A glass fiber no bigger than a human hair is now carrying television programs from antennas on top of a New York skyscraper down thirty-four floors to control equipment owned by a company named Teleprompter. Teleprompter's use of glass fibers, called optical fibers, is the first regular, practical use made of fibers for carrying television communications. The new system, put into operation on July 8, 1976, worked so well that Teleprompter executives predicted that by the end of the 1970s fibers would be in regular use. Fibers use light instead of electricity for communication, replacing wires with glass fibers as the medium for conducting signals from one place to another. Engineers consider fiber communication the most important advance in electronics since the invention of the transistor in the 1950s. One of the major advantages of fibers is their ability to carry many signals on a single strand. In fact the Teleprompter fiber, which is ninety microns in diameter, can carry 167 television channels. (A micron is one millionth of a meter.) Another important advantage of fibers is that they are potentially less expensive than coaxial cable for carrying television programs (see discussion of cables). This is true partly because the fiber is made from glass, which is cheaper than wire. More importantly, however, fibers require repeater amplifiers (actually lasars) every one and one half miles, whereas coaxial cables require about three amplifiers per mile. These amplifiers keep television picture levels high so that subscribers may see sharper pictures.
The popularity of the broadcast media has inevitably stimulated many to try to provide additional services through new technologies like fibers. For example, there simply have not been enough television stations to serve everyone with the desired quantity of television programs. Therefore, enterprising individuals began constructing cable systems capable of bringing television to rural areas and small cities that had little in the way of television service.
Cable eventually began serving cities that had a number of television stations with special television services. But cable was only one of the new technologies. Other recent innovations include video disk, video tape machines for the home, projection television sets, optical fibers, and satellites.
Television and radio depend upon technology; upon the inventions of engineers and scientists concerned with electronics. The tremendous growth of these media are just as dependent now on new technology as they were in their infancy. Now there are not only color television sets but the potential to create stereo television sets. Perhaps three dimensional sets will be commonplace in
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SATELLITES FOR COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATION
The first satellite set into orbit for commercial purposes was the Early Bird, in April 1965. This satellite had the capability to carry 240 two-way telephone calls or one television signal, and proved that satellites could make a profit. It later became part of an international network of satellites called Intelsat. The Early Bird satellite was owned by Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT). COMSAT joined with other countries and companies and formed the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (Intelsat) in 1964. This new consortium intended to make satellite communications available to member companies and nations.
Some of the most recent satellites sent up by Intelsat allow for some 6250 telephone conversations and two television programs to be carried simultaneously. These international satellites have been used by television networks to send news and documentary in formation from all over the world to the networks' headquarters in New York. Shortly after the close of the Vietnam war, one television network used satellites to bring the latest news about the war and its aftermath to American viewers.
Satellites could be used to link computers connect television stations to the network headquarters with which they are affiliated, and to facilitate long distance telephone conversations.
Source: Satellite Communications Reference Data Handbook (Springfield, National Technical Information Service, 1972) pp. 1-5 to 1-11.
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---------- A Communications satellite can he used for long
distance transmission of television pictures and in formation. (COMSAT.)
the future. The direction that technology, and the economic factors that
control this technology, takes will determine the future of television
and radio.
Below, we will examine some of the new technologies--those that have come along recently and others that are still in the developmental stages--that hold great promise for the nation and the world. We will discuss how cable television and satellites changed the complexion of broadcasting and how other technologies might change the whole media environment in the coming years.
--------------
SATELLITES FOR EDUCATION AND SPECIAL USES
Not all satellites are used by large corporations and governmental agencies. In fact, several groups have been using satellites for educational and amateur purposes. The first satellite intended for amateur radio operators was Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio-I (OSCAR-I), launched on December 12, 1961. Since then, six more amateur satellites have been launched. Some 100 amateur radio stations in sixteen countries have used the OSCAR satellites for communications. The satellites cost about $100,000 each and the ground equipment can be acquired for about $1000. In the Pacific basin, PEACESAT makes it possible to exchange medical information, agricultural data, and news among the many islands between Hawaii and New Zealand. The project was initiated by the University of Hawaii and the Wellington Polytechnic Institute in New Zealand. The ground stations for this satellite system have been built for prices ranging between $5000 and $25,000, using readily available components. They use a satellite sent up by the United States on a no cost basis.
These two examples show that satellites may be constructed and used at a relatively low cost and that they provide great promise for the application of satellites in educational uses.
Source: "Communications Satellites: Now You Can Have Them Too," Ac cess 33 ( May 3, 1976), pp. 6, 7.
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CABLE TELEVISION
Early Development of Cable Television
The first of the new technologies, perhaps one of the most promising, is cable television. While broadcast television can provide only a limited number of television signals in a market, cable television has the capacity to deliver up to one hundred television signals to a home receiver. This abundance could provide channels catering to such diverse areas as education, sports, old movies, and business.
The first cable systems were not so ambitious in their intentions, they only hoped to deliver signals from television stations to remote areas not served by regular television stations. These young cable systems grew because the FCC was not able to authorize television stations to every community that desired them. Some of the early systems only picked up one to four television signals with regular antennas and connected viewers homes with these signals.
Probably the first cable system was located in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania and was started in 1948. 3 About the same time that Mahanoy City got its cable system--then called community antenna television (CAT) systems-other communities in California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania were also building their own systems. The new systems came into being because television could not be picked up from the air locally: Mahanoy City, for instance, was surrounded by mountains that blocked the signals.
The Mahanoy City system was started by an employee of the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company who was involved with a local appliance store that sold television sets. The new system, constructed to encourage demand for television sets, was built by placing television antennas on a nearby mountain to pick up signals from Philadelphia. To get the signal from the mountaintop to subscriber homes, the new operator strung wires from tree to tree down the mountain. By June of 1948 the operator had 727 subscribers. Most of the early systems were started in much the same way by local residents who wanted to encourage sale of televisions. These systems became known as "Mom and Pop" operations because of their local nature and small size. By the end of the television freeze in 1952, there were more than seventy cable systems and more than 14,000 subscribers. Because all cable systems served small and medium sized towns that did not have access to broadcast television signals, no one seemed too concerned about the newly developing industry. The federal government refused to regulate it and large industry did not invest in cable because it did not think it could make sufficient profits, but things would change.
Cable Becomes Competitive. In 1962, the complexion of the cable industry changed dramatically when Mission Cable was build in San Diego, California. 6 This was the first time a cable operator had dared to enter a city that had extensive television service. Many questions were raised about cable television's competition with broadcasting and the ability of a cable system to raise enough money to construct as large a system as would be needed in San Diego. San Diego became a test city for determining if cable could effectively compete with existing television stations.
Residents, who could already receive four television signals, were being asked by Mission Cable to subscribe to its service and receive television pictures from a cable rather than out of the air. It was apparent to the management of Mission Cable that the cable would have to offer more than signals from the four local stations if the company was to survive. When Mission Cable was fully operational it provided the following services to residents of San Diego: signals from the four local stations, local programming from three network stations in Los Angeles, programming from the independent television stations in Los Angeles, and programming originated by the cable company. This assured subscribers that they would receive everything that residents of Los Angeles had, in addition to local programming. The new offerings were sufficient to at tract subscribers, and by late 1975 Mission Cable had about 113,000 making it the largest single cable system in the United States.
-------------- Coaxial cable has become an important part of
the telephone, television, and cable television industries in the United
States. (Culver Pictures.)
As one might expect, broadcasters were not happy with the new developments in cable television and they petitioned the FCC to write restrictive rules that would hamper its growth. The NAB engaged in an advertising campaign to inform the public of the problems with cable television and the dangers of its competition with broadcast television. Broadcasters were clearly fearful that their economic position might be damaged. Although cable has had its problems with broadcasters and others, it has increased its subscriber lists every year. By 1976, cable systems existed in many large cities and over 15 percent of all television homes in the nation were wired for cable. Technical Features of Cable Cable systems today are somewhat more complex than they were in 1950, but they are still comprised of the same basic elements. There is an antenna system to pick up television signals; a headend, or building where the signals are put in a form to be sent to the home; and a distribution system connecting these signals with the homes.
Antenna and Headend. In many cable systems, the antennas are much like those that home owners place on their rooftops. These antennas are usually mounted on a tall tower, which is located on a nearby hill.° By mounting the antennas as high as possible, the cable operator can pick up television stations from great distances. Sometimes the cable operator wants to pick up television stations from greater distances than are possible using nearby antennas. Then an antenna is erected near the distant stations and microwave transmitters are used to send the signals to the cable system headend.
The headend receives the televisions signals and uses complex electronic equipment to amplify and send the television signals into the cable that runs to every subscriber's home. Many cable systems also originate their own programming and have facilities in the headend building for creating television pro grams. These programs range in sophistication from full news shows to instruments that print time and weather information on the television screen.
Besides the television signals, some cable systems also provide signals from nearby FM stations so that people may listen to music through their cable.
Distribution Systems. The television and radio signals that leave the headend on the distribution cable are combined so that one can carry many television and radio signals. Many systems have the capacity to carry twenty or more tele vision signals in addition to radio programming." This cable, which connects the headend with the subscriber television sets, is a coaxial cable. Like electric or telephone wires, cable television wires must be suspended on poles above the ground, or buried. Usually cable companies pay telephone and electric companies rental fee for hanging the cable on poles. This is a 'per pole' charge that is paid each year. Thus, the cable company pays for each pole it uses.
The complex equipment at the headend is usually not strong enough to send signals that will reach all the way to the end of the cable. Special repeater amplifiers are therefore inserted into the cable at intervals to increase the strength of the signal. These amplifiers are capable of amplifying all of the tele vision and radio signals that come from the headend of the cable system.
The final step in the cable system is a short section of coaxial cable that runs from the main cable to the subscriber's home. This final section, called a drop, extends to the room or rooms in which the subscriber has television or radio sets.
New Technical Features
Like other aspects of the electronic media, cable television has developed some new innovations. One is greatly increased channel capacity; present technology can provide up to one hundred channels. All of these channels could be picked up on television sets that have a converter designed to pick up extra channels outside the usual twelve VHF. Although no one hundred channel system exists at present, a forty-two channel system is being used in San Jose, California. Satellites now supplement cable television by providing pay television signals to cable systems that wish to connect with a pay cable network through satellite interconnection. (Pay cable is discussed more fully later in this section.) A pay cable company in, New York, for example, purchases motion pictures and sports programs that are transmitted to a satellite above the United States. The satellite, in turn, transmits the pay programs back to earth where they are received by special ground equipment. The pay programs are then sent to cable television systems, which in turn sell the right to view the pay programs to subscribers.
Since a single satellite covers about one-third of the world, one company using a single satellite can sell its pay television programs to a large number of cable systems. Thus, a single satellite used by a pay cable company can provide television programs to the entire United States as well as other countries in the western hemisphere. One company, Home Box Office (HBO), is already using a satellite to send its pay television programs to subscribing cable companies.
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VIDEO ENVIRONMENT
Homes and living rooms are now being designed with television and the other aspects of the media world in mind. Video cassettes, video disks, and projection television are taken into account in the design of a new home or room. Some carry the media experience to the extreme, with chairs, tables, and lights all arranged in such a way as to take advantage of projection films and television.
It is even possible to purchase for about $25,000 a system that will project an image of a golf course. Just in front of the screen is a place to practice one's golf. When the ball hits the screen, special sensors determine the direction and speed of the ball and project it down the projected golf course to the point where the ball would land. With this new device it is no longer necessary to leave one's home to play golf, with the added advantage of no more lost halls.
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Just as pay television companies use satellites, commercial broadcast net works like CBS and NBC could use satellites to interconnect the stations that carry their programs. At present the commercial networks are not making use of such potential, instead they are interconnecting stations by using cable and microwave equipment owned by telephone companies.
Another possible use of satellites that has only been partially realized is direct broadcasting to homes, schools, and special interest organizations. Home users and others must have receiving antennas outfitted to pick up the satellite signals, but with the specialized equipment every home in the nation could receive signals from a single satellite. Such broadcasting would make the present form of broadcast television networks obsolete and could revolutionize television broadcasting. One possible consequence could be the creation of a few satellite stations that would supply all television in the nation, abolishing the need for local stations.
A technical innovation that has great promise for television communications is the fibers, as discussed earlier. The small strands of glass fibers that use light instead of electricity have the potential of greatly increasing the number of channels of communications available to the cable subscriber. Since one small strand of fiber can carry many more signals that a coaxial cable that is three quarters of an inch thick, fibers can supply the nation's communication needs without taking up much space.
Equally important, fibers can carry all the forms of communications that cables do. One fiber strand can carry television and radio programs, computer data, police and fire information, and picture telephone conversations.
Economics of Cable Television
Cable television came into being because people wanted more programs. As the number of television stations increased, the demand for programs and the sale of television sets increased. Cable merely capitalized upon this demand by extending service to areas lacking adequate television service. Cable, consequently, depended upon the fact that many people had already invested in expensive television receivers. In this sense, broadcast television had already created the market, and cable was a "parasitic" service benefiting from the fact that television stations had induced consumers to purchase costly sets.
The earliest cable systems came into being solely to supplement broadcast television by taking service to areas not reached by many existing stations. But as service expanded, television station owners began demanding that the FCC take some action to protect existing stations. In 1962, the FCC exercised limited jurisdiction over cable, but it was not until 1966 that the FCC expanded its authority to all cable systems. The 1966 ruling required cable systems to carry all local television stations. It also stated that if the cable system brought in a distant signal that duplicated a local station's signal, the cable system could not carry the duplicated program the same day it was carried on the local station. This protected broadcast stations, but it hampered the development of cable systems.
Since these early systems provided only redistribution of existing television signals, they had no advertising revenue. They were supported by monthly subscription fees and an initial connection charge paid by set owners to be connected to the cable system. Both of these sources of revenue still exist, and at present the average subscription fee is about six dollars per month and the connection fee can go as high as one hundred dollars with the average being approximately twenty dollars.
More recently, cable systems have sold advertising to increase revenues.
They have sold time on a channel used to carry local programming. At least 200 systems accept advertising and they charge from $5 to $200 per minute." For 1975 this advertising revenue amounted to about $3.1 million. This is only a small amount when compared to commercial television advertising revenues amounting to several billion dollars per year, but the amount of advertising revenue available to cable television has been increasing.
Another source of support for cable television is pay cable. These pay channels require the subscriber to pay a fee for watching movies and sports events not available on regular television. The programs are shown, as in a theater, without any commercial interruptions. By 1976 approximately 100 cable systems had some form of pay cable with about 273,000 subscribers. Home Box Office, (HBO) was the first company to offer a national pay cable service, commencing its operation on September 30, 1975.
The Promise of Cable
Cable television has subscribers in cities with and without broadcast television.
It became successful primarily because it promised two things to subscribers: better quality pictures and more programs from which to choose. Broadcast television has often been bothered by "ghosts" or double pictures on the screen, by poor color, and by pictures that roll. Cable television eliminates all of these technical problems and sends the viewer a distortion-free picture.
Although cable television can offer many channels, the average is about ten. Most present systems are capable of offering three national commercial networks, the public television network, and several independent television stations. Recent innovations in cable have shown that it can fill many needs besides relaying television station signals to the home. Some other uses of cable include local origination channels that offer some or all of the following services: time and weather dials that are continuously read by a television camera; news channels that print the latest news on the screen; local live channels providing news, entertainment, sports, and public affairs; and access channels. The last category, access channels, differs from other services offered by cable facilities in that it is programming generated by the public, by government, and by education and is carried on separate channels. The FCC has defined four classes of access channels: public access channels intended for any private citizen who has something to say; government access channels intended for use by local governmental bodies for informing the public about what is happening in government; education access for educational and instructional purposes; and paid access channels that may be used by anyone who wishes to pay for special time to carry programs of his or her choosing.
Current FCC rules require that cable systems operating with more than 3500 subscribers must provide channel capacity for the four classes of access.
To fulfill the requirements of the rule, cable systems constructed after 1972 must include at least one extra channel specially designated for access programming. When the cable system was built before 1972, the year the regulation was written, the cable owner need not add extra channels to fulfill the access requirements. The old systems are permitted to accommodate access programming on cable channels that also carry network programming.
