They Built a Shrine to Cable TV. Then Everyone Cut the Cord.

A few miles south of downtown Denver stands a gleaming, sun-soaked building erected as a shrine to cable television.The modern glass exterior gives little hint of the treasure trove of cultural touchstones housed inside: an MTV Moonman trophy, a “Sex and the City” telephone in the shape of a stiletto, a box of macaroni with branding from “The Sopranos.” And then there’s the giant tower right near the entrance, extending nearly three stories tall, designed to show a live feed of dozens of cable networks.The goal was to establish a place to celebrate the popularity, power and prestige of cable TV.“We like to say that radio and TV is the past and cable is the future,” John Malone, one of the numerous industry titans who backed the project, said shortly before construction of the building began in the late 1990s.“This will look toward the future.”Instead, it now symbolizes the industry’s flipped fortunes.This summer, the Cable Center sold and abandoned its 75,000-square-foot headquarters.

It whittled down its giant catalog of artifacts to fit into storage and a temporary headquarters of just 8,500 square feet, an anonymous office on the fourth floor of an administrative building nearby.The institution’s downsizing, formally because of mounting bills and lagging fund-raising, parallels the declining fortunes of cable itself.At its height, in the 2010s, more than 100 million American households had a cable subscription — more than three-quarters of the country.

Even five years ago, 40 percent of all TV consumed in the United States was from a cable network, according to Nielsen.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscr...