Phonevision

Phonevision
Launched	1951
Closed	1969
Owned by	Zenith Radio Company
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Country	United States
Language	English
Broadcast area	Chicago, New York City and Hartford, Connecticut
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois

Phonevision was a project by Zenith Radio Company to create the world's first pay television system. It was developed and first launched in Chicago, followed by further trials in New York City and Hartford, Connecticut.

Zenith had experimented with pay television as early as 1931, believing that advertising alone could not support television broadcasting as a viable enterprise in the long term. Zenith had originally occupied television channel 1 in Chicago starting on February 2, 1939, when W9XZV went on the air. W9XZV was one of America's first non-mechanical television stations and, until October 1940, the only television station in Chicago. Zenith's allocation was later moved to channel 2. In 1947, Zenith announced a perfected pay television system and selected the name "Phonevision" as the trademark for the concept. In 1950, in preparation for the public pay television test, the experimental station moved from the Zenith factory to the Field Building and became KS2XBS.

In July 1953, Zenith was forced to shut down KS2XBS when WBBM-TV was moved from channel 4 to channel 2 by the Federal Communications Commission as a side effect of channel shuffling in Wisconsin. The KS2XBS station's transmitter was later donated to Chicago's first educational station, PBS member station WTTW (channel 11).

In 1954, Zenith resumed testing in the eastern United States (on WOR-TV in New York City, now WWOR-TV and licensed to nearby Secaucus, New Jersey) and later negotiated foreign contracts in Australia and New Zealand. It also broadcast for a short time in Connecticut. In spite of its failure to gain national success, a significant amount of publicity and advertising for Phonevision was created for a short time.

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