The Faltering Development of Cable Television in Britain

Abstract

This paper summarizes the development of cable systems and cable policy in Britain from the 1920s into the late 1980s. It links the course of cable system development to four general types of factors: (1) the strength of organized interests in support of and in opposition to cable; (2) the pragmatic ability of a new service such as cable to meet reasonably the expectations of major actors; (3) supports and constraints within the legal-institutional framework, including the nature of cable policy itself; and (4) the role of both positive and negative symbols surrounding this particular innovation. The case suggests ways in which the faltering development of cable television in Britain reflects the unique historical circumstances of cable and broadcasting in this nation. But since the same forces may be at work in other national settings, this typology of factors and, particularly, the role of symbolic politics is offered as a framework for comparative inquiry.