Community antenna television

The invention: 



Asystem for connecting households in isolated areas
to common antennas to improve television reception, community
antenna television was a forerunner of modern cabletelevision
systems.



The people behind the invention: 



Robert J. Tarlton, the founder of CATV in eastern Pennsylvania

Ed Parsons, the founder of CATV in Oregon

Ted Turner (1938- ), founder of the first cable superstation,WTBS










Growing Demand for Television



Television broadcasting in the United States began in the late

1930’s. After delays resulting from World War II, it exploded into

the American public’s consciousness. The new medium relied primarily

on existing broadcasting stations that quickly converted

fromradio to television formats. Consequently, the reception of television

signals was centralized in large cities. The demand for television

quickly swept across the country. Ownership of television receivers

increased dramatically, and those who could not afford their

own flocked to businesses, usually taverns, or to the homes of

friends with sets. People in urban areas had more opportunities to

view the new medium and had the advantage of more broadcasts

within the range of reception. Those in outlying regions were not so

fortunate, as they struggled to see fuzzy pictures and were, in some

cases, unable to receive a signal at all.

The situation for outlying areas worsened in 1948, when the Federal

Communications Commission (FCC) implemented a ban on all

new television stations while it considered how to expand the television

market and how to deal with a controversy over color reception.

This left areas without nearby stations in limbo, while people

in areas with established stations reaped the benefits of new programming.

The ban would remain in effect until 1952, when new

stations came under construction across the country.

Poor reception in some areas and the FCC ban on new station

construction together set the stage for the development of Community

Antenna Television (CATV). CATV did not have a glamorous

beginning. Late in 1949, two different men, frustrated by the slow

movement of television to outlying areas, set up what would become

the foundation of the multimillion-dollar cable industry.

Robert J. Tarlton was a radio salesman in Lansford, Pennsylvania,

about sixty-five miles from Philadelphia. He wanted to move

into television sales but lived in an area with poor reception. Together

with friends, he founded Panther Valley Television and set

up a master antenna in a mountain range that blocked the reception

of Philadelphia-based broadcasting. For an installation fee of $125

and a fee of $3 per month, Panther Valley Television offered residents

clear reception of the three Philadelphia stations via a coaxial

cable wired to their homes. At the same time, Ed Parsons, of KAST

radio in Astoria, Oregon, linked homes via coaxial cables to a master

antenna set up to receive remote broadcasts. Both systems offered

three channels, the major network affiliates, to subscribers. By

1952, when the FCC ban was lifted, some seventy CATV systems

provided small and rural communities with the wonders of television.

That same year, the National Cable Television Association was

formed to represent the interests of the young industry.

Early systems could carry only one to three channels. In 1953,

CATV began to use microwave relays, which could import distant

signals to add more variety and pushed system capability to twelve

channels. A system of towers began sprouting up across the country.

These towers could relay a television signal from a powerful

originating station to each cable system’s main antenna. This further

opened the reception available to subscribers.





Pay Television



The notion of pay television also began at this time. In 1951, the

FCC authorized a test of Zenith Radio Corporation’s Phonevision in

Chicago. Scrambled images could be sent as electronic impulses

over telephone lines, then unscrambled by devices placed in subscribers’

homes. Subscribers could order a film over the telephone

for a minimal cost, usually $1. Advertisers for the system promoted

the idea of films for the “sick, aged, and sitterless.” This early test

was a forerunner of the premium, or pay, channels of later decades.

Network opposition to CATV came in the late 1950’s. RCAchairman

David Sarnoff warned against a pay television system that

could soon fall under government regulation, as in the case of utilities.

In April, 1959, the FCC found no basis for asserting jurisdiction

or authority over CATV. This left the industry open to tremendous

growth.

By 1960, the industry included 640 systems with 700,000 subscribers.

Ten years later, 2,490 systems were in operation, serving

more than 4.5 million households. This accelerated growth came at

a price. In April, 1965, the FCC reversed itself and asserted authority

over microwave-fed CATV. A year later, the entire cable system

came under FCC control. The FCC quickly restricted the use of distant

signals in the largest hundred markets.

The FCC movement to control cable systems stemmed from the

agency’s desire to balance the television market. From the onset of

television broadcasting, the FCC strived to maintain a balanced programming

schedule. The goal was to create local markets in which

local affiliate stations prospered from advertising and other community

support and would not be unduly harmed by competition

from larger metropolitan stations. In addition, growth of the industry

ideally was to be uniform, with large and small cities receiving

equal consideration. Cable systems, particularly those that could receive

distant signals via microwave relay, upset the balance. For example,

a small Ohio town could receive New York channels as well

as Chicago channels via cable, as opposed to receiving only the

channels from one city.

The balance was further upset with the creation of a new communications

satellite, COMSAT, in 1963. This technology allowed a

signal to be sent to the satellite, retransmitted back to Earth, and

then picked up by a receiving station. This further increased the

range of cable offerings and moved the transmission of television

signals to a national scale, as microwave-relayed transmissions

worked best in a regional scope. These two factors led the FCC to

freeze the cable industry from new development and construction

in December, 1968. After 1972, when the cable freeze was lifted, the

greatest impact of CATV would be felt.



Impact



The founding of cable television had a two-tier effect on the

American public. The immediate impact of CATV was the opening

of television to areas cut off from network broadcasting as a result of

distance or topographical obstructions. Cable brought television to

those who would have otherwise missed the early years of the medium.

As technology furthered the capabilities of the industry, a second

impact emerged. Along with the 1972 lifting of the ban on cable expansion,

the FCC established strict guidelines for the advancement

of the industry. Issuing a 500-page blueprint for the expansion of cable,

the FCC included limits on the use of imported distant signals,

required the blacking out of some specific programs (films and serials,

for example), and limited pay cable to films that were more than

two years old and to sports.

