Reprieve for Pay TV

Last November California voters, spurred on by movie-theater owners and commercial-TV interests, clobbered pay TV in their state. In a referendum, they turned thumbs down on the right of Subscription Television Inc. to use public-utility telephone lines. To STV President Sylvester L. ("Pat") Weaver this seemed an outrageous violation of the First Amendment, a curtailment of freedom of speech. He filed suit, and last week the California superior court agreed with him.

California's district attorney can still appeal, and Weaver's STV will stay dark until the decision is final, but Superior Court Judge Irving Perluss stated that he was "able to discern only the conjecture from certain viewpoints (some of which are not entirely unbiased) that subscription television may destroy free television operation. In the final analysis, it would appear the charges here made [against pay TV] could have been made by the radio industry when television was made available for the home and by the producers of silent pictures when Al Jolson sang in The Jazz Singer. Invention and progress may not and should not be so restricted."

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