"this discussion was about the fact that we now pay more for cable than we ever did for ariel" Actually no, you claimed it was free. I've been educating you on how it has never been free.
The fucking sheep didn't do a damn thing back then. Now we're paying 99 dollars for 100 Spanish Channels and 10 regular channels... PLUS you have to pay 40 more to watch a pay per view.
Why would ANYONE pay to watch commercial television? It's ridiculous! Advertisers pay to air commercials and people pay to watch them! INSANE! When cable TV first came about the idea was that there would be no commercials. MTV was all music 24 hrs. a day. People slowly mindlessly give away their power. Don't believe it? Stop paying for cable TV and watch how quickly it becomes free again. Advertisers will do anything to get into your teeny little brain.
hilariously prophetic as someone else said, I remember my dad refused to get cable tv for the longest fucking time when I was a kid, and he had lots of money he just wouldn't pay for something you got for free, all my friends had it but me, it was very gay trust me 7 channels sucks. 3-5-8-19-25-43-55 wow what a great choice, so I played NES alot, anyways I watch stuff online now rarely turn my tv on but to play games, so even cable tv is gonna be dead soon, from pirate internet tv.
@Huboons Wasn't a constitutional right, but we did enjoy free tv for decades and now we don't. And the ad was correct when you consider all those old shows we used to get through ariel that TVland and Deja-view now charges to broadcast.
@gaIIery first of all TV has NEVER been free. It was paid for by advertisers. Just because YOU didn't pay doesn't make it free. And you weren't just commenting on what was available, you made a moral declaration that "we are all paying for something that should be free." Let me guess, you voted for Obama?
@Huboon I remember when the only thing tv cost us was the time it took to sit through the commercials, and the electricity to power the set. It was, basically, free television. And I don't live in the U.S. so voting for Obama is not an option.
@gaIIery Uh numbnuts. Where do you think the money came from to broadcast over the public airwaves in your country? The magic TV money fairies? No it came from tax dollars. Granted, someone as stupid as you appear to be probably doesn't earn enough to pay taxes but someone else was paying for it. So it was never free.
@Huboons But Troll, you said earlier that TV "was paid for by advertisers." Now you're saying it's tax dollars? Do you think NBC operates on money collected by Uncle Sam? And I said originally that we are now paying for entertainment that before never came with a monthly bill. Never made any "moral declaration that we are all paying for something that should be free". You're arguing with so many posters you can't even keep them all straight.
@gaIIery "Do you think NBC operates on money collected by Uncle Sam?" Communications are regulated in most countries by the government. The massive bureaucracy required to organize and and control the various forms of communication costs money. Governments pay for such things via taxation. Which is money that people (not you of course) have taken from them by that government.
@Huboons Yes, you're correct that a portion of tax dollars goes to stuff like Cable Access & the FCC which oversees network standards & practices (fining CBS for airing Janet Jackson's nipple, for example). But that's nowhere near what you pay for something like local school taxes. The biggest increase in what you're paying for TV now is undoubtedly going to the privately-owned cable companies who charge you for watching channels 2 - 13, which 25 years ago you could see for pennies.
@gaIIery Pointing out other areas that cost more in taxation does not negate the fact that you wrong about TV being free. Secondly, pre-cable networks are also "privately owned" (property ownership being something you clearly despise), that is irrelevant to the fact that they are regulated, and that regulation is paid for by the productive people who also pay your welfare. Lastly, no one is forcing you to buy cable TV, you ARE forced to pay taxes. Please do wake the fuck up.
@Huboons Ofcourse networks are privately owned, Troll (there's even a station near me that states their transmitter is owned and operated by their parent company). They don't get money from taxes; they get it from advertisers who, incredibly, you seem to feel sorry for that they have to pay for valuable commercial time. And, if you presently even watch cable, you can't possibly suggest that you're not now paying far more for tv than you were in the 80's. BTW, are you hard right now?
@gaIIery "They don't get money from taxes" No, the bureaucracy that controls the public airwaves that the private companies have to beg for permission to use does. Productive people pay those taxes. You also do not seem to have any understanding of the concept of value. Its a pretty important concept to understand if you ever want to have more than a child's understanding of financial or economic subjects, but I suspect even if you were capable, you aren't really interested.
@Hubba-Bubba "No, the bureaucracy that controls the public airwaves that the private companies have to beg for permission to use, does." Yes, that's the way it's always been. BUT, this discussion was about the fact that we now pay more for cable than we ever did for ariel. If you want CNN, you must pay for stations you used to get off ariel for peanuts. That is the point that you are pretending not to see because trolling turns you on, doesn't it, you naughty thing? ;)
Lol...crazy. Home Box (HBO) got it's official start about 2-3 years after this PSA (?) aired. That's when the moneyball got rollin'! Now, today in 2011, I pay about $155.00 a month for that shit (cable & 'net--with HBO, which I am dumping after "Entourage" officially goes a wrap!). Might as well, though! Since the networks blow so damn good today that everytime I turn my 13-inch color set (that I copped back in '99 with one of my first paychecks) on, it's windy as FUCK in my pad! :D
Cable TV started as MATV ( master antenna ) systems, back in the day, most towns only had 1 or 2 TV channels, so a big tower with high gain antennas and amplifiers, were used to receive broadcasts from big cities, and distribute them. in other words your choice was to have 1 or 2 channels, or a dozen or so for about 5 bucks a month ( early 70s price ) later HBO saw opportunity to distribute a private ch. and used satellites to link with MATV systems, that's the real birth of CATV, - cont
- cont, Free TV didn't disappear , as a matter of fact more and more transmitters and repeaters were installed, and now with HD and Digital compression even more local free channels are available. this Ad was just one industry protecting itself from another, reminds me of the fear Hollywood had over Video Tapes in the 80s, they faught so hard against video them, and now its one of their biggest money makers, they never envisioned the possibility that people would actually buy a movie.
