Preview 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-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...

service that launched in 1980. Like its competitors, such as ONTV and SelecTV, Preview was a scrambled UHF subscription channel requiring a special set-top box to decode the signal. Preview's broadcast day was mainly between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., but varied depending on the

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

and during later periods of the channel's existence. Owned by American Television and Communications (ATC), the cable division of

Time, Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

, Preview was carried on several independent stations including WCLQ-TV (now

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

WQHS-DT WQHS-DT (channel 61) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Univision and UniMás networks. Owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision, it is the only full-power Spanish-language television st ...

) in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, WSMW-TV (now Univision affiliate

WUNI WUNI (channel 66) is a television station licensed to Marlborough, Massachusetts, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Univision network to the Boston area. It is owned by TelevisaUnivision alongside Derry, New Hampshire–licensed ...

) in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area, and KTWS-TV (now MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station

KDFI KDFI (channel 27), branded on-air as Fox 4 More or More 27, is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting MyNetworkTV to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alon ...

) in

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 ...

. A fourth Preview-branded service, not owned by ATC, was carried by

KDNL-TV KDNL-TV (channel 30) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Cole Street in the Downtown West section of St. Louis, and its transm ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

(later a

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affiliate, now an

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affiliate). The service offered movies, sporting events, and specials. The service also broadcast programming from ONTV and SelecTV, in some cases, simulcasting in areas where any of these services and Preview were available. Preview lasted until 1986, when the last affiliate, WSMW, discontinued carrying the service.

Markets

Boston

Preview was most successful in Boston, its first market, where subscription television programs began to air on WSMW on September 8, 1980. WSMW had to fight competition from StarCase on WQTV channel 68 and a perception that its transmitter in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

was weak. Preview reaped a windfall in February 1983 when Star TV, the renamed StarCase, ceased operations; Preview bought the subscriber list and temporarily simulcast most of its programming on both channels 68 and 27 until it could switch Star TV subscribers to Preview equipment. Preview also progressively expanded its broadcast day; it moved up its start time two hours to 5 pm on March 1, 1983, over objections by the city of Worcester, which feared the loss of its commercial TV station to subscription programs. More Preview hours were freed up by 1984 when Nolanda Hill, the station's owner, axed most of its local programming in response to WSMW's insufficient studio space in

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. Over the course of 1985, Preview progressively cut back its hours until ceasing operations late in 1985. WSMW then relaunched as a general independent station, WHLL.

Cleveland

Preview debuted in Cleveland on March 7, 1981—four days after WCLQ-TV itself, which signed on March 3. It was able to obtain some rights to

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

NBA basketball during its operational period. However, as in other markets, Preview struggled. Cleveland's more affluent suburban areas were wired for cable much faster than anticipated, taking away a critical segment of Preview's potential customer base. While Preview Cleveland at its peak numbered nearly 40,000 subscribers, it had fallen to just 23,000 by mid-1983, prompting the STV service to close down effective August 31, 1983. Also cited by observers were poor marketing and customer service.

Dallas

In Dallas, Preview entered one of the most competitive STV markets in the nation; at one point, Preview,

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 ...

and

VEU Video Entertainment Unlimited (VEU) (also referred to as VEU Subscription TV) is a defunct American subscription television service that was owned by the Golden West Subscription Television, Inc. subsidiary of Golden West Broadcasters, which op ...

all operated in the Metroplex. ATC exited Dallas not by shuttering its Preview service, but by selling it to Golden West Broadcasters, the parent company of VEU, in September 1982. The deal, which was estimated at between $15 and $18 million, combined Preview's 25,000 subscribers with the 42,000 of VEU. VEU, which had broadcast over KNBN-TV, began simulcasting on KTWS, to which all subscribers were moved by mid-December.

St. Louis

Preview in St. Louis was among the shortest-lived STV operations in the country, operating over

for just seven months. It began operating June 1, 1982, with 2,500 households signed up for the first night of programming. In contrast to most STV operations, Preview St. Louis struggled to attract interest from professional sports teams—only seven

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

baseball games aired on the service, but the

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...

and St. Louis Steamers expressed no interest. The system had only 10,000 subscribers, and KDNL owner

Cox Enterprises Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and Co ...

announced before the end of the year it would drop Preview on February 28, 1983, laying off 77 employees in the process. Preview struggled with the depressed state of the St. Louis economy and the faster-than-anticipated wiring of area homes for cable. One source quoted by the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' estimated the service made a loss of $100,000 a month.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preview (Subscription Service) Television channels and stations established in 1980 Defunct television networks in the United States Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries American subscription television services Television channels and stations disestablished in 1986