History Main / AliensStealCable

* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''[[Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark Invasion]]'', the [[HumanAliens Faata]] start studying Earth after arriving to the Solar System by intercepting radio, TV, and [[TheAlternet Ultranet]] signals. It's not stated how they found the Solar System in the first place. They were looking for a habitable world with, hopefully, a compatible HumanAlien race to subjugate and enslave to use as an outpost against the other starfaring races in the region. It's possible they arrived to a nearby star and detected intelligent transmissions from Sol or were specifically looking for a yellow dwarf star. At first, they have no idea what to make of the jumble of broadcasts. After capturing several human pilots, they use one of them to help with understanding some of the concept. He notes that the aliens have trouble differentiating between reality and fiction, as their society is highly pragmatic (i.e. no concept of entertainment). For example, an image of a pirate frigate duking it out with a galleon alternates with a footage of a hydrofoil. Obviously, the aliens initially think the two somehow coexist on modern Earth. Later, though, their contact specialists manage to distill the main parts of human culture to be used in helping to conquer Earth. The concept of religion baffles them, though.

The trope name is somewhat of a misnomer as cable television is based on a landline, essentially closed circuit television, and not transmitted via airwaves. This means that aliens could only freely monitor the airwaves for VHF and UHF broadcast channels throughout most of the history of television. But they would not have had access to channels such as HBO, Cinemax, MTV, Nickelodeon, Playboy Channel, or any of the old Cablevision/Pay TV stations prior to the total transition to digital. Today, even though most TV is subscription based, therefore, not accessible without an account/payment, aliens may still find a way to hack into it with some added effort, however, these signals, originating from microwave towers and satellites pointing directly at Earth, will not reach out into space like radio waves do. Consequently, in this case, the aliens would probably need to be stationed somewhere hidden on Earth, rather than the traditional scenario of picking them up on their own homeworld's verion of SETI.

The trope name is somewhat of a misnomer as cable television is based on a landline, essentially closed circuit television, and not transmitted via airwaves. This means that aliens could only freely monitor the airwaves for VHF and UHF broadcast channels throughout most of the history of television. But they would not have had access to channels such as HBO, Cinemax, MTV, Nickelodeon, or any of the old Cablevision stations prior to the total transition to digital. Today, even though most TV is subscription based, therefore, not accessible without an account/payment, aliens may still find a way to hack into it with some added effort, however, these signals, originating from microwave towers and satellites pointing directly at Earth, will not reach out into space like radio waves do. Consequently, in this case, the aliens would probably need to be stationed somewhere hidden on Earth, rather than the traditional scenario of picking them up on their own homeworld's verion of SETI.

* ''Film/{{Contact}}'':
** The extraterrestrials in the Vega system receive the first transmission strong enough to reach outer space -- [[spoiler:a transmission of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's opening speech at the 1936 Olympic Games; the aliens send the signal back to Earth, combined with a sequence of prime numbers and blueprints for a machine.]]
** The scientists of the film also point out that the aliens could not possibly have understood the historical context of the transmission (or even what was being said) and state that their transmitting it back would simply have been to show that it had been received (as well as to carry the blueprints). They mock the idea held by the government and military officials that it ''must'' mean they've made contact with [[spoiler:alien Nazis.]]
--->'''David Drumlin:''' ...'36 Olympics was the first television transmission of any power that went in to space. That they recorded it, and sent it back, is simply a way of saying "hello, we heard you."\\

* ''Film/{{Explorers}}'': the aliens do little but quote classic Earth movies and songs that they've received. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:the aliens are children, which explains why they're so obsessed with entertainment]].

* In the ''ComicBook/XMen'' books, the Spineless Ones, the residents of the Mojoverse have had their dreams bombarded with TV transmissions from Earth for thousands of their years (time works differently in their dimension). Sort of like the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' [[Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction Iotians]], this exposure turned them into a Dimension of Hats organized around emulation of television, to the point that their DimensionLord is whichever network executive has the best ratings. It was later established that the initial transmissions were sent by one of their own, a scientist named Arize, who had a [[OnlySaneMan rare immunity]] to the effects of the TV transmissions on his people (they could actually perceive them on a subconscious level, and their inability to filter out multiple transmissions at once--i.e., no natural equivalent to a channel tuner--drove most Spineless Ones mad to varying degrees). With the best of intentions, Arize came to Earth and attempted to change his people's nature by gathering media he deemed positive and broadcasting it across the dimensions--only for the temporal differences between Earth and Mojoworld to result in [[StableTimeLoop Arize's broadcast becoming the transmissions that originally sparked both their madness and their obsession with video entertainment.]]