Advertiser support has been the foundation for American broadcast television since the industry's beginnings. It is worth noting, however, that many experiments with direct viewer payment for television programs also have taken place throughout television history. The idea for pay television (also known variously as "toll" or "subscription" television) actually dates to television experiments of the 1920s and 1930s (at which point the method of financing a national television system had not yet been determined) and can be traced through various developmental stages leading up to modern satellite-carried pay cable program services.

Many pay television systems have been proposed over the years. Some have been designed to transmit programming to subscribers' homes over the air, typically on underutilized UHF frequencies. Other systems have been designed to transmit by wire, sometimes wires shared by community antenna or cable TV systems. Various methods have been tested for ordering pay TV programming and descrambling the electronic signals.

Until the proliferation of modern satellite-delivered pay-cable program services, only a small portion of the many planned pay TV systems ever reached the experimentation stage. Fewer still were used commercially. Economics certainly have had an impact on the fortunes of pay TV, as has the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) recurring hesitation to approve the systems. Even when the Commission actually granted permission for testing, final approval for commercial use tended to take many years. Furthermore, no fewer than six major FCC rulings on pay TV have been handed down over the years, only to be amended in subsequent decisions. Regulators have been aware of ongoing opposition to the various forms of pay TV on the part of commercial broadcasters and networks, movie theater owners, citizens groups, and other constituencies.

In 1949, Zenith Radio Corporation petitioned the FCC for permission to test an over-the-air pay system called Phonevision. The test was run in 1951 with a group of 300 households in Chicago over a period of 90 days. Phonevision was a system of pay television that used telephone lines for both program ordering and decoding of its scrambled broadcast signal.

In 1953, Skiatron Electronics and Television Corporation tested a different over-the-air system, "Subscriber-Vision," that used IBM punch cards for billing and descrambling. The programming was transmitted on New York independent station WOR during off-hours.

Also in 1953, the International Telemeter Corporation, partly owned by Paramount Pictures, launched a combination community antenna and wired pay TV operation in Palm Springs, California. Broadcast signals from Los Angeles were delivered without charge, and subscribers paid for additional programming through coin boxes attached to their television sets. This system lasted through 1955.

The "Telemovies" system was launched in 1957 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma by Video Independent Theatres (VIT). Telemovies offered a first-run movie channel and a rerun movie channel. The movies originated from a downtown studio, and, in the case of the first-run selections, were shown concurrently in VIT's local movie theaters. Telemovies charged a flat monthly rate rather than a per-program fee. After undergoing several changes, including the addition of community antenna service, the system ceased operations in summer 1958.

In the late 1950s, in the wake of the much-publicized failure of the Bartlesville system, International Telemeter announced its latest coin-box system--designed to use either wires or broadcast signals to transmit programming. The site chosen for a test of a wired version of the system was Etobicoke, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, under the auspices of Paramount's Canadian movie theater subsidiary. Service began there on 26 February 1960, with 1,000 subscribers, and continued through 1965.

On 29 June 1962, two years after its petition for an experimental license had been filed with the FCC, a Phonevision system was launched in Hartford, Connecticut. By this point, Phonevision had become a joint venture between RKO and Zenith. Phonevision programming was broadcast on WHCT, a UHF station licensed specifically for the Phonevision trial. Although it never made a profit, the Hartford experiment ran through 31 January 1969 and the system won FCC approval for nationwide use in 1970.

Subscription Television Inc. (STV) was launched in July 1964 and continued through November of that year--a short-lived but nonetheless highly touted pay TV system. STV was the heir (through a complicated series of stock transactions) to Skiatron's over-the-air system. The two major figures behind STV were Skiatron's Matthew Fox and former adman and NBC executive Sylvester L. (Pat) Weaver. STV had built wire networks in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the company planned eventually to wire major cities as well as to incorporate existing CATV systems. While STV's three channels offered a mixture of sports, movies, children's programs and theatrical performances--typical of most pay TV systems--it was baseball that provided the foundation for its programming.

