Cuban and Voom -- Why Cuban is happy to see Voom go bye-bye?

[BFG]

Yeah, unfortunetly Even I think the content on HDNet is going down They used to always have something to watch, now good content is getting sporadic

 

[Tvlman]

I had ON-TV and it was in 1978 or 79. Each year when the Academy Awards were nominated they would use ON-TV to transmit all nominated movies for consideration by members of the Academy. Saw "The Deer Hunter" and others this w ay. Problem was they could not direct the transmissions only to Academy Members homes so everyone who had the service saw them. Also, they failed to use Academy Aperture when transmitting the films so you frequently saw microphones,cables, etc. in the picture frame which was disturbing. They used channel 54 or 56 which was a cartoon channel by day and ON-TV by night.

 

[FunkyBoss]

Talk about flashbacks. Off topic but you just reminded me of something. does anyone remember a service/channel called On TV from many many years back?

Yep, I remember it well in the Chicagoland area here. It was popular just before cable television moved in. It was many late nights as a kid tuning into channel 44 to watch scrambled adult movies on On-TV's "Adults Only" overnight programming.

Here is a site that briefly talks about it in Chicago:

http://www.chicagotelevision.com/pay3.htm

 

[lostcause]

maybe this? http://www.videoland.com.tw/5ab/5abvl_e006.asp

nope...this was way older than that. The one I'm referring to was around in the late 70s early 80s. It was a set top box that let you decode just one single channel. As some of the other people have answered in this thread, it showed recent movies and late at night showed adult movies. I don't recall the exact timeline, but it came out right around the time HBO started showing up as a single channel option. Not sure if it was right before or right after.

And yes, as someone so kindly pointed out, I'm showing my age!!!

 

[jagouar]

Yeah, unfortunetly Even I think the content on HDNet is going down They used to always have something to watch, now good content is getting sporadic

Very True.... I recently subed to local cable co and they have InHD.... IMO they have far better content than HDnet today. Back in the day when HDnet got the good sports to show they were great but they have shown they have no intention of cometing on the big stage (not getting the mlb games like InHD does, not working a deal to get the olympics [i remember the reason i got D* a long time ago and subbed to HDnet was for the first winter olympics but sadly they dont have good sports content anymore])

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

...It was many late nights as a kid tuning into channel 44 to watch scrambled adult movies on On-TV's "Adults Only" overnight programming...

Too funny! Exactly what I did!

 

[bryan27]

We didn't have On TV around here, but we did have HBO when it began satellite transmission in 1976. I don't think anyone actually paid for HBO. You could buy the little tube "descramblers" for $25 and everyone I knew had one. The big cable company in the region was Qube headquartered in Pittsburgh.

 

[deeann]

The big cable company in the region was Qube headquartered in Pittsburgh.

Weird- I was just talking about that (yesterday) with someone, but since I was a kid at the time we had I was remembering it as the "Q" channel.

 

[cracka]

Poor Billionaire

"I also have a vested interested in seeing the adoption of HDTV not happening too quickly. The fact that it has taken all these years to get this far is a beautiful thing. The conventional wisdom among cable networks is that the market of HDTV consumers is still too small for them to cost justify investing in new content, equipment and distribution, which for the biggest network conglomerates will reach hundreds of millions of dollars in conversion costs, incremental equipment and distribution costs. The bigger the perceived cost for them, the slower they move, the less the competition for HDNet and HDNet Movies."

posted by Cuban himself on www.blogmaverick.com

Well, I'm generally a closet Cuban fan, but I doubt he'll be too fond of the news that E* will now carry the Voom10, since those channels will not only directly compete with the HDNets, but they just instantly increased their available audience by, oh, 20,000%.