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- History of Broadcasting
- History of Broadcasting: Television, 1995-2005
- Digital
- binary code
- one-zeros
- computed by a microprocessor
- Digital Convergence
- Input: Modern Media
- text:
- images: photography
- audio: music
- video: motion pictures and television
- Digital Code
- Output: Digital Device
- computer
- digital music player
- digital video recorders
- smartphone
- Distribution
- compact disc
- digital audio tape
- digital video disc
- digital cable
- direct broadcast satellite
- Internet
- Internet
- ARPANet, 1969
- email, 1972
- “Internet,” 1982
- Transfer Control Protocol
- Internet Protocol
- US National Information Infrastructure Act, 1993
- Governance
- shared private governance
- IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force
- ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
- IAB: Internet Architecture Board
- ISOC: Internet Society
- InterNIC: Internet Network Information Center
- W3C: World Wide Web Consortium
- World Wide Web
- Tim Berners-Lee
- 1989
- hypertext
- linking remote documents to each other
- Mosaic web browser
- 1993
- first graphical web browser
- foundations for Netscape, 1994
- Popularizing the Internet
- mid–1990s
- Internet Access Services
- America Online
- CompuServe
- Prodigy
- connecting to the web was easy for consumers
- Telecommunications Act of 1996
- comprehensive rewriting of communications policy
- voice
- multichannel video
- Internet
- mobile telephone
- deregulated ownership
- regulated speech
- Deregulations
- ownership caps
- TV: raised ownership from 25% to 35% reach of national TV audience
- radio: eliminated national ownership cap and allowed a single company to own as many as 8 radio stations in a single market
- cable: capped ownership at 30% of the national audience
- allowed new cross-ownerships
- telephone companies could enter video market
- cable franchise and television station in top 50 markets
- any number of radio stations and TV stations in the largest markets
- newspapers and TV stations in markets with more than three TV stations
- broadcast licenses
- extended licenses to eight years
- preference for incumbent licensees
- barred competitive applications
- digital television
- stations gained a channel in UHF band
- high-definition
- multiplexing
- give back VHF channel to retire TV VHF band
- VHF and analog TV retired in 2009
- direct broadcast satellite
- FCC responsible for regulating DBS
- cable rates
- revoked regulation of rates, established under 1992 Cable Act
- Content Restrictions
- Communications Decency Act
- V-Chip and Rating System
- Must Carry
- Cable Right of Refusal
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 1998
- intellectual property law in the digital age
- banned anti-circumvention
- empowered ISPs to takedown infringing sites, such as peer-to-peer sharing services
- online radio stations were subject to a new per-user license fee, instead of a “blanket fee”
- Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998
- “Sonny Bono Act”
- extended copyright on Mickey Mouse productions to prevent it entering the public domain
- new classes of works
- public domain
- works before 1923
- works published 1923–1977 without registration
- works created after 1923 and registered before 1978
- 28 years + 47 years (1976) + 20 years (1998) = 95 years total
- works created before 1978 but registered sometime afterward
- author’s life plus 70 years
- works originally created after 1978
- single author: author’s life plus 70 years
- joint authorship: last surviving author plus 70 years
- made-for-hire or anonymous works: 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter
- Mergers
- 1996
- Walt Disney buys Capital Cities/ABC
- Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System merge
- Westinghouse (CBS Corp) buys Infinity Broadcasting
- 1999
- CBS Corp buys King World Productions
- Viacom buys CBS corp
- Clear Channel buys AMFM Radio
- 2000
- AOL buys Time Warner
- Vivendi and Seagram merge with Canal+
- 2001
- Comcast merges with AT&T broadband unit
- 2003
- News Corp acquires Hughes Electronics, parent of DirecTV
- Vivendi Universal and General Electric combine NBC, Vivendi Universal Studios and cable channels (Bravo, Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, etc.)
- Financial Interest in Television Programming
- repeal of Fin/Syn rules in early 1990s
- six broadcast networks produced more programming in-house
- by 2002, networks owned or had interest in 77.5% of own programs
- independents floundered or were acquired
- Broadcast Network Audience
- 1999: primetime audience share fell to 58%
- 2004: primetime audience share fell below 50%
- yet advertising rates remained high
- Neo-networks and Cable Channels Flourished
- TBS: Time Warner
- A&E: Walt Disney, Hearst, GE
- Discovery Channel: Discovery, Cox, Advance/Newhouse
- ESPN: Walt Disney
- USA: GE
- CNN: Time Warner
- Disney Channel: Walt Disney
- ESPN2: Walt Disney
- History Channel: Walt Disney, Hearst, GE
- HGTV: EW Scripps
- Nickelodeon: Viacom
- Fox News: News Corp
- Radio
- consolidation
- emergence of super group owners
- localism suffered
- slow growth of low-power FM radio
- Direct Broadcast Satellite
- dominated by two companies
- local broadcast station carriage
- important distant signals from network affiliate superstation
- Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act, 1999
- benefit local broadcast stations
- required DBS providers “must carry” local affiliate signals
- retransmission consent
This outline is based on material from Michele Hilmes, Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States. 4th ed. Boston: Cengage, 2014.