He created the service in order to improve the availability of television stations to those with poor reception due to tall mountains and buildings.
[6] The launch of communications satellites, such as Satcom I, enabled broadcasters to send out their programming nationally for hundreds of dollars per hour rather than costlier telephone lines[7] and microwave relay systems.
[8] This development spurred the launched of prominent services intended for distribution by cable systems, such as HBO and fledgling Atlanta-based superstation WTCG.
[12] On November 16, 1983, the first DBS service, with 50 customers paying $39.95 a month for five channels in the Indianapolis, Indiana area, was launched by United Satellite Communications Inc. (USCI), a joint venture of Prudential Insurance, General Instrument and investors that included Francesco Galesi.
USCI's inability to get channels such as CNN, along with a monthly cost of at least $24.95, in addition to the $400 to $700 for the receiver needed to pick up a still-weak signal, kept the numbers low.
Satellite television offered more channels than cable did at the time due to limited headend capacity, although broadcast networks were not allowed if their affiliates could be received with an antenna.
Some have cited higher costs due to deregulation of cable television and tied selling practices (which force subscribers to pay monthly for a large bundle of unwanted channels to receive a few desired programs).
[29][30] Over-the-top video on demand services, such as Netflix, have also appealed to changing viewing habits, such as the growth of mobile device usage for media consumption.
[40][41][42] With the mass proliferation of over-the-top subscription services intending to compete with legacy players, analysts have argued that the market is becoming too fragmented, and giving consumers "fatigue" over the sheer number of options.
[43][44] A 2019 Leichtman Research Group study involving 6,715 households showed that 43 percent of vMVPD subscribers changed from a traditional MVPD.
[45] The introduction of ATSC 3.0 broadcasting in the 2020s led to trials of vMVPDs carried via OTA signals; startup company Edge Networks began operating a multichannel service known as Evoca in markets such as Boise, Denver, and Portland, which utilized set-top boxes that aggregated internet-delivered channels with channels delivered via encrypted signals on ATSC 3.0 stations (including offers to bundle other services such as Sling TV on the same boxes).
[46][47][48][49] In 1972, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established basic regulations for cable providers, including franchise and technical standards, and requiring them to register for a certificate of compliance before operation.
It stated that cable systems should reflect the needs of local communities in order to provide "the widest possible diversity of information sources and services".
[53][54][55][56] The Telecommunications Act of 1996 amended Section 602 (13) of the Communications Act of 1934 to define a "Multichannel video programming distributor" (MVPD) as "a person such as, but not limited to, a cable operator, a multichannel multipoint distribution service, a direct broadcast satellite service, or a television receive-only satellite program distributor, who makes available for purchase, by subscribers or customers, multiple channels of video programming", where a channel is defined as a "signaling path provided by a cable television system.
"[2] Certain cable provider-owned regional sports networks worked around the program access rules by deliberately excluding satellites from their distribution path.
[59][61] In 2008, the industry attempted to adopt a middleware standard known as tru2way, which did not require a smart card and would support two-way services delivered directly to devices.
However, tru2way had limited to no consumer adoption; despite most major providers pledging to deploy it by mid-2009, Panasonic only sold compatible televisions in three Comcast test markets before discontinuing them in 2010 in favor of a set-back box.
"[67] Despite support by major firms such as Sony and Google (the latter having recently launched a digital media player platform known as Google TV), AllVid was widely-opposed by the multichannel industry, as well as the Motion Picture Association of America (who argued that copyright infringing media sources could be presented alongside legitimate options in search interfaces).
[73] They instead proposed an industry commitment for television providers with more than 1 million subscribers to develop apps to access their services on major connected devices, using HTML5 standards.
Public Knowledge questioned the proposal, arguing that the provision of the apps and "whether consumers would need a broadband connection to access video programming instead of leveraging their existing pay TV connections" were unclear, and that it "does not allow for many features that consumers want, such as home recording, and it does not allow for true user interface competition.
[70] In 2020, the FCC withdrew the requirement for television providers to specifically support CableCARD, citing changes in the industry and a lack of consumer interest.
[78] A key sticking point is the established standard in case law, that a television provider must control the entire infrastructure used to distribute their channels in order to be classified as a multichannel video programming distributor (which does not take into account the public internet).
[2] Sky Angel, a Christian over-the-top IPTV service which formerly operated as a satellite provider, was faced with multiple carriage disputes over the changes.
In 2009, C-SPAN was pulled only 2 days after it was added, with the network citing contractual issues which prevented Sky Angel from streaming the channel.
[79][80] In 2010, Discovery Communications also pulled its networks from Sky Angel, prompting the provider to file a formal complaint under the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act.
The FCC denied the complaint, but its Media Bureau acknowledged that OVDs did not formally fall under the definition of an MVPD because they did not control a physical transmission path.
Sky Angel was thus ineligible for protections under the program access rules and other relevant laws, but the Media Bureau did open a discussion on whether an OVD could qualify as an MVPD.
By doing so, Aereo argued that its service was a placeshifting solution that rented access to hardware, and thus did not require permission from broadcasters to retransmit their programming.
However, international treaties forbid the establishment of blanket licenses for streaming broadcast television stations over the internet, thus the Copyright Office ruled that this was outside of its scope.
[91] In September 2021, the service shut down after U.S District Court Judge Louis Stanton denied a request by Locast for a summary judgment in a similar lawsuit brought upon by the networks.