Cable news, its history and importance.

Cable news refers to television channels devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television. In the United States, early networks included CNN in 1980, Financial News Network (FNN) in 1981 and CNN2 (now HLN) in 1982. CNBC was created in 1989, taking control of FNN in 1991. Through the 1990s and beyond, the cable news industry continued to grow, with the establishment of several other networks, including, Fox News Channel (FNC), MSNBC, and specialty channels such as Bloomberg Television, Fox Business Network, and ESPN News. More recent additions to the cable news business have been CBSN, Newsmax TV, TheBlaze, Fusion, One America News Network, part-time news network RFD-TV, and—for a time—Al Jazeera America.

As the highest rated and most widely available cable news channels, FNC, CNN, and MSNBC are sometimes referred to as the "big three" with Fox News having the highest viewership. While the networks are usually referred to as 24-hour news networks, reruns of news programs and analysis or opinion programming are played throughout the night, with the exception of breaking news.

Regional 24-hour cable news television channels that are primarily concerned with local programming and cover some statewide interest have included Spectrum News North Carolina (which operates out of North Carolina), NY1 (which operates from New York City), News 12 Networks, FiOS1, and the former Northwest Cable News (NWCN) (which operated from Seattle). New England Cable News covers the six-state region of New England, while the primary core of Spectrum News covers the numerous regions of Upstate New York.