This concise volume presents key concepts and entries from the twelve-volume ICA International Encyclopedia of Communication (2008), condensing leading scholarship into a practical and valuable single volume.
Based on the definitive twelve-volume IEC, this new concise edition presents key concepts and the most relevant headwords of communication science in an A-Z format in an up-to-date manner
Jointly published with the International Communication Association (ICA), the leading academic association of the discipline in the world
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Cable television is subscription-based multichannel television program delivery relying on wires. Cable originated to extend broadcast signals, but during its mature years has delivered additional programming.
Cable began mainly in North America. Broadcast television had expanded following World War II, yet huge disparities existed among areas covered. Entrepreneurs in underserved regions constructed tall receiving antennas (headends) to capture and retransmit nearby signals for a fee. Thus began community antenna television (CATV; → Television, Social History of).
CATV expanded during the 1960s, but faced a fickle policy climate. Early in the decade, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) developed regulations, ostensibly to protect broadcast television, that prevented CATV from growing much. Later, CATV became the focus of ‘Blue Sky’ discourses, about reforming television. By the 1970s, US cable policy was more lenient, reflected in new rules of the → Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and revised copyright law (→ Copyright; United States of America: Media System). Canada saw increased regulation of cable following the 1968 creation of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), charged with protecting Canadian media sovereignty (→ Canada: Media System). Mexico’s cable industry began in the 1960s, to extend coverage of Telesistemo Mexicano (TSM; → Mexico: Media System).
Adoption of satellites during the 1970s was key in transforming CATV into modern cable (→ Satellite Television). In 1975, regional US pay-television service Home Box Office enlisted satellite to distribute programming nationwide. More networks launched; these included premium networks, charging subscribers directly, and basic networks, ‘bundled’ in a package for a flat monthly fee.
Cable began seeing competition from direct satellite delivery systems—C-band systems and later Ku-band DBS (direct broadcast satellite). By the late 1990s the Internet also competed with cable. The US 1996 Telecommunications Act attempted to address this emerging scenario. Popularity of multichannel television expanded worldwide starting in the 1990s. Countries with longstanding public television service now face competition from private broadcasters and cable/satellite services (→ Public Broadcasting Systems).
Recently, cable has faced challenges from Internet protocol television (IPTV), provided by telephone companies. To compete, operators have been offering high-speed Internet and cable telephone service. In programming, competition has come from streaming video websites including YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix.
See also:
Canada: Media System
Copyright
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Mexico: Media System
Public Broadcasting Systems
Satellite Television
Television, Social History of
United States of America: Media System
References and Suggested Readings
Parsons, P. (2008). Blue skies: A history of cable television. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Canada: Media System
Bart Beaty
University of Calgary
Canada’s communication sector has been particularized by three factors: the country’s close and often ambivalent relationship to the United States, its policy of official bilingualism, and its avowed dedication to the principle of multiculturalism. Of these differences, it is Canada’s bilingual status that most clearly separates it from the American model (→ United States of America: Media System). Although some French-language radio and television services are available across the nation, they have limited audience outside the province of Quebec, and French-language daily newspapers have almost no circulation outside of that province. Concerns over the linguistic divisions among Canadians, as well as the perceived threat of American culture to English-Canadian identity formation, have characterized many governmental interventions into the media system (→ Bi- and Multilingualism).
Canadian newspapers originated in the eighteenth century and derived their origins from the influence of the New England colonies. Newspaper circulation doubled as Canada’s population exploded between 1901 and 1911, and by 1938 there were 138 daily newspapers in the country. In 1917, Canadian newspapers formed the Canadian Press, a cooperative news agency, which allowed for a greater level of integration of news reporting across the geographically vast nation (→ News Agencies: History of). Since the 1960s, Canada’s newspaper industry has been dominated by a shrinking number of increasingly large chains.
Canada’s magazine industry differs significantly from the newspaper industry insofar as it is largely dominated by American publications. In 1961 the Royal Commission on Publications, the O’Leary Commission, recommended the imposition of a tariff on ‘split-run’ editions, or foreign-owned magazines that print a second edition in Canada in order to benefit from Canadian advertising revenues (→ Advertising). This recommendation became law in 1965. Challenged by the United States it was replaced by a compromise legislated in the Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act of 1999.
Canada’s national broadcasting system was initiated as a response to the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting (1928–1929), also known as the Aird Commission. The Aird Commission reported a widespread concern about the Americanization of Canadian airwaves, recommended that broadcasting be publicly owned, and advocated the establishment of a national public radio network. In 1932, this network, known as the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), was established. Four years later the pa...
