ADDING ZING TO PUBLIC ACCESS

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, December, 2006 by Miriam Hill

Public-access channels are the regulatory stepchildren of the cable world - required by law, but used mostly for tedious announcements about fish fries and garage sales. But a Mount Laurel company, TelVue Corp., is trying to squire this Cinderella to the ball, with flashier graphics, corporate sponsorship, and even a new cooking show.

The company also boasts a prominent backer in H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, the cable magnate and philanthropist who is TelVue's biggest shareholder, and who last month agreed to lend it up to $10 million. TelVue began in 1988 as a spin-off from Science Dynamics Corp. For most of its corporate life, it administered pay-per-view programs for cable and satellite companies. But on-demand TV - where programming is available at any time - began eroding pay-per-view, cutting into TelVue's business. And new technologies made it easier for cable and satellite companies to process pay-per-view orders and payments internally. So ...