ED.HOPPER@ehbbs.wlk.com (ED HOPPER) (05/26/91)
Recently, an article in TELECOM Digest asked "Whatever happened to the interactive cable system in Columbus, Ohio." That system, known as Qube, was also installed here in Houston. While I can't speak about Columbus, I did have some contact with the Houston system, now known as Warner Cable. This was during my employ as a software consultant for Columbine Systems of Golden Colorado which had provided a broadcast traffic system for Warner. (In other words, I am not breaking any AT&T Rules here telling you about this!!:-)) Our system, which ran on an IBM System 36, shared the computer room with the Qube equipment. It was mostly Data General gear. Warner was in the process of phasing out the interactive aspects of Qube by the time I saw it, but some of it's functions were still operational. Warner still had a studio and control room for the production of programs, although by early 1985, it was primarily being used for the production of commercials to be inserted in the local minutes available on CNN, ESPN, etc. One thing that was still being offered was an early version of pay-per-view movies. This was a different system than they use now. Then, one could order a movie from the choices available by pressing a button on the convertor. In the computer room, the DG equipment would spit out the viewing choices of the subscribers on a regular basis, something like every five minutes. These were far better than ratings, these were actual counts of what was being watched fed upstream by the convertors to the cable head end. I sat and watched the results for a while. Since they were by channel number and I didn't know the layout of the system, they didn't make too much sense to me. However, the pay-per-view channels were easy to pick out. They showed that even early in the morning, there were a few people watching (and paying for) movies. I guess one could, if one cared to, track the viewing habits of a subscriber. (Wouldn't the privacy freaks have a stroke on that one!) Such tracking was not done, however. What they did track was gross numbers. One novel use for Qube did occur in Columbus and was widely reported at the time. A local Columbus adult movie theater was busted for pornography. The movie, something like Captain Throb and the Wild Women of lost planet Spandex, had previously been shown in the "adult" movie section of the Qube pay-per-view. The theater owner's attorney subpoeaned the Qube viewing records to demonstrate that the movie didn't violate community standards based upon it's popularity with Qube viewers. Since then, Warner has decided that Qube was not a commercially viable offering and has removed it from the Houston system. Pay-per-view is still offered on three channels. Now, one dials up a voice response system. You enter your phone number and the last three digits of your account number and then pick your movie from a menu. It's not as slick as the Qube methodology. In fact, during the Foreman-Holyfield fight (remember, George is a hometown boy) the dial up system took over the customer service lines as well and still had a problem handling the demand.