Television has presented the world with a beautiful new medium for which many of us have experienced fiction and the real world in a way never envisioned before. From carefree programs providing some levity to major sporting events and world-changing events, the so-called “tube” is something most Canadians have formed some relations with. How we consume television has been undergoing a metamorphosis over the past decade as streaming greatly changed the importance of traditional broadcast channels with the added acceptance of paid content services. In fact, the future of television has been a matter of debate since the first signals hit the airwaves. While humankind generally embraced the technology, television’s history included a number of concepts that failed to be greatly realized for their time. In the 1960s, one of those attempts to explore the consumption of television took place in Etobicoke (today part of the City of Toronto) involving movies and sports brought to homes through a coin-operated box called Telemeter.
Since the moment television achieved recognition as a viable broadcast medium, there was work to establish a profitable business model. Through the 1920s and 1930s, radio succeeded in generating revenue through show sponsorship and advertising. It was believed by some analysts in the early planning of television free over-the-air broadcasts would not be enough to support the higher costs compared to radio. Even as the first television sets were entering the homes of early adopters, new methods to monetize content through pay TV was investigated aspiring to strike gold on the silver screen.
Tuning into Pay-TV
The concept of paid television was initialized in the early 1950s when electronic company Zenith began a service called Phonevision. Utilizing an encoder box connected between the television’s antenna and a residence’s telephone line, Zenith’s Phonevision first experimentation took place in Chicago in 1951 allowing customers to purchase theatre movies. After calling a Phonevision operator, a viewer would have a specified channel descrambled through the phone connection so the program can be watched over the antenna. Following Chicago, a number of additional attempts to expand Phonevision occurred into the late 1960s. A notable television station adopting it was WHCT in Hartford, Connecticut that premiered its trial of Phonevision in June 29, 1962. The manner the experiment was set up was to allowed the channel to broadcast freely during the daytime but convert to a paid programming setup during most evenings. After more than five years of experimentation with over-the-air subscription-based television, WHCT and Phonevision ended their collaboration. Although the technology showed the early potential of paid television, Zenith’s Phonevision was found obsolete primarily because its broadcast could not appear in colour.
Another player was also attempting to establish a potentially lucrative foothold in launching the early Pay TV market. Skiatron Electronics and Television Corporation of New York developed a system called Subscriber-Vision based on the company’s experiments in closed-circuit broadcasting with one example being a telecast of radiology treatments to doctors in 1953. Subscriber-Vision functioned similar to Phonevision as the service required a television channel that would be unscrambled to allow audiences to view programs. Skiatron’s Subscriber-Vision technology stood apart was the use of a receiver operating through a computer punch card. Every week or month (depending on sources) a card would be sent to customers containing information decoding the television programs as well as record what programs were ordered. Billing would occur from information on the punch card when the customer returns it. Although Skiatron made a highly ambitious move to secure broadcast rights of major league teams in 1957 including the New York Yankees as well as the Dodgers and Giants (the latter two were preparing for moves west to California from the state of New York), the company failed in launching Subscriber-Vision.
At the same time Zenith’s Phonevision and Skiatron’s Subscriber-Vision concepts were attempting to prove itself, a competing entity took a different approach to tapping into paid television. International Telemeter Corporation envisioned the future of television being handled through closed-circuit channels fed through cable lines. Although we perceive cable lines being to transmit broadcast signals as an evolution over antennas, the method of sending signals actually dates as far back as the late 1920s. In the United Kingdom, Rediffusion pioneered the use of broadcasting through cable initially for radio and later for television just before the start of the second world war. Rediffusion offered customers with weak antenna reception with a stronger broadcast signal sourced from a large antenna tower. Initially, the technology would be called community antenna television. This manner would eventually evolve into how basic cable television would work. However, while community antenna television was technically paid television, it mainly served to distribute content already sent over the airwaves.
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| A wall-mounted speaker part of a Rediffusion community antenna radio setup. (Photo Source CaribDigita through Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication) |
Another difference for International Telemeter Corporation intentions for paid television compared to the Phonevision scheme involved how the transaction of purchasing a program. As opposed to Zenith’s Phonevision that would have customers billed at the end of a month, the Telemeter setup involved a coin-operated receiver. The coins would be periodically collected by a Telemeter employee.
Support of Telemeter was lifted in 1951 by Paramount Pictures who took a 50-percent stake in the company behind the paid television technology with trials of the closed-circuit system beginning the following year in Los Angeles, California. Public roll-out of Telemeter took place in Palm Springs, California on November 28th of 1953 with one program being a film called Forever Female starring William Holden and Ginger Rogers that premiered as one of the first times a feature film would be shown first on television. The introduction involved 71 television sets receiving Telemeter programming but the technology’s fanfare saw the number of equipped televisions double only a few days later. The public test in Palm Springs lasted for about five months proving popular among viewers but with concerns from theatres. Filmmakers other than Paramount were also unwilling to provide movies for Telemeter.
Experiments using the principles of Telemeter also tested the viability of the technology as a way to broadcast classroom lectures to students in remote areas. In addition to viewing a lecture, students would be able to answer questions with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ with the Telemeter device. Although this unique use for the Telemeter technology wasn’t adopted beyond the experimental stages, it did present a compelling proof of concept showing the interactive potential of television.
Canada Connects to Telemeter
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| Design of the coin-operated Telemeter box in the 1960s |
As the experiments for Telemeter were taking place in United States, International Telemeter Company entered into an agreement that would see paid television entering Canada. The Famous Players theatre chain acquired a 25-year franchise license in 1952 in a venture to be named Trans Canada Telemeter. Famous Players President John J. Fitzgibbons expressed at the time of the agreement Telemeter service could be launched within a year. In reality, the timeline for the debut of the pay TV system would not occur until the next decade.
The official premiere for Telemeter in Etobicoke took place at 8 pm on February 26th of 1960. Approximately 135 kilometers (84 miles) of coaxial cable was laid by Bell Canada in an area with the potential of serving up to 13,000 homes. Etobicoke was selected as a test market for it’s closeness to Toronto and the area’s high adoption of television (at the time, roughly 96 percent of households had a set). The area was also accepted as a marketing challenge for Telemeter. In a Toronto Daily Star article published on the day of the technology’s launch, a Telemeter company employee said, “We conducted a survey from our offices at New York and Los Angeles and we discovered that Etobicoke township was one of the toughest district to sell anywhere. We figure if we could put it over Etobicoke, we could sell it anywhere.”
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| A Trans Canada Telemeter newspaper ad from 1959 advertising their 'Pay-As-You-See' home entertainment service. Note the $5.00 setup fee and mention of no month costs. The setup fee was said to come at a significant loss for Famous Players and Trans Canada Telemeter. Also, the pledge of no monthly charges probably haunted the service as time went on. |
Approximately 1,000 initial residences are outfitted with the new television broadcast device paying $5 for the installation of the Telemeter box without monthly or yearly costs. Customers would only pay for the programs they watch by placing change into the box’s coin slot. Accepting nickels, dimes and quarters, a record tape catalogued the amount of money entered in the box. If the change placed in the machine exceeds the cost of the program being purchase, the tape would record a credit that could be used later. Two of the first movies available for purchase to the coin-operated television boxes were “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “The Nun’s Story”.
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| Diagram for the operations of the Telemeter box |
All three Telemeter channels were available through channel 5. At the time Telemeter went live, each channel had a defined types of programming. The first channel (5-A) was designated for new or recent movies or programs. Older movies would would be available on the second channel (5-B). The third channel (5-C) was reserved for so-called public access content and was free to view for any Telemeter customer. At Telemeter’s launch, one common sight on the third channel from Monday to Friday was All-Star News, Weather and Sports. Airing at 5:55 pm (five minutes prior to the start of most network evening news shows), the program was produced by the Toronto Daily Star (now Toronto Star) newspaper marking the news publication’s first experiment into broadcast media since their radio station CFCA ceased operations. This news programming would be delivered in association with AM radio station CKEY in later years. In 1961, councillors for the township of Etobicoke also explored the television service for creating a series profiling in the inner workings of the local government. Telemeter would eventually drop this approach with 5-C hosting pay programming. This interesting advantage with the closed-circuit system would resemble a process latter known as multiplexing afforded to over-the-air television with the switch to digital signals where several channels could potentially be layered on a single channel. All channels on Telemeter would aired programming commercial-free.
