Re: Scrambled TV

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

>I assume pay-TV was a failure in the market since it no longer exists.  Am I
>correct?  How long did it last?
>
>I'm surprised there is no rule against scrambling a commercially licensed
>station.  How can you serve the public if most of the public can't watch or
>listen?  I'm not big on regulation, but over-the-air pay-TV goes to far for
>me.

It may help to realize that the whole idea of subscription TV stations
over the air came about at a time before cable TV was used for anything
other than bringing TV signals into valleys and other hard-to-reach places.

Eventually, someone got the brilliant idea of putting subscription TV and
cable TV together, with the end result of "premium" cable-only stations
(HBO, etc.).  That pretty much spelled the end of over the air subscription
TV.

The town where I grew up (in suburban Pittsburgh) didn't get cable TV
until the early 1980s, IIRC.  My father's parents, who lived further away
from the city in a little river valley town, had cable TV as long as I
can remember, and they needed it to get any sort of TV signal at all.
I distinctly remember when they first got notice that HBO was available
on their cable system - think it may have been around 1976 or 1977 -
and thinking what a wild concept that was.  My grandparents didn't
bother getting HBO, though...

-Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu