Pay television, premium television, or premium channels refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and internet television. Subscription television began in the multi-channel transition and transitioned into the post-network era. Some parts of the world, notably in France and the United States, have also offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals, available for subscription.
Subscription based or pay television has resulted in a change in what type of content is broadcast by these networks. This model has led to networks creating much more specialized types of shows to influence viewers to subscribe. Subscription networks are most concerned with providing content that will make people want to subscribe as well as renew subscriptions rather than who is watching and when this viewing is taking place.
Due to the unedited nature of premium services, it is typical for large amounts of profanity, nudity/sexual situations, violence and other adult content to be shown since they are not subject to approval by sponsors. To notify viewers of program content, most premium channels air advisory bumpers immediately before each program, mentioning the program rating (typically not applying to live sporting events) and program content information (i.e., since the 1990s, premium channels in the United States use content descriptors describing potentially objectionable content included in the program, such as mild violence (identified as "MV") or strong sexual content (identified as "SSC")); additional features included in the television program (such as closed captioning and surround sound functions, and alternate-language audio tracks via secondary audio program feeds) may also be mentioned.
Movies comprise much of the program content seen on pay television services with a general entertainment format; films that are broadcast on most premium channels in their original theatrically-released (and in some cases, unrated home video or DVD) versions; this is in comparison to films aired on terrestrial television or basic cable, which may be subject to edits for time and/or content, depending on what content a jurisdiction allows to be shown over-the-air or on basic cable. Many pay television services obtain rights to films through exclusive agreements with film distributors; films acquired during original term of license agreements with a distributor may also be broadcast long after the conclusion of a distribution agreement, via "sub-run" rights.
Many general interest premium channels also produce original television series, which feature content that in some jurisdictions may be edgier than such programs seen on broadcast networks; many of these series (such as HBO's The Sopranos and Sex and the City and Showtime's Dexter) have gone on to achieve viewer, critical and accolade success, though they are subject to a lower audience ratings threshold than programs on broadcast television due to the fact that these channels are subscription-based. Some premium channels also broadcast television specials, which most commonly consist of concert events, documentary films and stand-up comedy acts.
Sports programming is also featured on some premium services, in particular HBO and Showtime in the United States are both notable for their carriage of boxing events, while Showtime and Epix also carry mixed martial arts events; specialty pay sports channels such as Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Plus exist and are typically sold at a higher expense than traditional premium services. Some pay services also offer pornographic films; a few mainstream services (such as Cinemax in the U.S. and The Movie Network's MExcess in Canada) carry a limited amount of softcore content during late night time periods. Specialized channels dedicated to pornographic films also exist that carry either softcore adult programs (e.g. Playboy TV) or slightly more hardcore content (e.g., The Erotic Network, Hustler TV), these channels are often sold on a night-by-night basis similar to the pay-per-view model, even though they commonly operate as 24-hour channels.
Premium television services are commonly devoid of traditional commercial advertising, therefore programs on most pay television channels are uninterrupted by television commercials with breaks inserted between programs that typically feature promotions for upcoming programs and special behind-the-scenes features (this is the main reason why most subscription television channels are able to run programs without any editing, as they are not subject to pressure from advertisers to tone down content); some sports-based pay services, however, may feature some commercial advertising, particularly if they simulcast sporting events that are broadcast by advertiser-supported television networks.
Pay television channels come in different price ranges. Many channels carrying advertising combine this income with a lower subscription fee. These are called "mini-pay" channels and are often sold as a part of a package with numerous similarly priced channels. Sometimes, the subscriptions are also sold "a la carte", allowing consumers to select which channels they subscribe to. Usually however the regular pricing for premium channels ranges from just under $10 to near $25 per month per suite, with lower prices available via bundling options with cable or satellite providers, or special limited offers which are available during free preview periods or before the launch of a network's prestige series. However some other channels, such as sports and adult networks may ask for monthly pricing that may go as high as near $50 a month.
There are also premium television services which have a significantly higher price than the mini-pay channels, but they compensate for their higher price by carrying little or no advertising and also providing a higher quality output. As advertising sales are sensitive to the business cycle, some broadcasters try to balance them with more stable income from subscriptions. Many television providers offer general interest or movie-based premium channels at no additional charge for a trial period (often one to three months) for newer subscribers to that provider's television service.
Some providers offer channels owned by the same company in a single package. For example, American satellite provider DirecTV offers the Encore channels along with the Starz channels in its "Starz Super Pack"; and The Movie Channel, Flix and Sundance Channel (the latter of which continues to be sold in the DirecTV package despite Showtime Networks no longer owning Sundance, now owned by AMC Networks) along with Showtime in its "Showtime Unlimited" package. HBO in turn almost always packages Cinemax and its sister networks with HBO. Many pay television services offer multiplex services also sold with the main channel, that broadcast on a different schedule from the main channel often using a channel-specific formats containing genre-based programming (ex.; one channel may feature family-oriented programming, another may feature action films) or programming aimed at a specific target audience. In Canada, HBO Canada is included in two separate packages: The Movie Network package, as well as the Movie Central package (as the two services are split to serve Western Canada and Eastern Canada, respectively).
Though selling premium services that are related by ownership as a package is common, that may not always be the situation: for example, Canada's Family is generally sold independently from The Movie Network and The Movie Network Encore (all three networks are owned by Astral Media, though Family is distributed throughout the country unlike the TMN channels); The Movie Network Encore is also sold separately from The Movie Network (which spun off the channel in 1994) by some cable and satellite providers in Eastern Canada, though other providers offer both networks and their multiplex channels as a package. In the United States, Cinemax and Encore are optionally sold separately from or in a single package with their respective parent networks HBO and Starz (owned by Time Warner and Starz, LLC, respectively), depending on the service provider. The Movie Channel and Flix meanwhile, are usually sold together with Showtime (all three channels are owned by CBS Corporation), though subscribers are required to purchase Showtime in order to receive Flix, The Movie Channel does not have such a restriction as a few providers optionally sell that channel without requiring a Showtime subscription.
Unlike other cable networks, premium services are almost always subscribed to a la carte cable television, meaning that one can, for example, subscribe to HBO without subscribing to Showtime (in Canada, there are slight modifications, as most providers include U.S. superstations – such as WGN-TV, KTLA and WPCH-TV – with their main premium package by default). However, subscribing to an "individual" service automatically includes access to all of that service's available multiplex channels and, in some cases, access to content via video-on-demand. Most pay television providers also offer a selection of premium services (for example, the HBO, Showtime and Starz packages) in one bundle at a much reduced price than purchasing each service separately, as an inducement for subscribers to remain with their company or for others to induce subscribers into using their service.
Pay television has become popular with cable and satellite television. Most pay TV services now offer multiplex packages, in which the service offers several channels of programming rather than just one. Pay television services often, at least two to three times per year, provide subscribers free previews of their services, in order to court potential subscribers by allowing this wider audience to sample the service; these are typically scheduled to showcase major special event programming, such as the pay cable premiere of a blockbuster feature film or the premiere (either a series or season premiere) of a widely anticipated or critically acclaimed original series.
There have also been some subscription services on analogue terrestrial television, to varying degrees of success. Canal+ has operated a national analogue terrestrial pay channel in France from 1984 until the 2011 closedown of analogue television, when it transitioned to digital with the other terrestrial analogue channels. Its Spanish counterpart, Canal+ Spain, also broadcasted nationally between 1990 and 2005. Some U.S. television stations launched pay services (known simply as "subscription television" services) such as SuperTV, Wometco Home Theater, Prism, Preview, SelecTV and ONTV in the late 1970s, but those services disappeared as competition from cable television expanded during the 1980s.
In some countries, the launch of digital terrestrial television has meant that pay television has become increasingly popular in countries with regular antennas.
The major distributors of pay television in Australia are Foxtel, Optus Television, Austar, SelecTV and TransACT, all of which provide cable services in some metropolitan areas, and satellite for all areas of the nation where cable is not available.
