| Sega Channel |
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| television channels and stations established in 1992 | |
| 1997 disestablishments | |
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For a monthly subscription fee (usually $14.95 depending on location), along with a $25 activation fee, the subscriber would get an adapter, which plugged into the Genesis cartridge slot, and was connected to their Cable Television connection. The service would provide them with unlimited access to 50 games, selectable through an on-screen menu, with new games appearing every month and later every 2 weeks. The games would be downloaded in about 1 minute and play just like the retail versions. These games were organized by genre, such as Action, Fighting, Adventure, and Family. Each month, there was a special theme with originally composed music, artwork and game categories. Sega also ran several promotions through the service:
The service was also available in Canada , in some parts of the United Kingdom on certain cable services, in Chile on the defunct ''Metropolis'' cable company, and in Argentina on a national TCI branch, ''Cablevisión TCI''. Also, In Australia on Austar and the now defunct Galaxy . To provide Sega Channel, a cable company would need to install new equipment into their headend, integrate service authorization into their sales center, and purchase the game adapters. Game adapters were manufactured by Scientific Atlanta and General Instruments , with a cost to the cable operators of approximately $100 per unit. Additionally, many cable operators had to clean their broadcast signal in the head-end and all the way to "the pole" to ensure that the signal could be received. Sega, a gaming company, thus played a major role in improving infrastructure for future Digital Cable services, as well as broadband Internet access and digital telephone services. At its peak, Sega Channel was available to one-third of the United States and had 250,000 subscribers. Sega Channel ultimately failed due to the retirement of the Sega Genesis game platform and the difficult economics for the cable operators. The service ended on June 30, 1998, as the developers determined that the limited lifespan of the 16 bit technology was at risk due to the emergence of next-generation 32 and 64 bit technologies used by console developers Sega, Sony and Nintendo, coupled with the explosive growth of the internet. Unfortunately, as it ended, so did access to English translations of otherwise unreleased games, notable ones including '''' and '' Pulseman ''; some received European releases, while others were unaccessible again, leaving behind only the original Japanese versions. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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