My dad's family had a coin-op tv back in the late 70's & early 80's and what he used to to was use a screwdriver to open the back of the meter and take the coins out so they could reduce the cost of running the set since the as long as the money guy could take something they were never questioned over it.
Actually, pay to use TV sets in hotels lasted into the late 1980s. The low cost "Motel 6" chain often had them, as many things like ice were an extra charge. But most did not work with a coin box, but a switch. Pressing that would enable it, and tell the front desk to charge you. Some provided you a special key, which was locked in the set when used. Check out without that key and you were charged.
+Scott Lawrence I distinctly remember those as well and also thinking how awkward looking they were. If I remember correctly, they had this look about them that seemed like a failed attempt at being 'futuristic'.
+Scott Lawrence I remember seeing those at Will Rogers in OKC, at DFW, and at Albuquerque. I know they disappeared in the later 1990s and pretty sure they're obsolete now in the digital age.
+Scott Lawrence I have seen them at a train station in Montreal back in the late seventies, I watched a couple minutes of a Bob Hope Special from one of those pay-TVs.
Personally (and I recommend this to everyone) scrap cable - I only use WifI - and stream. It gets easier and more accesdible every day. There's a TiVo bix which makes getting over-the-air channels a snap. I use Roku. My WifI (1gig) was $50 - 5 years ago, and now it's gone up; $54. When I think about people with cable - those 'regular' people, who don't 'game' it, they get saddled with monthly bills (I know of) anywhere from $150/$200 - and these are people who have relatively simple cable - not the higher 'tiered' packages (they also have a landline in the package). People who 'game' it, know - as soon as that terrific price they (ALL!) advertise ends - after a year, or 2; the price goes WAY up. One reason for this is the cable companies spread the (HIGH) cost they pay for the 'privilege' (cough-cough) to carry sports. Those astronomical figures are paid for by EVERY cable subscriber - NOT just the ones who actually like/watch sports. I read an article (in a well-known major paper) about a year ago (about streaming and is it cost efficient, etc.) by someone - shockingly dumb - who said that it's smarter to stick with cable, because most of the people who already have cable, HAVE Wifi as part of their package, so, if they were to cancel their cable subscription, they'd STILL have to pay - the SAME cable company - JUST for WiFi. That this moron - who lives in a big metropolitan area, and writes for one of the biggest papers would actually say something this dumb, at this date, is pathetic, and shows (he is/was) out of touch, and didn't even bother to think, let alone do a smidgen of research. It's absolutely NOT true - that a person MUST get WiFi from the 'same cable company'. YES, the big company's do offer WiFi (as a SINGLE item), but, one can easily (either) go to a different 'big' company, or, there ARE WiFi providers who are NOT the 'biggies'. It's disgusting.
U.N. Owen If you combine Netflix with Hulu and RU-vid you have all the video entertainment you need! As to sports, All of my local games are broadcast on the radio (remember those!😜) for free. If it's absolutely necessary to SEE (like for me, NHL playoffs) I'm more likely than not to be at a "sports" bar anyway. I'd rather spend my dough on beer🍺 than on Concast!
@@WAQWBrentwood eh. Been streaming for a while since there was a problem with my TV aerial which ended up embarrassingly easy to fix. The novelty of being able to dip in and out into 70+ channels rather than deciding what to watch is surprisingly addictive...
Six years from the future here! I have a (working!) 1949 Zenith porthole with built-in Phonevision. For the most part we only fire it up for holiday movies, but it’s such a pleasure to use it.
So, let me get this straight: Telemeter was going to test their service in Palm Springs by charging suckers -- I mean early adopters -- the adjusted-for-inflation equivalent of $3,940 to install a coin-op box on the sucker's -- I mean early adopter's -- TV so they could feed quarters to watch movies? How was this not a hard pass for everyone?
I love eps like this that dig up old services and proto-systems I never knew about. It ranks up there with your Non-Cable Pay-TV episode, probably my favorite episode you ever did.
