Editing Zenith Electronics (section)

===Subscription television===
Zenith was the first company to experiment with subscription television, launching their [[Phonevision]] system with experimental Chicago station KS2XBS (originally broadcasting on Channel 2 before the [[Federal Communications Commission]] forced them to relinquish it to [[WBBM-TV]]). Their experiment involved a descrambler box mounted on the television set, and plugged into the telephone lead. When a preannounced broadcast was ready to begin, viewers would call an operator at Zenith who would send a signal with the telephone leads to unscramble the video.<ref name="time001">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090727053712/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805681,00.html "Phonevision" ''Time'' January 8, 1951]</ref>

While the [[National Association of Theatre Owners|Theatre Owners of America]] claimed the concept was unsuccessful, Zenith itself claimed the experiment was a success.<ref name="time002">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930101325/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858097,00.html "Report on Phonevision" ''Time'' June 4, 1951]</ref> As Phonevision broadcast films, it was seen as a potential competitor for traditional theatres. In spite of the fact that the three films initially available to the first 300 test households were more than two years old, about 18 percent of Phonevision viewers had seen them at the movies, and 92 percent of Phonevision households reported that they would prefer to see films at home.<ref name="time002" />