In the past the only way for people to watch a television show was with a pair of Rabbit Ears on top of their set, since then there have been many changes and additions to that path. The first one was CATV or Community Antenna Television, where communities that could not receive over-the-air broadcasts put up a common antenna that able to receive the broadcast signals. And then and using amplifiers and coax cable feeds to the community homes it provided over-the-air TV via cable.

Then in the early mid 60′s the idea of cable only channels sprang up and in 1974 HBO was born, and since then more and more  cable only channels have filled your local cable feed as well as your cable bill. With these cable only channels the cable company was making money selling them to their customers, and started dropping the unprofitable local over-the-air broadcast channels. The FCC imposed “Must Carry” rules to protect local television stations, insisting that if a station could put a strong enough signal over a city the local cable company must carry it on their system. This rule was struck down several times by the courts until 1997 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Must Carry.

Cable started with just 12 to 24 channels but has grown to several hundred channels on some systems. Currently almost all cable systems are phasing out analog channel in favor of all digital. They can fit 3 or more digital channels in the space of one analog. But this also means compression, coax cable has a finite bandwidth and if they want two or three hundred channels on one coax something has to get compressed. They are doing better with F/O feeds to neighborhood nodes where its converted to RF and then sent into the home but they keep adding things and services onto their feed like high speed internet and such.

Of course DBS or Direct Broadcast Satellite came a few years later. With cable all the cost was in putting in coax cable all over a city or region, the DBS guys spent all their money on satellites. Satellite works well but to compete with cable they had to offer much the same programing and that means compression. They have a limited bandwidth and can only get so many program streams into it.

The real irony is that most cable companies charge for HD programing, even if it’s local television stations. And most viewers still watch prime time network shows that they can watch for free off the air. If only they would put up an antenna. My Tivo has both cable and Antenna inputs which I use.

Now with the proliferation of broadband to the home people are streaming video to watch. The first iteration of this was IPTV, where dedicated data lines to the home allowed families to watch streaming video. This never became very popular as those dedicated lines cost a lot to put in back then.

Now people use Netflix, Hulu and others to get the shows they want to watch over the internet and they are not stuck sitting around the computer monitor anymore. My sister set up a Netflix account and was watching movies on her Mac Book, she told me of going to a store and getting a cable to connect her Mac Book to her TV. It was awkward but it worked for her. When she told me about this arrangement I told her to get an Apple TV.  It’s the size of a hockey puck and only has four connections; AC in, HDMI out, Optical audio out and a network connector. It streams from Netflix and others but best of all it will play music and movies from you iTunes library ( I have over 900 movies in mine).

But there are others out there like Roku and Boxee, both are considered OTT or Over the Top boxes (as is Apple TV) that allow for wide bandwidth video streaming over the top of your normal internet data. AT&T’s U-verse is not quite the same as they are more like the old IPTV. It’s IP video but it all comes from AT&T equipment at the other end of the wires going to your house, not from the wider internet. But that IP video is what allows them to record your shows on their servers for you to play back later, something normal cable does not offer.

It’s rumored that Boxee is going to add an Over-The-Air tuner to a future unit to allow watching local broadcasts.

As I see it one day OTT will replace Over-The-Air broadcasts, but not today. Once Broadband to the home is considered the same as electricity and water then it could happen. But right now it fill a huge need for the public to receive free information, news and entertainment. It also keeps the other pay for programing companies in check as they know the public can get free TV.

And thats what the Cord Cutters are doing, either cutting off cable completely or reducing the amount of paid programing (HBO, Showtime, …) and putting up an antenna and streaming OTT programing. With my TIVO and Apple TV I am a happy camper, I get my extend basic cable, free over the air local broadcasts and get the rest from my Apple TV.

I should also mention that by putting up an antenna you also receive all the channels the your local television stations broadcast, cable only gives you what they want. In many places around the country an antenna gets you 50 or more channels to watch.

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