| It used to be that cable TV was the technology of | | | | same amount of money that their cable TV |
| choice for getting TV programming. This was true | | | | subscription had cost on a service that offered about |
| even with the early availability of satellite TV, but | | | | three times the number of channels, all of those |
| satellite TV at the time was too expensive for most | | | | extra channels were essentially free. In short, nobody |
| people to afford, and even those who could afford it | | | | but the cable TV industry cared whether or not the |
| still had to contend with the massive satellite dishes | | | | extra channels offered by the satellite TV industry |
| that the technology of the time required. | | | | were of decent quality because they were essentially |
| By the first half of the nineteen nineties, the situation | | | | free. |
| changed with the introduction of new satellite TV | | | | Now the cable TV industry is finally implementing |
| technology that provided a much needed | | | | technology that could turn the tables in the other |
| improvement upon both the satellite TV that came | | | | direction. This technology is called switched digital |
| before it as well as cable TV. This new wave of | | | | video. Switched digital video essentially increases the |
| satellite TV technology required only a small satellite | | | | number of separate channels that a cable TV |
| dish that was three feet across at the most rather | | | | provider can offer by making better use of existing |
| than the older monstrosities that were over ten feet | | | | cable TV bandwidth. Right now cable TV providers |
| across. At the same time, the new technology | | | | simply send out all of their channels all at once to all |
| enabled satellite TV technology to deliver more | | | | of their subscribers. The digital receivers of the |
| channels at very reasonable prices. | | | | subscribers then filter out those channels. The |
| The exodus of TV viewers leaving cable TV in favor | | | | channels that aren't part of the subscription are |
| of satellite TV started because of the realization that | | | | filtered out first, and then all of the channels that the |
| spending about the same amount of money on | | | | subscriber doesn't want to watch at a given time are |
| satellite TV that they had been paying for cable TV | | | | filtered out. This means that even though the cable |
| could provide those viewers with a much larger | | | | TV company may be transmitting hundreds of |
| selection of channels. The fact that the satellite | | | | channels over a cable- and taking up most, if not all, |
| dishes were so much smaller and therefore more | | | | of the cable's bandwidth- any given viewer is only |
| manageable also made a huge difference when it | | | | watching one of those channels at a time. Switched |
| came to making satellite TV a realistic alternative for | | | | digital video allows the cable TV company to deliver |
| suburbanites who hadn't had room for the older | | | | just the channel that a viewer wants to watch at |
| dishes. The cable TV company made its own | | | | any given time. This means that the company can |
| situation worse by dismissing the extra channels as | | | | provide a virtually unlimited number of channels. |
| lower quality than what cable TV provided and | | | | Switched digital video may be just the technology |
| therefore not interesting to viewers. What the cable | | | | that the cable TV industry needs to bring customers |
| industry didn't take into account was that viewers | | | | back from satellite TV. |
| like having more choices and if they could spend the | | | | |