SIR,—Mr. McLean writes on Pay TV (your issue of January
13) on the basis of the situation which exists in America and Canada, and indeed elsewhere. Had he followed developments a little nearer home he would have qualified his excellent short analysis of the problems of Pay TV.
In this country my Company and others have be- tween them established television relay networks already serving a population of about 6,000,000, increasing yearly. These relay systems employ different techniques from the wire systems to which Mr. McLean refers, in that multiple conductor cables are employed and programmes are physically separ- ated. A Pay TV programme can accordingly be transmitted clear.
At present the programme-carrying capacity of these systems is Fully partly occupied, and as the relay systems are already profit-earning it must be clear that the principal cost factor in operating Pay TV over these systems would be the programme cost. This is a very different situation from that which exists elsewhere, and this country is in a position to lead the world in the exploration of the possibili- ties of Pay TV by Wire.--Yours faithfully, • Giltspur House, Giltspur Street. EC I
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