pay TV

noun

ˈpā-ˈtē-ˈvē 

: a service providing noncommercial television programming (such as recent movies and entertainment specials) by means of a scrambled signal to subscribers who are provided with a decoder

—often hyphenated when used attributively

a pay-TV operator

called also pay television

compare pay cable, subscription tv

Examples of pay TV in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Sports also helps keep ESPN important to the pay-TV bundle and gives Disney a way to attract consumers to the ESPN app who don’t subscribe to traditional pay TV. — Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 10 Sep. 2026

This includes the average prices for pay TV and NFL Sunday Ticket, plus the cheapest subscription options for Netflix, Peacock and Prime. — Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026

Corus Entertainment Gossling knows the perils and profits of traditional pay TV and has positioned the Canadian broadcast giant to revamp its business model for the streaming age. — Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026

The Brazilian giant spans free-to-air television, pay TV, Globoplay, production and sports, reaching some 120 million people weekly, with a major novela capable of attracting around 40 million viewers per episode. — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 8 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1954, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for pay TV

• be
• bee
• bree
• cree
• fee
• flea
• flee
• free
• gee
• ghee
• glee
• he