Television Broadcast and Beyond

Television: Broadcast and Cable/Satellite The Invention of Television Philo T. Farnsworth: developed the central concepts of television at age fourteen the lines of a tilled potato field supposedly the inspiration behind the technology September 7, 1927: “There you are, electronic television.”

Vladimir Zworykin: working to develop television for RCA filed for a patent on it in 1923 U.S. patent office ruled in favor of Farnsworth Farnsworth’s high school chemistry teacher supported his arguments RCA lost, and had to pay royalties television development halted for World War II Farnsworth’s patents expired in 1947

The Beginning of Broadcasting 1939, NBC transmitted television broadcasts from the New York World’s Fair. From 1948 to 1952, the licensing of new television stations was frozen: needed to give the FCC time to determine best way to regulate television early, popular programming included comedy and variety shows, some dramas.

The Arrival of Color Television In 1959- only three shows were regularly shown in color: NBC peacock logo By 1965, all three major networks were broadcasting in color. Cost of early color sets was very high.

Cable and Satellite Television Community Antenna Television pioneered by the Parsons family of Astoria, Oregon connected a cable to an antenna to strengthen signal became known as community antenna television (CATV) up until the 1970s, cable was a way to get a better signal, not more channels

Satellite Distribution and the Rebirth of Cable By the mid-1970s, FCC relaxed regulation. Home Box Office (HBO) began in 1975. Satellite systems had advantage over networks: hundreds of cable systems could obtain the programming as cheaply as one

Ted Turner on December 27, 1976—launched Superstation WTBS created Cable News Network (CNN) and CNN Headline News TNT, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies in 1996 Turner Broadcasting bought by Warner Brothers: merger allowed Turner access to more media

Types of Cable Programming: Two-thirds of Americans have cable; 12.9 percent in the United Kingdom. Types of Cable Programming: affiliates of the major broadcast networks independent stations and minor network affiliates. superstations (WTBS, WGN, etc.) local-access channels cable networks (MTV, CNN, BET, etc.). premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.). pay-per-view channels audio services

Hollywood and the VCR initially two incompatible formats, costly by 1991, VCRs found in seven out of ten homes Universal and Disney sued Sony over its promotion of the VCR for recording movies: 1984—U.S. Supreme Court ruled that viewers had the right to record copyrighted programs for their own use VCR ownership peaked in 1999 (89 percent).

Direct Broadcast Satellites 1990s—advent of the low-earth-orbit direct broadcast satellite fall 2006—in approximately 26 percent of U.S. homes head-to-head competition with cable specialized programming (NFL package)

Digital Television All television broadcasting in the United States is scheduled to be digital by February 17, 2009: those without digital sets will need a converter Two digital formats: high-definition television (HDTV)—a wide-screen format, high resolution picture standard digital television—allows multiple channels to be delivered on same frequency On November 1, 1998 Space Shuttle Discovery launch: first nationally-broadcast digital program

From Broadcasting to Narrowcasting: The Changing Business of Television The Big Three: NBC, CBS, and ABC television network—companies that provide programs to local stations around the country network makes money from national advertising: network affiliate keeps all ad revenue from programming they produce/carry

Educational Broadcasting Becomes Public Broadcasting Public Broadcasting Act of 1967: established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding for noncommercial programs on Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Sesame Street—November 8, 1969 popular documentaries

FOX Network: on the air in 1986 in six out of ten top U.S. markets string of popular programs “stole” NFL away from Big Three networks

Defining Ratings Nielsen Media Research: tracks television usage in 9,000 U.S. homes uses PeopleMeters in large markets, viewer diaries in smaller markets sweeps—quarterly viewership measurement rating point—the percentage of the total potential television audience for a show share—the percentage of sets actually tuned to a particular show

An Earthquake in Slow Motion 1976—nine of ten people were watching network television by 1991—Big Three lost a third of audience more channels on cable Big Three networks sold to new owners in 1985 broadcast networks’ revenue plummeted in the 1990s cable programs cheaper to produce cable channels have both a subscription fee and-advertising revenue

Television News Goes 24/7 began with brief coverage of the 1940 Republican national convention on NBC by 1948, both parties’ conventions were covered 1947—Meet the Press TV’s longest-running news/commentary program August 1948—CBS airing nightly fifteen minute news show CBS coverage of 1956 sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1963, CBS and NBC expand to half hour nightly news broadcast (ABC in 1967)

November 3, 1979—Americans held hostage in Iran ABC started a nightly news update at 11:30 p.m. EST. show eventually became Nightline 1980—CNN goes on air 1991 Gulf War—attracted large audience with its twenty-four-hour coverage by 2003 Iraq War—had significant competition by 2002, FOX News getting higher ratings than CNN

Diversity on Television 1999—Big Four networks introduced twenty-six new shows none featured a nonwhite lead character Fall of 2006 thirty-two of the forty-three new shows featured Hispanic, African-American, and Asian-American actors Lost featured diverse cast (interracial couple, non-English speaking actor)

Univision and Spanish-Language Broadcasting Univision—Spanish-language broadcast network: fifth largest broadcast network Telemundo Telenovelas—Spanish soap operas Make up fifteen of the top twenty Spanish-language programs

Black Entertainment Television (BET) reaches 60 million households: 12.5 million black households started in 1980 in Washington, D.C. purchased by Viacom attracting advertisers who want to reach nonwhite audience

Audience Members as Programmers: Public Access Cable Channels air public affairs programming and other locally produced shows. More than 15,000 hours of programming are produced annually on 2,000 stations. Most programming is conventional, but some is controversial.

Television and Society Television as a Major Social Force Time spent watching television: average person watches about four hours per day fifteen hours per week actively watching, twenty-one passively watching Americans spend half their leisure time with TV at any given time in the evening one third of Americans watching TV (over 50 percent in winter) children spend four hours per day watching television or videos

How Do Viewers Use Television? Reasons identified in the “Television in the Lives of Our Children” study: to be entertained to learn things or gain information for social reasons Study found children watched the same program for different reasons.

Bringing the World into Our Homes TV breaks down the physical barriers that separate people. TV provides a view into formerly separate worlds. People everywhere in the world have access to information simultaneously.

Standards for Television Set by each network’s own standards and practices department: to ensure the network did not lose viewers or sponsors because of offensive content Implemented a two-part rating system in 1997: G, PG, TV-14, TV-MA, S, V, L, and D use ratings to warn, rather than restrict

The Problem of Decency 2004 Super Bowl halftime show: FCC received more than 500,000 complaints about the “wardrobe malfunction.” Rules state no indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.: no single standard for what constitutes broadcast indecency

Future of Television Interactive Television multiple versions of single channels DVRs video-on-Demand online voting to decide outcome of shows, polls

The Earthquake In Slow Motion Continues Video games as mass communication: In 2006, nearly 94 million persons aged two and older played a video game in the last three months of the year. Two-thirds of all men 18–34 have at least one video game console in their homes.

Convergence of Television and the Internet On Wednesday, October 12, 2005, video iPod debuted: Apple partnering with Disney to sell ABC's top rated shows through iTunes. Apple is selling programs to consumers, instead of audiences to advertisers. Now there are multiple ways to watch a network broadcast show. Networks are figuring out how to compensate affiliates for digital purchases of programming.