Overview

Jennifer H. Meadows, Ph.D.*

* Associate Professor, Department of Communication Design, California State University, Chico (Chico, California).

The range of programming choices available to today s television viewer is increasingly enhanced by options available through pay television. Although the concept of paying for television programming seemed outrageous in the early days, pay television services have proliferated to become one of the most successful segments of the television industry. From premium channels to video on demand and direct broadcast satellites (DBS), the variety and number of pay television services and the means to receive them has increased dramatically over the past few years. This chapter will discuss traditional pay television services, such as premium channels and pay-per-view (PPV), as well as newer services such as video on demand (VOD), subscription video on demand (SVOD), and near video on demand (NVOD).

Premium channels are the most visible and familiar of the pay television services. These services, such as HBO and Showtime, offer a mix of popular movies, original programming, and sports without commercial interruption. Subscribers pay a monthly fee for each channel, usually around $10.00 per month, above the basic cable fee. In addition to these premium channels, there is a specialized group of premium channels called mini-pays. These channels carry a much lower monthly charge, usually from $1.00 to $3.00 per month, and generally focus on specific kinds of programming such as sports (The Golf Channel), science fiction (the Sci-Fi Channel), and old movies (Turner Classic Movies). In some markets, these...