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| The bi-weekly 'Your Telemeter Guide' gave customers preview for what movies and other programs to expect to be delivered through your coin-operated box. |
Launching not only as a conduit for watching movies, a number of special events were also available through Telemeter through the first year. Legendary comedian Bob Newhart accepted $2,500 to perform one of Telemeter’s first live show in January of 1961. In July of 1961, a popular name in comedy was brought to silver screen audiences. Occurring more than 15 before the premiere of famous SCTV television show, The Second City Revue presented the improvised comedy format in two-hour shows that were recorded at the Chicago club. Other special viewing events through the pay TV service included operas as well as a concert performance of renowned French singer Edith Piaf.
A Sporting Chance
Telemeter would leave a major mark in pay TV history in Canada for providing live sports events. Decades before the launch of TSN, the road map for charging customers in the Toronto area for exclusive viewing of the city’s top teams was delivered via the Telemeter box. On Sunday, February 28th of 1960 the first Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game was televised on Telemeter as the team battled the New York Rangers at Madison Square Gardens. Telemeter customers in Etobicoke were able to watch all three periods in the comfort of their living rooms for a cost of $1.00. Maple Leafs road games would regularly be available through Telemeter on the early 1960s. The Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts were also a participant of the Pay TV option. An October 29th game available for $2 on Telemeter where the Argos played the Montreal Alouettes drew 35 percent of their Etobicoke customers to purchase. Some viewer opinions of the time were critical of the camera work of sports programs airing through the service.
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| From the February 5th to 18th 'Your Telemeter Guide'. The Toronto Maple Leafs playing the Detroit Red Wings. The Leafs would won that away game 4-2 but the Red Wings would later foil Toronto's Stanley Cup run by beating the game in the semi-finals of the NHL playoffs that season. |
In October of 1962, a College Theatre in Toronto was equipped to broadcast one of the Telemeter-sourced away games on a large screen using an Eidophor projector. Paying between $1.50 and $2.50 per seat, a packed crowd of 1,500 people watched the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Chicago Black Hawks. Based on the response, Famous Players announced the following year the expansion of the viewing experience in nine Toronto theatres. For an October 13th 1963 away game shown on those movie screens, it was estimated that about 11,000 hockey fans paid to watch the event.
Reception Fading for Telemeter
In the later years of Telemeter use in Toronto, the service encounter a similar issue as with the experiment in Los Angeles when it came to programming. While the Canadian Telemeter did benefit from greater inclusion of sports, the television service struggled to consistently draw attractive movies and other entertainment programs to win over audiences. In less than a year after the service launched, usage of the Telemeter technology was revealed in a November 1960 industry publication. The results of an Elliott-Haynes survey from a sample of 286 Etobicoke households equipped with the pay television technology found that 65.7 percent of families watched at least one program on Telemeter in the previous week. The survey revealed that Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty & Grand Canyon” was the most popular program available on Telemeter ordered by 20.1 percent of survey respondents. The Elliott-Haynes survey also revealed that weekly spending by families with a Telemeter unit installed in their residence average 80 cents (lower than the one dollar average recorded in a previous survey).
Although the Etobicoke area had a capacity for up to 13,000 households, Trans Canada Telemeter targeted a customer base of 6,000 households as a break-even mark. According to the company at the time, the target was reached by the end of the first year but other outside narratives questioned if peak users exceeded 5,800. There were many conflicting estimates for the specific number of Telemeter customers throughout the experimentation period. What was known was the total amount of homes actively using Telemeter dropped.. By the latter half of 1963, approximate customers were estimated between 2,500 to 3,500.
When usage and adoption dropped, Trans Canada Telemeter made an exceptionally poorly-received move to recapitalize their money-losing operations through an additional annual cost of $39 going against earlier advertisements. The company would back down from the measure after considerable customer protest but this planned move alienated many of the remaining users. According to a 1963 Toronto Daily Star articles from Wendy Michener, approximately 400 customers in Etobicoke disconnected their Telemeter service.
After more than five years and 15 million dollars spent to make the service possible, Telemeter ended operations in Etobicoke at the end of April of 1965.
