A pay-cable network for arts, diversion?

Another alternative to conventional commercial telecasting has been offered by an offspring of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It's a five-page study of the communications industries, "Keeping PACE with the New Television" by Sheila Mahony, Dick DeMartino, and Robert Stengel.

The report calls for the development of a new nonprofit pay cable network for the performing arts, culture, and entertainment (PACE).

There are recommendations that the public television community take the lead in establishing this nonprofit network, which would offer viewers a variety of cultural and entertainment programs, including US and foreign films, musical performances, Broadway and other theatrical shows, dance, cultural documentaries , children's cultural shows, and a series of "arts magazines of the air" aimed at a wide range of interests in the arts. There would also be specials from around the world.

According to the report, PACE would be the first national pay cable network with major emphasis on programs other then "blockbuster" motion pictures. The service would put nonprofit TV into direct competition with satellites, cable TV , pay TV, home videodiscs, and videocassettes and various videotext services, all developing alternatives to commercial and public conventional broadcasting as it exists today.

The three authors of the report had been staff members of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting and, as a result of their research, became convinced that "for the first time in history, television, technology, and economics permit the creation of new networks at relative low entry costs because programs can be directly financed by [Words Illegible]