The Cable TV Thread

[jasonbigley]

This topic will be dedicated to cable TV. I think cable TV came big around 1981. ( I could be wrong.) So if it is 1981, this will mark the 30th anniversary of cable TV. How has cable TV changed over the years in your opninions? What will the future of cable TV be like?

I think when we first had cable TV, we had this big brown box with these flip switches. I remember we had 36 channels. Of course now, there are a ton of other channels. I remember when you had to pay extra for the Disney Channel. If you had it on that channel years ago, the sound would come in, but the picture was very snowy. I don't remember getting Nickelodeon, Life Time, SyFy, and Cartoon Network in our area at first. Those came later. I think cable TV has really changed over the years. There are a lot more channels. The variety has changed and it is ironic how it has changed because when there was less channels, there was more variety. The variety of programs has diminished, but there are more channels now. Im not shure what to say about the future of cable TV. I think with DVD's coming out now, it has put a dent on cable TV. We have not had cable TV in our house in 6 1/2 years and I do not really miss it with my DVD collection. I also would like to comment on how CNN Headline News heas really, really changed over the years. I watched a video on YouTube of the launch of that channel in 1982. Compare that to what the channel is now and you would not be able to compare the two. I remember when WWOR EMI Service died in 1997 (even though that was not a cable channel).

Off subject, but what was on the FOX channels before it came on in 1987? Also, for about 7 years now in our area, they block out a couple of our local channels for a certain amount of time. They claim they do it due to FCC regulations. Does this happen in other areas?

[JamesG]

I've had cable my whole life, born in 1985. I'm not sure on how long my parents have had it before then.

When I was old enough to take notice of things I remember that the cable we had was a small black box. The cable box I have today is about the size of a standard VCR. The remote now is twice as big from 20 years ago.


Yeah I remember when you had to pay extra for certain channels; like HBO and Disney. At the time Nickelodeon was mostly geared towards boys so my parents got the Disney Channel for my younger sister.



About the channels, I have well over 1000 today. When we tried going for the higher number channels 20 years ago we hardly got any picture and the sound was bad.



Another invention that came along in recent years was the DVR where you can record programming right on the cable box. This means that one no longer needs VCRs or DVD recording devices to tape things.

[YoliUSA]

I was born in '88, so like JamesG I've had cable all my life. IIRC my dad had cable since the late 70s so when he got married to my mom they installed cable in their new house (he was a big TV fan). I recall having a grey, medium sized cable box in my room so I could watch Disney Channel (like others have mentioned you had to pay a fee to watch Disney and you also needed the cable box). The remote control was pretty small compared to the one I have now, and it had the channel lineup taped on the back. I think we had about 50 channels.


As for the channels, I remember watching Disney all day, everyday. There were no breaks during the shows. They also aired a lot of shows that were not produced by them, and there was also more variety. Some of the programs I remember watching are Avonlea, Under The Umbrella Tree, Kidsongs, NMMC, and many others. Then we added Nick and I stopped watching Disney for quite a while :lol: .

As for how cable has evolved, today there are more channels of course, and the programming is more specialized (History Channel, Science Channel). Back then we only had Discovery Channel. Even though there are more channels now, digital tv....I still prefer cable as it was back then, but then again maybe I'm just nostalgic.

[tbswatcher]

Just like JamesG and YoliUSA I've had cable my whole life. I also remember during my childhood in the 90s' having about 50 to 60 cable channels and channels 55 to 60 which were HBO, HBO 2, Cinemax, Moremax, Showtime and The Movie Channel were scrambled but you could hear what was going on. Disney Channel on 61 was also scrambled. I can remember watching Disney Channel even though I could only hear what was going on and my mom would think it was crazy to do. I would be very happy when New England CableVision (now MetroCast), our local cable company, would have free preview weekends for Disney Channel allowing everyone cable box or not to watch.

By 2000 Disney Channel was moved to expanded basic channel 49 and channel 50 was Toon Disney.

Then in 2004 scrambled channels were finally removed and HBO and the others were moved to Digital Cable tiers.

Anyways now I think like others have said cable has way less variety and many channels share shows. Networks I think that have changed for the worst are TLC (I miss shows like Trading Spaces and Clean Sweep and some of their other shows during that era. Now all they show is 19 Kids and Counting and I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant. Cake Boss is the only good thing now.), MTV (lack of music videos in the daytime and evening hours.), CMT (same as MTV) and Cartoon Network (hardly any classic shows are aired but I do like that they have recently added Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls back to their schedule.)

Some networks though are still doing quiet well with programming. TNT and USA Network are doing great with creating good original programming like Psych, White Collar, Leverage and The Closer.

[TVFactFan]

Cable TV all started for me in 1988

[MickeyMac]

We first got cable around 1983. We went from getting seven channels to like 20something including HBO and Cinemax. We got MTV, USA Network, WTBS, The Nashville Network, CBN, and some other stations I cant recall.


Somehow TV was better then.

[Will and Grace Fanatic]

I was born in 1983 and can remember always having it. For me I just watched nickeodeon as a kid. It has evolved however. When it first started out it was just basically the rerun channels. Showing reruns of old shows that use to be on broadcast networks. Now they have evolved into making their own programs.

[treky]

Cable TV all started for me in 1988
that's the same year I got it, Solomon. (I mean, our family got it, since I was still living at home at the time)
In our area,it was held off for a long time.