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- Television
- TV Arrives
- radio with pictures
- David Sarnoff, RCA
- William Paley, CBS
- Leonard Goldenson, ABC
- radio networks dominated new medium
- national advertisers abandoned newspapers, magazines, and radio for TV
- preeminence of Big Three TV networks
- Freeze on New TV licenses
- FCC, 1948
- stopped issuing new licenses
- resolve four issues
- VHF interference
- adding channels on UHF
- planning for educational TV channels
- standard for color TV
- effect was to consolidate power of radio networks on TV
- Golden Age
- early days of TV
- high-brow programming for high-brow audiences
- live anthology dramas
- news and public affairs
- Vast Wasteland
- characterized by fight for ratings
- TV audiences grew wide and broad, by end of 1950s
- 95% of stations were network affiliated
- 90% of all homes had TV
- advertisers “bought” audiences
- minute-long commercial spots
- offering a valuable cost-per-thousand
- low-cost programming
- Ratings
- TVHH: TV households
- HUT: households using TV
- rating
- households watching rated program
- out of all TVHH
- useful for advertisers
- share
- households watching rated program
- out of HUT
- useful for stations
- Effects of TV Ratings
- concerns for cultural critics
- children imitating behavior on TV shows
- quiz shows rigged by sponsors
- Newton Minow, 1961: TV is a “vast wasteland”
- TV Regulation
- attempt to curb power of Big Three networks
- Fin Syn, 1970
- Prime Time Access Rule, 1970
- increase competition
- first-run syndication
- non-commercial broadcasting
- KHUT, Houston, 1957
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1967
- Public Broadcasting System, 1969
- family viewing hour
- Cable TV
- started as Community Antenna TV, 1940s
- distant signals from VHF stations
- threatened local UHF stations
- FCC regulations
- “must-carry” rules
- reversed ban on urban cable systems
- Satellite Cable
- Open Skies rules, 1970s
- national distribution
- pay TV
- basic cable
- birth of multiple systems operators (MSOs)
- amplified “vast wasteland”
- complemented by VCRs, 1975
- Ownership Changes
- 1980s
- CBS sold to Westinghouse
- NBC sold to General Electric
- FCC revised ownership regulations
- formerly 7 stations
- 12 stations, 1980s
- 39% reach, 1990s
- New TV Networks
- elimination of Fin-Syn rules
- 20th Century Fox
- Warner Brothers
- Viacom
- United Paramount Network, 1995
- Univision
- Pax, now Ion TV
- New TV Distribution
- Cable Act, 1992
- Direct Broadcast Satellite
- Big Three networks decline
- TV in the Digital Age
- digital video recorders
- iPads and other screens
- streaming video sites
- Further Decline of Network TV
- declining audience
- TV is less attractive for advertisers
- importance of rights fees for other properties
- reliance on retransmission fees to carry channels
- Analog Television
- persistence of vision
- Paul Nipkow
- 1884
- linear scanning
- mechanical television
- Philo Farnsworth
- 1920s
- electronic scanning
- electronic television
- National Television Systems Committee
- 1941
- standard for analog television
- 525-line horizontal lines of resolution
- Digital Television
- standard definition
- high-definition television
- up to 1080 horizontal lines
- 16:9 aspect ratio
- transmission
- satellite TV
- digital cable
- storage
- video disks
- digital video recorders
- multicasting
- subchannels
- two HD signals
- four SD signals
- on-demand video
- mandated transition in 2009
- Video Recording
- magnetic videotape, late 1950s
- helical scanning for home VCRs
- DVDs optical disks of digitized video
- Blu-ray increased capacity for HD video files
- hard drives of compressed digital video for DVR systems
- threatened by on-demand video
- Video Production
- rugged portable cameras
- electronic news gathering
- locally via microwave transmission
- globally via satellite
- digital video file storage
- non-linear editing digital video
- digital graphics, special effects, computer animation
- now possible with personal computers
- Interactive TV
- long standing vision, poorly executed
- Qube, 1970s
- interactive quiz shows
- audience participation
- alternative endings
- alternative graphics
- in-depth statistics
- product ordering
- commercial skipping
- instant replays
- Internet TV
- television program viewed over the Internet
- social media to retain audience
- video chatting
- streaming video
- smartphone and tablet apps
- 3D TV
- long standing vision, poorly executed
- resurgence after success of Avatar
- active shutter glasses
- require viewer to sit directly in front of TV
- viewers often feel nauseous
- Big Five
- Time Warner
- Disney
- National Amusements: CBS and Viacom
- News Corp
- Comcast-NBC-Universal
- top managers come from finance, not entertainment
- Industry Consolidation
- synergy
- benefit from integrating production and distribution
- ordering programs from their own production companies
- syndicating owned programs to cable channels and broadcast O&Os
- Entertainment Production
- project-by-project basis
- actors
- directors
- screenwriters
- technicians
- network programming
- networks acquire first-run rights for less than production costs
- producers earn profits from off-network syndication
- first-run syndication
- network O&Os
- network affiliates
- cable networks
- independent stations
- Network News Production
- television news are reduced to “sound bites” and short video clips
- ratings-driven
- only first-run revenue
- reliance on informal networks
- local network affiliates
- foreign TV networks
- independent stringers
- amateur video recorded on mobile phones
- Twitter
- Local News
- live newscasts
- newsmagazines
- always “on” because it’s a major profit center
- newsgathering
- via satellite
- electronic news-gathering
- mobile phone footage
- Sports
- rights fees paid by networks to leagues
- cable networks recoup costs from dual revenue stream
- retransmission fees
- advertising
- Public TV
- most programming produced by the larger public TV stations
- programming from independent producers
- programming imported from BBC
- revenue
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds
- member station contributions
- corporate underwriting
- contributions from the public
- foreign network co-sponsorship
- Cable TV Programming
- first-run productions
- first-run syndication
- off-network syndication
- local origination
- community access
- Commercial TV Networks
- CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox
- CW, MyNetworkTV, Ion, Univision
- network of local stations
- O&O: owned and operated stations
- network affiliates
- Basic Cable Networks
- cable networks distributed via satellite
- delivered to home by
- local cable system
- direct broadcast satellite
- paid affiliate fees
- station types
- network clones
- regional sports networks
- superstations
- Premium Cable TV Services
- HBO and Cinemax
- Showtime, Starz, Encore
- paid exclusively by affiliate fees
- Syndication
- local stations to fill schedules
- daytime
- prime-access hour, 7:00–8:00 PM
- first-run syndication
- off-network syndication
- market dominated by Big Five
- payments
- exchanged at National Association of Television Programming Executives meeting
- Group Owned Stations
- multiple broadcast properties
- benefit from economies of scale
- management
- programming
- advertising sales
- FCC limits ownership to 39% reach
- duopolies permitted in larger markets
- restricted by cross-ownership regulations
- Big Five own and operate many of these stations
- Network Affiliates
- local distributors of network programs
- individually owned or group owned by non-network entity
- helps stations attract audience
- stations earn affiliate compensation from networks
- now, networks charge affiliates for programming
- Independent Stations
- not affiliated with any network
- rely on syndicated programming
- sell advertisements on local, regional, national markets
- few independents survive today
- Noncommercial Stations
- over 350 public TV stations
- community stations
- produce own programming
- acquire programming from PBS or other producers
- no advertising sales
- on-air membership drives
- public contributions
- corporate underwriting
- Programming Strategies
- least objectionable program
- blocking
- lead-out
- hammocking
- tent-poling
- stripping
- stunting
- challenge program
- counter program
- Children and TV
- governed by industry self-regulation
- V-chip, 1996
- block programming of a certain rating
- used by almost no one
- largely undone by Internet
- Children’s Television Act, 1990
- vague definition of educational TV
- required three hours per week
- almost entirely unenforced
- Parents Television Council as a watchdog