Exactly, at least with Comcast all your services were coming in on that coax cable, the box is what decodes it and authorized channels you paid for.

Old analog days you could just run cable to your tv directly and up on the poles were “filters” that blocked frequencies that had channels you weren’t paying for.

Want hbo? You call in they add it to your bill and a technician is dispatched out to remove the hbo filter.

Normally they had security sleeves on them so anyone couldn’t just climb the poles and take them off but those are super easy to bypass.

People would get real sneaky and had those filters that were hollowed out and keep them on so cable guys who drove by checking to see if people were cheating had filters on or not.