Television

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

• Nielsens
• 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
• 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
• 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
Televisions 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
Televisions Big 5
16
TV Programming

• 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, OOs
• independents

19
Television Genres
20
TV Issues

• Diversity
• Ownership
• Content
• Violence
• Children
• V-chip
• Decency
• FCC vigilance
• Small groups influence decency standards