5 ms·

Exactly. A lot of folks forget that cable was offered as an ad-free alternative to OTA broadcast TV. The selling feature was that since you are paying for a sub

Exactly. A lot of folks forget that cable was offered as an ad-free alternative to OTA broadcast TV. The selling feature was that since you are paying for a subscription, the platform was monetized and profitable, ergo no need for ads. Sound familiar?

dylan604 4y ago
Cable was also started because certain areas had bad reception so they multiplexed the signals together down a single cable to avoid the reception issues. There's a lot of competeing "cable was started" stories
- scarface74 4y ago
  There aren’t any competing stories. It’s not like the inception of cable is loss to the annals of history. There are just truths and falsehoods. Basic cable was never ad free.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    Well, I was being "friendly". Cable was never started as an ad free thing. Cable was started to get a signal to people that couldn't get a signal. That signal was the same signal as everyone receiving over the air broadcast, so it included all of the ads. Premium cable channels came later. to quote a post up stream "Sound familiar?"
    - scarface74 4y ago
      Premium cable was HBO, Showtime and Cinemax that you paid extra for and were Ad free and still is.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    If by basic cable you exclusively mean network television rebroadcasts, then of course that's true, unless they were editing interesting content in on the fly. But cable channels were ad free, and advertised as being ad free. "Well, Pay TV is fine to see You get much better quality: Broadway shows, heavy-weight fights First-run movies every night. Viewers of Denver, unite! . . . Nothing to lose but commercials." -- Talkin' Pay TV by Phil Ochs, 1963
    - scarface74 4y ago
      Basic cable included USA, MTV, CNN, ESPN, etc. Premium channels like HBO always cost extra and were ad free and still are on cable. According to most articles I see, for the first 24 years after commercial cable TV was a thing, it was solely used to retransmit broadcast TV. https://web.archive.org/web/20100905133543/http://www.ncta.com/About/About/HistoryofCableTelevision.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20100905133543/http://www.ncta.c...

dylan604 4y ago

Cable was also started because certain areas had bad reception so they multiplexed the signals together down a single cable to avoid the reception issues. There's a lot of competeing "cable was started" stories

scarface74 4y ago
There aren’t any competing stories. It’s not like the inception of cable is loss to the annals of history. There are just truths and falsehoods. Basic cable was never ad free.
- dylan604 4y ago
  Well, I was being "friendly". Cable was never started as an ad free thing. Cable was started to get a signal to people that couldn't get a signal. That signal was the same signal as everyone receiving over the air broadcast, so it included all of the ads. Premium cable channels came later. to quote a post up stream "Sound familiar?"
  - scarface74 4y ago
    Premium cable was HBO, Showtime and Cinemax that you paid extra for and were Ad free and still is.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  If by basic cable you exclusively mean network television rebroadcasts, then of course that's true, unless they were editing interesting content in on the fly. But cable channels were ad free, and advertised as being ad free. "Well, Pay TV is fine to see You get much better quality: Broadway shows, heavy-weight fights First-run movies every night. Viewers of Denver, unite! . . . Nothing to lose but commercials." -- Talkin' Pay TV by Phil Ochs, 1963
  - scarface74 4y ago
    Basic cable included USA, MTV, CNN, ESPN, etc. Premium channels like HBO always cost extra and were ad free and still are on cable. According to most articles I see, for the first 24 years after commercial cable TV was a thing, it was solely used to retransmit broadcast TV. https://web.archive.org/web/20100905133543/http://www.ncta.com/About/About/HistoryofCableTelevision.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20100905133543/http://www.ncta.c...