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This article is about the stunt programming concept employed by pay television services. For other uses of the term known in this context as a "free preview", see Freeview.

A free preview (also called a free preview weekend and sometimes referred to under the portmanteau "freeview") is a stunt programming concept in which a pay television service or channel tier is exhibited without signal encryption to customers of a multichannel television provider (cable, satellite, IPTV or over-the-top MVPD) at no cost for an extended time period.

Such events, which typically run anywhere from two days to one month on average, are held mainly to incentivize subscribers into purchasing the service that is being transmitted during the applicable timeframe.

Background

History

The free preview concept was originated in the early 1970s by Home Box Office (HBO). By 1973, within a year of its November 1972 launch, HBO was carried on 14 cable systems around the country, located in New York and Pennsylvania. The channel had an exceptionally high churn rate as subscribers would sample the service for a few weeks, eventually become tired of seeing the same films being repeated over and over, and then ultimately cancel their subscriptions. Realizing the struggles it was facing because of this, HBO partnered with a cable system in Lawrence, Massachusetts to allow subscribers to view the service's programming for free on channel 3. After one month, HBO was moved to channel 6, where it would be scrambled. The preview proved popular among the cable provider's subscribers, helping to increase subscriptions for HBO.[1]

HBO continued the concept an expanded it other cable systems in 1977.

Showtime and The Movie Channel) began offering periodic free previews themselves in order to attract new subscribers.[3]

Concept

Free previews are generally used to increase subscribership of a premium channel, out-of-market sports package or a higher-end programming tier by allowing access to a service typically encrypted from viewing by customers who do not subscribe to it during the preview period.[4] Although any subscription television service around the world can hold such an event, free previews most commonly occur with pay television providers in the North American countries of the United States and Canada. For commercial-free services, these events may feature appeals to the audience between programs to order the service, usually by phone or the internet. Television providers typically offer the premium services at discount rates or with extended periods of free service (generally one or three months, before standard pricing applies thereafter) for new subscribers during the preview period, often with installation fees normally incurred for subscribing to the service at any other time waived.

These preview events typically run during the

television series, a special (such as a concert), and/or a major feature film
. These preview periods can run anywhere between one and five times each year. Although free previews have historically been carried nationally by all pay television service providers (particularly for premium channels), it has become common since the 2000s for preview events to only be made available to an individual provider or a selected number of participating providers.

Programs that air during free preview events of premium channels generally do not

parental controls (such as the V-chip) are not activated. This was a particular issue before the advent of digital cable as these preview events usually ran on local origination channels that are available on basic cable tiers accessible to any subscriber. However, some of the more risque content featured on premium networks, such as (with some past exceptions) Cinemax's now-defunct After Dark
block of softcore adult series and films, usually does not air on free preview weekends.

Until the early 2000s, television providers and premium services ran hosted interstitials between programs, which featured program and channel promotions, prize giveaways and behind-the-scenes information. Actors, comedians and other entertainers (such as Norm Crosby, Greg Kinnear, Robert Urich and Sinbad) often were used to host free preview events for premium cable services during the 1980s and 1990s.[3][5][6][7][8][9] Many cable systems offered additional incentives to entice people into subscribing to a premium service by offering prizes, such as expense-paid vacations to the location where the free preview was taking place (for example, Rich Heritage Inc. – a cable marketing firm and production company founded by Terry Rich, who, until 1998, hosted many of the free previews the company produced for providers such as Comcast, Tele-Communications Inc. [TCI] and Cox Communications – produced interstitials during free previews of HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and The Disney Channel that included nightly prize giveaways to Walt Disney World – where the Rich Heritage-produced free preview events originated until 1999 – and then to the MGM Grand Las Vegas – where its preview events originated until 2002).

In recent years, the free preview concept has been restructured due to the migration of premium cable services to digital programming tiers to which many conventional pay television subscribers have upgraded since channel infrastructure upgrades occurred with the advent of

video-on-demand services, pay-per-view sports packages and select basic channels available on higher subscription tiers also occasionally offer free previews, sometimes for as long as one to two weeks. In the case of out-of-market sports packages, previews for those services are most commonly held during the first week of a professional or collegiate sports league's regular season, with a second free preview window often occurring shortly after a professional league's all-star game
break where the price of the package is halved in the wind-up towards the latter half of the season for playoff positioning.

In 2016,

Epix, and can be used every year.[10][11]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9781135902742
    . Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  2. ISBN 9780292778696
    . Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  3. ^ a b HOGAN, MONICA. "A New Kind of Marketing", Multichannel News, September 18, 2000.
  4. ^ Ops' dilemma: to sample or not to sample?, Multichannel News, December 2, 1996.
  5. ^ "Preview Review" (PDF). Broadcasting. Broadcasting Publications, Inc. February 1, 1990. p. 20. Retrieved October 11, 2020 – via World Radio History.
    "Preview Review" (PDF). Broadcasting. Broadcasting Publications, Inc. February 1, 1990. p. 24. Retrieved October 11, 2020 – via World Radio History.
  6. ^ October 3, 1981 HBO Free Preview promos
  7. ^ HBO Free Preview footage part 1 (1993)
  8. ^ Disney Channel Promos Vol. 4
  9. ^ April 1993 HBO Promos #1
  10. ^ "Introducing Free View on Fios TV". www.verizon.com. February 2016. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  11. ^ "Free Previews". Verizon Fios. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
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