An extremely small number of compounds with many foreign residents and/or tourists (for example, five-star hotels in Beijing) will also carry selected channels from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West.
This arrangement ended in 1973 when Rediffusion Television was granted a free-to-air terrestrial broadcast licence by the Hong Kong government.
Fourth channels initially obtained much of their programming from VCR videotapes, which were then played and retransmitted via coaxial cables to connected households with a subscription, and subsequently enjoyed massive growth after the late 1980s when the legalisation of Ku band satellite receptions in 1988 and private installations of C band satellite dishes in 1992 substantially increased the range of available channels.
Fourth channels were also popular among Taiwan's then-nascent opposition political parties, who used this medium to communicate pro-democracy views.
[5] Despite the Taiwanese government's unsuccessful attempts in cracking down on the fourth channels, including a major raid in which 370,000 kg (820,000 lb) of coaxial cables were forcibly removed and destroyed over a four-month period in 1991, the straw that broke the camel's back only occurred when the United States began threatening trade sanctions against Taiwan in retaliation for massive copyright infringement committed by the fourth channels, in part due to the fourth channels' illegal retransmission of satellite signals from domestic and foreign sources, especially those from Hong Kong, Japan and the United States which became possible only when satellite receptions became legal as explained above.
In October 1994, 209 companies took part in a series of competitive tenders which were called as a result of the implementation of the said Cable Television Act.
The Taiwanese government is pushing for a switch to digital cable television services by 2015; this will be provided through a set-top box and will increase the number of available channels.
The figure dropped slightly in the early years of the 21st century due to the increased popularity of satellite reception, notably Sky, but has stabilized recently.
UPC offers analogue and digital cable television services in cities and towns throughout the country (with the exception of Cork, where the network is digital-only).
However, these early cable television channels, which operated as pirate broadcasters in a sense were soon heavily stifled by the Italian government and most were forced to shut down.
[13] Later into the 1980s and into the early 1990s, further channels were added including TV2, TVNorge,[14] NRK2, TV4 (Sweden), BBC TV Europe, Cartoon Network and Fox Kids.
As of August 2024, the largest cable providers are Telenor and Telia Norge, both of which also offer IPTV signals with identical channel availabilities.
[15] Suspended during World War II, the BBC service was re-established in June 1946, and had only one transmitter, at Alexandra Palace, which served the London area.
The areas on the fringes of the transmitter coverage provided an opportunity for Rediffusion and other commercial companies to expand cable systems to enlarge the viewing audience for the one BBC television channel which then existed.
The franchising process proceeded steadily, but the actual construction of new systems was slow, as doubts about an adequate payback from the substantial investment persisted.
[citation needed] There are a small number of other surviving cable television companies in the UK other than Virgin Media including WightFibre (Isle of Wight).
Also, Top Up TV which was launched in 2004 closed on November 1, 2013, because of low take-up, a dwindling offering, and competition from services such as Lovefilm and Netflix.
[citation needed] As the speed and availability of broadband connections increase, more television content can be delivered using protocols such as IPTV.
[citation needed][needs update] Cable television in Romania was introduced in 1991, although some small cable networks were established before 1990, usually amateur made equipment, serving small communities, and receiving about 8-12 foreign channels, but with no translation, and usually at low quality, however, like in other East European countries before 1989, most people were having monochrome sets, therefore, low quality was not very important.
[24] In 1949, Broadcast Relay Service began negotiations for the implementation of what was to be the first large scale cable television system in North America.
Cable television in Canada began in 1952 with community antenna connections in Vancouver and London, Ontario; which city was the first is not clear.
At the same time, the advent of fiber-optic technology enabled companies to extend their systems to nearby towns and villages that by themselves were not viable cable television markets.
There are also new companies using new technologies that are expanding quickly such as Claro TV (IPTV), Wind Telecom (MMDS) and SKY (satellite television).
Foxtel dominates the cable television landscape and was originally rebroadcast by Austar (in rural areas) and Optus TV, until both latter companies respectively ceased operations in 2014 and 2011.
In 2019, Vodafone ceased expanding or promoting the HFC system, choosing to focus on Fiber, though the current service was maintained.
InHomeTV was replaced by VodafoneTV, this was a standard IP streaming service available to anyone in NZ with a broadband internet connection.
The first cable television operator in Chile was Intercom, owned by the newspaper company El Mercurio, and featured four in-house produced channels.
Polish entrepreneur Stanisław Tymiński established a company called TVS (Televisión Selva) that year and was the first cable television system to deliver pay content to homes in Iquitos and in Peru.
Eight years later, in 1990, controversial businessman Genaro Delgado-Parker established Peru's second cable television system in Lima, called Telecable, delivering contents via MMDS only to high-class neighborhoods.
These small companies are grouped through APTC (Asociacion Peruana de Television por Cable) and they count approximately 400 current members.