Mass Media and Society Chapter 9: Television
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Transcript of Mass Media and Society Chapter 9: Television
Mass Media and Society
Chapter 9: Television
Feb. 19, 2014
Chapter 9:Television
• Origins of television• Television and culture• Issues and trends• Influence of new
technologies
Origins of TV
• 1939: NBC first broadcasts regularly
• 1950s: First Golden Age of Television
• 1945: 10,000 sets; 1950: 6 million; 1960: 60 million
Rise of cable TV
• By 1962, 800 systems with 850,000 subscribers
• Pay service HBO founded in 1972
• Deregulation provided by 1984 cable act allows expansion; 53 million households by end of ’80s
Digital and HD
• U.S. switches from analog to digital fully in 2009
• High-Definition Television popularized; by 2010, nearly half of U.S. audience watch in HD
• HD viewers watch 3% more prime time(7-11 p.m.)
Television and culture• Domestic comedy in
1950s: “Leave it to Beaver” etc. depict generic idealized families
• Leave out minorities; don’t address social issues; focus on middle-class whites exclusively
1960s and 1970s
• 1960s: TV news brings reality home (Cronkite)
• Sitcoms popularized (“Bewitched,” “Beverly Hillbillies”)
• 1970s: Sketch comedy (“SNL”); programming diversifies somewhat
TV in the 1980s• Some call early ’80s
Second Golden Age (scripted dramas like “Hill Street Blues”)
• CNN, ESPN, MTV “Cosby Show,” “Family Ties”
• BET launches in 1980• Content more violent and
more sex-related
1990s and 2000s
• More specialized cable channels
• Programming migrates online (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube)
• Conversation increasingly dominated by those outlets, HBO, ESPN, MTV
Netflix disrupts• Netflix pays to license
content from networks: streaming and rentals
• Subscriptions: 31 million in U.S. (HBO: 28 million)
• Getting into original programming
• Interconnected with networks, cable
Hulu and YouTube• Hulu: streaming site
created by NBC, Fox, ABC; 5 million subscribers
• YouTube: owned by Google
• YouTube is busiest “TV platform”: 6 billion hours of video a month watched by 1 billion unique visitors
TV and culture
• TV news comes to forefront during crisis (9/11)
• Partisan news networks influential
• Social issues (“Ellen”)• Reality television
Industry trends
• Corporate sponsorship• Networks rise and fall• Fox rises to rival big 3 in
early 1990s (ABC, NBC, CBS)
• Big four share of market falls from 43% in 1994 to 27% in 2009
Industry trends• Cable continues to eat
into network market share• Narrowcasting: Channels
focus on specific audiences (sports, news, fashion, hobbies)
• Cable pushes the envelope on explicit content; so do networks
New technology• Satellite TV: DirecTV vs.
Dish Network; both compete with cable
• DVRs popularized• Internet: Streaming
content competes with TV• VOD (video on demand)
becomes more common• Interactive TV
Revenue sources• Networks: advertising,
licensing content• Netflix and
HBO/Showtime: subscriptions (HBO/Showtime license content)
• Cable companies: subscriptions to cable TV, broadband Internet
Revenue sources• Cable networks:
Advertising, carriage fees (charging cable companies to broadcast network content)
• YouTube: Advertising• Hulu: Subscriptions,
advertising, licensing content
Revenue and trends• Local TV affiliates: local
advertising, charging cable operators
• Ownership trend in cable is toward consolidation
• Cable companies offer single “pipe” for TV, Internet, phone
Third Golden Age• Complex, years-long
dramas (“Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad”)
• Starting mid-1990s• Anti-hero protagonists• Culturally influential• Freedom of cable/pay TV
Major threats to TV• Advertising declining:
DVR users skip ads; viewers use ad-free services more
• Viewers streaming more video, using devices such as game consoles; giving up cable subscriptions