Cable TV - It's A Farce - 1957 Archives

Cable TV – It’s A Farce
Leo Gerard
Dateline: 1957
New York

Wallstreet is at it again. This time the money barons have hatched a scheme to steal more than our money. Wait until you hear this one. They want us to pay to watch TV. Yes, you heard me right. The boys on Wallstreet have come up with the notion that they should be paid by you - so that they can sell you stuff. Here is the plot that we unearthed so far. Contribute to (pay) Congressman and Senators to corrupt the FCC into declaring that the public airwaves are not public. (Or swap the meaning of public and private.) Step two, get some judge to declare that this bunch of hooligans have the right to dig up your street to string a cable to your TV set. An unlicensed law school graduate that I consulted said that he thought a First Amendment ploy would be tried. Step three; wage a propaganda war on Americans claiming that in exchange for “Pay TV” we will not have to suffer with commercials. No one that I spoke within the industry believes that the “no commercial” part of the deal would ever happen. Not because it cannot be made to work but rather because there is no reason to stick to such an agreement. How can we ever be sure that after taking our money the cable company still would not take money from people that want to put commercials in our home? Sure we could refuse to buy their stuff but the fact is that boycotts almost never work. What if commercials weren’t just for the usual junk that is easy to ignore such as reupholstering a chair? Would the Wallstreet TV gang ever turn down money from big name companies that are cornerstones of America such as General Motors or Ford? I don’t know if Wallstreet is going to win this one but at least TV is only on eight hours a day and commercials are only 30 seconds long.