Cable vs. Satellite

In the early days, someone probably denounced cable by saying, “Television is like water, and no one will ever pay for something they can get for free.” Still, people subscribed. Cable provided a tremendous service for those who couldn't receive signals by local affiliates. It rapidly became part of the television landscape. Fifty years later, the television world is littered with cable conglomerates that now compete with satellite companies by offering hundreds of digital channels and consumer-friendly interactive services. With one click of a button, we can connect to anyone in almost any part of the world whenever you want to or for whatever reason you choose. To simply call anyone, order anything off the internet or even chat with someone hundreds or millions of miles away. We can see news in different parts of the world with media programming; even the telephone has come a long way from the days of the switchboard. With today’s advanced technology consumers can choose from cable television services or satellite television depending on what services they are seeking.

In 1949, entrepreneurs using simple antennas and Army-surplus coaxial cable created the country’s first cable television system and revolutionized the way Americans watched TV. More than fifty years later, Time Warner Cable, as the 2nd largest multiple service provider, owns and manages advanced, well-clustered cable systems in the United States. Today, Time Warner Cable offers cutting edge digital technology, a rich range of home entertainment and information choices for the whole family to enjoy, and superior service that demonstrates customer satisfaction is our number one priority. Time Warner Cable has a long history of leadership within the industry and has led the way in technical innovation through the use of fiber optics to improve and expand our cable products and services. In 1994, Time Warner Cable became the first cable company to be honored with an Emmy Award by winning the Engineering Award for Outstanding Achievement in Technological Development. This recognized our pioneering work in using fiber optics to transmit broadband signals, a development that helped enable the convergence of the cable television, computer and telephone industries. In addition, the company has earned two more Emmy Awards for Video on Demand and Start Over. By 2001, Time Warner Cable completed a nationwide system upgrade to create a hybrid fiber coaxial cable network, resulting in the development of new, exciting services including Digital Cable, Video on Demand, Digital Video Recorder, High Definition Television (HDTV), High Speed Online access via cable modem, Digital Phone, Start Over, Quick Clips, Active Advertising and more. In 2002, Time Warner Cable launched Video on Demand, allowing customers to order movies and other programming instantly and to control the program with features like rewind, fast-forward, pause and stop. Through Road Runner and other ISP providers, Time Warner Cable has more than 9.4 million residential High-Speed Data customers. We also offer a Wireless Home Networking service, which gives all computers in a home access to a single high-speed cable modem. (http://www.timewarnercable.com/Corporate/about/highlights). For its first 20 years, Time Warner Cable was controlled by Time Warner. However, despite being headquartered in the same building as Time Warner, Time Warner Cable is no longer affiliated with Time Warner, having been spun out to shareholders in March 2009. Prior to the spin-out, Time Warner had held an 84 percent stake in Time Warner Cable. Non-Time Warner shareholders received 0.083670 shares for each share already owned. This move made Time Warner Cable the largest cable operator in the United States owned solely by a single class of shareholders (http://www.cbsnews.com).

Time Warner Cable’s largest competitor is DirecTV and Dish Network. DirecTV was launched in 1994 and transmits digital satellite television and...