Both wired and over-the-air pay television systems were launched in the 1970s. In 1977, over-the-air systems were started in Newark, N.J., by Wometco-Blonder-Tongue (over station WWHT) and in Corona (Los Angeles), California, by Chartwell Communications (over station KBSC). By 1980, eight others were in operation, with an additional 16 stations authorized and ready to launch. These over-the-air systems were developing concurrently with satellite-delivered cable program services, however, and were not able to compete with the wired medium once it became available in major urban areas.

By the early 1970s, cable had become the preferred vehicle for pay television, with most startup pay ventures seeking to run their services on local cable systems. Since the early 1950s, cable operators had been experimenting with channels of locally originated programming for their systems. While not directly a form of pay TV, these experiments suggested the possibility that cable could offer more than simply retransmitted broadcast signals--a potential not lost on pay TV entrepreneurs.

The most notable early pay-cable operation was Home Box Office, which launched in 1972 by providing cable systems with pay programming via microwave relays in the Northeast. When HBO took its program service to satellite in 1975, it gained the potential to reach virtually any cable system in the United States. Other pay-cable program services were to follow, including Showtime, The Movie Channel, and others.

-Megan Mullen

FURTHER READING

Gould, Jack, "Pay-as-You-See TV -- The ABC's of the Controversy," New York Times (New York), 19 June 1955.

Howard, H.H., and S.L. Carroll. Subscription Television: History, Current Status, and Economic Projections. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1980.

See also Cable Networks; Pay-Per-View Cable; United States: Cable

Beautifully engraved SCARCE certificate from the Subscription Television, Inc. issued in 1969. This historic document was printed by the Jeffries Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman sitting on a globe near the company logo. This item has the printed signatures of the Company’s Vice President and Treasurer and is over 33 years old. The certificate was issued to Frank A. Sinatra (not the famous singer) and Ann Sinatra, but not signed by them. This is the first time we have seen this company's certificate.

The Big Picture: by Frank Beacham

It was April 1, 1987 when I first entered a classroom in Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA to begin a 10-week lecture class called "Home Communication and Entertainment in the 20th Century." I was excited about the class because of the inside knowledge of the teacher. He was no academic, but a media visionary who had practically invented network television programming as we know it.

In the coming weeks, I would find Sylvester "Pat" Weaver a charming, friendly, accessible man. He was also stunningly eloquent and firmly grounded in a set of beliefs about the public obligations of television that would be ridiculed today by industry executives as idealistic and economically unsound.

Yet, as the former chairman and president of NBC when television came of age in the 1950s, this executive had - from the "Today" show to "The Tonight Show" - almost single-handedly created the program genres that dominate network schedules to this day.

After an incredible life of innovation, Pat Weaver died at the age of 93 on March 15. In his case, it's a vast understatement to say that his legacy will live on.

PROGRAM PIONEER

In addition to creating the morning and evening television formats that every network still embraces, Weaver developed the "magazine format" for advertisers, a concept that shifted control of early television programming from the sponsors to the networks. When Weaver joined NBC in 1949, radio was the dominant mass medium and TV was still considered a luxury in most American homes.

As had been the practice in network radio, early TV programming was produced and controlled by advertisers. "Most people don't realize that the networks were really just facilities and had nothing to do with programming at the time," Weaver said.

Vowing to change the practice, Weaver fostered the idea that NBC produce its own programs and then sell commercial time in segments to multiple advertisers.

As a radio veteran who had previously worn the hats of writer, producer, director, announcer and reporter, Weaver felt comfortable guiding NBC into the television era. If he'd done nothing else, his taste in talent and programming alone would have made his career. It was Pat Weaver who introduced American TV audiences to Bob Hope, Danny Thomas, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen and Jimmy Durante.

Weaver also created the concept of the TV "spectacular," or "special" as it was later called. He introduced "Producer's Showcase", a program vehicle to introduce new talent to American audiences. Among the landmark live broadcasts under his watch were a production of "Peter Pan" and Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors", the first opera commissioned for TV.

Weaver's programming track record remains unparalleled, including such television classics as the still-running "Meet the Press" in news (it began on radio) to "Your Show of Shows", an entertainment giant starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris with a writing staff that included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, and Larry Gelbart.

EDUCATE AND ENTERTAIN

To students of the history of television, Pat Weaver will be remembered as one of the medium's pioneers. Yet, in his later years, Weaver viewed his television legacy with great disappointment. He believed that television had an obligation to expand the minds of its audience. Though a consummate showman and no highbrow, Weaver saw television's public service obligation as one to educate and entertain with a high level of artistry. For this, he was seen as a visionary who was sometimes too far ahead of his broadcasting colleagues.

Take, for example, the "Today" show, the morning broadcast that Weaver created with host Dave Garroway in 1952 to lure listeners away from morning radio. The original idea was to introduce the audience to the best and brightest of American thinkers. Writers, artists, scientists and the country's intelligentsia would use the leisurely morning time slot to expose viewers to new, cutting-edge ideas.

Originally, "The Tonight Show" (first titled "Broadway Open House"), he told our class, was created to expose Americans to the finest talent in the nation's artistic capital, New York City. Weaver wanted to take live cameras into Broadway theatres, opera houses and nightclubs to introduce audiences to new and undiscovered performers and creative works.

In essence, Pat Weaver wanted NBC's morning and late night programming to expose the common man to the best in American arts and culture. "It's very disappointing," he said. "There's occasional good things on, but there's no consistent arts programming." The "Today" show, he lamented, had become a series of quick segments to hawk books, movies and new products. "The Tonight Show" was little more than a vehicle for topical comedy. Weaver's disdain for his grown-up program creations was palpable.

It should come as no surprise that a man, who in 1954 was described by New Yorker magazine as TV's "most unrelenting thinker and most vocal theorist," would make enemies among the corporate bean counters. After eight years at NBC, Weaver had to relinquish control to Robert Sarnoff, the son of Gen. David Sarnoff (nicknamed "General Fangs" by Weaver), the head of RCA. Weaver left the network in 1956.

Weaver's vision for TV's future followed him after his NBC days. In the early 1960's, he became a pay-TV pioneer by heading STV (Subscription Television) in Los Angeles. The venture, which would offer movies and arts programming on a subscription basis, failed. Not because viewers didn't want it, but because media competitors used the courts and political system to block it.

Today, when I hear a young television executive thumb his nose at the idea of serving the public interest due to "the competitive realities of the marketplace," I think of Pat Weaver. The memorable ten weeks I spent in his classroom taught me that one can pioneer a profitable media business while at the same time serving the higher interests of the community. The trick, Weaver knew so well, is not becoming blinded by greed.

Sylvester (Pat) Weaver enjoys a deserved reputation as one of network television's most innovative executives. His greatest impact on the industry came during his tenure as programming head at NBC in the late 1940s and early 1950s. There he developed programming and business strategies the other networks would imitate for years to come. He is also remembered for supporting the idea that commercial television could educate as well as entertain, and he championed cultural programming at NBC under a policy he labeled "Operation Frontal Lobes."

Weaver studied Philosophy and Classics at Dartmouth, graduating magna cum laude. After military service in World War II, he worked in advertising at the Young and Rubicam agency. At that time, advertisers owned the programs that were broadcast on network radio and television, and Weaver worked on program development for the agency's clients. This experience prepared him to make the move to network television.

He joined NBC in 1949 to help the company develop its new television network, and held several top-management positions culminating with his appointment as chairman of the board in 1956. During that time he maintained close control over television programming at the network and shaped NBC's entire programming philosophy.

To promote growth in the fledgling network, Weaver commissioned a series of specials he called "Spectaculars." These heavily-promoted, live specials were designed to generate interest in the NBC schedule in particular and the television medium in general. He hoped that families would purchase their first television sets specifically to watch such events and would then develop regular viewing habits. The strategy especially promised to benefit NBC's parent company RCA, which controlled most patents on new receiver sets. Programming events such as the Mary Martin Peter Pan and the 1952 Christmas Eve broadcast of Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera commissioned for television, resulted from this plan.

While overseeing NBC's growth, Weaver also worked to enhance its power in relation to advertisers. His experience at Young and Rubicam convinced him that sponsors rather than network programmers actually ran the television industry. Because sponsors owned shows outright, the networks had minimal control over what was broadcast through their services. Some sponsors could even dictate when a show would appear in the weekly schedule. Weaver moved to shift this power to the networks by encouraging NBC to produce programs and then to offer blocks of time to multiple sponsors. He developed certain programs such as Today and The Tonight Show to provide vehicles for this practice. Advertisers could buy the right to advertise in particular segments of such shows but would not control program content. Weaver called this the "magazine concept" of advertising, comparing it to the practice in which print advertisers bought space in magazines without exercising editorial control over the articles. His ambition was for NBC to develop a full schedule of programs and then persuade advertisers to purchase commercial time here and there throughout that schedule. Any given program would carry commercials of several different sponsors. Other networks eventually followed the NBC model and by the 1960s it had become the television industry standard, commonly known as "participation advertising."

