Cable television is a system of distributing television programs to subscribers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) networks. This contrasts with traditional broadcast television (terrestrial television) in which the television signal is transmitted over the air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone service, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables.
The abbreviation CATV is often used for cable television. It originally stood for Community Access Television or Community Antenna Television, from cable television's origins in 1948: in areas where over-the-air reception was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large "community antennas" were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. The origins of cable broadcasting are even older as radio programming was distributed by cable in some European cities as far back as 1924.
Read more about Cable Television: Description, How It Works, Cable Television Deployments, Other Cable-based Services, History and Beginnings of Cable TV-originated Live Programs
Famous quotes containing the words cable and/or television:
“To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.”
—Douglass Cross (b. 1920)
“His [O.J. Simpson’s] supporters lined the freeway to cheer him on Friday and commentators talked about his tragedy. Did those people see the photographs of the crime scene and the great blackening pools of blood seeping into the sidewalk? Did battered women watch all this on television and realize more vividly than ever before that their lives were cheap and their pain inconsequential?”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)