Another component of the guidelines required all systems that

went into operation after March, 1972 (and all systems by March,

1977), to provide public access channels for education and local

government. In addition, channels were to be made available for

lease. These access channels opened information to subscribers that

would not normally be available. Local governments and school

boards began to broadcast meetings, and even high school athletics

soon appeared via public access channels. These channels also

provided space to local educational institutions for home-based

courses in a variety of disciplines.





Cable Communications Policy Act



Further FCC involvement came in the 1984 Cable Communications

Policy Act, which deregulated the industry and opened the

door for more expansion. This act removed local control over cable

service rates and virtually made monopolies out of local providers

by limiting competition. The late 1980’s brought a new technology,

fiber optics, which promised to further advance the industry by increasing

the quality of cable services and channel availability.

One area of the cable industry, pay television, took off in the

1970’s and early 1980’s. The first major pay channel was developed

by the media giant Time-Life. It inaugurated Home Box Office

(HBO) in 1975 as the first national satellite interconnected network.

Early HBO programming primarily featured films but included no

films less than two years old (meeting the 1972 FCC guidelines), no

serials, and no advertisements. Other premium movie channels followed,

including Showtime, Cinemax, and The Movie Channel. By

the late 1970’s, cable systems offered multiple premium channels to

their subscribers.

Superstations were another component of the cable industry that

boomed in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The first, WTBS, was owned and

operated by Ted Turner and broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia. It emphasized

films and reruns of old television series. Cable systems

that broadcast WTBS were asked to allocate the signal to channel 17,

thus creating uniformity across the country for the superstation.

Chicago’s WGN and New York City’s WOR soon followed, gaining

access to homes across the nation via cable. Both these superstations

emphasized sporting events in the early years and expanded to include

films and other entertainment in the 1980’s.

Both pay channels and superstations transmitted via satellites

(WTBS leased space from RCA, for example) and were picked up by

cable systems across the country. Other stations with broadcasts intended

solely for the cable industry opened in the 1980’s. Ted Turner

started the Cable News Network in 1980 and followed with the all news

network Headline News. He added another channel with the

Turner Network Television (TNT) in 1988. Other 1980’s additions

included The Disney Channel, ESPN, The Entertainment Channel,

The Discovery Channel, and Lifetime. The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs

Network (C-SPAN) enhanced the cable industry’s presence in

Washington, D.C., by broadcasting sessions of the House of Representatives.

Specialized networks for particular audiences also developed.

Music Television (MTV), featuring songs played along with video

sequences, premiered in 1981. Nickelodeon, a children’s channel,

and VH-1, a music channel aimed at baby boomers rather than

MTV’s teenage audience, reflected the movement toward specialization.

Other specialized channels, such as the Sci-Fi Channel and the

Comedy Channel, went even further in targeting specific audiences.





Cable and the Public



The impact on the American public was tremendous. Information

and entertainment became available around the clock. Cable

provided a new level of service, information, and entertainment unavailable

to non subscribers. One phenomenon that exploded in the

late 1980’s was home shopping. Via The Home Shopping Club and

QVC, two shopping channels offered through cable television, the

American public could order a full range of products. Everything

from jewelry to tools and home cleaning supplies to clothing and

electronics was available to anyone with a credit card. Americans

could now go shopping from home.

The cable industry was not without its competitors and critics. In

the 1980’s, the videocassette recorder (VCR) opened the viewing

market. Prerecorded cassettes of recent film releases as well as classics

were made available for purchase or for a small rental fee. National

chains of video rental outlets, such as Blockbuster Video and

Video Towne, offered thousands of titles for rent. Libraries also began

to stock films. This created competition for the cable industry, in

particular the premium movie channels. To combat this competition,

channels began to offer original productions unavailable on

videocassette. The combined effect of the cable industry and the

videocassette market was devastating to the motion picture industry.

The wide variety of programming available at home encouraged

the American public, especially baby boomers with children,

to stay home and watch cable or rented films instead of going to theaters.

Critics of the cable industry seized on the violence, sexual content,

and graphic language found in some of cable’s offerings. One

parent responded by developing a lockout device that could make

certain channels unavailable to children. Some premium channels

developed an after-hours programming schedule that aired adult theme

programming only late at night. Another criticism stemmed

from the repetition common on pay channels. As a result of the limited

supply of and large demand for films, pay channels were forced

to repeat programs several times within a month and to rebroadcast

films that were several years old. This led consumers to question the

value of the additional monthly fee paid for such channels. To com-

bat the problem, premium channels increased efforts aimed at original

production and added more films that had not been box-office hits.

By the early 1990’s, as some eleven thousand cable systems were

serving 56.2 million subscribers, a new cry for regulation began. Debates

over services and increasingly high rates led the FCC and

Congress to investigate the industry, opening the door for new

guidelines on the cable industry. The non-cable networks—American

Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System

(CBS), National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and newcomer

Fox—stressed their concerns about the cable industry. These networks

provided free programming, and cable systems profited

from inclusion of network programming. Television industry representatives

expressed the opinion that cable providers should pay

for the privilege of retransmitting network broadcasts.

The impact on cable’s subscribers, especially concerning monthly

cable rates, came under heavy debate in public and government forums.

The administration in Washington, D.C., expressed concern

that cable rates had risen too quickly and for no obvious reason other

than profit-seeking by what were essentially monopolistic local cable

systems. What was clear was that the cable industry had transformed

the television experience and was going to remain a powerful force

within the medium. Regulators and television industry leaders were

left to determine how to maintain an equitable coexistence within the

medium.





See also :



Color television; Communications satellite; Fiber-optics;

Telephone switching; Television.