Chapter 6 Cable: Wired v. Wireless World.

I am one of the millions of people who watch cable television today. It has progressed throughout the years and has now evolved into what most of us watch today. Cable started in the 1940's and since then has grown tremendously. Cable was designed for people who couldn't recieve broadcast television. I for a few years was one of those familes who didn't have cable right away. I remember when we had the rabbit ear antenna on top of our TV in order for us to get basic channels. It was not till recently did our family get full cable television and ever since then I have enjoyed it well. Most people don't think about how much people of society today actually depend on basic cable television. News, sports, comedies, soaps, citcoms, and everything else people watch today is now on cable for usually a pretty decent price. I personally don't pay for cable at my apartment because it is included in the rent but it is a gift to me indeed.

Some facts about cable are how when cable was first invented, it was called CATV which had started in Oregon, PA and NY city. They were started here because of mountains and tall buildings which had blocked TV signals. This only served about 10% of the country and only had about 12 channels to start. Even basic cable today includes more channels than when it first began. When cable came about it started to threaten Broadcast television. it was a problem because it started something new that came about quickly to the people. It was not hard to acquire and was not very expensive. It carried farther than broadcast television and could reach places that broadcast could not. Now a days, cable includes things such as Pay-Per-View, special channles such as a sports package, and HBO channels as well.

Now it almost seems that cable is also being outdated as well. Something known as DBS came about which came wirelessly to a dish outside a persons house. When they first came about during the 1970's they had been huge and bulky and even so didn't include every channel. Now they are conveniently small and can access thousands of channles much like cable can. This has its advantages and disadvantages much like anything else but leads to more futuristic things such as wireless signals used in cellphones. These improvements to technology has proven seemingly impactful on the popluation today. there are so many choices as to what many people can get. Satellite television is provided by several providers and cable television is the same way as well. this just goes to show how far advanced the television industry has come since it started in the 1940's