HBO Launches Pay Cable

2004

Backyard satellite dish era — HBO's 1975 satellite distribution kicked off the cable-TV gold rush that filled American suburbs with C-band receivers like this one. On November 8, 1972, Home Box Office begins transmitting a Polish-American hockey match in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania over a microwave relay — the first cable-only premium channel. In 1975 HBO becomes the first network to distribute via geostationary satellite. The cable era begins. The subject dates from 1972; this photograph was taken in 2004.