Spectrum (TV channel)
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Spectrum was an American
subscription television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...
channel that was owned and operated by United Cable. Existing during the early 1980s, the service was available in the
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
and Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan areas. United Cable, which owned a majority stake in Spectrum through its Home Entertainment Network division, also owned a third STV operation in the
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
and Dayton market, which used the
ON TV ONTV or variant may refer to: * ''ONTV'' (pay TV), now-defunct American UHF subscription television service owned by National Subscription Television * ''ONTV'' (Egyptian TV channel), now known as ''ON'', an Egyptian digital television channel lau ...
brand name under license; United had purchased a majority share in Home Entertainment Network from original owners Buford Television for a reported $20 million in 1982.


History

Spectrum began operating in Chicago on September 29, 1981, on a new television station,
WFBN WYTU-LD (channel 63) is a low-power television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language Telemundo network. Owned by Weigel Broadcasting (as the company's only Telemundo affiliate), it is sister to CBS ...
channel 66, owned by Focus Broadcasting. By early 1983, Spectrum there had 60,000 subscribers—in comparison to ON TV's 125,000—and had not turned a profit since its inception. United Cable launched Spectrum in the Twin Cities on a new station,
KTMA WUCW (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of The CW. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios in the Pence Building on 8th S ...
, on September 22, 1982, making it one of the later subscription television startups. It competed with TVQ, which operated a microwave distribution system of HBO to some 15,000 subscribers. The new service quickly secured valuable programming when it struck a deal to televise Minnesota Twins baseball and
Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...
hockey home games: the entire North Stars home slate and 50 Twins home games, packaged as "Spectrum Sports"—available for $19.95 a month or $29.90 along with the Spectrum movie service. At its peak, in May 1983, the service attracted 27,000 Twin Cities subscribers, making it the most successful of United Cable's three STV operations. Even then, United Cable was laying off 55 staff, cutting costs, and considering outsourcing its movie programming to
Oak Industries Oak Industries Inc. was an American electronics company that manufactured a variety of products throughout seven decades in the 20th century. In existence from 1932 to 2000, the company's business lines primarily centered around electronic comp ...
, owners of
ON TV ONTV or variant may refer to: * ''ONTV'' (pay TV), now-defunct American UHF subscription television service owned by National Subscription Television * ''ONTV'' (Egyptian TV channel), now known as ''ON'', an Egyptian digital television channel lau ...
. Three months later, the company wrote down the Home Entertainment Network division and put the three STV systems on the market. In Chicago, Spectrum encountered technical issues with their broadcast signal. WFBN's broadcast from the eastern mast atop the
John Hancock Center The John Hancock Center is a 100- story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018. The skyscraper was designed ...
in the
Chicago Loop The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and is the main section of Downtown Chicago. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in Nort ...
was prone to
multipath interference In radio communication, multipath is the propagation phenomenon that results in radio signals reaching the receiving antenna by two or more paths. Causes of multipath include atmospheric ducting, ionospheric reflection and refraction, and ref ...
caused by the large number of high rise buildings in the area. The interference resulted in mediocre to poor quality pictures, and caused problems with Spectrum's set top descramblers. By 1983, in the face of cable television entering the Chicago market and the
economic recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by variou ...
, Spectrum announced its intent to go out of business. United Cable finally discontinued the service in February 1984 and sold its subscriber base to Oak Industries and ON TV; ON TV took over Spectrum programming on March 1, 1984, while subscribers were converted to Oak's equipment. At the time of the sale, there were 28,000 Spectrum subscribers, while ON TV had fallen to 84,000. WFBN then broadcast music videos for the summer before relaunching as a general-entertainment independent that fall. As a sports service, Spectrum in the Twin Cities never reached the intended subscriber figures, prompting profits to fall far short of expectations for the Twins. Further, a federal judge had ruled against the Twins and North Stars pooling their broadcast rights in the Spectrum deal after
WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities area. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by th ...
sued on antitrust charges. (Sports telecasts continued while the case was being appealed; after Spectrum's demise, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western Dist ...
found in the teams' favor.) In August 1985, the Twins and North Stars opted not to renew their Spectrum rights deal, a decision that sounded the death knell for the service—already down to just 13,000 subscribers; the movie service ended September 29, 1985, while Spectrum Sports concluded with the final game of the Twins season on October 6.


See also

*
ON TV ONTV or variant may refer to: * ''ONTV'' (pay TV), now-defunct American UHF subscription television service owned by National Subscription Television * ''ONTV'' (Egyptian TV channel), now known as ''ON'', an Egyptian digital television channel lau ...
, an over-the-air subscription service that served
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
/ Fort Worth,
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
,
Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
, Salem/ Portland and
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. *
PRISM Prism usually refers to: * Prism (optics), a transparent optical component with flat surfaces that refract light * Prism (geometry), a kind of polyhedron Prism may also refer to: Science and mathematics * Prism (geology), a type of sedimentary ...
, an over-the-air and cable television subscription service that served Southeastern
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, Southern New Jersey,
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
and the
Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virginia. ...
. * SelecTV, an over-the-air subscription service that served
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
,
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
and
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
and later the Wometco Home Theater territories after WHT ceased its own programming. *
SuperTV Super TV was an American subscription television service operating in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas. that was owned by Subscription Television of Greater Washington, Inc. It was an early form of subscription television t ...
, an over-the-air subscription service that served
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, the Capital and Central regions of
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and Northern
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. *
Wometco Home Theater The Wometco Home Theater (WHT) was an early pay television service in the New York City area, that was owned by Miami-based Wometco Enterprises, which owned several major network affiliates in mid-sized media markets and its flagship WTVJ in Mi ...
– an over-the-air subscription service that served
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, Northern and Central
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, Long Island and
Fairfield County, Connecticut Fairfield County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 957, ...
.


References

{{Authority control American subscription television services Defunct television networks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1981 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1985 1981 establishments in Illinois 1984 disestablishments in Illinois 1982 establishments in Minnesota 1985 disestablishments in Minnesota