Drug Stores

Hook's Drug Stores was an Indianapolis, Indiana-based drug store chain which was founded in 1900 by John A. Hook. The chain flourished throughout central Indiana for most of the 20th-century before being acquired by Revco which was in turn acquired by CVS. Many former Hook's locations are now CVS pharmacies.

Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Hook's Apothecary 3 Hook's Oxygen and Medical Equipment 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

A typical Hook's store in New Castle, Indiana in 1974

In October 1900, pharmacist John A. Hook opened the first Hook's Drug Store in an Indianapolis German community at the corner of South East and Prospect Streets. A second location opened at the corner of New Jersey and East Washington Streets and Hook added Edward F. Roesch as a partner.^[1] By 1912, the chain had expanded to twelve stores. Many of Hook's interwar drug stores were designed by Kurt Vonnegut Sr. of Vonnegut & Bohn. Roesch became president of the company in 1943 upon Hook's death. In 1956, following Roesch's death in a traffic accident, John Hook's son, August F. “Bud” Hook, assumed leadership of the company. The chain added 150 new stores between 1946 and 1972.^[2]
In 1985, The Kroger Company outbid Rite Aid, which had attempted a hostile takeover,^[1] and acquired the Hook's chain. Kroger divested itself of Hook's a year later, however, and Hook's became a division of the privately-held Hook’s-SupeRx.^[2]
Hook's-SupeRx acquired the New England-based Brooks Pharmacy chain in 1988.^[3] Hooks-SupeRx stores traded under three different names - Hook's Drug and SupeRx in the Midwest and Brooks Pharmacy in New England. Hook's-SupeRx was acquired by Revco in 1994.^[1] Revco was subsequently acquired by CVS in 1997. Many former Hook's locations are now CVS Pharmacies.
Until 2007, Brooks was the only former Hook's brand which lived on, as a division of the Canadian-based Jean Coutu Group. Rite Aid bought the Brooks chain from Jean Coutu in 2007, and will eliminate the Brooks name.
A restored 19th-century Hook's drug store stands at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and is a popular attraction at the annual Indiana State Fair. It was originally built in 1849 and has been restored with authentic 19th century cabinets.^[4]

[edit] Hook's Apothecary

In 2000, the great-grandchildren of John A. Hook opened Hook's Apothecary in Evansville, Indiana. The store specializes in compounding prescriptions. It has no corporate ties to CVS.

[edit] Hook's Oxygen and Medical Equipment

After Hook's was sold to Revco, the Oxygen and Medical Equipment stores continued under the Hook's name in many of the same locations as before. It is now a subsidiary of Rotech Medical Corporation^[5]

Discount, Variety Stores

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (formerly branded as Wal-Mart, branded as Walmart since 2008) (NYSE: WMT) is an American public multinational corporation that runs a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of warehouse stores. In 2010 it was the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the Forbes Global 2000 for that year.^[6] The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is the largest majority private employer^[7] and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business.^[8] It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America.
Wal-Mart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, with 55 different names.^[9] The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states. It also operates under its own name in Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda ("Asda Wal-Mart" in some branches), in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Wal-Mart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America and China are highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful.

Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Incorporation and growth 1.2 Recent initiatives 1.2.1 Healthy foods initiative 2 Operating divisions 2.1 Wal-Mart Stores U.S. 2.1.1 Walmart Discount Stores 2.1.2 Walmart Supercenter 2.1.3 Neighborhood Market by Walmart 2.1.4 Supermercado de Wal-Mart 2.1.5 Marketside 2.2 Sam's Club 2.3 Wal-Mart International 2.3.1 Wal-Mart Canada Bank 2.4 Private label brands 2.5 Entertainment 3 Corporate affairs 3.1 Financial 3.2 Governance 3.3 Competition 3.4 Customer base 3.5 Economic impact 3.6 Employee and labor relations 3.7 Gender and sexual orientation 4 See also 4.1 Television and film 4.2 Other 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

History

Sam Walton's original Walton's Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas, now serving as the Wal-Mart Visitor's Center

Main article: History of Wal-Mart

Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin and that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas.^[10]
Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding expectations.^[11] However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors.^[12]
On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store located at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antique mall. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales.^[13] In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.^[14]

