CT (short for City Television) was a Filipino cable and satellite television network situated in Mandaluyong that broadcast 24 hours a day. On March 22, 2015, it was officially introduced. Solar Entertainment Corporation owns the channel, which took over from Jack City, a defunct spin-off of sister station Jack TV. Previously, this channel was available on all local pay TV and cable providers in the Philippines.
When did the general public get access to cable television?
In 1948, cable television became available in the United States for the first time. By 1989, 53 million American households had subscribed to cable television, with 60 percent of all American households having done so by 1992. with According to SNL Kagan data, around 58.4 percent of all American homes subscribed to basic cable television services in 2006. The majority of cable viewers in the United States are middle-class and live in the suburbs; cable television is less frequent in low-income, urban, and rural areas.
When did people start getting cable in their homes?
Electrical service to American households began in the late 1890s and peaked between 1920 and 1935, when 70% of homes were connected to the electrical utility grid.
In the 1980s, how much did cable TV cost?
Furthermore, pay television is also competing with a broader range of “basic” cable networks and regional pay sports channels, which are attracting an increasing number of viewers.
“Pay TV is flat to down as a result of the proliferation of more networks and customer choices,” admits Tony Cox, president of Showtime. There were just four cable networks when paid television began in the mid-1970s. There are now 69.
Pay-per-view, which can transport movies into the home before they are accessible on pay TV, is also in the future.
As a result, the two major pay television networks are pursuing different tactics to slowing their expansion.
HBO is establishing itself as a “brand name,” with plans to expand into original programming, while Showtime is pushing for major changes in pay television pricing.
The current plight of pay television can be traced back to the heady days of the 1980s, when HBO and Showtime waged “exclusivity wars” to win pay television rights to Hollywood films. The policy, which aimed to set itself apart from the competition by ensuring that the same film did not air on both channels, did not come without a cost.
Over the next seven years, Showtime plans to spend $2.3 billion on movies. Showtime Networks Inc., which is owned by Viacom Inc. and includes Showtime and the Movie Channel, lost money between 1987 and 1989 as a result of these programming costs. It hopes to be moderately profitable this year.
“It’s not a fantastic business even in good times,” admits one senior Showtime executive.
HBO, which is owned by Time Warner Inc. and has yearly revenues of more than $1 billion, has seen its pretax profit margin fluctuate between 9% and 13% in previous years.
However, the two pay television competitors can no longer compete by slamming each other (although Viacom still has a $2.4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Time Warner and HBO ongoing).
HBO and Showtime are attempting to persuade the cable industry that paid television is still feasible in the face of increased competition from upstart cable channels.
HBO and Showtime, for example, are not concerned about their programming. They continue to receive high ratings, frequently outperforming one of the Big Three networks during prime time among pay TV households.
“Hundreds of millions of homes still do not have HBO,” Fuchs argues. “However, I’m not getting that business by making another made-for-TV film.” It’s only by thrashing those folks.”
Showtime and HBO are now working on subscriber retention in addition to increased pounding. Each month, up to 4.5 percent of HBO’s customers unsubscribe, implying that the pay TV channel must replace almost half of its subscriber base on an annual basisratios comparable to the mature magazine industry.
Pay TV CEOs are ready to point the finger at deregulation as the root of their troubles. “The problem with our growth is entirely due to marketing and positioning.” “The hike in cable pricing has harmed us,” Cox claims.
According to Paul Kagan Associates, the average monthly cost of basic cable increased from $8 to $16 between 1980 and 1989. Customers must “buy through” the basic package on most local cable systems before purchasing their first pay TV channel, which normally costs an extra $10 per month.
“Basic prices have risen considerably, and this is the primary cause for the pay TV slowdown,” says HBO’s Fuchs.
In certain regions, forcing users to acquire a package of basic channelswhich may include channels they don’t want to watchhas reached absurd levels. Cable consumers in several New York suburbs on Long Island and in Connecticut, for example, must spend $60 per month to get Showtime.
However, according to Robert Klingensmith, head of Paramount Video, the studio’s arm that sells movies to pay television, VCRs have harmed pay television as well. “Because these films are no longer first in the home with home video, customers are saying, ‘I don’t need all of these things.'”
Nonetheless, most cable executives believe that “marketplace mechanics” are impeding pay television, which is why marketing has become the new motto for pay television. In fact, the pay services are having to spend ever-increasing quantities of money just to stay afloat. Pay TV executives point out that this is similar to many mature products, which require companies to budget 15% of sales just to maintain market share.
Part of the reason why pay TV channels rely on marketing is that they have no other option.
“One of pay television’s biggest concerns is that the programming cannot be modified because the majority of the expense is long-term output arrangements with the studios,” says analyst Gerbrandt.
“They have no flexibility in that sense,” he argues, “therefore the only thing they can directly control is the product’s marketing.”
HBO will spend $150 million on marketing next year, primarily on advertising and promotion. One-third of money is set aside for buying broadcast network advertisement time for a “image campaign.” HBO has also grown to be one of the country’s largest direct-mail advertisers.
While HBO spends money to promote itself, Showtime is working behind the scenes to modify the way basic and pay TV channels are packaged by local cable operators. “I don’t believe any amount of advertising on behalf of our brand will be enough to solve our industry’s inherent difficulties,” Cox says.
Showtime has suggested a major overhaul of the wholesale license payments it charges local cable companies. Showtime and HBO have traditionally charged local cable systems between $4 and $5 per subscriber. At the retail level, the local system frequently more than doubles that rate.
However, a new concept floated by Showtime in recent weeks would levy a tiny cost to all basic subscribers rather than the $4 to $5 price charged solely to those who pay for the pay channel.
“The notion is that by lowering the price, Showtime will be able to significantly improve its penetration,” says Mark Riely, a partner at MacDonald Gripo Riely, a New York investment firm.
Most local cable operators have resisted the Showtime proposal so far because it threatens their short-term profit margins. Few local systems, many of which are highly leveraged because to recent ownership changes, can afford to make such a sacrifice in the current economic climate.
Local systems, the bulk of which are controlled by or linked with huge “multiple system operators,” or MSOs, are instead experimenting with their own methods of marketing pay television. United Artist Entertainment, a Denver-based MSO, is now selling pay channel annual subscriptions at certain of its local systems across the country. Customers will receive a discount if they purchase a year’s worth of pay channel service in advance, similar to how periodicals have done for years.
“It’s imperative to come up with marketing innovations as a category matures,” says Jerry Maglio, senior vice president of marketing at United Artist Entertainment.
HBO and Showtime’s fate is largely in the hands of MSOs and local cable companies, over which they have no control. “The issue is that pay networks have to promote around the operators, and the operators have never been very effective marketers,” says one studio executive with experience in the pay TV industry.
Pay TV executives also believe that MSOs and local cable systems prefer basic channels to pay channels because MSOs often hold one or more of the basic channels.
Local cable systems really generate more money through basic than they do from pay because basic has considerably greater margins. Basic revenue accounts for roughly 70% of a local system’s revenue, while pay accounts for 30%. In addition, half of off-air pay TV income go to the network, compared to 20% to 25% for basic channels.
HBO and Showtime were commonly used as an incentive to get cable TV in the early to mid-1980s, along with greater reception. CNN, ESPN, USA Network, Discovery Channel, and TNT were either not yet started or couldn’t afford the type of programming that would draw people.
“As basic channels grow more popular and offer better programming, they draw viewers away from both broadcast networks and pay channels,” says Marc Nathanson, president of Falcon Cable TV in Los Angeles. “HBO and Showtime didn’t have as much competition from cable five years ago.”
Pay-per-view television may be more problematic. For $3 to $5 per viewing, PPV, which is now accessible in 27% of cable TV homes, allows viewers access to blockbuster films several months before they air on pay TV.
Riely thinks that “PPV will take over the function that pay TV began with in the 1970s and 1980s: premium exposure of unedited films on TV.” Pay TV, he believes, will become more like basic networks in the future, with a greater selection of shows than movies and probably some type of advertising.
HBO has already taken the first steps in this manner. Despite the fact that large Hollywood movies will continue to be the channel’s backbone, Fuchs is pushing the channel towards original programming, high-profile specials, and sports. These shows, particularly comedy specials and boxing fights, are then promoted as “events” and used to entice viewers to subscribe.
“We have to offer more daring programming now,” Fuchs says, referring to adult sitcom “Dream On” and documentary series like “Real Sex.” One lasting benefit of paid television is that it may air programs with violence or nudity that networks and basic cable channels would not touch.
However, few experts believe that sex, violence, and sports will be enough to propel pay television to the same levels of popularity as it was in the 1980s. Furthermore, HBO and Showtime have long-term contracts to purchase Hollywood films, leaving little money for alternative programming.
Analyst Gerbrandt observes, “Nobody put a gun to their heads.” “They each held a gun to the other’s head.”
When did cable television first become available in New York City?
April 7, 1963, from a news report in the “New York Herald Tribune.” New-York Historical Society, Time Inc. Records, MS 3009.
The number of television sets in use in the United States increased from a few thousand to almost 60 million between 1945 and 1960. Despite the fact that many of the programs aired originated in New York City, many residents of Gotham had to deal with gradually deteriorating signal reception. New structures in the city’s vertically expanding city obstructed or reflected over-the-air signals, resulting in a blurred, speared, or distorted image. Living on the Upper West Side during the “BC” (Before Cable) era, one inhabitant compared viewing television like “going sightseeing in a heavy fog.” Building a Community Antenna Television (CATV) system was one of the answers to the problem. This meant putting up a master antenna in a good spot and then wiring coaxial wire from the antenna into individual residences, ensuring that the signal was not obstructed.
In 1962, New York City became the first city in the world to have cable television. Sterling Information Services, a subsidiary of Sterling Movies USA (later renamed Sterling Communications, Inc.), built a television studio and installed a coaxial cable system in that year, linking it to several hotels in Manhattan using the Empire City Subway Company’s existing ducts. Tourists and other out-of-town visitors may use the system to get information on the different events and attractions that New York has to offer. The service was extremely effective during the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, which encouraged other big cities to adopt similar systems.
What was television like before cable?
While establishing the exact start of television can be difficult, determining when cable first arrived on the scene is simple. Surprisingly, while cable television is now widely regarded as a high-end form of television, it was not always so. Instead, it was a practical means for people who couldn’t get access to broadcast signals to get programming from major cities.
Local broadcast signals were transmitted over the air in the early days of television. Those who lived too far away from the broadcast station or in mountainous areas where the signals would be disturbed were unable to receive the broadcasts and were left without television. As a result, massive antenna towers were built that could soar above the mountains, receive the signal, and then transfer it via hard wires, sometimes known as cables. As a result, homes that had previously been left in the dark could now connect.
These “community antennas,” as they were dubbed, were initially built in 1948 in Arkansas, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, ushering in a new era in technology and entertainment history by bringing cable television to the world for the first time.
When did the knob and tube come to an end?
Knob-and-tube (K&T) wiring was a typical style of electrical wiring in buildings in North America from around 1880 until the 1940s. Although some of the anxiety associated with the system is unwarranted, it is deemed antiquated and can be a safety threat.
Before Comcast, what was cable?
Comcast, or Comcast Corporation, is a significant American provider of cable television, entertainment, and communications goods and services. It was formerly known as American Cable Systems (196369). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is where the company’s headquarters are located. Ralph J. Comcast created Comcast in 1963.
When did cloth wiring become obsolete?
From the 1920s through the 1960s, cloth-covered wires were often used in homes. When homeowners are uninformed of the fire hazards or already have insurance on the home, cloth-covered wiring is nevertheless used. Cloth, on the other hand, will have to be replaced during the home selling process.
In 1985, how much did cable cost?
In other words, if you bought cable and satellite television service for $20 in 1985, it would cost you $96.90 in 2022.