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| Most of us cannot remember a time when our homes did not have a television – or two. In fact the television was one of the first technologies to become indispensable to the way we live our modern lives. Despite how television has evolved through the years, the programming itself was initially controlled by the TV networks and then eventually by the Cable TV providers. Since the beginning these providers have decided what shows, sitcoms, movies, sports and news were available and when you should watch them. Some advances were made with the advent of the DVR (Glossary: digital video recorder), which gave viewers the ability to record shows and watch them at their leisure. You were still limited by content availability, which was often compounded by the fact that Cable TV seemed to have five-hundred channels with nothing to watch.
Early television was sent to your set via radio waves, as the technology evolved instead of sending radio waves through the air, cable television sent the frequency through a coaxial cable. Until Cable TV came along however, television was “free”; the cost of admission was the commercials. Then Cable TV arrived, instead of commercials, you paid cash to subscribe to the channels and programs you wanted to have – mostly commercial free back then. The limitation to this model is that it puts all the control in the Cable TV provider’s hands. The consumer is still limited by what the Cable Company makes available, and there are no price controls in place to keep them diligent. Since 2004, Cable TV fees have increased exponentially, with the average cable bill nearly tripling. In addition, most Cable and Satellite providers require hardware leases and credit checks just for the pleasure of paying their monthly subscription fees.
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