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Announcementsand today’s schedule

Today: Television, Chapter 8Quiz Wednesday on Television

Chapter Eight

Invention of the TVPhilo T. Farnsworth

Plowing father’s farm inspired design for scanning an imageRCA paid $1,000,000 for patents after long litigation

Vladimir Zworykin: RCA team: IconoscopeTV’s commercial debut: NBC, April 30, 1939

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TV technology developmentNational Television Systems Committee (NTSC)

525 lines and 30 frames per second, 60 interlaced scans to eliminate flicker—mostly unchanged today

Freeze 1948 to 1952: No new stations, but TV continued to grow in major cities, reaching 15 million homes by 1952

1948: 18 stations in 12 cities

Color TV: 1952—first colorTV show: “Bonanza”

FCC’s Sixth Report and Order (1952)Did a number of things:

Ended 1948 TV application freeze Opened UHF band for TVReassigned many VHF stations to reduce interferenceEstablished non-commercial educational TV by reserving channels in hundreds of communities

VHF (original channels): Very high frequency, channels 2-13UHF (introduced in 1952): Ultra high frequency, channels 14-83 (reduced to 14-69, with extras reassigned to cell phones)

FCC did not require UHF tuners on TVs until 1964

“Golden Age of TV”TV was live: programs recorded on film by filming TV screenLive drama anthologies: “Playhouse 90” had 133 episodes (1956-61), 90-min. live dramaNews and public affairs programs

Evening news: “Camel NewsCaravan” with John CameronSwayze (15 min. nat’l newscast)“See It Now” with EdwardR. Murrow, who bashed Sen.Joseph McCarthy and Houseun-American Activities Committeefor “Red Scare”

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Rise of the networks AT&T had coaxial cable interconnecting stations by 1946

NBC linked WNBT in New York with stations in Philadelphia, Schenectady, and Washington

Three successful networks grew out of radio: NBC, CBS, and ABC

Fourth network, Dumont Network,had no radio network backing,only lasted until 1955

Commercial practices Programs had single commercial sponsor, commercials part of program (e.g., “soap operas” sponsored by soap companies; Kraft Television Theatre by Kraft Foods)Change in commercials

Encouraged participatingsponsorshipAdvertisers paid for spotcommercials: one-minuteNetwork took greatercontrol of program content

95% of all stations were affiliates

End of the “Golden Age”Ended as ratings become paramount

Buying and selling of spots became tied to cost per thousand viewersDrove programs aimed atelite eastern audience off

Program success basedon low production costand high ratings (e.g.,sitcoms, quiz shows…and today, reality TV)

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TV ratings: A.C. Nielsen Co.Random sample size = more than 5,000 households, with over 13,000 people (99.4 mill. U.S. households)

Audimeter: Automatic monitoringPeople meter: Set-top box “Sweeps” determine ad rates

Ratings: Estimate of percentage of total population watching a particular TV stationShare: Estimate of percentage of people watching TV who are watching a particular TV station

TV goes to HollywoodLucille Ball’s Desilu Productions was first to move from NYC to Hollywood

She did it to retain control over her programmingStudios start producing programs for networks

ABC got content from Disney(“Mickey Mouse Club”) andWarner Brothers (“77 Sunset Strip”)

Studies later profited fromselling programs as rerunsStudios also sell movies to networks

NBC’s “Saturday Night at the Movies”

Quiz show scandal“$64,000 Question” (1955) sponsored and produced by Revlon“Twenty-One” scandal (1957)

Charles Van Doren, professor atColumbia University, won$129,000 and admitted beinggiven answers in advance

Networks reexaminedrelationship betweensponsors and programsResurgence of game shows in 1999

“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”

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Nixon-Kennedy 1960 presidential debate65 million people watched

Radio listeners picked Nixon as winnerTV viewers picked Kennedy as winner

A vast wasteland?!Newton Minow: FCC Chairman appointed by JFK, used term at National Association of Broadcasters meeting in 1961 TV had become oligopoly, three networks, and FCC tried to break networkcontrol

Fin-Syn:“Financial Interest andSyndication Rules” (networkscouldn’t own programming)ended in 90sPrime Time Access Rule: stoppednetwork programming between7 and 8 P.M.

Public television (PBS) FCC reserves licenses for educational TV after 1948 freezeCarnegie Commission on Educational Television report on state of educational TV (1967) > Public Broadcasting Act of 1967established PBS and Corporation for Public Broadcasting (funding)Programming sources

Major PBS stations: WGBN,WNETChildren’s Television Workshop:“Sesame Street”British imports: “Masterpiece Theater”

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Cable TV: Community Antenna TV (CATV)Intended at first to boost broadcast signals

John Walson – late 1940s, Mahanoy, Penn., demonstrated TVs in appliance store, let neighbors connect to his system via towers that boosted signals

1965-72: FCC imposed freeze over cable services in top 100 broadcast markets if any UHF television operator objected to it, to “protect” still-new UHF services

WTCG (now WTBS) Atlanta viasatellite

Multiple System Operators (MSOs)Support channels only on cable, monthly fee

Cable competitionDBS: direct broadcast satellite

Geosynchronous orbitPrimestar, DirecTV

Programming fee and cost of equipment Areas where there is no cable

Home videoVideocassette rentalShifting of programs

Network changes As audience aged, networks lost audience sharePrograms increase in extremes of violence and sex Changes in programming

More racially diverse: “I Spy,” and “Julia”Evening soaps: “Dallas”Prime time sports: “Monday Night Football”

Change of ownership ABC acquired by Capital Cities CommunicationCBS acquired by investor Larry TischNBC acquired by GE

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New TV networksRemoval of Fin-Syn rules allowed wealthy investors to develop alternative networks

Fox: Rupert Murdock’s News Corp., also owns 20th Century Fox and production studioWB: AOL Time-Warner,also owns HBO, CNNUPN (United ParamountNetwork): Viacom

Narrowcasting: Newnetworks targeted viewers 18-34 (“90210,” “Simpsons”)

“Big Three” add more sex and violence

New trogramming trends:Reality-based TV Old programming formulas not profitable

Cost of production outstripped income from advertising“Big Three” attract less than half audience

Cheap programmingReality programming—“America's Funniest HomeVideos,” talk and cop shows Prime time quiz shows—“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”Combination reality and game shows—“Survivor”Low costs! No scripts or actors

Network changedance partners Telecom Act of 1996 relaxes rules on media ownershipNBC: Owned by General Electric

Also owns a share of PAX, MSNBC, and CNBC

ABC: Owned by Disney Also owns cable network ESPN, and The Disney Channel

CBS: Owned by ViacomAlso owns UPN, MTV, and Showtime

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Digital TVHigh-definition television (HDTV): Digital image/sound, large screen with 16:9 aspect ratio Picture is “like looking through a window”In 2006 all analog TV stations “go dark”

You will need a newHDTV or set-top boxOld programs mustbe digitized500+ digital stations are now on-airCable systems mustonly carry analog signal

Personal and interactive TV TiVo and ReplayTV: Cross VCRwith computer hard drive

Store compressed video, instantreplay and pause program

Video-on-demand: cable industry option Add Internet function to TV programs

Microsoft WebTV:interactive content

Video over the Internet:most connections stilltoo slow to support

“The Big Five”AOL Time Warner

WB Network, HBO, CNN, Headline News, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, TBS, Warner Brothers movie studio, Warner Cable, Time Magazine

DisneyDisney Studios, ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel, Lifetime, E!, A&E, Disneyland, 10 TV stations

ViacomCBS, Paramount, UPN network, 17 TV station, TNN, MTV, VH-1, Nickelodeon, TV Land, BET

News CorpTwentieth Century Fox, FX, Fox News, 23 TV stations, publishing

General ElectricNBC, MSNBC, CNBC, 13 TV stations

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SynergyMultiple benefits from integrating production and various forms of distribution Cross promotion: e.g., AOL/Time Warner…

Warner Brothers studio: produces TV series “Felicity”WB Network: distributes seriesTime Magazine: promotes series Warner Cable: delivers series to home viewerNot to mention toys, clothes, notebooks, etc…

Television advertisersNational advertisers

Advertisements carried on networks Up front season: blocks of ads sold before fall season starts

National spot advertisersNational advertisers buy air time from local stations Purchase air time through national representatives

Local advertisers

New TV hegemonyCultural diversity?

White male middle-class hegemonyWomen and minorities under-represented before and behind camera: Hispanics are 11% of population but 3% of TV roles

Excessive horizontal integration

Limits diversity of content Vertical integration

Big five conglomerates dominate production AND distribution

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Children and TVChildren’s Television Act of 1990 mandated that TV serve educational and informational needs of children

Rules are general enough to allow “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” to be counted as educational…?

V-chip: Telecom Act of 1996 required new TVs be sold with device that allows parents to block undesirable programs

TVY – All childrenTVY7 - Directed to older childrenTVG – General audienceTVPG – Parental guidance suggestedTV15 – Parents strongly cautionedTVM – Mature audience only

Fairness DoctrineEncourage dissection of issues

Most stations did not abide by rules

Held to be constitutional regulation in Red Lion case (1969)1987: Deregulation, and no more FD!

Protection of commercial broadcasting Broadcasters have powerful lobby in Washington (politicians want happy media!)Broadcasting will remain advertiser-supported (free)

Cost added to all goods and services we buy

Government makes cable carry local stations, and may require them to be carried by DBS and broadband too