21581 - SCTE Broadband August2022 COMPLETE v1

82 Vol. 44 No. 3 - September 2022 Issue from the archive The paper was published in Vol 12 No 1, August 1982 and is based on a presentation that took place at the April 1982 SCTE meeting in London at the IEE and subsequent Northern presentation at the Mercury Motor Inn, Ainley Top, Huddersfield, later in April 1982. It precedes the submission of licence applications for the first round of multi- channel franchises and is an interesting insight to thoughts at the time. By D. W. HEIGHTMAN, C.Eng., FIERE (Fellow)* New Trends and Developments in Cable TV Programming and Services New Trends and Developments in Cable TV P ogramming and Services By D. W. HEIGHTMAN, C.Eng., FIERE (Fellow)* Introduction In the first part of this paper it is proposed to briefly review current trends in Cable TV in the USA and consider what lessons may be learnt in the application to the UK. This is, of course, on the assumption that the UK Government will eventually get round to giving general approval of subscription TV before the existing industry gives up the ghost. USA Growth As is well known, the American industry did not begin to `take off' until additional and special pay channels became available on services which previously only relayed off-air channels to improve reception. Thus in 1968 only some 5% of homes had cable, rising to 14% by 1975 when Pay TV began. Fig.1 shows how the situation has progressed since that time with some 25% or 20m homes now receiving cable. The contribution of Pay TV to the growth will be obvious. Table 1 shows in broad terms financial and other statistics on the overall US Industry as at the end of 1980/1981. Assets totalling $4.46 bn. at the end of 1980 represented a $1.23 bn. increase in a year. That expenditure would have wired up the UK to some 25% saturation of 5m homes. It is likely to take us 5 years or more to reach that state - once a Government go ahead is given. Channels and Programmes We hear exaggerated numbers when people talk about the number of channels available in US Cable. Certainly, in applying for town franchises, companies vie with one another in the number game - 50 or more channels. It must not be overlooked that US channels are only 6MHz not 8MHz as in the UK and therefore 4/3 channels can be fitted in the spectrum. Table 1 also gives a realistic summary of the actual channels available - from which it will be noted that over 50% of systems still only had 6 to 12 channel capacity but the change is upward to 30+ channels. * Consultant to Thorn-EMI Television Rentals Ltd. Denis Heightman (Fellow) has been in the radio industry since 1928, having started as an engineer with Broadcast Relay Service Ltd. From 1938 to 1950 he was managing and technical director of Denco (Clacton) Ltd. and from 1950 to 1956 chief television engineer of English Electric Company, Liverpool. For the next five years he was technical director with the Radio Rentals group and from 1962 to 1965 was with the Relay Exchanges group and also managing director of Goodmans Loudspeakers Ltd., returning to Radio Rentals when the two companies merged in 1965. With the introduction of colour television in the UK he was appointed first chairman of RCA Colour Tubes Ltd. in 1966. Until his retirement in December 1977 he was group technical director of Thorn Television Rentals and has continued to serve as a technical consultant to several companies in the Thorn group. Mr. Heightman was president of the IERE in 1978-79 and chairman of the CTA at the same time. He was for five years chairman of the Radio Trades Examination Board and serves on technical sub-committees of the National Electronics Council. Table 2. shows a random and fairly typical sample of West Coast, San Francisco Bay area, communities and Cable TV programming. Channels available range from 13 to 27 according to town and operating company. There is an equally wide range of charges ($7.00 to $10.95) for the basic service, which covers off air stations, plus distant nationally available programmes received via satellite. Payment is extra for each of the premium channels which mainly provide up-to-date films. According to geographic area those programmes come via satellite, micro-wave or video tape (bearing in mind the time change of 3 hours east to west.) The premium channels referred to in Table 2 are as follows: H = Home Box Office ($11.95). The first and most popular service - uninterrupted, uncut major movies. C = Cinemax: a new supplement to H.B.O. S = Showtime ($10.95) similar film service to H.B.O. and entertainment specials from Las Vegas etc. 24 hours. 26 Cable Television Engineering