SuperTV

SuperTV

Type	Pay television network
Country
Availability	United States

Super TV was an early form of subscription television which was offered to the public as either an additional viewing alternative to HBO & Showtime, or, like many in the area at that time who did not have cable service in their area(s). To many, Super TV served as the only choice to see recently-run movies & various musical specials all unedited and commercial-free. After originally operating in the Washington, D.C. area beginning in November 1981 on UHF channel 50 WFTY (presently WDCW), Super TV expanded into the Baltimore area in July 1982 on channel 54 WNUV.Unlike other pay TV channels, Super TV only broadcast from 7pm to 1am Monday - Friday and 3 pm to 1 am weekends.

Subscribers received a 12 inch by 12 inch brown decoder box and a dedicated UHF antenna which was installed on the roof or on a balcony and aimed at the station's transmitter. When attached to a television, the box would filter in the Super TV movie channel. In the evening, subscribers could view a host of movies that were scheduled to play at that time.

A wide variety of 70's & 80's films including The China Syndrome, Ordinary People, Private Benjamin, 9 to 5, The Exorcist, Diner, Flashdance, On Golden Pond, Ran, 48 Hrs. and Poltergeist were some of the more popular films that aired. The channel did feature foreign & independent film, as well as the occasional horror film, but they primarily stayed away from films in the slasher genre, which was enormous at the time. For an additional monthly charge, Super TV also aired an after hours program titled "Night Life", where adults could watch soft-core versions of adult shows and movies; This service typically ran from 11pm to 2am Thursday - Sunday only. Customers who did not pay for this service found their signals scrambled shortly after the beginning of the "Night Life" intro. Super TV subscribers also received a monthly or weekly movie guide, in catalog format, telling them when their favorite films would be playing. Because of its limited broadcast hours, they often limited repeat runs of certain films to once or twice a month.

The decoder used was the Zenith SSAVI (sync suppression and video inversion) decoder and had no external controls other than a small chrome colored button on its top to select normal television or Super TV. To defeat simple descrambling techniques, video inversion was done selectively, often when the video frame was light overall, thus causing the scrambled picture to remain darker than the elevated sync pulses. In certain cases, video was inverted on alternate frames. The audio transmitted on the standard audio channel was a "barker" announcement, informing would-be customers that Super TV was a scrambled service and required a subscription. The audio for the Super TV movies was encoded in a manner such that normal televisions would not decode it. The station could address each box individually to authorize decoding of programs, including one-time broadcasts or adult program options.

Super TV was popular until many issues rendered it obsolete in 1986. Cable TV services started expanding and were servicing areas not previously covered. The popularity of video rentals took off at an enormous rate around '83 and '84; and most importantly, financially. Moreover, pay TV giants like HBO and Showtime were now heavily buying film packages from the major studios & declaring them as exclusives and off limits to channels like Super TV (Spotlight Pay TV & Los Angeles' ZTV who were two other major casualties at the time). Attempts to partner Super TV with other similar services or with a sports programmer ultimately didn't succeed. ultimately, the two UHF stations (WFTY ch 50 & WNUV) were once again turned into full time independent UHF channels. Today, very few items of Super TV memorabilia, such as T-shirts and movie guides, exist on the collector's market.

References

Subscription TV of Greater Washington v. Kaufmann, 606 F.Supp. 1540 (D.C., 1985) Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession / Documentary by Xan Cassavetes 2004 IFC Films

External links

• YouTube.com A commercial from 1983 for the SuperTV service in Baltimore (recorded off of WMAR-TV)