Chris Dowling Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 Hey guys, Recently got back from a holiday in Hawaii and noticed that no house had a TV antenna on it, i also noticed cable location marks on the ground with "TV" spray painted next to it in some locations. I was just curious as to how people got television here? I was thinking maybe everyone has Cable TV? Anyone know how it works over there? Another thing i noticed in the hotel we stayed at, they had a thing called Lodgenet, Never seen anything like it before, cable tv, normal digital, controllable via iPhone android device, it was rather good, considering the remote control was p[laying up constantly, i simply installed the lodgenet app and could change stations from there! This seems to be mainly a commercial setup for health services and hotels from what i have read. Looks good though!
alanh Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 Chris When NTSC transmissions were used cable TV became very popular. This is because the hue errors were much less than using an indoor antenna. In NTSC any ghost image is a different colour. Cable TV have been a major method of "broadcasting" which gave more choice and better programming. The situation is changing since ATSC digital TV because subscriptions are expensive and HD is available free to air. Our DVB-T is better ATSC and in Australia has a tradition of having outside TV antennas. This also occurs in Europe as well. Remember that EU has a population of over 500 million and the USA is only 300 million approximately. The iphone remote control probably is part of the billing system for pay TV provided in the hotel management system. AlanH
DrP Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 (edited) Yes indeed. The situation is changing but not quite as alanh would have you believe. In 2008 12% received free-to-air programming over-the-air ie digital (ATSC); 11% in 2009; 9% in 2010 and 5% in 2011. Cable is the (increasingly) predominant method of delivery. These figures are provided by Neilsen. Edited October 4, 2012 by DrP
MLXXX Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 I note too that in the United States there has been an increase in takeup of subscriptions for internet TV particularly for households run by a younger demographic, as discussed in this article: http://techcrunch.co...ng-on-the-rise/ As stated in the article: The vast majority of TV households (90.4%) still pay for a TV subscription...
Guest Malich Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 All that, and the fact that "cable TV became very popular ... because the hue errors were much less than using an indoor antenna" is pure AlanH rubbish. Even a cursory reading of any of the published histories of cable-TV in the USA (the Wikipedia article gives a good overview, or you can go start with something more academic like "Horizontal Integration in the Cable Television Industry: History and Context" & chase the references yourself) shows that it grew out of TV retailers wanting to increase sales by providing major city broadcasts to small towns. They then started to produce their own programming; that, and aggregation & the interest of movie studios & large production houses lead to high quality unique content being available, and the end result is the current situation where 90+% of US households subscribe to pay TV. But the situation in Hawai'i is much simpler - the topography meant much smaller broadcast coverage areas; the small isolated markets between each town & island meant the mainland networks weren't interested (preferring to syndicate content to the small local broadcasters in each town); the growth in tourism and development meant major resorts were built outside the geographically-restricted broadcast coverage areas; and the pay TV providers got interested in the Hawai'ian market. So you end up with the vast majority of Hawai'i being subscribed to pay TV, mostly by cable. (Why little satellite? In the US, that didn't come along until later...)
Chris Dowling Posted October 12, 2012 Author Posted October 12, 2012 Yeah i didnt notice a whole lot of satellite either, a few bigger ones, however these were on bigger commercial buildings from what i could see. I didn't know most of them paid for subscription tv. Its something interesting to know though!
GoForMoe Posted October 12, 2012 Posted October 12, 2012 Apparently it forms part of a lot of leasing agreements - a deal would be made with a cable company for an entire complex in return for all tenants having cable paid as part of their rent. One thing in cable's favour is more flexibility with delays - if you're getting channels off the satellite you're looking at something like 5 hours behind on even the west coast feeds. So if you're wanting to watch things at a reasonable time you're best to have something that's time shifted. Obviously the free to air networks can timeshift, but programming wise you're really limited with just the free channels. It's amazing how much premium cable content ends up on free TV here.
mel816 Posted October 22, 2012 Posted October 22, 2012 Our DVB-T is better ATSC and in Australia has a tradition of having outside TV antennas. This also occurs in Europe as well. Remember that EU has a population of over 500 million and the USA is only 300 million approximately. . AlanH Except for the Netherlands where despite using DVB-T like the rest of Europe, 90+% of households in that country subscribe to cable or satellite TV service, making the Netherland's analogue switch-off back in 2006 a non-event. All that, and the fact that "cable TV became very popular ... because the hue errors were much less than using an indoor antenna" is pure AlanH rubbish. Even a cursory reading of any of the published histories of cable-TV in the USA (the Wikipedia article gives a good overview, or you can go start with something more academic like "Horizontal Integration in the Cable Television Industry: History and Context" & chase the references yourself) shows that it grew out of TV retailers wanting to increase sales by providing major city broadcasts to small towns. They then started to produce their own programming; that, and aggregation & the interest of movie studios & large production houses lead to high quality unique content being available, and the end result is the current situation where 90+% of US households subscribe to pay TV. But the situation in Hawai'i is much simpler - the topography meant much smaller broadcast coverage areas; the small isolated markets between each town & island meant the mainland networks weren't interested (preferring to syndicate content to the small local broadcasters in each town); the growth in tourism and development meant major resorts were built outside the geographically-restricted broadcast coverage areas; and the pay TV providers got interested in the Hawai'ian market. So you end up with the vast majority of Hawai'i being subscribed to pay TV, mostly by cable. (Why little satellite? In the US, that didn't come along until later...) Sattelite TV in North America only became popular from 1994 onwards when DirecTV launched their small satellite dish/DBS service. Before that, satellite TV meant using those big C-band dishes that were impractical for most people to use. Another reason for pay-TV's popularity in the USA is there is less regulation with regard to programming shown on subscription channels compared to FTA networks: pay-TV channels in the USA can show more risqué programs like Nip/Tuck and 6 Feet Under that traditional FTA networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) in the US won't touch.
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