Just as streaming has become a burgeoning threat to the TV and film industry, cable TV way back when was seen as a threat by the film industry. The reason being television production was just more efficient and cost-effective compared to films at the time, and a lot more profitable. Of course, later on, HBO became a big boon to the film industry, aiding with the economics of releasing a film, but that almost never happened due to a campaign that targeted cable TV altogether. That was the Save Free TV campaign.
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It basically wanted the public to support a petition to prevent cable TV from existing. They wanted to assert that consumers should not have to pay for TV programs to be transmitted to their TVs at home. However, the reality of the situation was that cable TV providers just wanted to see whether the technology would be viable, instead of attempting to uproot network TV or movie theaters. But the big players who had large stakes in TV ads aggressively pushed for the ballot and the campaign was a success. The public voted against cable TV. Then, it was challenged in California’s Supreme Court which ruled in favor of cable TV.
Still, the proponents of free TV kept pushing. But it was for naught as the Federal Communications Commission had already approved cable TV technology and handed out licenses. So that’s why the US now has a multitude of TV shows to watch, not just from its big three networks.
(Video credit: SMUJonesFilm – Film and Video Collections/Youtube)
Source: neatorama