1. Television
Chapter 8

2. Early Television Golden Age (1940s-1950s)
High quality, innovative production
Low quality viewing

3. 1948 Freeze Halt licensing to establish standards in all cities
UHF and VHF standards
Limits most cities to 3 stations
Big 3 networks established
Some cities develop cable to get distant signals

4. Television Ratings

5. Television Ratings Nielsen’s Change content
Rating & Share
Change content
Search for lowest common denominator
Success = high ratings and low production costs
Leads to ‘vast wasteland’
Oligopoly control: NBC, CBS, ABC
Game show scandals

6. Cable Antenna for distant signals Pay programming
Small cities without stations use towers and cables to get television
Pay programming
FCC supports urban cable systems 1972
HBO 1975
WTBS 1976

7. Early Cable Early 1980s: MSOs develop TVRO big dish technology
Specialty programming
CBN, CNN, C-SPAN
MSOs develop
Develop larger networks, more channels
Narrowcasting
TVRO big dish technology

8. Networks Decline

9. Networks Decline Big 3 all sold in 1980s
Film studios enter the business
Fox challenges with network of UHF stations 1987
No VHF advantage for cable subscribers
Edgier programming, Fox studio advantage

10. Television’s Most Popular

11. TV Liberalization FCC allows for groups to own more
Cable and dish make inroads
Studios become network, cable, film operations
Big 5 emerge:
Networks part of global multimedia corporations

12. Television Technology
Scanning
Breaks images into spots of light
NTSC standard:
525 scan lines, 30 times per second
4 x 3 aspect ratio
Electron gun
Scans back of picture tube
Transmission
Amplitude modulation for picture
FM for sound

13. Television Technology
TV Spectrum: TV channels are arranged so that each is 6 MHz wide. FM radio is tucked in
between TV channels 6 and 7.

14. Digital Television Goal is higher quality signal
SDTV – digital at typical NTSC standard
HDTV – high-definition
1080 lines
16 x 9 aspect ratio
Surround sound
Digital tuners still not diffused
FCC 2006 conversion deadline extended

15. Television’s Big 5

16. TV Programming Production Long road to production
In-house, or part owned by networks
Long road to production
Concept
Script
Pilot
Preview
Production order
Season debut
Syndication

17. TV Programming

18. Television Distribution
National Networks
NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, UPN, WB, PAX, Univision
Basic cable networks
CNN, ESPN, Lifetime
Pay services
HBO, Showtime, Cinemax
Pay-per-view
Public broadcasting
Syndication
Local
Network affiliates, O&Os
independents

19. Television Genres

20. TV Issues Diversity Violence Decency Ownership Content Children V-chip
FCC vigilance
Small groups influence decency standards