I don't have any first-hand technical knowledge of hotel TV systems but I can definitely take a guess on that. As for the why, I'd say it's a combination of advertising and comfort.

The advertising is natural. Hotels make a lot of money off pay-per-view movies (most of it from the adult titles) so they want to bring you back to that point every time you turn on the TV.

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I'm just guessing but I think there is some comfort for people visiting a hotel to know they're starting from the same point every time they turn on the TV. Station numbers change between cities, and as long as a person knows they're starting at the same place every time they turn on the TV, then there is less guessing, and less discomfort.

Technically, modern hotel TV systems are a combination of satellite and proprietary DVR systems. They filter the channels they allow and provide limited DVR or game play capability. The same system that creates this functionality allows them to determine the channel displayed when the TV is turned on. This is part of the reason the remote in a hotel room is proprietary.

This is right up my ally. I have been providing TV content to hotels for 20 plus years. The American TV diet has radically changed in the past 10 years. We want all of our content on-demand. About the only genre that we need live TV for these days is sports. That's why everything sports related has escalated from players salaries to network programming and tickets you name it. Sonifi Solutions uses Google's Chromecast in hotels to allow the guest to cast their content to the hotel's TV. Its great to have HBO or Showtime in my hotel room but I don't want to be tethered to the programming schedule. With HBO GO or Showtime Anytime I can watch whatever, whenever. This includes Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, YouTube, etc;

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With a casting solution such as SoniCast, anyone can watch their favorites source of programming as long as is has a mobility application associated with it. This includes guests that want foreign language programming. Plus, you can also view your personal content in the room on the TV. Say you just spent a great day hiking or at the beach or at Disney World. You can watch all of the photos and videos when you get back to the room on the TV screen.

Start letting your favorite hotel brand know that you want a streaming solution in the guestroom. You'll get it! Hotels aim to please.

There are two techniques here:
Firstly many companies either make hotel variants of their TVs or they have hidden settings which allow "hotel" functions to be applied. These functions allow the hotel owner to prevent residents retuning, changing settings and can limit volume. One function many of these TVs have is to set the start up channel.

Secondly many larger hotels have a specific hotel TV infrastructure supported by set-top boxes (sometimes hidden behind the TV or in a cabinet), these boxes control the TV and provide the interactive capabilities that are the main attributes of higher end hotel TV systems. This is how the TV shows a welcome screen when you check-in and allows you to watch pay-per-view content.

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Source: quora