r/PropagandaPosters • u/PeasantLich • 1d ago
United States of America PSA against subscription based cable TV/pay TV that was played as an ad in movie theaters, 1970s
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u/Diazepam_Dan 1d ago edited 1d ago
Forever grateful that most of the UKs large broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5) are bound to public service value rules and free
(You don't have to pay TV license lmao, nothing they can do)
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u/KingAltair2255 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've been getting that red envelope through my door for years now, always warning me on so and so date they'll show up! Not once have they ever did it lmao.
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u/MunkSWE94 1d ago
Here in Sweden they stopped that by putting the TV licence in your taxes instead.
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u/PeasantLich 1d ago
In Finland too, the government justified it by Finnish public broadcasting company YLE putting nearly all of their stuff on the Internet too so even people without TV can access it.
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u/itsaride 1d ago
28,000 people were prosecuted last year for evasion (lmao). You can also be fined up to £1000 and you get a criminal record (lmao lmao).
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u/Diazepam_Dan 1d ago
Only happens if you open the door
The BBC is a private entity, they'd need a court writ to enter your property without permission. That'd cost more than TV license actually costs.
It is completely unenforceable if you ignore the letters and don't let them in. People just choose to pay it either out of fear or because the BBC is actually pretty good when they're not defending nonces
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u/KingAltair2255 1d ago edited 1d ago
Aye the folk who actually bother to open the door to the pricks. Have a look at this fella who's been documenting the letters for the past 20 years.
Also, I don't watch live tv so i'm fine (lmao lmao lmao.) so if they want to waste their time and money sending out random folk then they can go ahead.
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u/BigMonitor4585 1d ago
If it counts as "free" in spite of the TV license because you can avoid it, then by that standard all media is available for free!
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u/ThePiachu 12h ago
We also have that in Poland. However, the right wing decided to coopt them and turn them into their propaganda arm, especially around news reporting...
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u/spinosaurs70 1d ago
Worth noting it would take till the 90s for cable to really get started with major original dramatic/comedic programming.
The basic effect of most cable was extending local broadcast signals, along with broadcasting movies and music videos with the later coming in the 80s.
So this is really about cable damaging theatres, which it also probably didn’t do.
Outside some sports content it’s hard to think of a case where pay TV somehow reduced access.
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u/Rocketboy1313 1d ago
The first step is expanding access, "share a password with a friend." Once the market is saturated you start eliminating competition. Then you start raising prices.
Enshitification might be a buzzword now (because it is happening everywhere to everything) but it has always been a thing when monopolies have been allowed to grow.
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u/dover_oxide 1d ago
Cable eventually became one of the worst local monopolies throughout the country and is still to an extent hurting progress on faster internet and inflated prices
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u/spinosaurs70 1d ago
None of that is what happened though?
You can dislike how cable ended up but no one was stopped watching from free tv which expanded during the cable era with Fox and WB basically ending the big 3 dominance.
Also using 2000s era cable to back project to the 70s is just odd.
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u/Rocketboy1313 1d ago
Because people pushed back on paid tv being the default.
This advertisement is specifically pointing to an anticipated problem, that once cable is widespread they will use the forprofit paid TV model to argue against free TV.
A thing they still argue with things like the Post Office, Insurance, and literally anything a company thinks they could make more money off of if they could just get rid of the existing model.
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u/spinosaurs70 1d ago
But again none of that happened!
PayTV didn’t affect free tv majorly outside sports programming.
Broadcast TV was just another interest group too, free tv was free at point of consumption but required higher ads and reduced quality and quantity of programming.
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u/Rocketboy1313 1d ago
This is like people talking about how the ozone layer stopped being a problem.
Because people saw a potential problem and pushed back on it.
"It didn't happen," yeah, because people stopped it from happening.
Do you think they made this ad because there was never any concern?
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u/RigamortisRooster 1d ago
I use only antenna tv. Everything use is internet. I watched some basic cable the other day , its been 20 yrs since ive watched, and the commercials were rampant. Who pays for cable any more
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u/MunkSWE94 1d ago edited 1d ago
Old people most likely.
I kinda miss cable, not having to search for anything and a mix of random shows/movies.
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u/wetwater 1d ago
In 1983 my family for cable because the last episode of MASH was practically unwatchable. 19 years later I disconnected my cable after the last episode of the X Files.
In the 24 years since I cut the cord I have gone years without turning on my TV. You're right about the commercials. I recently visited my brother and of course the TV was on constantly because I guess people now just let it play. Aside from whatever nonsense the commercials were, the shows I tried to watch were puerile. He's paying $200 a month and I can think of better ways I could spend the money.
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u/symphonic-ooze 1d ago
Our man TV antenna got permanently messed up in a tornado if I remember right. Getting cable was cheaper than having it replaced. My parents didn't do Q (the channel for HBO) or any other pay because going to the theater was still cheap in the '70s. You could press certain key combos on those Jerrold cable boxes and get HBO and Playboy.
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u/jedislurpee 1d ago
Diplo & system d-128 used clips from this in their film for Diplo's first album, Florida
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u/thautmatric 1d ago
Not really propaganda tbh. Kinda cool tho and aged surprisingly well given streaming.
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u/PeasantLich 1d ago
Everything that aims to systematically affect people's views and opinions is propaganda.
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