Can someone tell me who were the originators of cable television. Was it sometime in the 1970s.?

Answer 1

In the 1970s it was HBO (called by its full name then - Home Box Office) that really got things started for cable, at least in Southern California. This was long before home VCRs or movies you could just buy at the store, so it was a big deal to get to watch big name movies right in your own livingroom.

But I remember my daddy talking about paying the cable bill in the early 60s. We lived in a small town in Washington state that didn't get good reception because of the mountains. I wish he was around to ask if we were really paying for cable service or not. I just remember him using the term, and he had to have gotten it somewhere, so maybe by that time it had moved out from just Pennsylvania or Ohio or wherever it started and reached all the way to the west coast.

Answer 2

Cable television, formerly known as Community Antenna Television or CATV, was born in the mountains of Pennsylvania in 1948.

Community antenna television (now called cable television) was started by John Walson and Margaret Walson in the spring of 1948. The Service Electric Company was formed by the Walsons in the mid 1940s to sell, install, and repair General Electric appliances in the Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania area. In 1947, the Walson also began selling television sets. However, Mahanoy City residents had problems receiving the three nearby Philadelphia network stations with local antennas because of the region's surrounding mountains. John Walson erected an antenna on a utility pole on a local mountain top that enabled him to demonstrate the televisions with good broadcasts coming from the three Philadelphia stations.

Walson connected the mountain antennae to his appliance store via a cable and modified signal boosters. In June of 1948, John Walson connected the mountain antennae to both his store and several of his customers' homes that were located along the cable path, starting the nation’s first CATV system.

John Walson has been recognized by the U.S. Congress and the National Cable Television Association as the founder of the cable television industry. John Walson was also the first cable operator to use microwave to import distant television stations, the first to use coaxial cable for improved picture quality, and the first to distribute pay television programming (HBO). Source Service Electric Cablevision, Inc with special thanks to Rob Ansbach

Answer 3

time warner. it had HBO (the king of cable), Cinemax MTV, and about forty channels of nothing good to watch.