Incorporation and growth

The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969. In 1970, it opened its home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a market price of $47. By this time, Wal-Mart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; it entered Tennessee in 1973 and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As it moved into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees and total sales of $340.3 million.^[14] Wal-Mart opened its first Texas store in Mount Pleasant on November 11, 1975.^[15]

Logo used from 1992-2008 (2001-2009 in Canada, 1992-2009 in Mexico, although Mexico used the current logo in December 2008). It is still used in Mainland China. Still seen on many American locations, even though a majority of Canadian locations have this logo rather than the 1994-2001 Wal-Mart Canada logo with a hyphen.

In the 1980s, Walmart continued to grow rapidly, and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates.^[14] This year also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment linking all operating units of the company with its Bentonville office via two-way voice and data transmission and one-way video communication. At the time, it was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to track inventory and sales and to instantly communicate to stores.^[16] In 1988, Sam Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass.^[17] Walton remained as Chairman of the Board, and the company also rearranged other people in senior positions.

Inside a Walmart Supercenter in West Plains, Missouri

In 1988, the first Walmart Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri.^[18] Thanks to its superstores, it surpassed Toys "R" Us in toy sales in the late 1990s.^[19] The company also opened overseas stores, entering South America in 1995 with stores in Argentina and Brazil; and Europe in 1999, buying Asda in the UK for $10 billion.^[20]
In 1998, Walmart introduced the "Neighborhood Market" concept with three stores in Arkansas.^[21] By 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled about 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business.^[22]
In 2000, H. Lee Scott became President and CEO, and Walmart's sales increased to $165 billion.^[23] In 2002, it was listed for the first time as America's largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues of $219.8 billion and profits of $6.7 billion. It has remained there every year, except for 2006.^[24][25]
In 2005, Walmart had $312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world—including 3,800 stores in the United States and 2,800 elsewhere, employing more than 1.6 million "associates" worldwide. Its U.S. presence grew so rapidly that only small pockets of the country remained further than 60 miles (100 km) from the nearest Wal-Mart.^[26]
As Walmart grew rapidly into the world's largest corporation, many critics worried about the effect of its stores on local communities, particularly small towns with many "mom and pop" stores. There have been several studies on the economic impact of Walmart on small towns and local businesses, jobs, and taxpayers. In one, Kenneth Stone, a Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Wal-Mart store opening.^[27] However, in another study, he compared the changes to what small town shops had faced in the past — including the development of the railroads, the advent of the Sears Roebuck catalog, as well as the arrival of shopping malls — and concluded that shop owners who adapt to changes in the retail market can thrive after Wal-Mart arrives.^[27] A later study in collaboration with Mississippi State University showed that there are "both positive and negative impacts on existing stores in the area where the new supercenter locates."^[28]
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, Walmart was able to use its logistical efficiency in organizing a rapid response to the disaster, donating $20 million in cash, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals, as well as the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers.^[29] An independent study by Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University found that Walmart, The Home Depot and Lowe's made use of their local knowledge about supply chains, infrastructure, decision makers and other resources to provide emergency supplies and reopen stores well before FEMA began its response.^[30] While the company was overall lauded for its quick response – amidst the criticisms of the Federal Emergency Management Agency – several critics were nonetheless quick to point out that there still remain issues with the company's labor relations.^[31]

