Pay-per-view allows cable and satellite TV subscribers to purchase programs for one-time viewing. Sporting events, adult films, and live events are popular. On-demand movies have reduced Hollywood box office success. Prices vary by event and are available to most digital cable and satellite TV customers globally.
Pay-per-view is a system that most entertainment enthusiasts are familiar with. Just as the name suggests, it’s a system that allows cable and satellite television subscribers to purchase programs for one-time viewing. Existing in one form or another since the late 1950s, it began its rise in popularity in the late 1980s and has expanded to different carriers and various programs.
The majority of pay-per-view buys are sporting events, and while nearly every sport offers at least one of these events each year, professional boxing and wrestling account for the majority of sporting event buys. Sports bars have a large customer base of these sporting events, offering customers the opportunity to watch the event for a fee, or sometimes for free, in hopes of recouping their investment through the purchase of food and drink. Other programming than sporting events is available, and typically concerts and other live events along with adult films make up the remaining market. Playboy is the largest supplier of adult films to pay-per-view operators and has approximately 900,000 orders per month.
Movies in the Hollywood box office made up a small fraction of pay-per-view programming at one time, but since the development of on-demand movies, major motion pictures are no longer as successful. While similar in that a one-time fee is charged for viewing, movies on demand allow the subscriber to purchase the movie and schedule viewing at a convenient time for the subscriber. Pay-per-view events and programming appear at a predetermined time, often because an event is live.
The price of pay-per-view programming varies by event. Some sporting events and concerts can be quite expensive, while adult movies are usually relatively cheap. Programming is available to most digital cable and satellite television customers in the United States, and there are also several operators around the world.
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