Considering the fact that in the late 1990s many experts view existing television cables as the technological groundwork for what may be the most important and far reaching media innovations since the printing press, the origins of cable television are quite humble. In the early 1950s millions of Americans were beginning to regularly tune in their television sets. However, a large number of Americans in rural areas were not able to get any reception. Just as these folks wanted TV, so too did television companies want them, for the more people that watched, the more money the networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and their advertisers made. Hence, the advent of community antennae television (CATV), commonly known as "cable TV," a system in which television station signals are picked up by elevated antennas and delivered by cables to home receivers. By the late 1990s the majority of...