Recent initiatives

In October 2005, Wal-Mart announced it would implement several environmental measures to increase energy efficiency. The primary goals included spending $500 million a year to increase fuel efficiency in Wal-Mart’s truck fleet by 25% over three years and double it within ten, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in seven years, reduce energy use at stores by 30%, and cut solid waste from U.S. stores and Sam’s Clubs by 25% in three years. CEO Lee Scott said that Wal-Mart's goal was to be a "good steward for the environment" and ultimately use only renewable energy sources and produce zero waste.^[32] The company also designed three new experimental stores in McKinney, Texas, Aurora, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada. with wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, biofuel-capable boilers, water-cooled refrigerators, and xeriscape gardens.^[33] Despite much criticism of its environmental record, Wal-Mart took a few steps in what is viewed as a positive direction, which included becoming the biggest seller of organic milk and the biggest buyer of organic cotton in the world, as well as reducing packaging and energy costs.^[34] Wal-Mart also spent nearly a year working with outside consultants to discover the company's total environmental impact and find where they could improve. They discovered, for example, that by eliminating excess packaging on their toy line Kid Connection, they could not only save $2.4 million a year in shipping costs but also 3,800 trees and a million barrels of oil.^[34] Walmart has also recently created its own electric company in Texas, Texas Retail Energy, and plans to supply its stores with cheap power purchased at wholesale prices. Through this new venture, the company expects to save $15 million annually and also lays the groundwork and infrastructure to sell electricity to Texas consumers in the future.^[35]
In March 2006, Walmart sought to appeal to a more affluent demographic. The company launched a new Supercenter concept in Plano, Texas, intended to compete against stores seen as more upscale and appealing, such as Target.^[36][37] The new store has wood floors, wider aisles, a sushi bar, a coffee/sandwich shop with free Wi-Fi Internet access, and more expensive beers, wines, electronics, and other goods. The exterior has a hunter green background behind the Wal-Mart letters, similar to Neighborhood Market by Walmarts, instead of the blue previously used at its supercenters.
On September 12, 2007, Walmart introduced new advertising with the slogan, "Save Money Live Better," replacing the "Always Low Prices, Always" slogan, which it had used for the previous 19 years. Global Insight, which conducted the research that supported the ads, found that Walmart's price level reduction resulted in savings for consumers of $287 billion in 2006, which equated to $957 per person or $2,500 per household (up 7.3% from the 2004 savings estimate of $2,329).^[38]
On June 30, 2008, Walmart unveiled a new company logo, featuring the non-hyphenated name "Walmart" and in place of the star, a symbol that resembles a sunburst or flower. The new logo received mixed reviews from some design critics, who questioned whether the new logo was as bold as competitors, such as the Target bullseye or as instantly recognizable as the former company logo, which was used for 18 years.^[39] The new logo made its debut on the company's walmart.com website on July 1, 2008. Walmart's U.S. locations were to update store logos in the fall of 2008, as part of an ongoing evolution of its overall brand.^[40] Wal-Mart Canada started to adopt the logo for its stores in early 2009.
On March 20, 2009, Wal-Mart announced that it is paying a combined $933.6 million in bonuses to every full and part time hourly worker of the company. An additional $788.8 million in profit sharing, 401(k) contributions, and hundreds of millions of dollars in merchandise discounts and contributions to the employees' stock purchase plan is also included in this plan. While the economy at large was in an ongoing recession, the largest retailer in the U.S. reported solid financial figures for the most recent fiscal year (ending January 31, 2009), with $401.2 billion in net sales, a gain of 7.2% from the prior year. Income from continuing operations increased 3% to $13.3 billion, and earnings per share rose 6% to $3.35.^[41]
On July 16, 2009, Wal-Mart announced plans to develop a worldwide sustainable product index.^[42]
On February 22, 2010, the company confirming it was acquiring video streaming company Vudu, Inc. for an estimated $100 million.^[43]

Healthy foods initiative

In January, 2011, at the urging of Michelle Obama and her staff, Wal-Mart announced a program to improve the nutritional values of its store brands over the next five years, gradually reducing the amount of salt and sugar, and eliminating trans fat. Wal-Mart also promised to negotiate with suppliers such as Kraft with respect to nutritional issues. Reductions in the prices of whole foods and vegetables were also promised as well as efforts to open stores in low-income areas, "food deserts", where there are no supermarkets.^[44]

Operating divisions

See also: List of assets owned by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Wal-Mart's operations are organized into three divisions: Wal-Mart Stores U.S., Sam's Club, and Wal-Mart International.^[45] The company does business in nine different retail formats: supercenters, food and drugs, general merchandise stores, bodegas (small markets), cash and carry stores, membership warehouse clubs, apparel stores, soft discount stores and restaurants.^[45]

A panoramic photo of a remodeled Walmart Supercenter in Laurel, Maryland.

Wal-Mart Stores U.S.

Map of current Wal-Mart stores in the U.S.

