These devices carry the signal to customers via passive RF devices called taps. ==History in North America== Cable television began in the United States as a commercial business in 1950, although there were small-scale systems by hobbyists in the 1940s. The early systems simply received weak (broadcast) channels, amplified them, and sent them over unshielded wires to the subscribers, limited to a community or to adjacent communities.
It originally stood for Community Access Television or Community Antenna Television, from cable television's origins in 1948.
These devices carry the signal to customers via passive RF devices called taps. ==History in North America== Cable television began in the United States as a commercial business in 1950, although there were small-scale systems by hobbyists in the 1940s. The early systems simply received weak (broadcast) channels, amplified them, and sent them over unshielded wires to the subscribers, limited to a community or to adjacent communities.
Around 1966 the FCC mandated that all TV sets sold after a certain date were required to have the capability of receiving UHF channels. Before being added to the cable box itself, these midband channels were used for early incarnations of pay TV, e.g.
In 1968 6.4% of Americans had cable television.
Due to the fact that the descrambling circuitry was for a time present in these tuners, depriving the cable operator of much of their revenue, such cable-ready tuners are rarely used now – requiring a return to the set-top boxes used from the 1970s onward. The conversion to digital broadcasting has put all signals – broadcast and cable – into digital form, rendering analog cable television service mostly obsolete, functional in an ever-dwindling supply of select markets.
1981 Smith, Ralph Lee, "The Wired Nation", The Nation magazine, May 18, 1970 Smith, Ralph Lee, The Wired Nation; Cable TV: the electronic communications highway.
New York, Harper & Row, 1972.
The number increased to 7.5% in 1978.
Some operators as in Cornwall, Ontario, used a dual distribution network with Channels 2–13 on each of the two cables. During the 1980s, United States regulations not unlike public, educational, and government access (PEG) created the beginning of cable-originated live television programming.
Many live local programs with local interests were subsequently created all over the United States in most major television markets in the early 1980s. This evolved into today's many cable-only broadcasts of diverse programming, including cable-only produced television movies and miniseries.
By the late 1980s, cable-only signals outnumbered broadcast signals on cable systems, some of which by this time had expanded beyond 35 channels.
Although for a time in the 1980s and 1990s, television receivers and VCRs were equipped to receive the mid-band and super-band channels.
By 1988 52.8% of all households were using cable.
All cable companies in the United States have switched to or are in the course of switching to digital cable television since it was first introduced in the late 1990s. Most cable companies require a set-top box (cable converter box) or a slot on one's TV set for conditional access module cards to view their cable channels, even on newer televisions with digital cable QAM tuners, because most digital cable channels are now encrypted, or "scrambled", to reduce cable service theft.
By the mid-1980s in Canada, cable operators were allowed by the regulators to enter into distribution contracts with cable networks on their own. By the 1990s, tiers became common, with customers able to subscribe to different tiers to obtain different selections of additional channels above the basic selection.
Although for a time in the 1980s and 1990s, television receivers and VCRs were equipped to receive the mid-band and super-band channels.
The number further increased to 62.4% in 1994. ==Distribution== To receive cable television at a given location, cable distribution lines must be available on the local utility poles or underground utility lines.
Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation. A "cable channel" (sometimes known as a "cable network") is a television network available via cable television.
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