viewer could see static-filled pictures or sometimes no picture at all. As recently as the late 1960s and early 1970s, even rural areas that were close to major metropolitan areas were still poorly covered. People (residences and small businesses) discovered that if they raised their rooftop reception antennas high enough, they could obtain a good-looking picture. These same people discovered that by using antenna splitters, they could share their signal with their neighbors. This type of signal distribution has its limits, however. One can only split the signal so much before the picture quality degrades below viewable levels. Figure 10-1 is an illustration of early cable television systems.

Figure 10-1: Early CATV systems

This situation led to the creation of companies that delivered television programming over coaxial cable. These coaxial cable television companies would construct a high antenna tower system that would receive broadcast television signals. The coaxial cable television companies would then redistribute the television signals to the community. CATV enabled rural communities to...