In what year did cable television first become available in the United States?
Answer1948
Early cable systems were built to bring TV signals to areas with poor over-the-air reception.
Source: Wikipedia (2025) en.wikipedia.org
Film & TV · Facts & sources
Channel facts & stats
4 sourced facts about TV channels and cable television, each with the context behind the number. 4 more are in today's round and appear here after it closes.
The basics
Going deeper
What did a monthly cable TV subscription cost when the service launched in 1948?
Answerabout $3 a month
There was also a one-time setup fee of about $125 to get connected in cable's earliest days.
Source: Wikipedia (2025) en.wikipedia.org
At its peak in the year 2000, about how many U.S. households subscribed to cable TV?
Answerabout 68.5 million
That was the high point before cord-cutting and streaming began pulling subscribers away in later years.
Source: Wikipedia (2025) en.wikipedia.org
Expert level
Starting in 1976, the FCC required new cable systems to offer a minimum of how many channels?
Answer20 channels
That minimum looks tiny compared to the hundreds of channels many cable packages later offered.
Source: Wikipedia (2025) en.wikipedia.org
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