The coin-operated tv's used in bus terminals were actually seen in an episode of Shining Time Station, when Schemer decided to use them as another one of his get-rich-quick schemes. I miss that show...
Otaking Mikohani Didn't Schemer (in the same episode) give them all lollypops that looked really big, yet (upon removal of ALL the packaging) were really, in actuality, tiny? Or am I mis-remembereing things? XD I swear, in one episode that happened...
+travelsonic Yeah, that was a thing that happened, just in a different episode. It was in the episode where the Scottish guy parks his train full of garbage at the station until he's told informed about the wonderful world of recycling centers XD Yes, I have that episode on VHS
I’m 71 and I do remember taking a family vacations and stopping at a motels where you paid to watch via a box on the TV. You inserted a quarter and watched for a limited time and then you inserted another quarter etc. kind of expensive by late 50’s early 60’s standards.
This is a particular topic I've been thinking about for some time. After doing some reading in the last couple of years, it really intrigued me that pay TV is much older than I had realized. Truly fascinating stuff. This and early encryption methods are topics that I get geeky over.
This was an excellent watch! I remember taking a bus out of Rochester, NY in 2008. They had the coin-operated pay-TV seats, and I was blown away seeing them as it was my first time encountering them. Is there any chance they were still in coin-operated operation, or was this more likely they just kept the furniture and replaced them with actual coin-less televisions?
Hey Ben, just want you to know that you are appreciated. I am a total loser who has failed at life due to a combination of autism and depression, and you and those like you who do these things are a great comfort to me
Have to say I'm with right there with you, Bradley. I lost my husband last year and Ben's series has taken me to places I never want to come back from.
I remembered seeing, the last pay tv (you have to watch this to understand) I was at a buss terminal back in 1986. The cost was .25 cents for the first 15 min. I had to pay $5.75 to wait for my bus. So I was a victim of the so called Pay TV.
I want to say I saw one as recently as the early 2000s but I remember distinctly with friends in 1997 seeing and using a quite worn bus station chair TV
@@artistwithouttalent I doubt it went from 25 cents for the first fifteen minutes to one whole dollar for each minute after that. The rate to continue watching would be less than or equal to the initial rate, otherwise everyone would wait for the timer to expire and start from zero again. Assuming a constant 25 cents per 15 minutes they would have paid for 5.75 hours.
I have one of the Canadian TELEMETER decoders somewhere. They appeared in British radio surplus shops during the 1970s. The coin-box lifts out, and it has an endless-loop tape mounted on it, 8-track style.
just found this channel after my interest in Daniel Lopatin's works, Elon Katz, vaporwave and synthwave genres ignited a strange desire for nostalgic video aesthetics. Great stuff!
My dad was a TV repairman from 1960's to the 1980's for several rental companies (UK). He told me that in the summer when the amount of TV repair work was low he'd go around emptying the coin operated boxes and then reset them. Some people wanted him to make the TV viewing time shorter so that they would have to put in more coins and thus pay their TV rental amount off and have money 'saved' when it was next emptied. However, on one occasion he got threatened and chased by a man with a knife; needless to say he left that TV where it was :)
I remember my grandfather saying a lot about these early pay-per-view services, but I couldn't tell you exactly what he talked about because these talks were hours long and I didn't record them or take notes (tapes were expensive for a 10 year-old in 2005). Unfortunately, he's since died (in 2013) so...yeah, can't get information now :( On an unrelated note, there are only four videos in the related column that are not Code Lyoko and they are videos recommended to me by RU-vid.
Looks like the main problem was they wanted too much money. 450$ for set up and install? No one would pay that now much less back then. And the cost for each view or per month was way too high to get a good number of subscribers to be profitable.
While not a "seedy motel" I recall pay-tv in motel rooms in the late '50s on family trips. IIRC it was about 25 cents an hour. My father wouldn't spend that quarter saying tv should be free. I also recall seeing the small table/chair outfits in the Greyhound station in Cincinnati in. mid '70s. With the echoing sounds of the PA, people, crying babies, etc it was impossible to hear anything from the tv. Plus the picture was pretty lousy.
