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Pay television

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Pay television or premium television refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite, but also increasingly by digital terrestrial methods. Some parts of the world, notably in France and the US, have also offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals, available for subscription.

Unlike other cable networks, premium services are almost always subscribed to individually, meaning that one can, for example, subscribe to HBO without subscribing to Showtime (In Canada, there are slight modifications, as most providers include U.S. superstations with their main premium package by default). However, subscribing to an "individual" service automatically includes access to all of that service's available multiplex channels and, in some cases, access to content via video-on-demand.

Price

Pay television channels come in different price ranges. Many channels carrying advertising combine this income with a lower subscription fee. These are called "mini-pay" channels and are often sold as a part of a package with numerous similarly priced channels. Sometimes, the channels are also sold "à la carte", allowing the consumer to select which channels they subscribe to.

There are also premium television services which have a significantly higher price than the mini-pay channels, but they compensate for their higher price by carrying little or no advertising and also providing a higher quality output.

As advertising sales are sensitive to the business cycle, some broadcasters try to balance them with more stable income from subscriptions.

Distribution

Pay television has become popular with cable and satellite television.

There have also been some subscription services on analogue terrestrial television, but free-to-air television dominated and scrambled services were rare. Canal+ has operated a national pay channel in the French terrestrial network since 1984 and will do so until the closedown of analogue television. Spanish Canal+ did also broadcast nationally between 1990-2005. Some US stations launched services such SuperTV, Wometco, Prism, Preview, SelecTV and ON-TV in the late '70s, but those services disappeared as they couldn't handle the competition from cable television.

In some countries, the launch of digital terrestrial television has meant that pay television has become increasingly popular in countries with regular antennas.

The major distributors of pay television in Australia are Foxtel, Optus Television, Austar and Select Tv, all of which provide cable services in some metropolitan areas, and satellite for regional areas of the country.

Most pay TV services now offer multiplex packages, in which the service offers several channels of programming rather than just one.

Ambiguities

Pay-per-view

Pay-per-view (PPV) services are similar to subscription-based pay TV services in that you must pay to have the broadcast decrypted for viewing, but usually only entail a one-off payment for a single or time-limited viewing.

Free-to-view

"Free" variants are free-to-air (FTA) and free-to-view (FTV), however FTV services are normally encrypted and decryption cards either come as part of an initial subscription to a pay TV bouquet or can be purchased for a one-off cost.

Selective access of free content

  • FTA and FTV systems may still have selective access. ABC Asia-Pacific is one example. This channel's content is free-to-air but NRL games are encrypted.

Partial list of premium services


See also

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