Transcript Television, Cable & Specialization in Visual Culture

Television, Cable & Specialization
in Visual Culture
Chapter 8
Mass Media Industries
How many logos can you ID?
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The Impact of Television on American
Life
• Continually evolving to adapt to changes in
technology, business models, and viewer
demands.
• Since its inception in the 1950s, TV has
provided a touchstone for national events.
• New platforms have increased accessibility to
TV but ….
• Dynamic quality of TV today.
The Early History of Television
• Evolution of the medium
• Early inventions included the “scanning disk”
• Two notable individuals emerged during this
“development stage”
– Philo T. Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin –
patent wars
• Each sought to develop a way to send pictures
through air waves to a distant point.
• http://www.farnovision.com/chronicles/tfcprehisto.html
The Entrepreneurial Stage:
Setting Technical Standards
• Before an industry could develop, certain
agreements were necessary.
• The National Television Systems Committee
(NTSC) organized to represent the interests of
the major constituents.
• 1941 FCC adopted an analog standard for
broadcast (525 line image).
Broadcast Technology
A standard-definition video using the NTSC method,
traditionally used for analog television broadcasting,
has 525 scan lines (480 effective scan lines) per frame.
1930s
• TV was written about in
trade magazines i.e. Science
Magazine
• 1937 RCA Test Chart
Mass Medium Stage
• FCC, 1940s, assigned certain channels to
airwave frequencies.
• Limited by geographic area (signal
interference).
• After WWII (TV delayed), by mid-50s, more
than 400 TV stations nationally.
• Color TV followed but black & white sets
prevailed.
Controlling TV content
• As TV took off, broadcast networks tried to
exert more control over programming.
• Like radio, TV was dominated by single
sponsors.
Changes
• TV extended the program times from 15 from
radio to 30 minutes and an hour.
• Appearance of the “magazine” format with
multiple segments.
• Today and Tonight shows.
• Began to run adverts in
different time segments.
Quiz Show rigged
• By the end of the decade, 22 shows airing.
• The most notorious “rigging” was on the show
Twenty-One & Charles Van Buren
• Resulted in quiz shows being banned from
prime time.
Introducing Cable
CATV –Community antenna television
Evolution of Network Programming
• Information: Network News
– By the 60s, the 3 networks had 30 minute nightly
news shows.
• Affiliate stations would rebroadcast in
different time zones.
• Cable networks began
to draw off viewers, CNN.
How do affiliates work?
• http://www.fox.com/affiliates.php
• O&Os are owned and operated affiliates usually in
the largest media markets.
– WABC, WCBS, WNBC, WNJU (Telemundo), WNYW (Fox).
• Largest markets will also have network affiliates.
– Tribune Broadcasting’s WPIX serves as the NY affiliates for
the CW Television network, which does not have an O&O
in Chicago.
– Independently owned & under no obligation to show
programming.
TV killed the radio star
• Comedy – most programs were aired live and
did not survive.
• Kinescopes
• Film – I Love Lucy
• Videotape invented and the birth of reruns
followed.
– Sketch –Legacy of vaudeville, Milton Berle, Sid
Caesar, today SNL
– Situation (Sitcom)
Entertainment Drama
• Anthology Drama brought live theater to
viewers, known as teleplays.
• Often presented complex, hard to solve
human problems which advertisers didn’t like.
• Episodic Series – main characters week to
week, different problems.
– Chapter Shows – self-contained stories.
– Serial Programs – open-ended, soap operas,
hybrid shows mixing drama with comedy.
Talk Shows & TV Newsmagazines
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Tonight Show –
http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show
60 Minutes
Reality TV (don’t be fooled, these programs
are scripted).
• Public TV
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQI
P3Q
The Evolution of Cable Programming
• Competition to the networks came from cable
in the form of HBO – Home Box Office &
WTBS, Ted Turner’s Atlanta based station.
• Each provided a mix of old and new
programming.
• Narrowcasting enabled cable companies to
offer “packages” that provided different
options of programming & services for a price.
Cable Programming
• Basic Cable/Expanded Cable
• AMC’s Breaking Bad
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MeAfh4la08
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CNN
MTV
Premium Channels
Pay per view
Video on demand
Regulatory Challenges
• Restricting broadcast networks control of prime
time
– Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) reduced networks
control from four hours to three.
• Meant to encourage more local programming,
public affairs, and news.
– Instead played reruns, quiz shows, infotainment.
• Financial Interest and Syndication Rules or fin-syn
prohibiting networks from forming their own
syndication companies to just replay reruns.
Reining In Cable’s Growth- (haha)
• Initially, the FCC blocked cable from showing
distant TV programming (out of state).
– National Association of Broadcasters lobbied Congress
to restrict cable’s growth.
• 1970s, satellites made cable programming
accessible.
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FCC made must-carry rules (local programming).
Access channels free to local citizens, educators,
Local governments.
Leased channels-citizen broadcasting
Cable, is it print? Or broadcast?
• Cable categorized itself an electronic
publisher.
• Others said they were Common carriers –
services such as phone companies.
• 1979 landmark case of Midwest Video, U.S.
Supreme Court upheld lower court decision
that cable companies control content.
• Run on franchises ensued.
Telecommunications Act of 1996
• Eliminated restrictions that kept ownership of
stations to eight (8) in a market.
• Act deregulated cable and other forms of
mass media, including radio and television.
• Also allowed regional and national phone
companies to enter into the cable market.
• Instead of competition, monopolies have
emerged, Comcast.
• Networks are the biggest player on cable.
What say you?
• Susan Crawford, The Captive Audience
• http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/