Cable TV started out in 1948 in Pennsylvania, USA. It was made as an alternative for people who used antennas to receive content.
As the US is more sparse than many other countries who used terrestrial antennas, John Walson invented a better cable to help combat poor signals.
Charging people for the cable services was not created until the late 1960s with TBS being one of the first cable networks to charge.
Since then the number of channels has increased significantly, as have the costs, which a 2016 study found had increased above inflation for each of the previous 20 years – for essentially the same base product.
Live TV - Streaming Services 