I would think the bus station TVs might have headphone jacks for that purpose. It was before the Walkman but people might carry headphones if they had a transistor radio.
Coin operated TVs in the UK used to be the case where the home owner would actually *rent* the TV (and other appliances) as opposed to hire purchase as back in those days TVs were expensive and renting was the only way lower income families could afford them. Though I do remember now defunct retailer Rumbelows having a thing called Option 3 which I think was hire purchase, the unique selling point being buying a TV outright left you SOL if the thing broke down (something which happened in the olden days) renting meant paying forever for a TV you'd never own and Option 3 meant that while you were paying for the set, Rumbelows would still service it and eventually you'd stop paying (or have the option of upgrading to another set) Now that TVs are cheaper in real terms, the hire purchase aspect has come into play. Buy As You View are still going
+Nicholas Tosoni Actually, it wasn't a coin-operated TV. It was a pre-paid electricity meter. Mr. Bean tried to get good reception on his TV the whole episode, and when he finally did the energy went off. So funny :D
rangers199487 True, but the TV Licence is entirely separate from that. This is TV Rental and even those who rented their sets needed a licence to operate those TVs.
Doddo MultiGamer "HRT even says in their teletext page that they control the satellite cards regularly (the problem is how can they control it via a one way transmission system?)" Sky TV did it by having the boxes permanently connected to your phone line and having the box (literally) phone home, checking the caller ID and making sure it was connected to the phone line of the actual subscriber. Now, they do it by having the box permanently connected to the internet so you download movies from the Sky Store... and so it can phone home and make it's actually connected to the IP address associated with your router.
hey, I had that second telemeter pay TV decoder box! this clears up some of the stuff I was wondering, like why the cash box had a magnetic tape cartridge on it. the coin mechanism was quite interesting, and putting money in would cause it to display a set amount of time on it. it handled dimes, nickels, quarters and amusingly half dollars. I picked it up at a radio show sometime in the 90's.
14:18 I'm a bad Oklahoman because I never knew about Bartlesville's Telemovie service (of course, I wasn't born until well into the 1960s). I guess we learn something new every day. Thanks a million Ben! This is a little off-topic except it does have to do with a bygone TV convention for many community-antenna or primitive cable systems: The weather info/community info channel. Here's an example of one, from FuzzyMemories.tv, recorded in Nashville on Christmas Day, 1975: www.fuzzymemories.tv/index.php#videoclip-4491. It's oddly hypnotic, and seasonally appropriate now that we're approaching Christmas. That appears to be the ONLY clip anywhere of a WeatherScan system in action. Of course, by the late 1970s these were falling by the wayside in favour of Teletext.
Interestingly enough, Universal bought WOR-TV from RKO outright in the mid 80s. (note: is the YT landscape getting so bad you now have to blackout certain company names in still frames and video clips so they won't be taken down? I know D***** and W** are notorious for copyright claims, but seriously?)
Zenith's Phonevision Pay-TV system got a huge setback when the FCC reduced the number of VHF TV stations in Chicago from six to five, with one reserved for noncommercial broadcasting. Zenith's frequency was eliminated, although a couple of years, the FCC changed the frequency of the CBS owned station from Channel 4 to Channel 2, where Zenith was once broadcasting (Channel 4 was re-allocated to Milwaukee, with station WTMJ ordered to move from channel 3 to Channel 4).
The next step evolution to this are the table-side tablets I guess. They have those in some restaurants where they charge you a few to play games and stuff which reminded me of those pay-to-view TVS. I saw one, just ONE, when I was like 12 at a Pizza King in Avon Indiana and the thing was in BLACK AND WHITE.
I have been there too! The restaurant is down the road from me but they have gone to color TV sets and sadly the place looks like it has seen better days at this point. Last time I was there the train delivering sodas was still running though even if I am not sure now.
It's little wonder that the Bowlerette was so popular, my weekends in the late 70s and early 80s were often dominated by the Pro Bowling Tour shows, baseball and car races.