Television was better when it was free. Now I am paying $189.00 a month for cable internet & phone survice, Man I remember seeing this comercial on tv back in the 70s. They had great programming from prime time to the horror shows on Friday & Saturday nights w/very few commercials and now they have you pay up the ass just to watch infomercials! :P
we have more choices now than if we kept only free tv.when i was a kid we had channels:4 5 7 9 11, and channel nine sucked so only four real channels! Now if you are willing to pa, you can have more than you can really watch! Progress rocks!!
@TheShadowEdge Its more of a merging of technologies, future TV will be a mix of the two, IPTV and smart Tvs ( or STB ) already exist, you can see this advance faster in the mobile phone market, with video, phone, texting, gaming etc. in Asia many phones have built in TV tuners, to pick up local analog or Digital DVB-T, etc. there are some other standards also. ATSC is what we use in the US for reg digital broadcasts..
It's true. I pay over $100 a month for what I used to watch for free. More channels, true. But for free, I didn't know any better and was still entertained. It's really a joke. Like paying for water in a bottle.
This ad was run at movie theaters knowing that commerical-free pay-TV would eventually put movie theaters (particularly drive-in theaters) out of business so they tried to scare us into thinking we'd have to pay for all programming.
Ads once paid for free TV. Now we pay $100 or more a month and are forced to watch more ads than ever. The effect of these soul-draining ads is stressful, oppressive, and despiriting. They suck back way more than you get out of watching TV in the first place. They bore you, glaze your eyes, prime you for cranky encounters that harm your family, and hammer your self-esteem down faster than the world-record Whack-A-Mole player could ever dream to do.
Well..considering for a family of 4 now to go to the movies including soda, popcorn, misc. items along with 4 tickets can cost upwards of $70. It's more of a luxury than just a weekend of enjoyment with your family. Families are lucky if they can go to the movies once a month now.
And now that gas is over $4.00 a gallon...people will be happy with their subscription to Netflix and just download a movie to watch instead.
The purpose had nothing to do with watching TV at home, but the movie theater industry worried that people will watch be watching cable network programming instead of their movies, and eventually we did, including their movies.
Less people actually go to the movies then they have in the past. Don't let the ticket gross sales numbers fool you, the cost of tickets have increased with the decline of actual ticket sales.
I did away w/ sattelite recently and now have just an antenna....and like it fine. I'd been wasting too much time surfing and listening to petty bickering/pundits/pissants. ...wish there were a move afoot to increase availability of "good" programing via antenna...but the current (gotta be a german word for...) way things are and the way they seem to be going for the time being, isn't antenna friendly it seems. ...still too many "monkeys on a rock" in the world human community.
@newnewly german word maybe 'zeitgeist' ['spirit of the times'] which is easy for me to remember because 'geist' so like 'ghost'
webster def=': the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era'
I haven't paid for cable in 15 years since they overcharged me even more than they were already overcharging me
many don't know that cable started out as just a signal improver over antenna, and you got the same shit just clearer. around 1980 when 'cable channels' started in earnest
@PorkFrog ...I was actually referring to (perhaps) another word...kinda beyond zeitgeist, encompassing "the way things seem to be going" as well as the current climate. "zeitgeist" may, in the broadest definition, include the future trend as well as the present state of things. ...sounds reasonable to me. thanks for your reply.
@IwshIcldstrtover His point is that anyone with cable TV is a dumbass.... fuck that guy LOL and fuck you too. Either you don't have cable or you are into getting called names. Either way, fuck you, because I have internet and I watch all my TV on here.
Internet is already there. Just that most service providers won't dick you like that. Ever heard of paying for a site that wasn't part of a server? Netflix has been fighting against one service provider because of that.
My point was that Kaiser used his cable TV companies to get the funds necessary to make himself one of the most powerful players in the insurance business, when he wasn't even remotely connected with it earlier on. Maybe this ad was trying to warn of the undue influence of people like Mr. Kaiser; that maybe they have other reasons for wanting people to pay for TV service, like making them and their partners among the most powerful and influential people in the world.
(continuation of previous post) the ground level of the insurance industry, and later used his money and influence to persuade then-President Nixon to sign into enactment the bill that created HMOs. If you've read this far, you by now have figured out that Mr. Kaiser is the Kaiser in Kaiser-Permanente insurance and medical facilities. All the evidence is in his companies' logos: all of them utilize the same one, that logo that looks like a lion on the outside of his affiliated HMOs.
Back in the time of this ad, there was a businessman named Edgar Kaiser who owned Kaiser Metals (a junk metals tycoon). In the late 1960s, he got into the "closed circuit" (later cable) TV industry and joined Globe Broadcasting to form Kaiser-Globe Broadcasting, which operated many independent UHF channels around the USA (Channel 56 in Boston MA, then known as WKGB-TV, now WLVI-TV, was one of them). He used the money he got from his metals business and his cable TV to get in on (continued)
imagine what they would think now? theyd be like "stop paying for tv,phones,internet,children,food,air,gas,money,and health" send your text to stoppayin now
I remember when cable advertised in the 80's "Commercial Free Television". People in the 80's said you paid for it because they didn't make money off commercials now look where were at...
What's incredible is that originally pay/cable television had no advertising, because you were paying for it. Then the cable operators began allowing ads and nobody raised hell. So now we have the same problem that cable tv originally solved.
American adverts today are the most annoying I've had the displeasure to exeperiance in my life anywhere. They wreck a programme your watching, their loud and in your face and they are on far to often. I don't know how you lot can handle it !!!