When a cable system provides time for access use it may not censor the content of the program unless it violates some law. In addition, FCC rules and regulations (§76.251) say that users of free access channels may not advertise any product or service. Neither may they use the channels to promote a lottery or to air any obscene or indecent material. The same rules apply to the leased channels, except that they may advertise.
In some cable systems these four classifications of access are combined on one channel, while others allocate three or more different channels. Amherst Cablevision outside Buffalo, New York provides all three of the access channels, but it goes a step farther by actually covering town meetings in their entirety on its government access channel.
The foregoing services are one-way programs, that is, the cable operator sends television pictures to the viewer's home, but there is no opportunity for the viewer to respond to the cable system or to others on the cable. Some systems are experimenting with different uses of two-way cables. In fact, the FCC requires that all new cable systems have the capacity to handle two-way programs. If two-way television is ever fully utilized, cable systems will be providing many non-broadcast services. With some conversion equipment to send signals back to the headend of the cable system or to any other point, the subscriber could request anything desired. Students at home could contact their library and have information shown to them over a special cable channel. Stores could use a cable channel to record credit card purchases and get bank clearance or they could provide electronic catalogue services to the home. Individuals might confirm doctor and dentist appointments through a two-way system.
Indeed virtually everything in the worlds of business and education could be done by cable, but while the promise is there, the reality seems far away.
Cablecasters, like their counterparts in broadcasting, have been far more preoccupied with acquiring new subscribers to improve their profits than they have been with developing new and better services for their viewers.
However, some of these services could be sold to generate additional income for the cable system. For example, the subscriber could be charged for the conversion equipment connected to the home television set; physicians and dentists could be charged a rental for connecting their appointment service to the cable system. Of course, before all of these new services can be offered by the cable systems, the systems must increase the number of channels they carry so that the new services will not interfere with the broadcast signals they are already providing.
Pay Cable
By 1972 cable television was providing pay cable. For the most part the early years of cable television were dominated by the passive reception of a television signal from a station at some distance and the relaying of the picture to the viewer's home, but pay cable began to change cable's role to that of an active producer of television. Interestingly, the first experiments with pay television were done with broadcast television. However, the broadcast experiments were not nearly so successful as the later cable tests. HBO was one of the first companies to offer subscription movies and sports when it began operation in 1972.But how does pay cable work? Subscribers to a cable system have the option of adding the pay cable channel for an extra fee. The extra channel, when it is offered, is carried on the same cable as the basic service channels, but the cable operator makes it impossible for a home television set to pick up the picture un less the owner pays for the service. There are three ways that a cable system can prevent unauthorized people from receiving the signal. One method is to place the pay program on a channel that is outside the twelve VHF and seventy UHF channels a television set is capable of receiving. But this method is not very secure because it is possible to purchase special converters that will tune in the pay channel; therefore, many cable systems have gone to a line trap or a scrambler.
The line trap is a small device placed in the cable drop that goes from the main cable to the subscriber's home and prevents the pay channel from passing down the cable to the subscriber's set. When a cable system uses a scrambler, it mixes up the television picture at the headend and sends this mixed up signal to the subscriber. In those homes where the subscriber pays the extra fee, a descrambler is provided so that the subscriber may see a clear picture.
The rental that a pay cable subscriber must pay may be either a flat monthly charge that covers all viewing or it may be a per use charge covering only the programs a subscriber chooses to watch. Pay cable has been able to attract viewers because it offers first run motion pictures and sports not carried on commercial television and there are no advertising interruptions.
It is apparent from the foregoing discussion that the pay channel complements commercial television. However, commercial broadcasters oppose pay channels because they fear that they will syphon off all of the desirable sports shows and movies before the commercial operators have an opportunity to use them. Many broadcasters feel that pay cable will acquire leases on the best movies before the networks have an opportunity to show them, and others believe that within a few years pay cable may well have more money to spend on program material than the networks. The fears that broadcasters have expressed appear unfounded since one of the criticisms of broadcasting has been that it is unable to carry all of the programming the public demands. Consequently, with pay channel there should be enough programming for every body. Pay channels are appearing all across the nation as is evidenced by HBO service to communities in the Northeast, the South, and the West. Optical Systems, another pay cable operator, serves California cable systems, and other companies provide pay television in states such as Ohio, Texas, and Florida.
