Television Chapter 8 Early Television Golden

Television Chapter 8

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

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 3

Television Ratings 4

Television Ratings • Nielsen’s – 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 5

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

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

Networks Decline 8

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

Television’s Most Popular 1 0

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 1 1

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 1 2

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. 1 3

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 1 4

Television’s Big 5 1 5

TV Programming • Production – In-house, or part owned by networks • Long road to production – – – – Concept Script Pilot Preview Production order Season debut Syndication 1 6

TV Programming 1 7

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 1 8

Television Genres 1 9

TV Issues • Diversity – Ownership – Content • Violence – Children – V-chip • Decency – FCC vigilance – Small groups influence decency standards 2 0