Wal-Mart Stores U.S. is Wal-Mart's largest division, accounting for $258 billion, or 63.8% of total sales for financial year 2010.^[45] It consists of three retail formats that have become commonplace in the United States: Discount Stores, Supercenters, and Neighborhood Markets. The retail department stores sell a variety of mostly non-grocery products, though emphasis has now shifted towards supercenters, which include more grocery items. This division also includes Wal-Mart's online retailer, walmart.com.
In September 2006, Wal-Mart announced a pilot program to sell generic drugs at just $4 per prescription. The pilot program was launched at stores in the Tampa, Florida area, and expanded to all stores in Florida by January 2007. While the average price of generics is $29 per prescription, compared to $102 for name-brand drugs, Wal-Mart maintains that it is not selling at a loss, or providing as an act of charity – instead, they are using the same mechanisms of mass distribution that it uses to bring lower prices to other products.^[46] While it's little known outside of the drug industry, many of Walmart’s low cost generics are imported from India and made by drug makers in that country including Ranbaxy and CIPLA.^[47]
On February 6, 2007, the company launched a "beta" version of a movie download service, which sold about 3,000 films and television episodes from all major studios and television networks.^[48] The service was discontinued on December 21, 2007 due to low sales.^[49]

Walmart Discount Stores

A typical Wal-Mart discount department store in Laredo, Texas

Walmart Discount Stores are discount department stores with size varying from 51,000 square feet (4,738.1 m²) to 224,000 square feet (20,810.3 m²), with an average store covering about 102,000 square feet (9,476.1 m²).^[45] They carry general merchandise and a selection of groceries. Many of these stores also have a garden center, a pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, a bank branch, a cell phone store and a fast food outlet. Some also have gasoline stations.^[50]
The first Wal-Mart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962.
In 1990, Wal-Mart opened its first Bud's Discount City location in Bentonville. Bud's operated as a closeout store, much like Big Lots. Many locations were opened to fulfill leases in shopping centers as Wal-Mart stores left and moved into newly built Supercenters. All of the Bud's Discount City stores closed or converted into Wal-Mart Discount Stores by 1997.^[13][51]
As of October 2010, there were 750 Walmart Discount Stores in the United States. In 2006, the busiest in the world was one in Rapid City, South Dakota.^[52]

Walmart Supercenter

A picture of a remodeled Wal-Mart Supercenter in Miami, Florida.

Wal-Mart Supercenters are hypermarkets with size varying from 98,000 to 261,000 square feet (9,104.5 to 24,247.7 m²), with an average of about 197,000 square feet (18,301.9 m²).^[45] These stock everything a Wal-Mart Discount Store does, and also include a full-service supermarket, including meat and poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce, and fresh seafood. Many Wal-Mart Supercenters also have a garden center, pet shop, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous alcove shops, such as cellular phone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, local bank branches (newer locations have Woodforest National Bank branches), and fast food outlets — usually Subway, but sometimes Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's or Blimpie. Some also sell gasoline distributed by Murphy Oil Corporation (whose Wal-Mart stations are branded as "Murphy USA"), Sunoco, Inc. ("Optima"), or Tesoro Corporation ("Mirastar").^[50]
The first Supercenter opened in 1988 in Washington, Missouri. A similar concept, Hypermart USA, opened in Garland, Texas a year earlier. All of the Hypermart USA stores were later closed or converted into Supercenters.
As of October 2010, there were 2,843 Wal-Mart Supercenters in the United States.^[52] The largest Supercenter in the United States, covering 260,000 square feet (24,154.8 m²) and two floors, is located in Crossgates Commons in Albany, New York.^[53]
Since the introduction of the new Wal-Mart logo in 2008, the company has been phasing out the "Supercenter" portion of the name on these stores, simply referring to these stores as "Walmart."

Neighborhood Market by Walmart

Neighborhood Markets by Walmart are grocery stores that average about 42,000 square feet (3,901.9 m²).^[45] They are used to fill the gap between Discount Store and Supercenters, offering a variety of products, which include full lines of groceries, pharmaceuticals, health and beauty aids, photo developing services, and a limited selection of general merchandise.
The first Neighborhood Market opened in 1998 in Bentonville, Arkansas. As of October 2010, there were 181 of them in the United States.^[52]
Neighborhood Market by Walmart now has the same logo as Wal-Mart does. However, this change took place a few months after the new logo was introduced on June 30, 2008.

