Cable on the Grow
Cable television originated in 1948 as a service to individuals in mountainous or geographically-remote regions where reception of over-the-air TV signals was poor. The early cable systems called community antenna television (CATV) carried a limited amount of programming and did not serve most urban areas. Today, two thirds of the 97 million US television households subscribe to cable. As shown in the table below, the number of systems has grown from about 2,500 in 1970 to just under 10,500 systems in 1999.
Cable has garnered a much larger share of the TV viewing audience as well. Audience shares of network TV affiliates have fallen from 64 percent in 1986 to 43 percent in 1996. At the same time, cable shares have grown from 13 to 36 percent. In 1999, there were 68.5 million cable subscribers reaching 68 percent of all U.S. homes.
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