Editing Pay-per-view (section)

=== Experimental PPV systems in the 1950s and 1960s ===
The Zenith [[Phonevision]] system became the first home pay-per-view system to be tested in the United States. Developed in 1951, it used telephone lines to take and receive orders, as well as to descramble a television broadcast signal. The field tests conducted for Phonevision lasted for 90 days and were tested in [[Chicago]], Illinois. The system used [[IBM]] [[punched card|punch card]]s to descramble a signal broadcast during the broadcast station's "[[Dark (broadcasting)|off-time]]". Both systems showed promise, but the [[Federal Communications Commission]] denied them the permits to operate.<ref>FCC Squares Off to Face Subscription TV Dilemma", ''Broadcasting-Telecasting'', November 15, 1954, p31-32</ref>

[[Telemeter]], an experimental coin-operated pay-per-view service, had a trial run in Los Angeles in 1952 and [[Palm Springs, California]] from 1953 to 1954, featuring first-run movies and live sporting events, until a lawsuit from a local drive-in and other issues forced it to shut down. The service then set up an experimental run in the Toronto suburb of [[Etobicoke]], Canada in 1959, free from American [[antitrust]] laws and outside of the [[FCC]]'s juridiction. Programming initially consisted essentially of first-run movies and fictional series. In 1961, Telemeter signed deals with the [[Toronto Argonauts]] [[Canadian football|football]] team and the [[Toronto Maple Leafs]] to broadcast away games; wrestling was also featured. Some original programming, such as a 1962 [[Bob Newhart]] [[stand-up comedy]] special, thought to be the first filmed pay-per-view [[television special]]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zinoman |first1=Jason |title=Bob Newhart Holds Up. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/18/arts/television/bob-newhart-standup-comedy.html |access-date=July 19, 2024 |work=New York Times |date=July 18, 2024}}</ref> were produced at Telemeter's [[Bloor Street]] studio and several Broadway shows and an opera performance were also broadcast. At its peak, 5,800 households were subscribed but the experiment was not a success and shut down operations on April 30, 1965 with only 2,500 subscribers.<ref>{{Cite book |last1 = Woodrow |first1 = R. Brian |last2 = Woodside |first2 = Kenneth Bernard |title = The Introduction of Pay TV in Canada: issues and implications |publisher = IRPP |year = 1982 |page = 31 |isbn = 9780920380673}}</ref>

One of the earliest pay-per-view systems on [[cable television]], the Optical Systems-developed [[Channel 100]], first began service in 1972 in [[San Diego]], California through Mission Cable<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Megan Gwynne|title= The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States: revolution or evolution?|url= https://archive.org/details/riseofcableprogr00mega|url-access=registration|quote=alan greenstadt channel 100.|year= 2003|publisher= University of Texas Press|isbn= 0-292-75273-3}}</ref> (which was later acquired by [[Cox Communications]]) and TheaterVisioN, which operated out of [[Sarasota, Florida]]. These early systems quickly went out of business, as the cable industry adopted [[communications satellite|satellite]] technology and as flat-rate pay television services such as Home Box Office ([[HBO]]) became popular.

While most pay-per-view services were delivered via cable, there were a few over-the-air pay TV stations that offered pay-per-view broadcasts in addition to regularly scheduled broadcasts of movies and other entertainment. These stations, which operated for a few years in Chicago, Los Angeles and some other cities, broadcast "scrambled" signals that required descrambler devices to convert the signal into standard broadcast format. These services were marketed as [[ONTV (pay TV)|ON-TV]].