Supermercado de Wal-Mart

Supermercado de Wal-Mart in Spring Branch, Houston

Wal-Mart opened "Supermercado de Wal-Mart" locations to appeal to Hispanic communities in the United States.^[54] The first one, a 39,000 square feet (3,600 m²) store in the Spring Branch area of Houston, opened on Wednesday April 29, 2009.^[55] The store was a conversion of an existing Wal-Mart.^[56][57] Wal-Mart also planned to open "Mas Club," a warehouse retail operation patterned after Sam's Club.^[58]

Marketside

Main article: Marketside

Marketside is a new chain of grocery stores opened in October 2008, the stores are said to be less than half the size of a conventional supermarket, as stated in the backgrounder found on Wal-Mart's official homepage. As of October 2010, there were four Marketside stores, all within the state of Arizona.^[52] Each of these stores is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

CATV Systems

Cable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or Digital light pulses though fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting (via radio waves) in which a television antenna is required. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephony, and similar non-television services may also be provided. The major difference is the change of radio frequency signals used and optical connections to the subscriber property.
The abbreviation CATV is often used to mean "Cable TV". It originally stood for Community Antenna Television, from cable television's origins in 1948: in areas where over-the-air reception was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large "community antennas" were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. The origins of cable broadcasting are even older as radio programming was distributed by cable in some European cities as far back as 1924.
It is most commonplace in North America, Europe, Australia and East Asia, though it is present in many other countries, mainly in South America and the Middle East. Cable TV has had little success in Africa, as it is not cost-effective to lay cables in sparsely populated areas. So-called "wireless cable" or microwave-based systems are used instead.

Contents [hide] 1 Cable television deployments 1.1 Asia & Australia 1.1.1 Australia 1.1.2 Philippines 1.1.3 Mongolia 1.1.4 Maldives 1.2 Latin America 1.2.1 Panamá 1.2.2 Dominican Republic 1.3 Europe 1.3.1 Ireland 1.3.2 United Kingdom 1.4 North America 1.4.1 Canada 1.4.2 USA 1.4.2.1 Fee structure 2 Other cable-based services 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Cable television deployments

[edit] Asia & Australia

[edit] Australia

Cable television began in the early 1990s in Australia. Several companies appeared including FOXTEL, Galaxy TV, OPTUS TV, Selectv and Austar offering services to homes across the major states of Australia. Services to Tasmania and the Northern Territory took longer to start, not until the mid 2000's when the digital satellite pay television service had picked up momentum and was beginning to be used for metropolitan installs and not just rural installs. As FOXTEL and Austar subscribers continued to rise, Galaxy TV ended their services, while Selectv has become a Greek dedicated Satellite service. OPTUS TV in 2011 will cease their services.

[edit] Philippines

“NUVUE”, the first cable television system, was set up in Baguio City spearheaded by American expatriate Russel Swartley in 1969. Popularity of CATV started in the 1980s after the Marcos administration. Cable giant SkyCable started in 1992. Cable providers have grown, and these some examples are Global Destiny, Cablelink, and some regional cable providers. In 2007, SkyCable introduced the DigiBox, a cable TV set-top box that provides a digital television (DTV) signal for higher video quality and prevents illegal cable TV connections. In 2008, SkyCable also broadcast the 37th Ryder Cup in HDTV. In 2009, SkyCable became the first cable TV service provider in the Philippines to broadcast the UAAP Games in HDTV via the new SkyHD Cable TV service.

[edit] Mongolia

There are several cable TV providers in Mongolia. The main three are "SuperVision", "Hiimori" and "Sansar CATV". All three cover approximately 15 national channels and 40 foreign channels, such as CNN, BBC, and NHK. "Sansar" has biggest network in Ulaanbaatar. SuperVision is the first digital cable television in Mongolia and other CATVs are planning to launch digital cable television with CA systems.

