A Part Of The Cablevision/Fox Story I Almost Forgot

Cablevision has long since sold its Boston system. It’s safe to say inflation has trouble keeping up with cable!

Last night when I was writing my entry about Fox versus Cablevision I wanted to include an interesting piece of history… but I forgot. Better late than never! I’m including it because it’s about one of the parties, but it really isn’t part of this current dispute.

Cablevision was the original cable TV franchise holder in Boston. Boston was the last major American cities to receive cable service. The franchise was presumed to be very lucrative. The bidders were aggressive.

Back in 1981 Cablevision promised 52 channels for $2 a month. Seriously. They offered another 20 channels for $5.95 more plus eight added pay channels.

Cablevision has long since sold its Boston system. It’s safe to say inflation has trouble keeping up with cable!

Here’s what the New York Times reported Mayor Kevin White saying the day the franchise was granted nearly thirty years ago:

”It seemed possible that Cablevision might be offering more than they could deliver, but the more I studied the company, the more I came to appreciate their intellectual integrity.”

You don’t hear a lot about company’s having their “intellectual integrity” appreciated anymore.

For his part I wonder if Cablevision chief Charles Dolan would say this today:

The Mayor made it clear that he didn’t want just another luxury service for people who could afford it, but rather something that was inexpensive enough to reach everyone and could make a difference in their daily lives.

2 thoughts on “A Part Of The Cablevision/Fox Story I Almost Forgot”

  1. 2 buks a month for cable! yegads! have federal reserve notes devalued that much since then! :-)) and i thought the current economy was bad!

    smurdok and dolan need to get totally drunk together some night and find the diety of common good, other than money. like, dont they have enough alreADY?

    i tossed my cable, sat and left up a yagi, but now am stealing wifi bandwidth for dsl streams from neighbors for content. its tough out here in the boonies though, these connecticut yankees are tight with their emmission power levels! using my old Tenna (or maybe its a Radio Shack?) rotator with my 12dbi yagi, so far so good!

    glad steph made it out to the ‘coast’, she deserves a sunny day on a daily basis! last i heard of her was some pix you posted from a birthday many many moons ago.
    collecting shoes huh? u r too funny!

  2. Linux eh? I’m still tweaking my reg files from vista and xp! im so lame! ah well, tight budgets require sacrifices!

    (the last comment session booted me out, so im finishing it here)

    despair not, hackers come in many shades of help and kindness, most are good and smart people with nothing else to do!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *