[54], Another problem faced by subscription outlets was that they leased time from television stations, which in some cases were not owned by the STV operator. By the end of the ‘80s, they were down to 67%. Not when they became repeatedly accessible on cable. [47], By May 1982, ON TV in southern California had 400,000 subscribers. In October 1983, operation of the Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami–Fort Lauderdale systems shifted from Oak to a new company, Twin Arts Productions, led by former Playgirl magazine publisher Ira Ritter; the three services counted 370,000 total subscribers, down from 550,000 in October 1982. The ’80s were rife with indications that TV was no longer content to be thought of as a vast wasteland filled with time-wasters that did the same damn thing every week, and … [117] In 1984, ON TV Chicago, also afflicted by heavy pirating, offered "amnesty" to pirate users ahead of the launch of new scrambling equipment.[119]. By the end of the 1980s, 60 percent of American television owners got cable service–and the most revolutionary cable network of all was MTV, which made its debut on August 1, 1981. But on cable in the 80s, could you get all the channels on tv some how? [103], A problem that would be a constant for all subscription television operators was signal piracy. [16] As very large cities, like Philadelphia, saw years-long delays in cable television wiring due to political disputes over franchises, the specter of services like ON TV loomed over the horizon and served as an impetus to consider more rapid action. [158] In November, still at just 35,000 subscribers and losing $300,000 a month, it was announced that SportsVision would be folded into ON TV on January 1, 1984, with channel 44's STV service televising a significant number of games and SportsVision continuing as a premium cable channel in suburban areas and outside of Chicagoland;[159] the remaining service was then sold to SportsChannel. Viewers defected in huge numbers. [132] ON TV then began operating January 11, 1980, broadcasting subscription programming from 7:00 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and 5:00 p.m. to midnight on weekends. [74], In August—after a year of speculation—it emerged that Oak was in talks to sell the Los Angeles system to SelecTV, which had competed alongside ON TV for six years in the southern California market. "Super Bowl XX,” NBC, 1/26/86 41.49 million, 3. Additional resources on North American television, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, "Subscription TV is a tantalizing unknown for three investors", "Sears, Roebuck plans to market pay TV in the Los Angeles area", "National Subscription Television's over-air...", "Pay-TV Firm Will Move To Rancho Bernardo Site", "City urged to pass cable TV provisions quickly", "What's This? After rejecting one R-rated movie in 1980, the station then ordered ON TV to screen all movies it aired for WXON executives. [109], It was legal, however, for Windsor residents to build decoders to receive ON TV—and some 10,000 existed within two years of beginning STV operation in Detroit—but when those decoders started to enter the United States and pose a challenge to Chartwell's operation, the company moved to take action. As early as 1977, NST had an agreement to run an STV service on WXON in Detroit,[18] and the two parties aimed for a July 1, 1979, launch. Now you could rent or buy a movie and watch it instead of TV, at your leisure. Robert Tarlton builds the first cable system to receive widespread publicity in the U.S. LED channel readout. 47 to remain free, ABC wants to charge", "2 Partners Go to Court Over ON-TV Dispute", "Jerry Perenchio: Hollywood's Consummate Deal Maker", "Oak Industries said it will buy the remainder of ON-TV", "Special Report: Subscription Television", "Subscription television is falling on difficult times in some places", "Oak Industries won't make as much as it expected", "Oak Seeks to Sublease Two Telstar Channels", "ON TV planning to halt programming to Valley", "ON TV, Channel 15 to air differences on contract in court", "For real adult entertainment, turn-on to VEU", "Channel 15 readies lineup to replace ON TV programming", "ON TV pay service is calling it quits in the Metroplex", "WBTI Trades Free Programming For Profitable Cable Service", "Financial state of subscription TV worsens", "Oak Industries Under Investigation by the SEC", "Auditors Qualify Opinion: Oak Industries Posts $166-Million '83 Loss", "ON TV lays off half its staff to save service", "Oak Industries to Sell TV Station in Florida", "ON-TV Discussing Sale of Its L.A. System to SelecTV", "Talks to Sell ON-TV's L.A. Unit to SelecTV Canceled", "Oak Industries Sells Its ON-TV Service to SelecTV", "Oak Plans to Sell KBSC to Investors for $30 Million", "Owners of Channel 44 in danger of losing license", "FCC denies WSNS-TV new broadcast license", "Political leaders rally behind Channel 44", "Station attempts to pull the plug on FP&L rate hike", "Pay-television is concerned with ratings, too: X-ratings", "Has the day arrived for over-the-air pay television? HBO, Showtime, the Movie Channel and Cinemax led the way in getting films for pay TV--and destroyed the value of motion pictures on the Big Three networks because growing cable audiences now could see them months or even years before. True. Other systems are built by TV set manufacturers and retailers hoping to sell more television sets. But on cable in the 80s, could you get all the channels on tv some how? As such, monster '80s artists like The Police , Michael Jackson and Bon Jovi gained ever greater exposure to audiences through their constant appearances in the MTV rotation of videos. [51] Expanded hours were crucial to keep services alive as cable companies grew: in June 1983, Cincinnati's WBTI axed hours of free programming and began taking satellite-fed ON TV programming from Oak in place of its local feed. [131] Late in 1982, KNXV resisted a request to expand ON TV to start before 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and 5:00 p.m. on weekends, while the station also wanted the subscription service to stop screening adult movies. [156], The second STV operation, however, did not reach the subscriber base needed to maintain its viability. That ended in the 1980s. STOP CABLE TV! [147], At the same time that ON TV was gaining subscribers, SportsVision International,[150] a consortium of four Chicago sports franchises—the White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks and Sting—had reached a deal to set up a new subscription television station on channel 60 (the shared time WPWR/WBBS), which would carry their games. News, for instance, used to be the almost exclusive domain of the Big Three. These new networks no longer simply delivered programs that aired on the broadcast networks. Free from having to watch shows only at their scheduled times. The figures were devastating. [117], ON TV companies responded to piracy by modifying pulse signals and introducing new scrambling techniques. Take cable. For more than anyone, he symbolized the nightly network news and the habit of tuning it in. Now the total is 57%. [32] Operating in a market with few professional sporting franchises, one of the immediate draws was a package of games of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. [13], Meanwhile, the ON TV system in Los Angeles grew to more than 100,000 subscribers by the end of 1978 and 200,000 by August 1979, earning it the title of the world's largest single pay-TV operation. [145], United sold 90 percent of WBTI in November 1984 to Channel 64 Joint Venture for $9.4 million, at which time ON TV had just 12,500 local subscribers (75 percent of which subscribed to adult programming),[146] compared to 45,200 in June 1982. My dad only wanted HBO, Cinemax, and Prism, so my sisters and I grew up without Disney. [43]), In Los Angeles—the largest ON TV market, where Oak and Chartwell remained partners—the arrangement came into doubt in March 1981. [97] Uptake ranged from 50 to 90 percent at other STV operations nationwide, including Wometco Home Theater and SelecTV Milwaukee. buyers. And nothing freed viewers more than VCRs. And combined with such new TV riches as “Hill Street Blues,” “Cheers,” “L.A. If you have a very large seating area or simply want the largest TV available, there aren't a whole lot of choices. That was secured by the venture in 1976 when, under the name of Oak Broadcasting Systems, Oak and Perenchio purchased Los Angeles television station KBSC-TV (channel 52) for $1.2 million as part of the liquidation of its parent company, Kaiser Industries. [64][54], The ON TV decoder supported additional program tiers and pay-per-view events on top of the normal service, for which subscribers would have to pay additional money. In October 1982, it revised down its earnings guidance due to declining sales of its 56-channel cable box, due to the recession and technical issues. By April 1983, its subscriber base had dipped below 25,000, a drop of more than 35 percent. And how many channels were there by 1989? Therefore we recommend buying a 4K TV for the best viewing experience. [17], Chartwell, too, began the task of developing markets. Public-access shows that cost amateurs $50 a half hour were suddenly just as easy to tune in as $400,000 network sitcoms. Among the stations that broadcast ON TV were: The first ON TV service launched in the Los Angeles market on April 1, 1977, on KBSC-TV (channel 52), licensed to Corona; ON TV's offices were in Glendale. [106] Two months later, California governor Jerry Brown signed a new law prohibiting the sale of unauthorized STV decoding equipment. [123] By that year, it had grown its sports portfolio beyond the Dodgers, Angels, Lakers and Kings to include USC Trojans college sports and Los Angeles Aztecs soccer, as well as horse racing from Santa Anita Park. [5] After changing its name to National Subscription Television (NST), the service launched under the brand name ON TV on April 1, 1977,[1] offering unedited, uninterrupted motion pictures, as well as limited slates of Los Angeles Dodgers, California Angels, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings games, during evening hours. [163] By year's end, Oak had put its remaining STV services up for sale, and Chicago had fallen to 75,000 subscribers. [60] The system—which was vigorously competing against it, the subscription service on Ann Arbor-based WPXD, and Livonia-based MDS service MORE-TV, in addition to rapidly proliferating cable services—had lost 26,000 of the 68,000 subscribers it claimed at its peak. Later that month, the company announced it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),[71] and it posted a loss of $166.1 million for 1983. [11] The next year, the company announced it would license its equipment and technology in cities where it did not intend to operate itself. Frank Gannucci Forum Resident. [92] While more than 30 percent of customers in Oak's ON TV territory paid for Star Wars,[93] conversion rates had surpassed 60 percent in some cases for boxing matches. [170] The state of the operation was such that the limited partners in Willamette Subscription Television sued Brustin and Desmond for mismanagement in a case that was settled out of court. [125] The service quickly snared the rights to Detroit Red Wings hockey, Detroit Tigers baseball (consisting of 20 weeknight games a year from Tiger Stadium), and Michigan Wolverines athletics (including tape-delayed football games). I know it would cost a lot, but was it possible? [99] The boxes, connected to a standard UHF television antenna, decoded the encrypted STV signal for paying subscribers and output it to their sets. Not when they popped up with frequency on the new channels. I was working at the Capitol when the Trump D.C. riots hit. [84] The FCC later granted the renewal, only for a federal appeals court to rule in Monroe's favor in April 1990. [112][113] In response, Video Gallery obtained an injunction in an Ontario court preventing ON TV representatives from interfering with customers entering its store. [10] In Philadelphia, NST had reached a deal with Radio Broadcasting Corporation, which in 1977 was awarded a construction permit for a channel 57 TV station there. On April 15, 1983, citing the situations in each market,[61] it announced it would shutter its Dallas–Fort Worth and Phoenix systems. I’m in a roomful of people ‘panicked that I might inadvertently give away their location’. [60], Oak was next to announce casualties. [120] After the FCC repealed a rule in late 1982 that required television stations offering a subscription service to broadcast at least 20 hours a week of unencrypted programming, KBSC began running ON TV 24 hours a day and displaced its existing Spanish-language daytime programming. Thats all I want to know. The 80s experienced a boom of new channels and the cable TV, which also had a profound impact on TV commercials. “They could watch their favorite movies over and over again at home.”. There was C-SPAN with two channels covering the House of Representatives and the Senate. In June, WBTI dropped most of its commercial programming, with the exception of The 700 Club at 10:00 a.m. on weekdays as well as a couple of religious programs on Sunday mornings, to expand ON TV's hours; it laid off staff and began relying on Oak's new satellite feed to program the subscription service. As early as 1980, WXON in Detroit was objecting to ON TV's airing of the movie Is There Sex After Death?. Everything in the ‘80s seemed to conspire against the traditional habits connected with watching network TV. [170] In 1982, Willamette acquired Premier Home Box Office, a microwave system delivering HBO to 10,000 subscribers, from Canadian company Rogers; Premier had more subscribers at the time than ON TV in the area, which had 6,000. [79] That station formally relaunched as Spanish-language KVEA in November. [85] After the FCC officially denied the license renewal in September 1990,[86] however, Chicago's Hispanic community and civic leaders rallied around WSNS. It doesn’t replace the movie experience.”. For the first time, viewers became their own programmers, selecting at random anything they wanted from the cornucopia of shows on what now were 30, 40, 50 or more channels. Further, Perenchio drew Oak's ire when the Chartwell ON TV operation in Detroit ordered new decoder boxes from one of Oak's competitors. I recall our early 80’s cable box looking much more advanced than that. When ON TV closed in Detroit on March 31, 1983, Chartwell shuttered a business in which it had invested $13 million but never turned a profit. [82], ON TV on KTXA (channel 21) was a late entrant into the most competitive subscription television market in the nation. [59], In Phoenix, ON TV launched on a new UHF television station, KNXV-TV (channel 15), which signed on September 9, 1979 and immediately began carrying subscription television programming. Each decoder was individually addressable, which meant they could be controlled centrally from the transmitter; addressability allowed for electronic connections and disconnections, as well as the ability to offer pay-per-view services,[91] and allowed Oak to implement a theft deterrent where any disconnected decoder box stopped providing service after eight minutes. It launched the Video Music Awards in 1984, and in the 21st century it tried to position itself as a … [139] Channel 51 then went off the air as Blair prepared to implement the station's relaunch as WSCV, south Florida's second Spanish-language television station. [143][144], By 1983, Warner-Amex cable was spreading throughout the Cincinnati market, causing interest in ON TV to decline considerably. Although a television set cost about $400—a substantial sum at the time—TV was soon “catching on like a case of high-toned scarlet fever,” according to a March 1948 edition of Newsweek magazine. Ed” and “Leave It to Beaver.”. [67], As Oak Industries faced wider financial trouble, it sought to shift the operation of its three remaining directly owned ON TV systems. The guidance appears to sharply contradict the position taken by Mayor Eric Garcetti, who opened up testing to anyone, whether or not they show symptoms. [57] KTXA won a legal fight against ON TV in that market, taking away all its adult programming and prompting competitor VEU to run ads with headlines such as "For real adult entertainment, turn-on to VEU". Robert Tarlton builds the first cable system to receive widespread publicity in the U.S. By the end of the ‘80s, they were down to 67%. Easily Forgotten 1980s TV Series This is a brief look at 28 short-lived and easily forgotten television series from the … I mean, who can forget about Alf? [164], In February 1985, as Oak's financial condition continued to worsen, it emerged that the company was taking writedowns related to the termination of its STV businesses; Burt Harris, owner of WSNS owner Harriscope, stated that he didn't see the service making it to the end of the year. [171], Willamette filed bankruptcy in the summer of 1983, and a court ordered Desmond to create a debt repayment schedule for more than $4.7 million owed to 20 major creditors; meanwhile, the HBO microwave service battled signal piracy of its own. For the total TV experience--not merely individual shows--was becoming the quintessential trip for viewers. [23] (While Video 44 then attempted to sell 50 percent of the company to American Television and Communications, a subsidiary of Time, Inc. and owner of the Preview STV services which had a deal with Zenith to produce its equipment,[24] the company pulled out of the deal in October when major movie studios protested the potential for a monopoly on pay-TV programming between Time's STV holdings and Home Box Office cable network. [19] In 1979, the company, through affiliate Tandem Productions, acquired New York City-area station WNJU-TV, and Tandem was waiting in the wings to buy Washington, D.C.'s WDCA-TV if the FCC had rescinded its approval of that station's sale to Taft Broadcasting. [59] It cited falling subscriber figures, from 68,000 to 42,000 in just a year; an inability to obtain more airtime from WXON; and competition from the it service that aired on Ann Arbor-based WIHT. [82] However, WSNS's years as a subscription television station had left a legacy that impeded Oak's ability to sell its stake in channel 44 for years. The lineup was vastly expanded by 1980. But for viewers, the sudden change was heaven. It's stereo-ready for future stereo TV (with adapter). [92] However, the nature of the system meant that viewers who did not pay simply received no STV programming—just a blank screen. Under the assault of VCRs and cable, networks began to shrivel. The growth of cable TV. [39] In September 1982, VEU bought the Preview Dallas operation. [89], Subscribers were charged $40 to $50 installation and $19.95 to $22.50 per month, depending on the market, in the first three ON TV launches (Los Angeles, Phoenix and Detroit). [126] In the case of the Wolverines, it even ran one experimental 1979 telecast live, a presentation spearheaded by Michigan athletic director Don Canham with the blessing of the NCAA. [56], Phoenix was one of the first markets to show serious subscriber erosion. [7], ON TV programming consisted of four basic components: movies, sporting events, special events such as concerts and boxing matches, and adult programming. “TV is becoming like radio,” he said, referring to the multiplicity of choices that could be likened to the FM revolution. [169], An operation already struggling for position in a contested media market and with fewer broadcast hours than VEU was then kneecapped by KTXA's vigorous opposition to adult programming—objecting to expansion and blocking the showing of adult movies—which produced a frosty relationship between station and STV franchisee. In retrospect, Cronkite’s retirement now seems a benchmark. Ad-supported cable TV networks bloomed