ABSTRACT
It is arguable whether cable television should be considered “new technology,” because the beginnings of this medium are tied in with the earliest days of broadcast television in the United States. It was because of delays in broadcast spectrum allocation that the earliest Community Antenna Television (CATV) systems were set up in 1949. The fact that this fledgling industry did not disappear once “free” broadcast television service became widely available is largely due to the fact that the technology kept changing to meet new market conditions. The technology is in fact still evolving and its potential is still unfolding. The steady expansion of channel capacity (close to 60 channels per coaxial cable by 1985), the increasing availability of satellite interconnection, the spread of computer-controlled digital interactivity, and the proliferation of not just video programming services but also data and information services together present a medium that is indeed new, as tomorrow’s systems with high definition screens, stereo sound, video interactivity, and “smart” modems will be new.
