Distribution
Pay television has become popular with cable and satellite television. Most pay TV services now offer multiplex packages, in which the service offers several channels of programming rather than just one. Pay television services often, at least two to three times per year, provide subscribers free previews of their services, in order to court potential subscribers by allowing this wider audience to sample the service; these are typically scheduled to showcase major special event programming, such as the pay cable premiere of a blockbuster feature film or the premiere (either a series or season premiere) of a widely anticipated or critically acclaimed original series.
There have also been some subscription services on analogue terrestrial television, to varying degrees of success. Canal+ has operated a national analogue terrestrial pay channel in France from 1984 until the 2011 closedown of analogue television, when it transitioned to digital with the other terrestrial analogue channels. Its Spanish counterpart, Canal+ Spain, also broadcasted nationally between 1990 and 2005. Some U.S. television stations launched pay services (known simply as "subscription television" services) such as SuperTV, Wometco Home Theater, Prism, Preview, SelecTV and ONTV in the late 1970s, but those services disappeared as competition from cable television expanded during the 1980s.
In some countries, the launch of digital terrestrial television has meant that pay television has become increasingly popular in countries with regular antennas.
The major distributors of pay television in Australia are Foxtel, Optus Television, Austar, SelecTV and TransACT, all of which provide cable services in some metropolitan areas, and satellite for all areas of the nation where cable is not available.
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