[edit] Maldives

There are only two cable TV operators in the country.^{[citation needed]} As the population of the Maldives is separated across around 200 inhabited islands, there is a cable TV operator for nearly every island. MediaNet Pvt. Ltd. is the country's largest cable TV operator (providing only analog service, although digital service has been announced. MediaNet is a Male-based cable TV operator that provides cable and MMDS service to five islands near Male. MediaNet holds a distribution license for 75 channels and distributes channels to nearly all the operators of the country. In Maldives, cable TV subscribers can get most premium channels available in Asia.
All channels are required to obtain an exhibition license from Department of Information after each channel is classified at National Bureau of Classification (NBC). NBC gives the highest classification for every channel after contents of each channel are examined for a week. Cable TV classification ratings are as follows:

• G - General viewing for all ages.
• PG - Parental Guidance is required.
• 12+ - For viewers aged 12 and above.
• 15+ - For viewers aged 15 and above.
• 18+ - For viewers aged 18 and above.
• 18+R - For viewers aged 18 and above.

Channels with an 18+R classification rating contains content that may affect an individual directly or indirectly. Viewers discretion is advised.

[edit] Latin America

[edit] Panamá

Panamanian company Rexa started Cable TV deployment in 1983. Rexa's successor, Cableonda, was dominant throughout the 1990s, but as the customer base expanded, other companies entered the market. Since 2000 several companies compete for the Panamanian market, such as CTV, Cable Onda, Cablevision, Cable and Wireless, and others. Cable Onda is the largest. The penetration of CableTV in Panamá is at 40%.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Dominican Republic

Cable television in the Dominican Republic is provided by a variety of companies. These companies offer both English and Spanish language television, plus a range of channels in other languages, high definition channels, pay-per-view movies and events, sports packages and premium movie channels such as HBO, Playboy TV, Cinecanal, etc. Also, the channels are from not only the Dominican Republic, but also the United States and Europe. In the Dominican Republic television spectrum, there are 46 VHF, UHF, and free-to-air channels. The free of charge channels programming consists mainly of locally produced entertainment shows, news, and comedy shows; and foreign sit-coms, soap operas, movies, cartoons, and sports programs.
The main service provider in the Dominican Republic is Telecable from Tricom. Aster is concentrated in Santo Domingo, but is expanding its service throughout the Dominican Republic. There are also new companies using new technologies that are expanding quickly such as Claro TV (IPTV), Wind Telecom (MMDS) and SKY (Satellite TV).

[edit] Europe

[edit] Ireland

Main article: Cable Television in Ireland

Cable television is the most common system for distributing multi-channel television in Ireland. With more than 40 year of history and extensive networks of both wired and "wireless" cable, Ireland is amongst the most cabled countries in Europe. Forty percent^[1] of Irish homes received cable television in September 2006. 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.
In the Republic of Ireland, UPC Ireland is by far the largest cable and MMDS operator, owning all of the state's MMDS licenses and almost all of the state's cable TV operators. 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). It offers MMDS services in rural areas. In areas previously served by NTL, the network is digital-only, while Chorus areas still have both analogue and digital services. Other than UPC, the only other operator providing analogue and digital cable is Casey Cablevision, which operates in Dungarvan, County Waterford. There also exists a small number of analogue-only cable networks such as the Longford service Crossan Cable.

[edit] United Kingdom

When the infant BBC Television service was started in 1932, Rediffusion, which had supplied cable radio services since 1928, started providing "Pipe TV" to its customers who had difficulties tuning into the weak TV broadcast signal^[2].
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. From the end of 1949, new transmitters were steadily opened to serve other major conurbations, and then smaller areas of population. 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 first was in Gloucester in 1950^[3] and the process gathered pace over the next few years, especially after a second television channel, ITV, was launched in 1955 to compete with BBC. By the late 1970s, two and a half million British homes received their television service via cable.^[4]
By law, these cable systems were restricted to the relay of the public broadcast channels, which meant that as the transmitter network became more comprehensive, the incentive to subscribe to cable was reduced and they began to lose customers. In 1982, a radical liberalization of the law on cable was proposed by the Information Technology Advisory Panel^[5] , for the sake of promoting a new generation of broadband cable systems leading to the wired society^[6] After setting up and receiving the conclusions of the Hunt Inquiry into Cable Expansion and Broadcasting Policy, the Government decided to proceed with liberalization and two pieces of legislation: the Cable and Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act, were enacted in 1984.
The result was that cable systems were permitted to carry as many new television channels as they liked, as well as providing a telephone service and interactive services of many kinds (as since made familiar by the Internet). To maintain the momentum of the perceived commercial interest in this new investment opportunity, in 1983, the Government itself granted eleven interim franchises for new broadband systems each covering a community of up to around 100,000 homes, but the competitive franchising process was otherwise left to the new regulatory body, the Cable Authority, which took on its powers from January 1, 1985.
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. By the end of 1990 almost 15 million homes had been included in franchised areas, but only 828,000 of these had been passed by broadband cable and only 149,000 were actually subscribing.^[7] Thereafter, however, construction accelerated and take-up steadily improved.
The first new television channels launched for carriage on cable systems (going live in March 1984) were Sky Channel, Screensport, Music Box and TEN - the Movie Channel. Others followed, some were merged or closed down, but the range expanded. A similar flux was seen among the operators of cable systems: franchises were granted to a host of different companies, but a process of consolidation saw the growth of large multiple system operators, until by the early 2000s, virtually the whole industry was in the hands of two companies, NTL and Telewest.
In 2005, it was announced that NTL and Telewest would merge, after a period of co-operation in the preceding few years. This merger was completed on March 3, 2006, with the company being named ntl Incorporated. For the time being, the two brand names and services were marketed separately. However, following NTL's acquisition of Virgin Mobile, the NTL and Telewest services were rebranded Virgin Media on February 8, 2007, creating a single cable operator covering more than 95% of the UK cable market.^{[citation needed]}
There are a small number of other surviving cable television companies in the UK outside of NTL including WightCable (Isle of Wight) and Smallworld (Ayrshire, Carlisle and Lancashire).
Cable TV faces intense competition from British Sky Broadcasting's Sky satellite television service. Most channels are carried on both platforms. However, cable often lacks "interactive" features (e.g. text services, and extra video-screens), especially on BSkyB owned channels, and the satellite platform lacks services requiring high degrees of two-way communication, such as true video on demand.
However, subscription-funded digital terrestrial television proved less of a competitive threat. The first system, ITV Digital, went into liquidation in 2002. Top Up TV later replaced it; however, this service is shrinking^{[citation needed]} as the DVB-T multiplex owners are finding free-to-air broadcasting more profitable.^{[citation needed]}
Another potential source of competition in the future will be TV over broadband internet connections; this is known as IPTV. Some IPTV services are currently available in London, while services operated in Hull ceased in April 2006.^{[citation needed]} As the speed and availability of broadband connections increase, more TV content can be delivered using protocols such as IPTV. However, its impact on the market is yet to be measured, as is consumer attitude toward watching TV programs on computers instead of television sets. At the end of 2006, BT (the UK's former state owned monopoly phone company) started offering BT Vision, which combines the digital free-to-air standard Freeview through an aerial, and on-demand IPTV, delivered over a BT Broadband connection through the Vision set-top box (BT have chosen to deploy Microsoft's Mediaroom platform for this.)^{[citation needed]}

[edit] North America

[edit] Canada

Further information: Multichannel television in Canada

In 1949, Broadcast Relay Service began negotiations for the implementation of what was to be the first large scale cable TV system in North America. The development of the system relied on reaching agreement with Quebec Hydro-Electric Commission to utilise their existing network of power poles supplying power to the Montreal Metro area. Initial discussions began with a meeting with Montreal City Council on June 21, 1949. After many months if negotiation agreement was reached between Hydro Quebec and Rediffusion on February 28, 1950 for an initial 5 year period. The Rediffusion cable system was operational in 1952 and eventually supplied 80,000 homes in Montreal Quebec. Cable television in Canada began in 1952 with community antenna connections in Vancouver and London, Ontario; which city is first is not clear. Initially, the systems brought American stations to viewers in Canada who had no Canadian stations to watch; broadcast television, though begun late in 1952 in Toronto and Montreal, did not reach a majority of cities until 1954.
In time, cable television was widely established to carry available Canadian stations as well as import American stations, which constituted the vast majority of signals on systems (usually only one or two Canadian stations, while some systems had duplicate or even triplicate coverage of American networks). During the 1970s, a growing number of Canadian stations pushed American channels off the systems, forcing several to expand beyond the original 12-channel system configurations. At the same time, the advent of fibre-optic technology enabled companies to extend their systems to nearby towns and villages that by themselves were not viable cable television markets.

[edit] USA

Further information: Cable television in the United States

[edit] Fee structure

Parts of this article (those related to section) are outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (May 2010)

The industry strongly lobbies against federal "family tier" and "a la carte cable television" bills which would provide consumers the option of purchasing individual channels rather than a broad tier of programming, sometimes consisting of channels which are not desired by various subscriber segments. These anti-consumer issues continue to garner attention from state governments, Congress and U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin.^[8] What's more, the argument calling for an adjustment to the manner in which cable is distributed was reaffirmed in January 2010 when cable subscribers throughout Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York found themselves in the middle of a contentious battle over an increase in subscriber fees paid to the media company Scripps Networks Interactive by cable provider Cablevision. The parties' contract expired December 31, 2009, and as they were unable to reach a mutual agreement beforehand regarding the amount paid for each cable subscriber, Scripps pulled two of its television channels, HGTV and Food Network, from the Cablevision channel lineup on January 1, 2010 at 12:01AM as the 2010s had arrived.^{[9][10][11][12]}

[edit] Other cable-based services

Coaxial cables are capable of bi-directional carriage of signals as well as the transmission of large amounts of data. Cable television signals use only a portion of the bandwidth available over coaxial lines. This leaves plenty of space available for other digital services such as cable internet, cable telephony and wireless services, using both unlicensed and licensed spectrum.
Broadband Internet is achieved over coaxial cable by using cable modems to convert the network data into a type of digital signal that can be transferred over coaxial cable. One problem with some cable systems is the older amplifiers placed along the cable routes are unidirectional thus in order to allow for uploading of data the customer would need to use an analog telephone modem to provide for the upstream connection. This limited the upstream speed to 31.2k and prevented the always-on convenience broadband internet typically provides. Many large cable systems have upgraded or are upgrading their equipment to allow for bi-directional signals, thus allowing for greater upload speed and always-on convenience, though these upgrades are expensive.
In North America, Australia and Europe many cable operators have already introduced cable telephone service, which operates just like existing fixed line operators. This service involves installing a special telephone interface at the customer's premises that converts the analog signals from the customer's in-home wiring into a digital signal, which is then sent on the local loop (replacing the analog last mile, or POTS) to the company's switching center, where it is connected to the PSTN. The biggest obstacle to cable telephone service is the need for nearly 100% reliable service for emergency calls. One of the standards available for digital cable telephony, PacketCable, seems to be the most promising and able to work with the Quality of Service demands of traditional analog POTS service. The biggest advantage to digital cable telephone service is similar to the advantage of digital cable TV, namely that data can be compressed, resulting in much less bandwidth used than a dedicated analog circuit-switched service. Other advantages include better voice quality and integration to a VoIP network providing cheap or unlimited nationwide and international calling. Note that in many cases, digital cable telephone service is separate from cable modem service being offered by many cable companies and does not rely on IP traffic or the Internet.
Beginning in 2004 in the United States, the traditional cable television providers and traditional telecommunication companies increasingly compete in providing voice, video and data services to residences. The combination of TV, telephone and Internet access is commonly called triple play regardless of whether CATV or telcos offer it.
More recently, several US cable operators have begun offering wireless services to their subscribers. Most notably was the September 2008 launch of Optimum Wi-Fi by Cablevision. This service is made available, at no additional cost, to Optimum Broadband subscribers, and is available at over 14,000 locations across Long Island, NY, parts of NJ and CT. Cablevision has reported a double digit reduction in subscriber churn since launching Optimum Wi-Fi, even as Verizon has rolled out FiOS, a competitive residential broadband service in the Cablevision footprint. Other Tier 1 cable operators, including Comcast, have announced trials of a similar service in sections of the US Northeast.