What Year Was Cable TV Invented?
Today, cable television reaches about 90 percent of TV households in the United States, with roughly 100 million subscribers. But the original purpose of cable television wasn't to receive hundreds of channels and on-demand programming: It was simply to improve the reception of the national broadcast networks that already existed.
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Cable TV's Invention Year
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The first form of cable television was created in 1948 in Pennsylvania.
The Original Reason for Cable
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Originally, television channels could only be viewed via antenna signal; if the signal wasn't strong, the channel didn't come in well. In mountainous regions in Pennsylvania, it was nearly impossible to get any reception, so large antennas were constructed in troubled areas and cables were run between the antennas and individual homes.
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Cable Television's Inventors
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John Walson and Margaret Walson owned the Service Electric Company, which first provided cables to residents of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. They are usually considered the founders of the cable industry. Milton Shapp, also of Pennsylvania, helped developed innovations, such as the coaxial cable and signal boosters.
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At first, the purpose of cable was to provide better reception to rural and mountainous areas. However, in the late 1950s, cable operators began to focus on picking up channels from hundreds of miles away, and the focus began to expand to more programming options rather than just better picture quality among the national broadcast networks.
The First Year of Pay Cable
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The first pay cable television service was created in November 1972, when the Walson's Service Electric Company offered HBO through its cable service.
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