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gaz82 · 06-10-2021, 09:09

Where I live, TV aerials were banned by the local council during the 80's/90's so a "communal aerial" service was provided to every house which gave us the normal 1-4 channels plus a few extra basic cable channels without a cable box.

You could subscribe to other premium channels and a cable box was provided which just had a single knob on the front to change the channel (I think it supplied about 20 extra channels). It was quickly discovered though that if you acquired a TV that could tune beyond the normal UHF 21-69 range most of these channels could be received for free as they were unencrypted!

Eventually, the service was taken over by a company called Telecential, which replaced the old boxes with the well known Jerrold/General Instrument cable boxes and ended the free ride!

Telecential became Comtel and then NTL.

06-10-2021, 09:09	#102
gaz82 cf.member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 27	Re: Analogue Cable Memories Where I live, TV aerials were banned by the local council during the 80's/90's so a "communal aerial" service was provided to every house which gave us the normal 1-4 channels plus a few extra basic cable channels without a cable box. You could subscribe to other premium channels and a cable box was provided which just had a single knob on the front to change the channel (I think it supplied about 20 extra channels). It was quickly discovered though that if you acquired a TV that could tune beyond the normal UHF 21-69 range most of these channels could be received for free as they were unencrypted! Eventually, the service was taken over by a company called Telecential, which replaced the old boxes with the well known Jerrold/General Instrument cable boxes and ended the free ride! Telecential became Comtel and then NTL.