Weaver took pride in his classical education, and he championed the idea that commercial television had an educational mission. He proposed a series of cultural and public affairs programs for NBC which he promoted under the banner "Operation Frontal Lobes." The goal, Weaver announced in 1951, was "the enlargement of the horizon of the viewer." The campaign included a number of prime-time documentary specials. For example, Project XX was a full-time documentary production unit which make feature-length documentaries on historical events. The Wisdom series consisted of interviews with major artists and intellectuals (Edward Steichen, Margaret Mead). Weaver even required that educational material be mixed into the entertainment schedule. For example, the popular comedy/variety program Your Show of Shows might include a performance of a Verdi aria among its normal array of comic monologues and Sid Caesar skits.

Weaver left NBC in 1956 when it became clear that the network could no longer follow his philosophy of program variety and innovation. His successor, Robert Kintner, pushed the network schedule toward more standardized series formats. Weaver's last major effort at television innovation came in the early 1960s when he headed Subscription Television, Inc., an early venture into the pay cable industry. His effort to set up a cable service in California was blocked by a referendum initiated by traditional broadcasters. Weaver challenged them in court, and the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently ruled the referendum unconstitutional. STV, however, was bankrupted by the process. Although Weaver's cable venture failed, the case helped remove certain barriers to the eventual development of cable television.

-Vance Kepley, Jr.

Pat Weaver
Photo courtesy of Pat Weaver

PAT WEAVER. Born Sylvester Laflin Weaver, Jr., in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., 21 December 1908. Educated at Dartmouth College, B.A., magna cum laude, 1930. Married: Elizabeth Inglis (Desiree Mary Hawkins), 1942; children: Trajan Victor Charles and Susan (Sigourney). Served in the U.S. Navy, 1942-45. Worked for Young and MacCallister, an advertising and printing firm; announcer, writer, producer, director, actor, and salesman, radio station KHJ, Los Angeles, 1932; program manager, station KFRC, San Francisco, 1934; worked for NBC and the United Cigar Company, 1935; joined Young and Rubicam advertising agency, 1935; supervisor of programs, Young and Rubicam's radio division, 1937; advertising manager, American Tobacco Company, 1938-46; associate director of communications, Office of the Coordination of Inter-American Affairs, 1941; vice president in charge of radio and television for Young and Rubicam, also serving on executive committee, 1947-49; vice president, vice chair, president, then chair of NBC, 1949-1956; chair of McCann Erickson, 1958-63; president of Subscription TV, Los Angeles, California, 1963-66; chair, American Heart Association, 1959-63; member, board of directors, Muscular Dystrophy Association, since 1967; president, Muscular Dystrophy Association, since 1975. Member: Phi Beta Kappa. Recipient: Peabody Award, 1956; Emmy Award, 1967; named to Television Hall of Fame, 1985. Address: 818 Deerpath Road, Santa Barbara, California 93108, U.S.A.

PUBLICATION

The Best Seat in the House: The Golden Years in Radio and Television. New York: Knopf, 1994.

FURTHER READING

Baughman, James. "Television in the 'Golden Age': An Entrepreneurial Experiment." The Historian (Kingston, Rhode Island), 1985.

Boddy, William. "'Operation Frontal Lobes' Versus the Living Room Toy." Media, Culture and Society (London), 1987.

Kepley, Vance, Jr. "The Weaver Years at NBC." Wide Angle (Athens, Ohio), 1990.

_______________. "From 'Frontal Lobes' to the 'Bob-and-Bob' Show: NBC Management and Programming Strategies, 1949-1965." In, Balio, Tino, editor. Hollywood in the Age of Television. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

See also Advertising; Advertising Agency; National Broadcasting Company; Sarnoff, David; Special/Spectacular; Tonight Show