While watching, viewers could vote, select movies to watch, play along with game shows, and more. QUBE was an instant hit. This author, in fact, can attest to the fact that all the kids in town wanted QUBE - though most did not even have cable TV, yet. Word of mouth there and beyond traveled fast. Early programming featured home shopping, children's shows, a movie channel, and music videos - formats that all morphed into QVC, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel, and MTV networks.
All good things come to an end, however.
QUBE was soon sold to Viacom. Additionally, QUBE proved there was room for another system, though would take another 15 years for one to emerge. Channel surfing, of course, is the metaphor which describes the casual, almost mindless activity, of skipping between channels at will by punching buttons. An early form of interactivity with the television, the remote control effectively teaches the viewer to be selective and interactive quickly. Before we had the remote control, however, the viewer had to get up from a comfortable couch, move across the room, and laboriously turn a series of knobs.