Paying for TV is not very smart at all. Internet and Wifi 100%. You get free communication, free videos , free news, and you can express your point of view or opinion about any subject or movie.
I'm 14 and my mom has only had cable like twice in my entire life, so I didn't watch much , but from what I remember it opens an entirely new world of bull shit where the show goes for 3 minutes and then there are 5 minutes of commercials. However, it also had t.v shows that I couldn't have watched otherwise. But I don't miss it, because now I can just watch everything online and for free. Or, buy dvd's of entire shows.... like Three's Company, for instance. I like old t.v shows btw, lol.
I don't have a cable bill I watch everything on the internet. merchandise is going to have advertising charged to you anyway let the advertising pay for the movies.
I will never pay for contenet with the exception of dvd's and going to the movies for the full experience
this reminds of those directTV channels where they inform customers in some state that this state wants to make it law that they pass a 8% sales tax to your Satellite bill and to contact your representitive
I'm thinking there should have been a petition that was for a law to make ads on paid tv illegal. I'm freaking paying for these channels, do I really need to watch ads to pay for it?
Maybe we would have been better off. Maybe America would have been a better place with only a few channels broadcasting only a handful of hours a day under strict censorship laws, where people were forced to do more productive things with their time. I think my life would be better if I hadn't wasted it in front of the T.V. for like half my life.
In the early/mid 60's CATV (Community Antenna Television) was a way to bring distant signals, and sometimes networks, to areas that could not otherwise see them. There were no superstations like WTBS or WGN, or movie networks like HBO back then
The FCC is planning to shrink the overall spectrum that is allocated to Free TV broadcasters in the U.S. by about 40 percent in the next five years. That spectrum would be used by cell phone operators and other wireless entrepreneurs to deliver new broadband services. Today, about 300MHz of spectrum has been set aside for free over-the-air TV broadcast.
For people who watch broadcast TV, reclaiming this spectrum could mean a loss of some channels. Not sure if this is good or Bad.
@manongjojo Im 37 and remember the box your talking of. We had that here in cincinnati ohio, although it was called OnTv here. They were the same company just had different names in different parts of the country, for the same kind of service. We never had it but it would sometimes it would be unscrambled. It aired on local tv stations from 12noon until 7am everyday, at least here it did on ch.64. It only lasted about 5years.
Ads supported by Hollywood like this, disguised as "pro-consumer", are all the more reason to prove guys like Tim Carney correct when they refer to corporatism and companies lobbying for more regulation, which at first seems contradictory to their interests, but makes some sense in the long term, esp. when you consider that corporations DON'T REALLY want a free market. They want all the gov't benefits they can get to get ahead of their competitors and maximize profits.
Why do they say "pay tv and cable tv companies" in this ad? Wtf was the difference between "pay tv" and "cable tv" companies?? Was "pay tv" how they referred to satellite?
@whoo689 I dont know how old you are but in the 80's Pay TV was a box that you plugged into your TV and at night they showed Movies on it. Preview was the name of the company in my area. That was for people who didnt have cable. Then there is cable where you used to get many channels from diffrent parts of the USA. It wasn't like the cable we have now with Discovery Channel HBO etc.
@Manongjojo I'm 23, so this ad is long before my time. Interesting... Sounds like something I'd be interested in, if the price was reasonable. After all, I've been a Netflix member for about 4 years and have watched many pirated movies through file-sharing devices, although I don't anymore. I don't care to waste time at the theater when I can be patient and download the movie online or just wait til it comes out on DVD and get it from Netflix. Esp. with the load of crap hollywood makes now.
Uh... what? People were getting 50-100 channels of TV for free before cable? I don't think so! That's where cable comes in. You want your local channels? You got em! free! But if you want extra, tough shit. No one has a right to more tv channels. I don't get this ad at all. So what if 5-10 of the SEVERAL channels in a cable tv package are local? That's the price you pay. You're paying for the EXTRA channels, not the local channels, dumb shit ad-makers. This is not like net neutrality.
At the least the internet has the ability to metamorphose around a number of different technologies so the reactive or the progressive sorts of consolidation are less likely, or at least more difficult.
Cable televison used to much better programming, their were NO advertisements! You paid to get away from that chit mon. Nowadays, the media mafia indates you with four minutes of commercials, four minutes of programming, so much money, they laugh at you dumass's!
i have rabbit ears and they work great now with the new digital converter! free tv still exists i get like 12 channels but its better than having 300 channels of nothing =)
Actually, these campaigns were successful, and as a consequence the FCC requires cable TV companies to provide all local broadcast channels as part of their standard package rather than charging individually for them.
What the hell happened .?? They should've signed the damned petition..my cable bill is almost more than my rent damn ~ It's a monopoly! LONG LIVE the INTERNET!!!
@U8ting "Long live the internet!" said the blind sheep who sends his check through the mail to the Internet Service Provider licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
okok i want to sign this petition..if we all go back in time to 1950 and sign then we could alter the future and get free tv...now all we got to do is find someone to build a time machine,,,,ill ask stewie from family guy
I like cerial.
piczogame 1 week ago
"this discussion was about the fact that we now pay more for cable than we ever did for ariel" Actually no, you claimed it was free. I've been educating you on how it has never been free.
Huboons 2 weeks ago
The fucking sheep didn't do a damn thing back then. Now we're paying 99 dollars for 100 Spanish Channels and 10 regular channels... PLUS you have to pay 40 more to watch a pay per view.
CURSE YOU SHEEPLE!!!
GarySpatzScam 1 month ago
Why would ANYONE pay to watch commercial television? It's ridiculous! Advertisers pay to air commercials and people pay to watch them! INSANE! When cable TV first came about the idea was that there would be no commercials. MTV was all music 24 hrs. a day. People slowly mindlessly give away their power. Don't believe it? Stop paying for cable TV and watch how quickly it becomes free again. Advertisers will do anything to get into your teeny little brain.