There was a "pay as you look" tvs at a roadside diner in Iowa off of I-80. It was novel at the time as 25 cents got a half hour of view time which was enough for you to order and eat your meal.
This may be beyond the scope of your channel, but have you ever looked into the 1992 Summer Olympics NBC triplecast debacle? Full coverage of the Olympics were available live on three channels via pay-for-view. I seem to be one of the few people who ordered it.
Hi I started (binge) watching the Oddity Archive about a week ago! Great stuff even when I'm from far away! Will you be doing cooking shows any time soon! Cheers! Keep it up!
Hey, I know someone that had a TV with an "A, B, and C" on the channel dial on the guest TV. When I went to visit them in the early 2000s channel c ended up being the same frequency as their ABC affiliate. They were in Travers City.
WHCT channel 18 is now WUVN in Hartford/New Haven, a Univision affiliate in Hispanic/Latino community (a Entravision Communications station) with translator, WHTX-LD 43 in Springfield, Massachusetts
In SLC, UT, we had *"CannelOne"* They'd install their *"Special"* antenna, and charge you a monthly fee to view their channel. I was a kinda hit, during the late 70s to mid 80s. But you could only get it, if you had line of sight to their broadcast tower.
From the UK perspective, the coin op TV's were used by, let's be blunt, poor folk. The UK in the mid 20th century, was a shitty grey place, and folk, relatively speaking, weren't as well off as our US cousins. Because TV's and VCR's, especially colour TV, were expensive so there were a lot of places that did TV rentals. Renting also had the advantage that you got a new TV every year or so, with all the flashy new features. So anyway, folk who had bad credit, or lived in shitty areas couldn't be trusted to pay the rental, hence the TV would have a coin box on it. This system was familiar to folk, as they used the same system for gas and electricity, no seriously, which was such a shitty system as it meant some poor kid not being able to get a wash with hot water before school, or coming home to freezing cold house after school, if their mum didn't have 10 bob to stick in the meter. They actually still do this now, although it's a bit more advanced these days, as you take a 'key' thing to a local store, and pay them to put credit on it, then take it home and bung it in the meter to be able to get gas or electricity. It still has the drawback, that if you ain't got any dough, you ain't got any electricity or heating.
Wow! Turns out we lived 1 subway stop away from the Telemeter office in Etobicoke when I was born. We never had that, though. I assume it was for rich people? Actually never heard of this until your video! Cool!
Why does the Zenith Phone Vision promo material show the phone receiver UPSIDE DOWN? (The larger "cup" is the mouthpiece, I know this, as I have a Western Electric Model 302 from 1950.)
'Note bikes as well as autos...indicating an appeal to both kids and teenagers....'(16:43). What insightful research this paper did; 'those bike - must be kids, and nah - it can't be adults, or, senior citizens with the cars - it MUST be teens...'
another great vid man. Love how you're straight to the point, have all the info and don't screw around on stupid Shite. keep up the good work man, really enjoying it
In the mid 90's I went to one of those "adult" stores outside Biloxi with some friends. They had porn booths which were, effectively, rental coin-op TVs inside tiny black rooms which, when you put quarters in, displayed loops of hardcore pornography. It felt gross and sad, but maybe I wasn't the target audience and maybe I'm being unfair. I have to imagine these sorts of places still exist and were probably more hook-up spots than there for the watching of pornography, because if it were merely the latter, the internet would have killed that. But what do I know, I still don't know how or why the adult film industry works given all the free pornography that apparently exists.
What is it about Chicago and weird tech stuff? I guess Zenith was based around there so they were like "WHy not?, it's cheaper than shipping it to Seattle or Miami"
I don't get it. All those black boxes covering up static signs, the viewing of which falls under Fair Use and thus aren't a copyright issue! You must be getting a lot of false positive aggression.
I remember here in the US where a representative from the account department would come into my hospital room and ask if I wanted to watch TV, it was a couple of bucks every three days or something. Who has $ on them in a hospital bed?!
