I always assumed that CATV was an acronym for “CAble Television” – alas, the Nico was mistaken (I know, go figure) CATV originally was “community antenna television” which later became “Community Access Television” and now it is often just associated with Cable TV.
Take a glimpse into broadcast history – this all sounds like streaming media to me:
Franklin, Curt. “How Cable Television Works.” 13 September 2000. HowStuffWorks.com 14 October 2008.Another benefit that came from the move to fiber-optic cable was greater customization. Since a single fiber-optic cable might serve 500 households, it became possible to target individual neighborhoods for messages and services. In the 1990s, cable providers found this same neighborhood grouping to be ideal for creating a local-area network and providing Internet access through cable modems.
In 1989, General Instruments demonstrated that it was possible to convert an analog cable signal to digital and transmit it in a standard 6-MHz television channel. Using MPEG compression, CATV systems installed today can transmit up to 10 channels of video in the 6-MHz bandwidth of a single analog channel. When combined with a 550-MHz overall bandwidth, this allows the possibility of nearly 1,000 channels of video on a system. In addition, digital technology allows for error correction to ensure the quality of the received signal.
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–> The move to digital technology also changed the quality of one of cable television’s most visible features: the scrambled channel.
If you would like more on the origin of “CATV” – go here: Franklin, Curt. “How Cable Television Works.” 13 September 2000. HowStuffWorks.com 14 October 2008.