Vitotesta 3 months ago
hilariously prophetic as someone else said, I remember my dad refused to get cable tv for the longest fucking time when I was a kid, and he had lots of money he just wouldn't pay for something you got for free, all my friends had it but me, it was very gay trust me 7 channels sucks. 3-5-8-19-25-43-55 wow what a great choice, so I played NES alot, anyways I watch stuff online now rarely turn my tv on but to play games, so even cable tv is gonna be dead soon, from pirate internet tv.
killshitallday 5 months ago
yeah..that didn't work out so well. There's fuck all on either pay or cable anyways.
blackphoenix77 5 months ago
How prophetic-they were right now we all paying for something that should be free. Before cable free television was good.
1957arm 6 months ago
@1957arm "we all paying for something that should be free" You are owed TV?
Huboons 6 months ago
@Huboons Wasn't a constitutional right, but we did enjoy free tv for decades and now we don't. And the ad was correct when you consider all those old shows we used to get through ariel that TVland and Deja-view now charges to broadcast.
gaIIery 6 months ago
@gaIIery first of all TV has NEVER been free. It was paid for by advertisers. Just because YOU didn't pay doesn't make it free. And you weren't just commenting on what was available, you made a moral declaration that "we are all paying for something that should be free." Let me guess, you voted for Obama?
Huboons 6 months ago
@Huboons
just because you believe cable should be free doesn't mean anyone voted for Obama. This isn't something new.
since commercials are aired anyway, and more than half of what's on TV is crap why pay for it?
GrumpyOldAssFart 3 months ago
@GrumpyOldAssFart Then don't pay for it.
Huboons 3 months ago
Comment removed
gaIIery 2 weeks ago
@Huboon I remember when the only thing tv cost us was the time it took to sit through the commercials, and the electricity to power the set. It was, basically, free television. And I don't live in the U.S. so voting for Obama is not an option.
gaIIery 2 weeks ago
@gaIIery Uh numbnuts. Where do you think the money came from to broadcast over the public airwaves in your country? The magic TV money fairies? No it came from tax dollars. Granted, someone as stupid as you appear to be probably doesn't earn enough to pay taxes but someone else was paying for it. So it was never free.
Huboons 2 weeks ago
@Huboons But Troll, you said earlier that TV "was paid for by advertisers." Now you're saying it's tax dollars? Do you think NBC operates on money collected by Uncle Sam? And I said originally that we are now paying for entertainment that before never came with a monthly bill. Never made any "moral declaration that we are all paying for something that should be free". You're arguing with so many posters you can't even keep them all straight.
gaIIery 2 weeks ago
@gaIIery "Do you think NBC operates on money collected by Uncle Sam?" Communications are regulated in most countries by the government. The massive bureaucracy required to organize and and control the various forms of communication costs money. Governments pay for such things via taxation. Which is money that people (not you of course) have taken from them by that government.
Huboons 2 weeks ago
@Huboons Yes, you're correct that a portion of tax dollars goes to stuff like Cable Access & the FCC which oversees network standards & practices (fining CBS for airing Janet Jackson's nipple, for example). But that's nowhere near what you pay for something like local school taxes. The biggest increase in what you're paying for TV now is undoubtedly going to the privately-owned cable companies who charge you for watching channels 2 - 13, which 25 years ago you could see for pennies.
gaIIery 2 weeks ago
@gaIIery Pointing out other areas that cost more in taxation does not negate the fact that you wrong about TV being free. Secondly, pre-cable networks are also "privately owned" (property ownership being something you clearly despise), that is irrelevant to the fact that they are regulated, and that regulation is paid for by the productive people who also pay your welfare. Lastly, no one is forcing you to buy cable TV, you ARE forced to pay taxes. Please do wake the fuck up.
Huboons 2 weeks ago
@Huboons Ofcourse networks are privately owned, Troll (there's even a station near me that states their transmitter is owned and operated by their parent company). They don't get money from taxes; they get it from advertisers who, incredibly, you seem to feel sorry for that they have to pay for valuable commercial time. And, if you presently even watch cable, you can't possibly suggest that you're not now paying far more for tv than you were in the 80's. BTW, are you hard right now?
gaIIery 2 weeks ago
@gaIIery "They don't get money from taxes" No, the bureaucracy that controls the public airwaves that the private companies have to beg for permission to use does. Productive people pay those taxes. You also do not seem to have any understanding of the concept of value. Its a pretty important concept to understand if you ever want to have more than a child's understanding of financial or economic subjects, but I suspect even if you were capable, you aren't really interested.
Huboons 2 weeks ago
@Hubba-Bubba "No, the bureaucracy that controls the public airwaves that the private companies have to beg for permission to use, does." Yes, that's the way it's always been. BUT, this discussion was about the fact that we now pay more for cable than we ever did for ariel. If you want CNN, you must pay for stations you used to get off ariel for peanuts. That is the point that you are pretending not to see because trolling turns you on, doesn't it, you naughty thing? ;)
gaIIery 2 weeks ago
Hmmm. . .wonder who won THAT contest?
WSenator1 6 months ago
I totally agree with this. Why do I have to pay to watch the rose bowl? Why is pay TV so expensive?
johnnystaccata 6 months ago
If free tv were capable of making something as good as The Sopranos, I'd still be watching it instead of sending $80 per month to comcast.
CTHULHUSURVIVOR 6 months ago
Similar ads were run with the previews in movie theaters of the time as well.
tryggda 6 months ago
Lol...crazy. Home Box (HBO) got it's official start about 2-3 years after this PSA (?) aired. That's when the moneyball got rollin'! Now, today in 2011, I pay about $155.00 a month for that shit (cable & 'net--with HBO, which I am dumping after "Entourage" officially goes a wrap!). Might as well, though! Since the networks blow so damn good today that everytime I turn my 13-inch color set (that I copped back in '99 with one of my first paychecks) on, it's windy as FUCK in my pad! :D
BrooklynEagle 7 months ago
Comment removed
plushgamer15 7 months ago
Cable TV started as MATV ( master antenna ) systems, back in the day, most towns only had 1 or 2 TV channels, so a big tower with high gain antennas and amplifiers, were used to receive broadcasts from big cities, and distribute them. in other words your choice was to have 1 or 2 channels, or a dozen or so for about 5 bucks a month ( early 70s price ) later HBO saw opportunity to distribute a private ch. and used satellites to link with MATV systems, that's the real birth of CATV, - cont
gilgamesh1962 7 months ago
- cont, Free TV didn't disappear , as a matter of fact more and more transmitters and repeaters were installed, and now with HD and Digital compression even more local free channels are available. this Ad was just one industry protecting itself from another, reminds me of the fear Hollywood had over Video Tapes in the 80s, they faught so hard against video them, and now its one of their biggest money makers, they never envisioned the possibility that people would actually buy a movie.
gilgamesh1962 7 months ago
i steal cable
fuckiraq12 7 months ago
And now analogue tv, is dead...they told us
ChrisGnosis 7 months ago
Television was better when it was free. Now I am paying $189.00 a month for cable internet & phone survice, Man I remember seeing this comercial on tv back in the 70s. They had great programming from prime time to the horror shows on Friday & Saturday nights w/very few commercials and now they have you pay up the ass just to watch infomercials! :P
Godzie1 8 months ago 8
There is FREE TV on the air now.... digital over the air.... Free and in HD! Most new TVs can get this and older ones need a converter box! True!
poikaa3 8 months ago 2
@poikaa3 how do I get this?
Godzie1 8 months ago
@poikaa3
I can't get free HDTV, unless I have basic cable then I get all the other HDTV channels.
GrumpyOldAssFart 3 months ago
They won. Again.
kashmirpage 8 months ago
we have more choices now than if we kept only free tv.when i was a kid we had channels:4 5 7 9 11, and channel nine sucked so only four real channels! Now if you are willing to pa, you can have more than you can really watch! Progress rocks!!
1madeintheimage 8 months ago
@1madeintheimage
yep now theres 5000 channels ... and yet still theres nothing good on lol
brickman409 7 months ago
@brickman409 I know! Screw it i'm going hiking!
1madeintheimage 7 months ago
The internet is replacing cable TV.
TheShadowEdge 8 months ago 3
@TheShadowEdge Its more of a merging of technologies, future TV will be a mix of the two, IPTV and smart Tvs ( or STB ) already exist, you can see this advance faster in the mobile phone market, with video, phone, texting, gaming etc. in Asia many phones have built in TV tuners, to pick up local analog or Digital DVB-T, etc. there are some other standards also. ATSC is what we use in the US for reg digital broadcasts..
gilgamesh1962 7 months ago
It's true. I pay over $100 a month for what I used to watch for free. More channels, true. But for free, I didn't know any better and was still entertained. It's really a joke. Like paying for water in a bottle.
unclebobunclebob 9 months ago
son of a bitch i wont the free tv they drop the ball on that 1
jonathan92485 9 months ago
This ad was run at movie theaters knowing that commerical-free pay-TV would eventually put movie theaters (particularly drive-in theaters) out of business so they tried to scare us into thinking we'd have to pay for all programming.
WytZox1 9 months ago
lets start this campaign again I am sick of paying for cable!
xpez 9 months ago
thankfully the internet came and filled the gapping whole that was left by free over air tv,now you can get what you want if you look for it.
glowingdemon 9 months ago
@glowingdemon You just need to get a computer. And internet access, somewhere, from someone.
cochranexyz 9 months ago
im gay
aasouls 9 months ago
Ads once paid for free TV. Now we pay $100 or more a month and are forced to watch more ads than ever. The effect of these soul-draining ads is stressful, oppressive, and despiriting. They suck back way more than you get out of watching TV in the first place. They bore you, glaze your eyes, prime you for cranky encounters that harm your family, and hammer your self-esteem down faster than the world-record Whack-A-Mole player could ever dream to do.
countingmx 10 months ago 4
Man, where can I sign that petition!
Capt777harris 10 months ago
Well..considering for a family of 4 now to go to the movies including soda, popcorn, misc. items along with 4 tickets can cost upwards of $70. It's more of a luxury than just a weekend of enjoyment with your family. Families are lucky if they can go to the movies once a month now.
And now that gas is over $4.00 a gallon...people will be happy with their subscription to Netflix and just download a movie to watch instead.
texasghost 10 months ago
Hmmm, this commercial worked well....
potsy5656 10 months ago
The movie theater business' futile efforts to protect themselves.
Pay TV and Cable were the only ways many people in remote areas would be able to get anything on television.
mjd001 10 months ago
If we pay for TV, then why all the ads ? At first there were very few. We were duped.
zipharpo 1 year ago 3
Forget TV, Internet FTW !!!
DAtNizzaYOuKnOw 1 year ago
The purpose had nothing to do with watching TV at home, but the movie theater industry worried that people will watch be watching cable network programming instead of their movies, and eventually we did, including their movies.
Less people actually go to the movies then they have in the past. Don't let the ticket gross sales numbers fool you, the cost of tickets have increased with the decline of actual ticket sales.
