peterr (12/19/82)
After considering the impact on Canada's culture for some time, the Canadian Government has authorized cable companies to distribute licensed pay TV starting February 1st. A period of intense hype has just started, trying to get people to sign up; the hype's needed too, as the services aren't cheap. $16/mo. for one channel, $27 for two and $40 for all three (two 24hr 70-75% movie channels and one prime-time-only cultural chanel). I'd quite like to know how this compares to pay TV in the US. Are the prices and number of channels available similar? Are prices set by the market or by regulation? Judging by the promotional material out so far (running on both commercial channels and a special "Pay TV Showcase" cable channel), it seems as though if one buys the two 24hr services, you'll be able to see "On Golden Pond" and "Cannonball Run" every few days, together with some second rank music specials and sports, but not much else. The cultural channel seems to have less mainstream tastes, however. How do HBO and Showtime (and whatever other US services there may be) perform when it comes to providing non-mainstream productions? Has, e.g., Monty Python's Flying Circus (movies or the series) or other British comedy or independent films shown up? General comments on the variety and quality (esp. of payTV-financed productions) would be most welcome. One of the "Brave New World" predictions for cable was the providing of tens of channels of specialized programming; that doesn't seem to be happening (even though the new TV's can handle it). Will cable turn TV into a varied forum for instruction, debate, and entertainment or will it just replace cinemas? One could imagine a Hypertext (tm)-like video system. If you know of any cable companies heading in this direction, I'd like to know. I'll summarize for the net. Thanks! p.rowley ..decvax!utcsrgv!peterr