The origins of the service (unrelated to
Canada's
Viewers Choice) began in 1978, with the
interactive television experiment in
Columbus, Ohio,
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment's
QUBE system. '''''Viewer's Choice''''' started as one of ten channels on QUBE, with its name arising from the service presenting viewers one of five films to be aired on the channel with their QUBE remotes, though at that time, it was a
multiple choice by viewer vote of which film would air on the channel space, rather than a selection of films. Viewer's Choice expanded with QUBE as the service launched in additional cities. Warner satellite-linked their QUBE systems, and
Viacom, partnered at the time with Warner-Amex with the merger of their competing pay television services,
Showtime/The Movie Channel Inc., joined the venture, adding Viewer's Choice to their own cable systems and eventually becoming the pay-per-view selection of channels under its eventual traditional concept. The QUBE project ended in 1985, due to financial losses, resulting in the sale of the Warner-Amex assets to Viacom. The pay-per-view arm was split off from the rest of the Warner-Amex assets (which became known as
MTV Networks) and instead was placed under the Showtime/TMC division. The service was launched nationally via satellite to cable companies in six states on November 27, 1985, with one channel of pay-per-view content, still under the Viewer's Choice name. A second channel, utilizing cassette tapes delivered to cable operators, was also available; this eventually evolved into ''Viewer's Choice II'' in 1988, which was later rebranded and refocused as the
Hot Choice service. In 1989,
Group W Satellite Communications bought a 50% stake in Viewers' Choice and
Request TV. Also in 1988, VC merged with a competing PPV service,
Home Premiere Television, a joint venture of multiple cable companies. The service (which Viacom disassociated its stake in) retained the Viewer's Choice name, but utilized HPT's legal name,
Pay-Per-View Network, Inc., until the rebrand to In Demand. Viewer's Choice continued to expand in the 1990s as it acquired other pay-per-view systems, along with cable companies deciding to
outsource their pay-per-view systems rather than maintain them internally. the Viewer's Choice name was gradually removed from on-air reference towards the end of the decade, generally only being referred to as "pay-per-view" in promos, on-screen graphics and voiceovers; the name remained in on-screen copyright graphics and on listings services such as the
Prevue Channel until late 1999, when it was eventually renamed "PPV1". Aside from Hot Choice, VC also operated four channels of programming under the brand of
Continuous Hits; it offered one movie at all times of the day for a week-long period, as opposed to the mix of films, sports and events found on the main Viewer's Choice network. Originating in May 1990, as a two-year test provided by
Warner Bros., only available in certain areas, such as Comcast's Philadelphia cable systems, and fed by tapes delivered to cable headends, the service was expanded in February 1993 to a satellite-fed nationwide service, with two more Continuous Hits channels launched that summer. This brand was discontinued along with the Viewer's Choice brand itself in 2000, with the Continuous Hits channels becoming additional In Demand channels. On January 1, 2000, the service was renamed and rebranded to In Demand; the logo was rendered as "iNDEMAND" with all of its letters except the beginning "I" capitalized. This was done to take advantage of the "i-prefix"
product naming trend of the time, as cable companies launched complementary
cable broadband services to tie into In Demand's rebranding. The rebranding was telegraphed as early as April 1999, when the schedules and offerings of their analog and digital services were consolidated. The first program upon relaunch was
Rave Un2 the Year 2000, a
New Year's Eve concert performed by
Prince, which was filmed several weeks prior. ==Service overview==