The55nomad 1 year ago
That monster sure got out of control over the years
Marvcohen 1 year ago 10
I did away w/ sattelite recently and now have just an antenna....and like it fine. I'd been wasting too much time surfing and listening to petty bickering/pundits/pissants. ...wish there were a move afoot to increase availability of "good" programing via antenna...but the current (gotta be a german word for...) way things are and the way they seem to be going for the time being, isn't antenna friendly it seems. ...still too many "monkeys on a rock" in the world human community.
newnewly 1 year ago
@newnewly german word maybe 'zeitgeist' ['spirit of the times'] which is easy for me to remember because 'geist' so like 'ghost'
webster def=': the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era'
I haven't paid for cable in 15 years since they overcharged me even more than they were already overcharging me
many don't know that cable started out as just a signal improver over antenna, and you got the same shit just clearer. around 1980 when 'cable channels' started in earnest
PorkFrog 1 year ago
@PorkFrog ...I was actually referring to (perhaps) another word...kinda beyond zeitgeist, encompassing "the way things seem to be going" as well as the current climate. "zeitgeist" may, in the broadest definition, include the future trend as well as the present state of things. ...sounds reasonable to me. thanks for your reply.
newnewly 1 year ago
People got cable TV largely because the signal quality was better.
sageofsuccess 1 year ago
@badattitude77769 You spelled dumbass wrong dumbass.
MrUsername5678888 1 year ago
@MrUsername5678888 Who cares. Their point is made, and well said!
IwshIcldstrtover 1 year ago
@IwshIcldstrtover His point is that anyone with cable TV is a dumbass.... fuck that guy LOL and fuck you too. Either you don't have cable or you are into getting called names. Either way, fuck you, because I have internet and I watch all my TV on here.
MrUsername5678888 1 year ago
@MrUsername5678888 wont be long before internet goes the way of tv... enjoy the freedom
Teph87 1 year ago
@Teph87
Internet is already there. Just that most service providers won't dick you like that. Ever heard of paying for a site that wasn't part of a server? Netflix has been fighting against one service provider because of that.
laughingfurry 11 months ago
@MrUsername5678888 DO YOU WATCH YOUR GAY PORN ONLY ON THE INTERNET???
Purplecatsoup30 1 year ago
pretty cool ad.. i would have to smoke a kilo of weed if there were commercials every 4 minutes
jonne4life 1 year ago
well that campaign worked well...
pineapplehairdo 1 year ago
wow.. back then there was T.V. Neutrality.. Now we are looking at loosing Net Neutrality.. Just try to say history doesn't repeat itself!
SuperShelman 1 year ago
wow.. back then there was T.V. Neutrality.. Now were are looking at loosing Net Neutrality.. Just try to say history doesn't repeat itself!
SuperShelman 1 year ago
My point was that Kaiser used his cable TV companies to get the funds necessary to make himself one of the most powerful players in the insurance business, when he wasn't even remotely connected with it earlier on. Maybe this ad was trying to warn of the undue influence of people like Mr. Kaiser; that maybe they have other reasons for wanting people to pay for TV service, like making them and their partners among the most powerful and influential people in the world.
elc1960 1 year ago
(continuation of previous post) the ground level of the insurance industry, and later used his money and influence to persuade then-President Nixon to sign into enactment the bill that created HMOs. If you've read this far, you by now have figured out that Mr. Kaiser is the Kaiser in Kaiser-Permanente insurance and medical facilities. All the evidence is in his companies' logos: all of them utilize the same one, that logo that looks like a lion on the outside of his affiliated HMOs.
elc1960 1 year ago
Back in the time of this ad, there was a businessman named Edgar Kaiser who owned Kaiser Metals (a junk metals tycoon). In the late 1960s, he got into the "closed circuit" (later cable) TV industry and joined Globe Broadcasting to form Kaiser-Globe Broadcasting, which operated many independent UHF channels around the USA (Channel 56 in Boston MA, then known as WKGB-TV, now WLVI-TV, was one of them). He used the money he got from his metals business and his cable TV to get in on (continued)
elc1960 1 year ago
I pay cable because the free channels programmes suck.
winkpolve 1 year ago
@winkpolve What if it was all there was? You'd be spending the time you don't watch TV perhaps doing something constructive?
IwshIcldstrtover 1 year ago
ABC NBC & CBS all knew that it wouldn't be long until (the best News channel) FOX NEWS would come along and totally crush them.
DrHogfan 1 year ago
imagine what they would think now? theyd be like "stop paying for tv,phones,internet,children,food,air,gas,money,and health" send your text to stoppayin now
MrZinkle 1 year ago
Seems like this worked out real well since we pay for tv and everything else now.
Dartht33bagger 1 year ago
I remember when cable advertised in the 80's "Commercial Free Television". People in the 80's said you paid for it because they didn't make money off commercials now look where were at...
sleepwalker29 1 year ago
With groovy music like that, they couldn't be lying to us!
primemover17 1 year ago
What's incredible is that originally pay/cable television had no advertising, because you were paying for it. Then the cable operators began allowing ads and nobody raised hell. So now we have the same problem that cable tv originally solved.
jsuttonus 1 year ago
American adverts today are the most annoying I've had the displeasure to exeperiance in my life anywhere. They wreck a programme your watching, their loud and in your face and they are on far to often. I don't know how you lot can handle it !!!
Frates1 1 year ago
Paying for TV is not very smart at all. Internet and Wifi 100%. You get free communication, free videos , free news, and you can express your point of view or opinion about any subject or movie.
TheBelldiver 1 year ago
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Super1ofmany 1 year ago
@TheBelldiver yeah, the perfect soloution in 1969 btw you're right nowadays though i gave up my cable 2yrs ago and haven't missed any of my fav shows
Super1ofmany 1 year ago
Seeing as how we're paying today, I'm guessing it didn't go over so well back then..
easyrider788 1 year ago
TV Programming is just filler between commercials.
mutexnet 1 year ago 48
@mutexnet
Past TV Programming had meaning for the time. Current TV Programming is just filler between commercials.
laughingfurry 11 months ago
with digital off air,no reason for cable tv.