When the Sequel Overshadows the Original
Although the pay TV experiment under Telemeter was cut, the data and lessons gathered over five years proved there was considerable viability for the technology in the near future. Rapid advancements of computer technology through the 1960s and 1970s allowed for the restrictions of Telemeter to be lessened as new cable television practices were created. What would also lead to a sustainable pay TV environment was better understanding on how to price and collect payment on the service. When premium television launched nationwide in Canada in 1983 with First Choice, Superchannel and C Channel the business model for billing was ultimately established. The premium channel and pay-per-view television marketplace exploded through the 1980s and 1990s.
While Trans Canada Telemeter’s history concluded in 1965, its parent Famous Players remained committed to exploring paid television. During the test run for Telemeter, the Canadian media company was also involved with London Cable TV Services that functioned on the community antenna television principle. By the time London Cable TV Services went live, telecommunications technology was set to make rapid advances.
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| When Famous Players morphed into Canadian Cablesystems in 1971, the company eventually adopt this logo around 1974. This logo remained as the business name changed to Rogers Cablesystems in 1981 with it as well as the orange colour scheme of its service vehicles being a common sight until the latter half of the 1980s. (Image from cover of 1974 Canadian Cablesystems Annual Report) |
In 1971, the firm Famous Players was reform to emphasize these future ambitions. Famous Players was reorganized into a brand representing the theatre chain while the parent company was renamed Canadian CableSystems. Cable television would grow massively through the decades leading into the 21st century with the concept of paying for access to channels or programs becoming common. In 1979, a company merger with Toronto businessman Ted Rogers and Canadian CableSystems would proceed to shape what has become one of the more dominant enterprises for telecommunications in Canada. Today, the Canadian conglomerate Rogers Communications operates as a distant descendant of the 1960s experiment in Etobicoke.
Evolving past punch cards and coin-operated terminals, pay TV eventually found its audience. The modern perception of television has changed immensely with internet-based streaming becoming the dominant way many of watch shows and movies but acceptance for directly paying for premium content has surged. Amazon’s Prime Video, Netflix and Disney Plus are just a few choices for those willing to spend to watch their favourite programs.
References:
First Pay TV Unfolds With All Its Drama. Kravsow, Irving. Hartford Courant. June 30, 1962. pg.4
1,000 in Etobicoke Test Pay TV Tonight. Toronto Daily Star. February 26, 1960. pg. 9
Everything's Coming Up Quarters. Toronto Daily Star. March 4, 1961. pg. 25
Pay-TV Is Still Locking For That Pot of Gold. Michener, Wendy. Toronto Daily Star. July 27, 1963. Pg. 21
Agase Agrees to 2-Year. Term McKee, Ken. Globe and Mail. November 8, 1961. pg. 16
What they pay for pay-tv in Canada. Broadcasting, November 7, 1960. Volume 59 Issue 19. pg.62-63
Turnstyle TV. Cosmopolitan. Flaherty, Vincent X. June 1955. Volume 138 Number 6 pg. 80-83
Telemeter Rejects FCC Test. Weekly Television Digest. June 22, 1959. Volume 15, Number 25. pg 10
Bad Day for Pay TV. Weekly Television Digest. October 5, 1959. Volume 15 Number 40. pg. 19
Newhart Does a Stint on Canada Pay TV. Cash Box. January 14, 1961. pg. 38
Closed-circuit tv net opens SRO in Canada. Sponsor. October 21, 1963. pg. 51
Pay-&-See TV. Time Magazine. March 14, 1960. pg. 38
Telemeter's Star- Bright Star in the Paramount Diadem- Soars Higher and Higher. Paramount World. pg.27
Pay as you See TV. Kamen, Ira. 1955. pg.18-19,52-53
Variety Claims Dodgers-Giants TV Deal Closed. The Globe and Mail. June 6, 1957. pg.28
$1,000,000 Deal On TV Broadcasts Lures NY Teams. The Globe and Mail. June 1, 1957. pg.53
Of Coin and Cable. Braithwaite, Dennis. The Globe and Mail. March 25, 1965. pg 27.
Exit Telemeter--wincing. Cohen, Nathan. Toronto Daily Star. March 24, 1965 pg 38.
Pay-TV Enthusiatic Over Off-Beat Show. Braithwaite, Dennis. The Globe and Mail. June 12, 1961. Pg. 9
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