Extra service for the subscriber and added income for the cable operator have made subscription television a success and trebled income of organizations like HBO in the first eight months of 1974. This success led HBO to announce a plan in 1975 to establish a national pay television network using the two ground connections it already had and satellites to send programs to all parts of the nation. The new system could provide programs to cable systems in at least twenty-one states including California, New York, Oregon, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania, and has about one million potential subscribers. Although the present system can provide signals to only twenty-one states because there are only a limited number of ground stations for picking up the signal from the satellite link, the satellite beams television signals to all parts of the nation. Undoubtedly, when HBO finds sufficient additional cable systems willing to subscribe, other ground stations will be constructed or leased to receive the pay programming.
If HBO's system, which was implemented on September 30,1975, is successful, other pay cable networks will surely be formed in the years ahead and commercial networks will find themselves competing with subscription networks that have no commercials or station breaks. Until 1977, FCC regulations made it somewhat difficult for pay television services to acquire all of the programming they might want because the regulations permitted the pay operator to show only movies that were made less than three or more than ten years ago. Although the rule benefited broadcasters, during 1976 and 1977 the FCC began softening it. However, just as the FCC thought it had a solution, an appeal to the courts went against the FCC. The court said that the FCC had not shown any need for pay cable rules. The effect of the decision was to abolish all pay cable rules. As with other decisions, the FCC is currently appealing the court's ruling.
In addition, the FCC restricts the sports events a pay cable service may provide. In the cast of recurring events like the Olympic games, the cable system may not carry the event if it has been carried over broadcast television during any season in the past five years. If a sport like baseball is carried over broadcast television, the amount of commercial coverage given the game is used to reduce the amount of coverage a pay cable operator may devote to the game.
In January 1976, the staff of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce in the House of Representatives released its highly critical study of the FCC's method of regulating cable television. The report suggested that Congress pass laws to force the FCC to take a new approach to cable regulation.
It further said that the FCC had made a mistake in regulating television, which led to a less than satisfactory regulatory scheme for cable. The FCC re lied too heavily on "one-way, mass message, and supported by advertising" television. The report also noted that the FCC had too often been pressured by the broadcast industry to regulate in favor of broadcasters.
As a result of its findings, the Committee suggested that several principles should guide FCC regulations:
1. Although cable has traditionally been regulated as a supplementary service to broadcast television, it should be regulated in its own right.
2. Cable should be allowed to grow and bring important new services to the communities it services.
3. Cable television should be available in rural parts of the nation. This meant that rural cable legislation should be created to carry cable to rural areas as had been done with rural electricity laws.
4. Limitations should not be imposed upon cable just for the protection of broadcasters.
5. Copyright laws, which did not apply to cable in 1976, should be expanded so that cable operators would pay their share of copyright fees.
6. The government should determine which aspects of cable are interstate in nature and regulate only those elements, leaving to state and local authorities the regulation of all other parts of cable.
7. When possible, matters regarding cable development should be left to marketplace forces and to experimentation.
8. Federal regulation should be permitted only when there is "clear and compelling" evidence that regulation is needed.
THE FUTURE
Technology advances rapidly in the broadcast and cable fields. First television, then cable, color, video disk, and optical fiber were created. But many innovations that were developed some time ago are still not available in any great quantity. For example, effective two-way communication using cable television has been feasible for some time, but is available on only a few systems. The inhibiting factor--the element that slows development--has certainly not been a lack of new inventions or improved technology, but rather economics. Cable television has not developed as far or as rapidly as it might, largely because television broadcasters have felt that their economic position would be damaged by the new medium. This concern of broadcasters led them to urge the FCC to create regulations to inhibit the development of cable television, regulations that were undoubtedly somewhat successful in their intent.
Each technological advance that threatens an entrenched industry must fight an uphill battle before it can be fully utilized. Indeed, it is the friction that arises between new innovations and established business interests that has prevented cable-casting from developing further. The tendency of the FCC to protect entrenched business has not helped the development of new industries either.
