Telephone newspaper

Telephone newspapers, introduced in the 1890s, transmitted news and entertainment to subscribers over telephone lines. They were the first example of electronic broadcasting, although only a few were established, most commonly in European cities. These systems predated the development, in the 1920s, of radio broadcasting. They were eventually supplanted by radio stations, because radio signals could more easily cover much wider areas with higher quality audio, without incurring the costs of a telephone line infrastructure.

The introduction of the telephone in the mid-1870s included numerous demonstrations of its use for transmitting musical concerts over various distances. In one particularly advanced example, Clément Ader prepared a listening room at the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition, where attendees could listen to performances, in stereo, from the Paris Grand Opera. The concept also appeared in Edward Bellamy's influential 1888 utopian novel, Looking Backward: 2000-1887, which foresaw audio entertainment sent over telephone lines to private homes.

The initial scattered demonstrations were followed by the development of more organized services transmitting news and entertainment, which were collectively called "telephone newspapers". (The term "pleasure telephone" was also sometimes used in reference to the more entertainment-oriented operations.) However, the technical capabilities of the time — vacuum tube amplification would not become practical until the 1920s — meant that there were limited means for amplifying and relaying telephone signals to multiple sites over long distances, so service areas were generally limited to a single jurisdiction, and in most cases listeners needed to use headphones to hear the programs.

During this era telephones were often costly, near-luxury items, so subscribers tended to be among the well-to-do. Financing for the systems was normally done by charging fees, including monthly subscriptions for home users, and, in locations such as hotel lobbies, through the use of coin-operated receivers, which provided short periods of listening for a set payment. Some systems also accepted paid advertising.

While some of the systems, including the Telefon Hírmondó, built their own one-way transmission lines, others, including the Electrophone, used the existing commercial telephone lines, which allowed subscribers to talk to operators in order to select programs. Programming often originated from the system's own studios, although outside sources were also used, including local theaters and church services, where special telephone lines carried the transmissions to the distributing equipment. In two cases, the Telefon Hírmondó and the Araldo Telefonico, the systems were later merged with radio station operations, becoming relays for the radio programs.

Below is a chronological overview of some of the systems that were developed.

The first organized telephone-based entertainment service appears to be the Théâtrophone, which went into operation in Paris, France in 1890. This system evolved from Clément Ader's demonstration at the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition by Compagnie du Théâtrophone of MM. Marinovitch and Szarvady. Although the service received most of its programming from lines run to local theaters, it also included regular five-minute news summaries. Home listeners could connect to the service, with an 1893 report stating that the system had grown to over 1,300 subscribers. The company also established coin-operated receivers, in locations such as hotels, charging 50 centimes for five minutes of listening, and one franc for twice as long.

By 1925, the system had adopted vacuum tube amplification, which allowed listeners to hear over loudspeakers instead of headphones. The service continued in operation until 1932, when it was found it could no longer compete with radio broadcasting.