MrTabby5000 1 year ago
Looks like they lost.
FamilyOfMan1975 1 year ago
I ditched that shit last year. I just got tired of paying to have cable companies deliver ads to my home.
sanitarium09 1 year ago
it is like the paying for facebook and myspace scam...same thing
2010theraver 1 year ago
I'm 14 and my mom has only had cable like twice in my entire life, so I didn't watch much , but from what I remember it opens an entirely new world of bull shit where the show goes for 3 minutes and then there are 5 minutes of commercials. However, it also had t.v shows that I couldn't have watched otherwise. But I don't miss it, because now I can just watch everything online and for free. Or, buy dvd's of entire shows.... like Three's Company, for instance. I like old t.v shows btw, lol.
HeavyMetalAddict918 1 year ago
For some reason, when they first started putting in cable, they first started in the government housing projects. At least in Trenton NJ.
squeehunter 1 year ago
hahahahahaha i wish i lived back then free tv
eeeewd33 1 year ago
@eeeewd33 They have free tv now lol.
EroticBidoofFixation 1 year ago
I don't have a cable bill I watch everything on the internet. merchandise is going to have advertising charged to you anyway let the advertising pay for the movies.
I will never pay for contenet with the exception of dvd's and going to the movies for the full experience
lostbuffalo 1 year ago
Obviously people WANTED to buy crappy programming back in the day, Fuck you old people!!!
fLiPpAntMisSCreanT 1 year ago
Almost literally true. How often do you see your local TV stations showing movies? All on cable now
luridplanet 1 year ago 2
If only my cable bill was a hideous chomping monster, maybe then people would understand why I cut cable in 2000
atomicradiotheater 1 year ago
this reminds of those directTV channels where they inform customers in some state that this state wants to make it law that they pass a 8% sales tax to your Satellite bill and to contact your representitive
odog65 1 year ago
I'm thinking there should have been a petition that was for a law to make ads on paid tv illegal. I'm freaking paying for these channels, do I really need to watch ads to pay for it?
exodous02 1 year ago
I guess no one signed the petition
sharky5921 1 year ago
@sharky5921 I did :(
sjk72 1 year ago
@sjk72 I wish I could sign that petition but I wasn't born then
sharky5921 1 year ago
Nothing is free anymore! Money talk$ and bulls-- walk$
mondocaneman 1 year ago
Maybe we would have been better off. Maybe America would have been a better place with only a few channels broadcasting only a handful of hours a day under strict censorship laws, where people were forced to do more productive things with their time. I think my life would be better if I hadn't wasted it in front of the T.V. for like half my life.
I need to reevaluate some things now. D:
TuxedoRonny 1 year ago 2
We had our chance.
We did not listen.
;)
ccie12933 1 year ago 86
@ccie12933 People try to warn us all the time but do we ever listen?...Hell no!
amzuel420 1 year ago
@ccie12933 We didnt listen!
TheRealKamikaze 7 months ago
@ccie12933
DO WE EVER?
GG1man 7 months ago
Free TV my ass. They took off the local TV station off of my cable and moved it to the satellite stations. Why would anyone want to watch local shit?
scottieman2 1 year ago
What a pity they lost and the cable guys won.
DockScience 1 year ago
wow these uploads are such cheesy goodness! ^_^ Takes me back to a time before my time!
customcartoons 1 year ago 2
Yep. Everybody's paying for what they could have gotten for free anyways. Silly ad campaign though.
cheepnis44 1 year ago
It's mostly spanish channels that are free now, due to obvious reasons.
KetamineFix 1 year ago
@KetamineFix Because people want to learn Spanish, since US will soon change its main language to Spanish, duh.
D4rkSh4d0wZ 1 year ago
Man that worked!!!!!!
chinchillas2cool 1 year ago
I wonder if this ad was on that Wet video game somewhere.
xsnrgman 1 year ago
Aww they tried didn't they.
camilia198773 1 year ago
Too late now we're all addicts now
Wa3ypx 1 year ago
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THReynolds2 1 year ago
Comment removed
THReynolds2 1 year ago
In the early/mid 60's CATV (Community Antenna Television) was a way to bring distant signals, and sometimes networks, to areas that could not otherwise see them. There were no superstations like WTBS or WGN, or movie networks like HBO back then
THReynolds2 1 year ago
Incidentally, that's veteran announcer Hank Simms' voice in this ad...
fromthesidelines 1 year ago
@unknownartiste1
i don't think you get it.
jetflock 1 year ago
The FCC is planning to shrink the overall spectrum that is allocated to Free TV broadcasters in the U.S. by about 40 percent in the next five years. That spectrum would be used by cell phone operators and other wireless entrepreneurs to deliver new broadband services. Today, about 300MHz of spectrum has been set aside for free over-the-air TV broadcast.
For people who watch broadcast TV, reclaiming this spectrum could mean a loss of some channels. Not sure if this is good or Bad.
Lucem2 1 year ago
@Lucem2 Well aren't they gaining something anyways because of the end of the analogue signal (at least for TV, radio not yet)?
595o 9 months ago
I remember one reason for getting cable, was because it was supposed to be commercial free...so much for that.
actually, it was commercial free when I was a a teen in the early to mid 80's
macroevolve 1 year ago
we lost the fight
BossHossGT500 1 year ago
So primitive this add looks soviet
heatflash888 1 year ago
@manongjojo Im 37 and remember the box your talking of. We had that here in cincinnati ohio, although it was called OnTv here. They were the same company just had different names in different parts of the country, for the same kind of service. We never had it but it would sometimes it would be unscrambled. It aired on local tv stations from 12noon until 7am everyday, at least here it did on ch.64. It only lasted about 5years.
rick62173 1 year ago
omg this is fascinating i love it!
my parents never paid for TV ever. and i live with them and i would never consider it unless i were like a millionaire or something!
thebrujaisbackagain 1 year ago
Ads supported by Hollywood like this, disguised as "pro-consumer", are all the more reason to prove guys like Tim Carney correct when they refer to corporatism and companies lobbying for more regulation, which at first seems contradictory to their interests, but makes some sense in the long term, esp. when you consider that corporations DON'T REALLY want a free market. They want all the gov't benefits they can get to get ahead of their competitors and maximize profits.
whoo689 1 year ago
Why do they say "pay tv and cable tv companies" in this ad? Wtf was the difference between "pay tv" and "cable tv" companies?? Was "pay tv" how they referred to satellite?
whoo689 1 year ago
@whoo689 I dont know how old you are but in the 80's Pay TV was a box that you plugged into your TV and at night they showed Movies on it. Preview was the name of the company in my area. That was for people who didnt have cable. Then there is cable where you used to get many channels from diffrent parts of the USA. It wasn't like the cable we have now with Discovery Channel HBO etc.
Manongjojo 1 year ago
@Manongjojo I'm 23, so this ad is long before my time. Interesting... Sounds like something I'd be interested in, if the price was reasonable. After all, I've been a Netflix member for about 4 years and have watched many pirated movies through file-sharing devices, although I don't anymore. I don't care to waste time at the theater when I can be patient and download the movie online or just wait til it comes out on DVD and get it from Netflix. Esp. with the load of crap hollywood makes now.
whoo689 1 year ago
@whoo689
Yea I give my age away. LOL when I was younger I remember when all the stations signned off after midnight.
Manongjojo 1 year ago
Uh... what? People were getting 50-100 channels of TV for free before cable? I don't think so! That's where cable comes in. You want your local channels? You got em! free! But if you want extra, tough shit. No one has a right to more tv channels. I don't get this ad at all. So what if 5-10 of the SEVERAL channels in a cable tv package are local? That's the price you pay. You're paying for the EXTRA channels, not the local channels, dumb shit ad-makers. This is not like net neutrality.
whoo689 1 year ago
Anyone claiming parallels between this campaign and net neutrality are fucking morons.
whoo689 1 year ago
yes this is the 1969 ad stop cable.
This is my 1st to see this on YOUTUBE.
Lucky they never shown this in the Philippines
hilarioph 1 year ago
To stop cable? we have it already including
in the Philippines and soon DTV. Hello!!!!!!
hilarioph 1 year ago
@hilarioph You realize that this was a 1969 ad. Right?
mangisda 1 year ago
shame they failed - really
MarkP0rter 1 year ago
At the least the internet has the ability to metamorphose around a number of different technologies so the reactive or the progressive sorts of consolidation are less likely, or at least more difficult.
clownfragment 1 year ago
Now you can pay to watch commercials too - suckers
luridplanet 1 year ago
Cable televison used to much better programming, their were NO advertisements! You paid to get away from that chit mon. Nowadays, the media mafia indates you with four minutes of commercials, four minutes of programming, so much money, they laugh at you dumass's!
badattitude77769 1 year ago 34
@badattitude77769 you are right cable was so much better back in the day.
DoktorSick 1 year ago
i wonder how that worked for them
bluezstar12 1 year ago
too bad this shit didnt pass.
hippiehippiehoorah1 1 year ago
Remember, kids....
" Pay-TV is demonic. It will drain your soul and take you and your family to hell" :P
dboy122660 1 year ago
Stopping pay TV was about as successful as putting a stop to illegal immigration.
xxdonaldqxx 1 year ago
@xxdonaldqxx ...and just as silly as the war on drugs, child education, cancer, homelessness, terror and the biggest ruse of all, saving the planet.
AvEryBadApPLe 1 year ago
Nothing is free.
DocWyoming 1 year ago
i have rabbit ears and they work great now with the new digital converter! free tv still exists i get like 12 channels but its better than having 300 channels of nothing =)
downeyb 1 year ago
Actually, these campaigns were successful, and as a consequence the FCC requires cable TV companies to provide all local broadcast channels as part of their standard package rather than charging individually for them.
kludgeaudio 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
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MrBigPoppa43 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
ELIMINATE YOUR CABLE OR SATELLITE TV BILL FOREVER: freetvmoviesonlineinfo.blogspot(DOT)com
MrBigPoppa43 1 year ago
Too late
grapper6676 1 year ago
Evil cable TV!! It will destroy everything!!
Lockbar 1 year ago
What is TV? I was captured by enemy soldiers in WW1, escaped to the jungle and have only just now reached civilization
sooper2dooper3 1 year ago
What the hell happened .?? They should've signed the damned petition..my cable bill is almost more than my rent damn ~ It's a monopoly! LONG LIVE the INTERNET!!!
U8ting 1 year ago 19
@U8ting "Long live the internet!" said the blind sheep who sends his check through the mail to the Internet Service Provider licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
PancakesoftheLove 1 year ago
What the hell happened ...my cable bill is almost more than my rent damn monopoly! LONG LIVE the INTERNET!!!
U8ting 1 year ago
@U8ting read books
testodude 1 year ago
Some good that did.
krh0108 1 year ago
seems like we have to pay for everything now.
blueeyesofice 1 year ago
okok i want to sign this petition..if we all go back in time to 1950 and sign then we could alter the future and get free tv...now all we got to do is find someone to build a time machine,,,,ill ask stewie from family guy
doosriradha 1 year ago