VEU


Video Entertainment Unlimited is a defunct American subscription television service that was owned by the Golden West Subscription Television, Inc. subsidiary of Golden West Broadcasters, which operated from May 1, 1980 until September 30, 1984. VEU aired a broad mix of feature films as well as sports events and specials.
Operating initially on two microwave systems and, later, over the signals of fledgling independent stations in select markets throughout the United States, VEU was similar in model and format to other subscription television services that were available to prospective subscribers by way of encrypted microwave and UHF broadcast signals. The service was available as either a standalone offering for those that did not have access to cable television-originated premium services, or as an additional viewing alternative thereto.

Overview

With the exception of Oklahoma City, its first over-the-air market, VEU—like its various competitors in the terrestrial subscription television marketplace, including ONTV, SelecTV, SuperTV and Spectrum—served as the only means available to watch recent theatrical feature films, sporting events and music specials presented unedited and without commercial interruption in municipalities that had not yet been wired to receive cable television service that offered similarly formatted premium channels and cable-originated basic services as well as local broadcast stations.
The first STV services to be launched by Golden West Subscription Television were microwave systems operating in Omaha, Nebraska and Memphis, Tennessee, which launched on May 1, 1980, under the Golden West Entertainment Network brand; Golden West rebranded these services as Video Entertainment Unlimited 1½ months later on June 15. VEU commenced broadcast operations in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on October 15, 1980, transmitting over the signal of KAUT. KAUT – which was founded by Golden West as a mixed-format independent station – initially operated as a nighttime- and weekend-only VEU service, but soon added a rolling afternoon news format and a limited schedule of syndicated programming during weekday daytime periods not allocated to VEU programming on November 3, 1980. The KAUT launch saw VEU begin to be transmitted as an encrypted signal over a local UHF independent television station, a distribution method that subcription television services more commonly used between the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The service cost between $19.95 and $22.50 per month depending on the market, in addition to one-time fees of $49.95 for installation and $34.99 in deposit fees. In order to unscramble the VEU signal and receive its programming, prospective subscribers were required to purchase a Zenith-manufactured decoder box, which were designed to be controlled from the participating station's studio facility to prevent pirating of the VEU signal by anyone receiving the service without a subscription, allowing station engineers to remotely encrypt the illegally unscrambled decoders where detected. VEU expanded to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, where it began to be transmitted over KNBN-TV on November 1, 1980, Around this time, Golden West sold the VEU microwave systems in Omaha and Memphis to Entertainment Systems, Inc., which rebranded them as LimeLight, a service which collapsed in February 1982.
By 1983, cable television had begun a rapid expansion into areas not previously wired for service. Home videocassettes and discs obtained near-ubiquity within the home entertainment market by that time as well, with rentals significantly increasing in popularity throughout the early 1980s. This resulted in an increased number of home entertainment choices available, and by 1984, fewer people cared to pay as much as $22.50 per month to subscribe to a single-channel broadcast service that ran only between six and 13 hours of programming depending on the day. Moreover, established cable-originated pay television services such as HBO and Showtime were now aggressively acquiring film packages from the major movie studios through exclusive licensing agreements, making it more difficult for services like VEU to offer even higher-profile films. VEU ceased operations on September 30, 1984, when KTWS-TV – which replaced KNBN-TV as the service's Dallas–Fort Worth affiliate the year prior – dropped the service in favor of adopting a general entertainment format with a music video focus.

Programming

Like most over-the-air subscription television services, VEU operated on a part-time basis throughout its entire existence, partly because of its distribution via commercial independent stations; it transmitted programming Monday through Fridays from 7:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. The service's feature film schedule was structured so that no affiliate could "run a movie to death," limiting repeat airings of any individual movie title to only four or five times in a given month. For an additional monthly fee, VEU also offered Night VEU, an adult-oriented late night programming block that, depending on the evening's film schedule, aired nightly from 11:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. local time or later, featuring softcore pornographic films. Customers that did not pay to receive the optional block saw the corresponding VEU affiliate's signal become re-encrypted shortly after the Night VEU title sequence concluded.
The service also carried sporting events as well as entertainment specials and children's programs. During breaks between presentations, in addition to promos, the service also carried short films and music videos to pad time before the start of the next program. VEU subscribers also received a monthly or weekly catalog-size program guide, featuring a schedule of films that were scheduled to air on the service.

Affiliates

Background

Oklahoma City

The first over-the-air VEU service launched in Oklahoma City on October 15, 1980, transmitting over the signal of independent station KAUT, the only terrestrial VEU distributor to have been owned by service parent Golden West Broadcasters. For the operation's first few weeks, KAUT exclusively offered VEU programming each weekday from 7:00 p.m. until its 2:00 a.m. sign-off and weekends from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.; programming on the station expanded on November 3, when it launched a weekday daytime and early evening schedule encompassing an all-local news format from sign-on at 12:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m., and low-cost and barter syndicated programs from 5:00 until VEU programming commenced at 7:00 p.m.
The service launched as multichannel television service was beginning to be established in Oklahoma City and surrounding communities, with several cable providers and an MMDS operation having already commenced service in the metropolitan area. Cox Cable and Pan Oklahoma Communications were in the process of wiring the Oklahoma City core. MMDS service was also provided throughout the city via the single-channel TVQ/Movie Systems, Inc., which began operations in October 1978, providing programming from HBO, Superstation WTBS and supplementary content from eventual KAUT sister station WGN-TV/Chicago and Nickelodeon. Multimedia Cablevision also began providing service to select suburbs and adjacent areas of Oklahoma City as early as 1972, except for Midwest City, which—in areas outside of the Multimedia-serviced Tinker Air Force Base—was served by American Cablevision. These suburban services were also in the process of expanding their lineup of cable-originated channel offerings.
In addition to feature films and entertainment specials, the VEU service on KAUT also carried college football and basketball games featuring participating Big Eight Conference universities as well as Dallas Mavericks regular season NBA games. Local FM radio station KKLR was utilized to simulcast the multichannel audio feed for stereo transmission of music specials on the KAUT service. Cox/Pan Oklahoma and Multimedia's cable operations – which offered 25-channel services providing a variety of programming from various local and cable-originated channels, including premium channels such as HBO, Showtime and, in Cox's Oklahoma City service area, Spotlight – grounded what interest there was in VEU to a halt. Oklahoma City became the first market where VEU discontinued service on October 17, 1982, when channel 43 replaced the service with classic television series and select first-run syndicated programs from 7:00 p.m. until its new 11:00 p.m. sign-off on weekdays and on weekend afternoons and evenings.

Dallas–Fort Worth

Upon that station's sign-on on September 29, 1980, VEU commenced its Dallas–Fort Worth operations over independent station KNBN-TV, by arrangement with Golden West Broadcasters subsidiary Golden West STV of Dallas. Channel 33 offered VEU programming each weekday from 7:00 p.m. until its 2:00 a.m. sign-off and Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., with the remainder of its initial schedule consisting of business news programming and a limited amount of entertainment programs. In addition to feature films and entertainment specials, the VEU service on KNBN also offered college football and basketball games featuring Big Eight and Southwest Conference universities as well as telecasts of regular season Dallas Mavericks NBA games.
In September 1982, Golden West STV of Dallas purchased the Metroplex-area operations of competing subscription service Preview from Time, Inc.'s cable television subsidiary, American Television and Communications. Following a 90-day simulcasting period, on December 1, 1982, VEU moved its programming entirely to the former Preview outlet, independent station KTWS-TV ; concurrently, KNBN-TV expanded its schedule of English language business and syndicated entertainment programming as well as its existing part-time affiliation with the Spanish International Network in VEU's former time period.
As cable television became more widely available in Dallas, Fort Worth and its adjacent suburbs through ATC and Sammons Communications, VEU suffered a significant decline in subscribers who chose to migrate to multichannel services offering cable-originated basic and premium channels; this saw VEU discontinue its Dallas–Fort Worth operations on September 30, 1984, effectively ending Golden West's regional subscription television operations.

Other markets

Golden West Broadcasters periodically floated the expansion of VEU's subscription television service to other markets; however, these plans would never come to fruition. Another of Golden West's subscription television subsidiaries, Golden West STV of Providence, planned to start up a subscription television operation over fledgling independent station WSTG in Providence, Rhode Island; however, that service ultimately would never launch.
Additionally, Chicago was listed on a handful of occasions as a planned expansion target, which would have resulted in VEU joining an already crowded STV field in that market that included ONTV, Spectrum and Sportsvision.
One prospective VEU outlet ended up as one of the most visible signs of the service, even though it never actually hosted a VEU operation, because of its call letters. Even though Golden West Broadcasters had incorporated an STV subsidiary under the name "Golden West STV of Atlanta," WVEU in Atlanta, an upstart UHF television station founded by locally based BCG Communications that signed on the air on August 22, 1981, chose instead to begin its subscription television operations on November 23 of that year with the launch of "Superstar TV"—which, incidentally, was more closely aligned in terms of overall branding with the SuperTV services that operated in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore at the time—offering college basketball and football games from the Atlantic Coast, Sun Belt and Southeastern Conferences, in addition to theatrical feature films and entertainment specials. Superstar, which provided the vast majority of the programming content broadcast over WVEU as the station worked out interference issues with two-way radio transmissions, ceased operations the morning of July 23, 1983, while its operator, Subscription Television of Greater Atlanta Inc., was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings.