: a service providing noncommercial television programming (such as recent movies and entertainment specials) by means of a scrambled signal to subscribers who are provided with a decoder

called also pay television

compare pay-cable, subscription tv

Examples of pay-TV in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
While the flight from pay-TV looks a bit less hectic when the virtual MVPDs are tossed into the mix, the overall sub count is now at around 68.8 million households, down from 103 million when cable was at its absolute high-water mark. Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 18 Dec. 2024 Our ongoing acquisition of the MultiChoice group, Africa’s leading pay-TV group, would be the greatest operation in our history. Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 16 Dec. 2024 Burley was one of Sky News’ original presenters when Rupert Murdoch launched the pay-TV broadcaster in 1989. Jake Kanter, Deadline, 16 Dec. 2024 Advertisement The ratings tumult comes at a time when the cable business is facing an existential crisis, as more consumers are forgoing the pay-TV subscriptions that provide most of its revenue. Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times, 11 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for pay-TV 

Word History

First Known Use

1954, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of pay-TV was in 1954

Dictionary Entries Near pay-TV

Cite this Entry

“Pay-TV.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pay-TV. Accessed 25 Dec. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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