Download Chapter 9 Television: Broadcast and Beyond

Television:
Broadcast and Beyond
Draft for Ed 6
Chapter 9
Anchor as Advocate
• Jorge Ramos speaks to huge audience (triple CNN's
audience) as Univision anchor.
• Ramos is advocate for Latino and immigrant groups;
part of shift on many cable channels to opinion
journalism.
• Noted for controversy during 2016 presidential
campaign with Donald Trump.
Invention of Television
Philo T. Farnsworth
• 1922: Diagrams plans for television at age 16.
• 1930: Receives patent cathode ray tube.
• RCA attempted to promote its own Vladimir
Zworykin as inventor of TV.
• 1947: Farnsworth’s television patent expires just
before TV starts to take off.
Beginning of Broadcast Television
• 1939: NBC starts broadcasting, most sets in bars,
restaurants.
• 1942: TV manufacturing suspended for duration of
WW II; most stations go off air.
• Licensing of new TV stations suspended 1948-1952,
leaving many cities without television.
Lucy & Desi End Live TV
• 1951: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz create I Love Lucy.
• First sitcom to be filmed, rather than live.
• Lucy and Desi hold onto syndication rights to the
show, still being broadcast today.
Color Television
• 1950s: Early experiments in color television.
• 1965: Big Three networks broadcasting in color.
• NBC peacock logo designed to tell B&W viewers show
was in color.
• Early color TVs cost equivalent of big screen TVs today.
Beginning of Cable Television
• Community Antenna Television (CATV)
Early form of cable television used to distribute
broadcast channels in communities with poor
television reception
• Relatively expensive, was source of a good TV
signal, not additional programming
Rebirth of Cable
• By mid-1970s, FCC began loosening rules on cable
companies.
• 1975: HBO starts providing programming
nationwide, sending signal to local cable companies
via satellite.
• Key Point: HBO could send programming to 1,000
cable companies as cheaply as to one.
Ted Turner – Cable Pioneer
• 1963: Inherits failing billboard company from father.
• 1970: Buys Channel 17 in Atlanta.
• Buys Atlanta Braves and Hawks sports franchises to
provide programming for channel.
• Turns Channel 17 into Superstation WTBS in 1976,
takes local station national.
Ted Turner – Cable Pioneer
• 1980: CNN becomes first cable 24-hour news
network.
• Developed idea of repackaging content across
multiple channels.
• 1996: Turner Broadcasting faces financial trouble, is
acquired by media giant Time Warner.
What’s on Cable?
• Affiliates of Big Four broadcast networks
• Independents and smaller network affiliates
• Superstations
• Local-access channels
• Cable networks
• Premium channels
• Pay-per-view
• Audio services
Home Recording
• Late 1970s: Videocassette Recorder (VCR) becomes
household appliance.
• Movie studios fight spread of VCRs, but 1984
Supreme Court decision says consumers can make
recordings for own use.
• 21st Century: DVRs, DVDs, on-demand replacing
VCR technology.
Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)
• Early satellite TV required large/expensive dish.
• Smaller pizza-sized DBS cheaper, easier to use than
old systems; competing with cable.
• As of 2015, 33 million American households have
DBS.
Conversion to Digital Broadcasting
• Farnsworth’s television technology was analog.
Same technology for decades.
• B&W televisions could still receive new color
signals.
• In 2009, all broadcast television converted to digital.
Analog sets went dark without either conversion
box or cable/satellite.
Digital Television
• High-definition television (HDTV)
High-resolution, wide-screen format with enhanced
sound
• Standard digital television
Can broadcast up to six channels in airspace
that carried one old-style channel
Networks & Affiliates
• Broadcast networks provide programming to local
affiliate stations.
• Affiliates have license from FCC, equipment, and
local staff.
• If affiliate carries programming from network, get
limited ad revenue and (may) get carriage fee.
• Can also carry local and syndicated programming,
keep all ad revenue.
Public Broadcasting
• 1967: Corporation for Public Broadcasting created.
• Public Broadcasting System (PBS) provides networklike programming to member stations.
• PBS initially known for children’s programming like
Sesame Street.
• 1990s: PBS expands audience with programming
like Ken Burns documentaries.
• 2015: Sesame Street moves to HBO for first-run
episodes; PBS continues to air episodes after they
are shown on HBO.
Big Three Becomes Big Four
• 1986: Rupert Murdoch launches Fox Network.
• Attracted independent stations by offering them
free programming.
• Shows like NFL football, The Simpsons, Empire,
Family Guy and Bones have made Fox top-rated
broadcaster.
Audience Ratings
• Challenge of rating major and minor broadcast
networks, major cable networks, and minor cable
networks
• Problem of counting DVR audiences
• Nielsen Media Research is major rating company
Measuring Audiences
• People Meters used in larger markets
• Sweeps periods used to measure audience size of
individual stations (4 times/year)
• Rating point
Percentage of potential television audience actually
watching the show
• Share
Percentage of television sets in use tuned to a show
An Earthquake in Slow Motion
• 1976: Average viewer has 7 channels, Big Three
networks have 90 percent of viewers.
• 1991: Average viewer has 33 channels, Big Three lose
1/3rd of viewers.
• 2011: ESPN most profitable part of Disney.
• 2013-2016: ESPN loses 7 million subscribers as viewers
find alternatives to cable/satellite.
• Cable/Satellite more profitable because get subscription
fees and ad revenue.
• Streaming services major new source of competition.
Diversity on Television
• Networks frequently criticized for ignoring
people of color.
• Growth of non-English speaking characters
• Growth of shows with African American women
as leads
• High level of diversity with competitors on Food
Network
Spanish Language Broadcasting
• Univision is fifth largest broadcast network; often
top rated in urban areas.
• Suffering from general downturn facing Spanishlanguage media
• Spanish-language telenovelas popular, produced in
Mexico, Brazil. (Brazilian shows translated from
Portuguese to Spanish.)
Black Entertainment Network
• 1980: Washington, DC area local station.
• First black-owned cable network
• Worth $2 billion at time it sold to Viacom
Television as a Social Force
• Television brings world into the home in an easy-toconsume format.
• Television becomes dominant source of shared
experience.
• Television can dominate people’s leisure activity.
• Video from non-TV sources is growing in popularity.
Standards for Television
• 1950s: Married couples had to sleep in separate
beds; Capri pants immodest.
• 1990s: Mild nudity appears on broadcast television.
• 1997: Broadcasters implement content ratings.
• Cable only stations are not subject to FCC rules on
decency
Problem of Decency
• 2004: Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “wardrobe
malfunction”; decency rules become stricter.
• 2012: U.S. Supreme Court throws out fines for Jackson
exposure, but doesn’t clarify decency standards.
• No fines for Nancy Grace exposure during Dancing
With The Stars.
• No clear standard as of 2012.
Future of Television
• Video-on-demand
• Interacting with programming
• Convergence of television and Internet
• Rise of mobile streaming apps such as Periscope
• Changing definition of “television”
• Moving from broadcast/cable/satellite to “cord
cutting”