ABSTRACT
Over the years the medium underwent changes in technology, marketing, and regulation. Those changes transformed cable television into huge horizontally and vertically integrated conglomerates encompassing both cable systems and programming and providing myriad services to millions of subscribers mainly in big cities. This chapter examines cable’s transformation and organization—the process and forces behind the changes. We also look at cable television’s close relative, satellite master antenna television. Cable systems functioned only as substitutes for individual receiving antennas, so the business called itself community antenna television. The primary trade association for cable television organized early on in response to a federal tax. Local governments were first to regulate cable systems. The cable itself was strung in the public right-of-way, and for that the operator needed permission from the local government.
