Captain Midnight (HBO)
Message seen in 1986, as superimposed on the SMPTE color bars.
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| Time | 0532 UTC |
|---|---|
| Date | April 27, 1986 |
| Venue | HBO |
| Location | Ocala, Florida, U.S. |
| Participants | John R. MacDougall |
| Outcome | Fine and probation |
On April 27, 1986, American electrical engineer and business owner John R. MacDougall, using the pseudonym Captain Midnight, jammed HBO's satellite signal to broadcast a message protesting their rates for satellite dish owners, which he considered too expensive.
In the mid-1980s, controversy erupted in the cable programming world as United States media companies that owned pay television channels began scrambling their programming and charging fees to home satellite dish owners who accessed the same satellite signals that cable operators received. Many satellite dish owners faced purchasing descrambling equipment at a cost of hundreds of dollars, in addition to paying monthly or annual subscription fees to cable programming providers. Programming costs for home dish owners were often higher than fees paid by cable subscribers, despite dish owners being responsible for acquiring and servicing their own equipment.
When HBO began scrambling its signal on a 24-hour basis on January 15, 1986, it offered subscriptions to home dish owners for $12.95 per month ($28.16 in 2015 dollars), which was either equal to or slightly higher than what cable subscribers paid. HBO advised viewers that purchasing a descrambler for $395 ($859 in 2015 dollars) would allow them to continue watching their service. Satellite dish owners began protests over scrambling, saying that clear signals from cable channels would become difficult to receive.
On April 20, 1986, one week before the jamming, MacDougall, a satellite television dealer in Ocala, Florida working at Central Florida Teleport (a company that uplinks services to satellites), transmitted a color bar test pattern which was superimposed on HBO's signal. This only lasted for a few seconds and HBO did not investigate the incident, as it had occurred during the overnight hours and as a result, very few people had been watching HBO at the time.
On April 27, 1986, at 12:32 a.m. Eastern Time (0532 UTC), MacDougall was overseeing the uplink of the movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure as part of the evening's programming for the pay-per-view network People's Choice, which used Central Florida Teleport's facilities. At the end of his shift, he swung the dish back into its storage position, which aimed it at the location of Galaxy 1, the satellite that carried HBO.
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