Where television, radio, cable, and their allied technologies will go in the future is largely dependent upon the success of the three warring parties: the FCC, established businesses, and the growing new technologies. It is interesting, however, to look at some of the options that may be available to telecommunications users in the future.
FM Pictures
FM radio may well benefit from a new technology that makes use of its ability to carry subcarriers (see Section 1, p. 16). Engineers have found that they can transmit pictures by slow scan facsimile, without overloading the capacity of an FM subcarrier. Facsimile is a process of transmitting still pictures, such as a copy of a page or a still photograph using television scanning techniques. The picture is sent very slowly to conserve on radio frequencies. Although the process is slow--it takes about a minute to build up a picture--this FM facsimile process has great promise. FM stations could send airline schedules, stock market reports, and many other kinds of information to subscribers just as background music services are now sent to subscribing businesses.
-------------- One of the new television gaines is one in which
the golfer sees a course in front of the tee. Sensors pick up the direction
and force of the golf ball as it hits the screen and show the player
where the hall would have gone. (Golf-O-Tron, Inc.)
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Cable. Perhaps the least expansive view of the future is to expect that cable communications will grow from a service to fifteen percent of the nation to a service to nearly all. The major consequence of such a trend would be to make available to all Americans the services presently available to cable subscribers only. This would mean that subscribers could choose among more television programs than are available on broadcast television. It would probably also mean that most Americans would have access to some form of commercial-free pay programming. And, as cable developed, there would be available more and more non-broadcast services.
An important by-product of such growth would be the probable demise of broadcast television stations. Since all or most of the television viewers would be connected to a cable system, there would be no need for television stations to broadcast; in fact, where cable is popular, people have given up their antennas in favor of the cable. Television stations, then, could opt for connecting their signals directly to cable systems or going out of business.
The abundant number of channels available on cable may completely restructure the nature of television programming, just as the advent of television forced a change in the nature of radio programming. Perhaps television programs would become more specialized, with whole channels devoted to the interests of the young or the old. Undoubtedly, the abundance of television channels would provide a much greater outlet for individual producers, educators, and government officials.
Satellites. A fully developed satellite system could provide the nation with a different set of options. Large libraries could be set up in several parts of the nation with extensive files of films, video tapes, slides, and audio tapes. From these vast resources, a satellite might beam instructional programming into schools throughout the United States, so that students even in remote areas could have access to the finest historical, scientific, and artistic materials. Also, important lectures, debates, and political events could be made available live to schools for enrichment purposes. Satellites could give rise to a national system of education.
In the same way, a satellite system could bring all Americans important cultural and political events as they are happening. One could see concerts, dramas, speeches, and even fairs readily on special channels allocated to cultural and informational programming. These special events would not interfere with entertainment broadcasting because of the abundance of channels.
Of course, the present networks could beam their programming to all Americans by connecting to a satellite. This beam would bypass local stations, and networks would become, in effect, super-stations. Such super-station net works would probably lead to the demise, or at least the massive reorganization, of local stations.
Fibers. The advantages of fibers result from combining them with other technologies. The capacity of fibers to carry information is so great that they can simultaneously serve television broadcasting and many other forms of media.
While fibers may be cheaper than wire communication, converting from wires to fibers will require a tremendous investment.
A gigantic network of fibers connecting homes, governmental institutions, and businesses could be created. The present telephone system is such a net work, but fibers greatly increase the amount of information that could flow from point to point. A fiber system could send entertainment and informational programming to homes, in addition to non-broadcast services like picture telephones and computer interconnections.
Because of the giant capacity of a fiber network, people could transact all of their business from home. Thus, business people could transact business from home, indeed, meetings could be set up with all participants sitting at individual consoles. Every conceivable service that could be offered by traditional cable systems could be provide by a fiber system. With a fiber system, one could communicate with computers, friends, and neighbors; fibers could be our telephone system, our cable system, our radio service, our political forum, and our place of business. The need to travel from place to place by automobile, train, or plane would be reduced. Perhaps such a national fiber system could help cope with the energy problems that arise from the vast consumption of oil used in transporting people from place to place.
