Cable Television in The United States - Early History

Early History

Although the rise of free broadcast television during the 1950s greatly damaged Hollywood, many in the entertainment industry saw the great potential profitability of offering television for a fee. After 25 million American televisions tuned to a musical version of Cinderella in 1957, for example, executives calculated that had Hollywood received $0.25 for each TV, it would have earned more than $6 million in one day without distribution costs. Due to many legal, regulatory, and technological obstacles, however, cable television in the United States in its first twenty-four years was used almost exclusively to relay over-the-air commercial broadcasting television channels to remote and inaccessible areas. It also became popular in other areas which were not remote, but whose mountainous terrain caused poor reception over the air. Original television programming came in 1972 with government deregulation of the industry.

While entrepreneurship played a key role in the early development of CATV, it was not alone. Pioneering technical development was also part of what made that development possible, particularly the work of the Jerrold Electronics laboratory under the direction of Keneth Alden Simons. (One instrument that came out of that period, the Jerrold 704B Field strength meter, was widely used in the cable TV industry for 20 years.) The founder and owner of Jerrold, Milton Jerrold Shapp was highly influential in the emerging cable industry. He would later serve as governor of Pennsylvania (1971-79).

During the television licensing freeze of 1948–1952, the demand for television increased. Since new television licenses were not being issued, the only way the demand was met, even in communities with one or more operating broadcast stations, was by Community Antenna Television (CATV), as early cable was known (so named because of the literal sharing of a very large receiving antenna by an entire community).