in the 1980s by taking this demographic approach. And VCR viewing also cut sharply into the audience most desired by sponsors, young adults 18-34, another heavy movie rental group. I spent my childhood in France, playing a lot of soccer and watching way too much TV. Now it’s available in 51 million television households and more than 80 nations. "Super Bowl XIX,” ABC, 1/20/85 39.4 million, 8. Cincinnati was licensed, to be joined by another licensing agreement Oak made starting January 31, 1982 with Willamette Subscription Television, the STV franchisee for KECH-TV in the Portland, Oregon, market. ", "If ON-TV were only G-rated movies you wouldn't need the key", "Oak and SportsVision plan all-sports pay TV", "Pay TV Company Loses Bid to Stop Decoder Makers", "Sale of 'Pirate' TV Decoders in State Outlawed", "Pay-TV firm wins order barring sale of pirating device", "The plug is pulled on pay-TV decoder business", "ON-TV shows on cable lines may be illegal", "ON-TV's changed signal hits Windsor decoders", "ON-TV offers amnesty to area video pirates", "Channel 52 to Begin On-air Equipment Test", "Canham plugs Michigan into pay-television circuit", "Pay TV buys two-year Tiger game package", "ON-TV, Channel 20 feud costs Wings fans 5 TV goals", "Suns, American Cable TV sign 13-year contract", "ON-TV to carry 10 Suns games this season", "ON-TV expansion whips horseplayers' TV friend", "Prospective sale could turn ON-TV into Spanish outlet", "Cincinnati subscription TV station coming to Dayton", "Channel 64 Expands To 17 Free Hours In '85", "Loss of WSNS to pay-TV is costly to local viewers", "NBC is adamant: 'Sidney' won't be gay! The flaw became highly visible when the Red Wings played the Calgary Flames in a game on October 29, 1981, in which the Red Wings scored five goals in the first period before ON TV picked up the game. [39] Just eight months after going live in Chicago, ON TV was profitable in that market—said to be unprecedented in the STV industry, and by October 1981, it was joined by all of the Oak-owned operations except Dallas–Fort Worth. CNN reached about 2 million homes in its first year. Back in the 80s, the Disney Channel was a premium channel. [61][63] The competitive market and contentious relationship contributed to the service discontinuing operations on April 30, 1983. In 1982, Monroe Communications Corporation filed a challenge to WSNS's license renewal and a competing application to establish a channel 44 TV station in Chicago, charging that, as an STV station between 1979 and 1982, WSNS failed to serve the public interest and severely cut back on public affairs programming. Both Oak and Buford competed for the right to manage the service,[151] and Oak won out; ON TV subscribers could receive SportsVision for an extra $14.95 a month,[152] and a special run of two-channel decoders was made. For almost the entirety of the decade of the '80s, MTV was a force to be reckoned with, serving as the music video headquarters for the pop music world. [65] That November, KECH joined it in bankruptcy reorganization. [72] One of the company's auditors, Arthur Andersen, qualified its statement, fearing that Oak could not fully realize its $134 million investment in subscription television. Almost invisible at the start of the decade, VCRs now are in 66% of American homes. These new networks no longer simply delivered programs that aired on the broadcast networks. Tony Randall is adamant: Yes, he will! In fact, it's the Downton Abbey of local cable. When the first system went live, Carter claimed "firm contracts" to move forward in eight cities—five of which would eventually be home to ON TV-branded subscription television operations—but stated he wanted to see if the Los Angeles system was a success first. Producer Fred Silverman also saw parallels with radio. And there was no need anymore to rush home in time to watch CBS’ Rather, ABC’s Peter Jennings or NBC’s Tom Brokaw with their nightly reports. In many ways, it was the beginning of TV’s most significant Golden Age. In my area, I think we had three TVs on cable for less than $50 a month. [64], In August, Willamette Subscription Television, the Portland licensee and also the operator of a microwave system transmitting HBO to customers, filed for bankruptcy; it owed $4.7 million to a group of 20 major creditors, including $1 million to Oak. [59] The operating hours that WXON allowed ON TV to have in the Detroit market continually hampered the service's ability to show sporting events, directly causing it to drop a package of Detroit Tigers baseball games it aired. We were rarely profitable in the year before we went into subscription television. Only occasional huge programming events, like the finale of “MASH,” “The Winds of War,” a Super Bowl game--or a rare series like “The Cosby Show"--could temporarily win back network viewers in major fashion. [55] KNXV-TV in Phoenix had threatened to stop airing ON TV's "adults only" late-night fare,[56] and ON TV took the station to court over its refusal