ular preacher, built the Christian Broadcasting Net-
work, which became Trinity Broadcasting Network
(TBN). Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye Bakker
headed PTL (Praise the Lord) television, which was
carried by twelve hundred cable systems. In the late
1980’s, Bakker and Swaggart were forced from their
ministries by financial and sex scandals, and Bakker
was convicted of fraud in 1989. The power and reach
of the so-called televangelists’ television shows made
their subsequent falls from grace into national news.
Premium Cable Home Box Office (HBO) was one
of the first premium cable television services, and
the network moved into the 1980’s with the ability to
increase its reach to households through satellite
technology. It also expanded its programming to in-
clude made-for-cable movies as well as theatrical re-
leases that had not yet been released on video. HBO
viewers were film buffs who wanted to watch com-
mercial-free, unedited motion pictures. Rival net-
work Showtime aired similar programming but was
one-third of the size of HBO, which reached roughly
9.3 million viewers in 1983. HBO launched a sister
movie channel, Cinemax, in 1980 and followed it
with the Comedy Channel in 1989. As HBO and
Showtime evolved, both channels designed program-
ming to maintain their subscriber base.
Many cable networks were start-up companies
with necessarily lean budgets. They broadcast pri-
marily inexpensive programming, such as syndicated
shows, old movies, and talk shows. By contrast, broad-
cast programming development and production
were time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly. In
1985, the broadcast networks’ revenues fell for the
first time in their history. Between 1980 and 1989,
the number of households subscribing to cable grew
to 59 percent, and the number of viewers watching
network television fell by 15 percent. The networks
found themselves vulnerable to takeover, and by
1986 each of the Big Three changed ownership. The
traditional broadcast networks were institutions in-
capable of quick adjustments in the changing tele-
vision marketplace. They were out-maneuvered by
cable.
Impact In 1981, an average of nine broadcast sta-
tions were available to television households. By
1989, an average of twelve broadcast stations and
thirty channels were available to the same television
household. In ten years, a radical transformation
had taken place. The effects of cable television fil-
tered through news, entertainment, and the Ameri-
can consciousness.
MTV overcame the music industry’s initial reluc-
tance to produce music videos. Indeed, the industry
became dependent on the music channel to intro-
duce new artists and to revive the careers of older
artists. Pop cultural icons such as Madonna and Mi-
chael Jackson used music videos and personal ap-
pearances on MTV to facilitate transitions in their
careers. The visual aesthetic cultivated on MTV—
fast-paced montage editing and a frenetic overall
style—spread throughout television, film, and com-
mercials. The 1984 NBC seriesMiami Viceowed its
visuals and use of current music to the cutting-
edge music channel. A new generation of directors
achieved their first successes in the music-video in-
dustry before moving into film. Such motion pic-
tures asFlashdance(1983) andFootloose(1984) owed
their success in part to their ability to cultivate a
music-video look and appeal to a young audience
that demanded a fresh approach to the movie mu-
sical.
MTV’s cultural effects went beyond the aesthetic.
Both the network and the music industry faced con-
troversy over the language and sexual content of
videos that were consumed largely by minors. Con-
cerned parents even enlisted support from Con-
gress. When MTV responded by censoring videos, it
was accused of bending to outside pressures and po-
litical correctness. Sociologists also attributed short-
ened attention spans to MTV’s fast-paced content.
Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation stepped
into the chaos of broadcast networks’ decline to
launch the FOX network, an alternative network
with cutting-edge programming designed to appeal
to a younger audience. The cable era set into motion
a frenzied period of media mergers, as entertain-
ment corporations acquired companies with a cable
presence, combined broadcast networks with cable
channels, and built organizations to accommodate
the vertical integration of entertainment products.
The broadcast networks were portrayed as dino-
saurs, lacking mobility and facing extinction. In re-
sponse, the networks adapted by copying cable tele-
vision’s most successful programming and targeted
a younger generation of viewers. Cable made huge
inroads into viewership, but no individual cable
network approached the Big Three in terms of the
sheer number of television households they reached.
Eventually, cable experienced growing pains, andThe Eighties in America Cable television 167