The communications satellite fits into this scheme by providing connections across great distances where it is impossible or difficult to use ground links. For example, a satellite could interconnect an American fiber system with a European system by relaying information across the Atlantic. In a similar way, satellites could be used to serve other parts of the world that are separated by oceans or large empty deserts.
But there are some real problems that need to be resolved before such a massive new system is constructed. For example, who would own the fiber net work: the government, a quasi-governmental institution composed of government and private industry, a large private corporation, or the telephone companies that now exist? Would the company(ies) that owned the fiber system provide all of the services themselves or would they rent out portions of the fiber system to cable companies, television networks, and local telephone companies? For individual citizens an even greater question is raised: that of privacy.
What methods would be established to protect one's privacy when using the fiber system? Without strict new laws fiber-tapping could reveal much confidential information about a person's life.
Although the precise form of future electronic communication is unclear, it seems reasonable to say that many more channels of entertainment and in- formation will be available to most Americans. Entrenched business interests will continue to try to protect the present form of telecommunications in the interest of their profit and loss picture. At present, television is fighting the cable interests that threaten television broadcast stations; during the 1950s, radio opposed the advance of television. But while entrenched business interests will always fight to protect the status quo, the development of telecommunications to date indicates that some form of new technology will undoubtedly emerge.
How the new technologies are developed may well be dependent upon the alignment of powerful economic forces. The newspaper industry gave up its fight with the new technology of radio largely because many newspapers owned radio stations and were unwilling to enforce the news embargo against their own stations. In many cases the entrenched economic powers of newspapers became the new economic power of radio. Radio networks became the owners of new television networks and many radio stations were the owners of early television stations.
Meanwhile, the powerful networks were showing no real interest in FM radio and, consequently, a long time elapsed before FM was to achieve a sound economic position. Of course, many AM and television stations now own FM stations, therefore the economic interests of the older media are the same as that of FM. A similar situation is occurring in cable television, with many broadcasters holding interests in cable systems. Although the FCC discourages such cross ownership, it does exist and will undoubtedly aid cable in future developments.
As in the past, it seems likely that powerful economic interests will at first oppose the use of new technologies, and then will invest in them. With new in vestments will come the desire to fully develop the potential of the new medium, and the earlier resistance will give way. What is not certain is which of the new technologies will be the first to attract the attention of large media investors and thus be developed most rapidly.
NOTES
1. Les Brown, "TV's Use of Fiber Transmission Begins," New York Times (July 9, 1976), pp. A-1, A-12.
2. Cable Television in New York ( Albany: New York Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officers, no date), p.4.
3. Staff Report, Subcommittee on Communications, U. S. House of Representatives, Cable Television: Promise versus Regulatory Performance (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976), p.9. Although there is not universal agreement on the location and the date of the first cable system, the Mahanoy City case appears to be the first.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., p. 11.
6. Sloan Commission on Cable Communications, On the Cable: The Television of Abundance (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971), p. 24.
7. Cable Sourcebook 1976 (Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, 1976), pp. 5, 40.
8. Staff Report, op. cit., p. 17.
9. Technology of Cable Television (Washington, D.C.: Cable Television Information Center, 1972), pp. 8, 12.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 9.
12. Ibid., p. 10.
13. Technology of Cable Television, op. cit., p. 4.
14. Ibid.
15. Staff Report, op. cit., pp. 1-12.
16. Information Bulletin #18: Cable Television (Washington, D.C.: FCC, February 1976), p. 2.
17. Ibid., p. 1.
18. Ibid.
19. Cable Sourcebook 1976, op. cit., p. 5.
20. Ibid.
21. Information Bulletin #/8, op. cit., p. 1.
22. Cable Data (Washington, D.C.: Cable Television Information Center, 1972), pp. 5-12.
23. Ibid., pp. 12, 13.
24. Cable Sourcebook 1974 (Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, 1974), P. 5.
25. See the Sloan Commission study for an analysis of program types that could be carried on cable television.
26. "Pay Cable's Horizons Expand even Farther, "Broadcasting ( June 2, 1975), pp. 25, 26.
27. Cable Sourcebook 1976, op. cit., p. 5.
28. Cable Television: Promise versus Regulatory Performance (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976).