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Does anyone remember Cable? That shared experience of just turning on the TV and going on a whole new adventure? Whatever happened to that?

It seems that broadcast television has definitely seen better days. According to a study from the website nScreenMedia, US households with cable, satellite, or telco TV went from 100 million in 2014 down to 60 million in 2023. That’s a 40% drop, and the lowest its been since the 1980s. I mean, this is no surprise because of streaming; the privilege of being able to choose what you want, whenever you want, without any ads, and at a much more affordable price. A whole new movement known as “cord cutting” is now on the rise.

There’s no denouncing the incredible convenience and flexibility of on-demand content, but it does lack that very unique autonomy that its predecessors had, that feeling of just turning on the TV, flipping through the channels, not having to give it any thought, especially after a long day of work or school, and then just eventually discovering something. And with that, comes that feeling of togetherness, watching a live broadcast with thousands of other people, something that, by the nature of how Cable TV is designed, has yet to be replicated. And now, we are seeing the aftereffects of that. So how did Cable TV, as an artform, start? What went wrong? And how do we go back?

This is a deep-dive into the history of network and cable television in the United States and the shape it has had on the entertainment media of today.

People got tired of getting ripped off.

T-Mobile - 50.00 a month - no wires no nothing.

T-Mobile + Roku = Good to Go.

The original idea of cable, community antenna TV, was great. It gave better pictures on local TV, and gave access to other stations. In Florida, the West Palm area got access to Miami TV--great--back in the day.

Then various providers got the idea, to make more money, charge retransmission fees for their content. Not only would they continue to get ad revenue, but now also make money for "retransmission." Then the cable companies, which were originally small and local, were gobbled up by the larger providers over time, with the commensurate degrading of customer service.

Add in having to pay for many channles that you don't want, it's ended up being the giant ripoff it is today.

Televised live sporting events are the main culprit driving cable to its demise. The consumer got sick and tired of subsidizing MLB, NBA, NHL and the NFL for hours of programming many have no intention of watching. In the New York area, YES the network that televises 128 Yankee games charges $6 per subscriber, what happens if you're not a Yankee fan, or a baseball fan! In that same metro area there are three different regional sports networks, in fact it was so bad at one point that the regional sports network (MSG) that owned the rights to Knicks and Rangers games was also the entity that owned the Knicks and Rangers as well as the cable company! Can you imagine how badly the consumer was screwed in that negotiation.

The days of the free ride are over for cable companies, by 2027 the number of homes with cable will be about 38% and if the numbers from July are any indication things are even worse than anyone thought. In July of 2023 only 29% of viewing by cable subscribers was of cable networks. To survive cable will need to return to its original purpose, that of acting as an antenna service for viewers in areas that have reception difficulties. Most cable stations will merge or disappear altogether and most sports programming will be moved to its own tiers, available on a subscription basis for those that want it.