to cede early evening hours, which generated 60 percent of the television station's revenue. [134], In September 1981, ON TV added further hours, starting at 6:00 p.m. on weekdays. [110] Chartwell then took Video Gallery and its American clients to U.S. federal court, seeking an injunction,[111] and got it, preventing Americans from importing its products. FM cable … HD TV ability: 80-inch TVs with HD TV ability can receive and format information formatted in an HD format. “The movie experience thrives on the teen-age audience, which grew up in the video age,” says Adams. [73] Less than two weeks later, Oak announced that it had sold WKID-TV to John Blair & Co. for $17.75 million; the new buyers intended to program it as a Spanish-language station. [4], The system, which would use scrambling of a standard UHF television station, required a carrier. [3] In 1976, Oak president Frank A. Astrologes was named chairman of the new venture, with Carter succeeding him at Oak. [48] Oak boasted some 600,000 subscribers in its five ON-TV markets, not counting Detroit, Cincinnati or Portland. Saturday Morning TV Schedules of the 80s This is a list of the programs that were shown during prime time hours of the eighties. No longer was it necessary to go to museums and art houses to catch “Citizen Kane” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” and find out what all the shouting was about. Suddenly, there was a Travel Channel, a Weather Channel. 80s Tv Shows. [75] A deal was initially reached, then collapsed;[76] In October, after a year, management of ON TV had been brought back in house after the Twin Arts arrangement was ended in order to cut costs; the company had also taken over its satellite distribution to some 140,000 subscribers after dissolving the Telstar joint venture. [118][117] It would not be enough. The CNN Original Series "The Eighties" explores this totally rad decade and its cultural, political, and technological impact on today. And did cable run 24 hours a day in any of the states in america in the 80s? [62] Besides the Dallas–Fort Worth conflict with KTXA, the company had been handicapped by a late entry into a market that at the time had two existing STV competitors—VEU and Preview, which merged their local operations in late 1982 into a service with more program hours—and was the nation's most crowded. In early 1983, 48 percent of subscribers across all ON-TV systems paid an extra fee to subscribe to it. [26] Oak also filed for construction permits in various cities around the United States, including channel 38 at St. Petersburg, Florida;[27] channel 38 at New Orleans;[28] and channel 20 at Denver. As ON TV operations in some markets began to face headwinds, the financial picture of Oak Industries itself worsened. Cable TV was slowing upgrading its system to add more stereo TV channels as most in the early 80s were in mono on the broadband TV side. Keep reading below for detail on each year, from 1980-1989, listing the most popular 1980s-era television shows. [42] (Perenchio would ultimately sell WNJU-TV in 1986. Defunct or merged: BH Cabel Net, Elob, Global Net, ART Net, Telekabel, Mo Net, VI-NET, HS Kablovska televizija, HKBnet, VELNET, VKT-Net, M&H Company, BHB CABLE TV - (merged with Telemach) KOMING-PRO - Gradiška (merged with Blic.net); IPTV distribution:. The 1984 Cable Act established a more favorable regulatory framework for the industry, stimulating investment in cable plant and programming on an unprecedented level.Deregulation provided by the 1984 Act had a strong positive effect on the rapid growth of cable services. Resolution: A large 80 inch TV with low resolution affects picture clarity. [56] In Phoenix, the advance of cable and other factors had caused subscribers to drop from a peak of 39,000 in July 1982 to 25,000 at closure. [160], ON TV entered 1984 battered by piracy problems, which had also been cited by White Sox owner Eddie Einhorn as a reason for the end of SportsVision as a separate STV service. Also, it's your kids, Marty. Many of the programs were movies and TV shows of the past, providing an instant sweep of U.S. social history never before available on the tube in such detail. I am sort of confused, I have never had cable, but I have seen cable a lot from friends and family. [6] It was the second subscription television system in operation, with Wometco Home Theater having launched in New York City the previous month. 1983 Timex Sinclair Color Computer Price: $179.99 The 1980s were all about cable television. In November 1984, non-professional sports, children's programs and some other low-rated programming were axed to emphasize movies and a reduced schedule of events from SportsVision. [125], WXON, however, proved to be a poor partner for ON TV. TV Shows. SUPER TV by LOGOSOFT Sarajevo; Moja TV & Moja webTV by BH Telecom Sarajevo; Open IPTV by M:tel Banja Luka; HOME.TV by HT Eronet Mostar And WGN-TV Chicago and a few short-lived channels.) 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