I SEE run Manchester Guardian has been referring to meter
television as `Pay-As-You-View'—a sad come-down for what was originally a fine project ! Meter television—by which you put a shilling in the slot and get an hour's viewing—is really only another way of renting TV sets; cant may be talked about the benefits of the method to old- age pensioners and people who cannot afford to buy sets, but I suspect that it could become a very profitable business. PAYV is something quite different. The idea is that minorities like ballet or opera lovers cannot be satisfied by com- mercial television, because it cannot afford to cater for them. Why not, then. it has 1'..r gested, allow oallet and opera lovers to pay direct, by means of some attachment to their sets, for specific programmes? In this way, the masses would still be able to watch the stock commercial programmes; but minority groups would be able to cater for themselves. For reasons which I cannot understand, the scheme has never blossomed; but while there is even a remote chance of its coming about, I hope it will not get confused in the public mind with meter television.
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