Pay-per-view (PPV) services are similar to subscription-based pay TV services in that customers must pay to have the broadcast decrypted for viewing, but usually only entail a one-time payment for a single or time-limited viewing. Programs offered via pay-per-view are most often movies or sporting events, but may also include other events, such as concerts and even softcore adult programs. In the U.S., the first pay-per-view idea and technology for broadcast television was first developed in the early 1950s, including a crude decrypting of the over-the-air TV signal and a decoding box but never caught on or use at that time. It took another four decades when cable broadcasters started using pay-per-view on a widespread basis.
"Free" variants are free-to-air (FTA) and free-to-view (FTV); however FTV services are normally encrypted and decryption cards either come as part of an initial subscription to a pay TV bouquet, i.e. an offer of pay-TV channels, or can be purchased for a one-time cost.
Selective access of free content
South Africa - M-Net, DStv, TopTV
Zimbabwe - Wiztech, DStv,
Japan - NHK World Premium, Fuji TV OneTwoNext
India - DD Direct+, Dish TV, Airtel digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Sun Direct DTH, Tata Sky, Videocon D2H
Indonesia - AoraTV, Indovision, TelkomVision
Sri Lanka - Dialog TV, LBN, PEO TV, TV Lanka
Thailand - TrueVisions
Vietnam - SCTV
Austria - Sky Deutschland, AustriaSat
Albania - Digitalb, Tring Digital
Belgium - Telenet Digital TV, Belgacom TV, Numericable Digital TV, VOO, Scarlet Digital TV, TV Vlaanderen, TéléSAT
Croatia - MaxTV, Vipnet B.Net, evo TV, Digi TV
Cyprus - LTV, Alfa TV, NOVA Cyprus
Czech Republic - UPC Czech Republic, Digi-TV, CS Link
France - Canalsat, Canal+, Numericable Digital TV
Germany - Sky Deutschland
Greece - Nova Cinema, Nova Sports, Disney Channel, Disney XD, MAD Greekz
Italy - Sky Italia (after merging Stream TV and TELE+), Mediaset Premium
Ireland - Sky Digital, UPC
Netherlands - Film1, Sport1, HBO, Eredivisie Live, Dusk!
Russia - NTV Plus
Poland - Canal+, nc+, Cyfrowy Polsat, HBO, Cinemax
Portugal - TVCine, SportTV, Disney Cinemagic, TV Globo Portugal, Caça e Pesca, Playboy TV, Festa Brava, Hot
Serbia - TotalTV, SBB, Digi TV, Open IPTV
Slovakia - UPC, Digi-TV, SkyLink
Spain - Canal+
Sweden - C More Entertainment, Viasat Sport, TV1000
Switzerland - Teleclub
Turkey - Digiturk, D-Smart, Teledünya
United Kingdom - Sky Digital, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable, Top Up TV, BT Vision WightFibre TalkTalk TV
Canada - The Movie Network, The Movie Network Encore, Movie Central, Super Channel, Super Écran, HBO Canada, AXN Movies, WarnerFilms, MGM Channel, Sony Movie Channel, AOV Adult Movie Channel, Red Hot TV, Vanessa, HARDtv, Maleflixxx Television, XXX Action Clips Channel, Hustler TV, Penthouse TV
Mexico - HBO, Playboy TV
United States - HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix, Starz, Encore, MoviePlex, Epix, Playboy TV, Hustler TV, Penthouse TV, Baby First TV, Fox Soccer Plus, NFL RedZone, here!
Brazil - HBO/Cinemax pack, Rede Telecine pack, Premiere FC, Combate, Playboy TV Brazil, Venus, Sextreme, Sexy Hot, CinePrive
Chile - HBO/Cinemax pack, Moviecity channels, CDF, Fox Sports Premium, Playboy TV, Venus
Australia - Foxtel, Optus Television, Austar, Movie Network, showtime movie channels
New Zealand - Sky Network Television
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