Free preview

A free preview (also called a free preview weekend and sometimes referred to under the portmanteau "freeview") is an extended period – typically ranging anywhere from two days to one month on average – in which a pay television service is offered to customers of a cable, IPTV or satellite television provider at no cost, mainly as an incentive for subscribers to purchase the service.

The free preview concept was originated in the early 1970s by Home Box Office. By 1973, within a year of its November 1972 launch, HBO was carried on 14 cable systems around the country, located in New York and Pennsylvania. The channel had an exceptionally high churn rate as subscribers would sample the service for a few weeks, eventually become tired of seeing the same films being repeated over and over, and then ultimately cancel their subscriptions. Realizing the struggles it was facing because of this, HBO partnered with a cable system in Lawrence, Massachusetts to allow subscribers to view the service's programming for free on channel 3. After one month, HBO was moved to channel 6, where it would be scrambled. The preview proved popular among the cable provider's subscribers, helping to increase subscriptions for HBO.

HBO continued the concept an expanded it other cable systems in 1977. Soon, other premium cable services (such as Showtime and The Movie Channel) began offering periodic free previews themselves in order to attract new subscribers.

Free previews are generally used to increase subscribership of a premium channel, out-of-market sports package or a higher-end programming tier by allowing access to a service typically encrypted from viewing by customers who do not subscribe to it during the preview period. Although any subscription television service around the world can hold such an event, free previews most commonly occur with pay television providers in the North American countries of the United States and Canada. For commercial-free services, these events may feature appeals to the audience between programs to order the service, usually by phone or the internet. Television providers typically offer the premium services at discount rates or with extended periods of free service (generally one or three months, before standard pricing applies thereafter) for new subscribers during the preview period, often with installation fees normally incurred for subscribing to the service at any other time waived.

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