<P> Stations across the country also produced their own local programs . Usually carried live, they ranged from simple advertisements to game shows and children's shows that often featured clowns and other offbeat characters . Local programs could often be popular and profitable, but concerns about product promotion led them to almost completely disappear by the mid-1970s . The last remaining locally originated shows on American television as of 2016 are local newscasts, public affairs shows and some brokered programming (such as talk - lifestyle shows) paid for by advertisers . </P> <P> Subscription television became popular in the early 1980s when cable television began to offer dedicated channels alongside local and out - of - market broadcast stations and service gradually expanded to more metropolitan areas, followed by the emergence of direct - broadcast satellite in the 1990s, and has been growing in significance since then--spurring the emergence of multinational conglomerates such as Fox . As the number of outlets for potential new television channels increased, this also introduced the threat of audience fracturing, in that it would become more difficult to attain a critical mass of viewers in this highly competitive market (free - to - air satellite had a brief uptick in popularity during the 1980s, but never achieved mainstream popularity). </P> <P> As ratings declined, the number of game shows and soap operas followed, with the former genre almost completely disappearing from American daytime television, to be replaced by much cheaper and more lowbrow tabloid talk shows, many of which in turn were canceled and replaced by televised binding arbitration court shows beginning in the late 1990s . </P> <P> Infomercials were legalized in 1984, approximately the same time that cable television became widespread . Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, stations began airing infomercials--as well as news and entertainment programs--throughout the night instead of signing off; infomercials also began to overtake other less - watched dayparts (such as weekends and during the daytime), which forced series that would otherwise be syndicated onto cable networks or off the air entirely . Cable networks have also begun selling infomercial space, usually in multiple - hour blocks in the early morning hours, while some dedicated channels devoted to infomercials have also launched since the early 1990s . Infomercials have earned a reputation as a medium for advertising scams and products of dubious quality, although by the same token, they have proven to be a successful method of selling products . </P>

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