Television History

1
Television History

• New Media environment
• Future of PBS/PMS

2
US networks face new competition

• Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR, 1975) limits the
  amount of time a local affiliate can broadcast
  programming provided by the network.
• Home Box Office (HBO) a premium cable television
  network with headquarters in New York City
• Networks' share of the audience declined
  throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
• A major change of leadership in the three old
  Networks in the 1980s
• Ted Turner launches CNN and 24-hour television
  news in 1980
• Robert Murdock launches Fox Network in 1986

3
Satellite technology changes worldviews and
challenges PBS

• Geostationary satellites together with cable
  technology radically change the amount of
  potential channels
• Cable launched in Britain in 1983. The new
  services was to be supplementary to the existing
  BBC ITV service
• Most people turn out to be were happy with the
  existing four channels - possibly because VCR
  offered sufficient alternatives
• Rupert Murdochs News International launches Sky
  Channel in 1981
• An attempt to create a competitor by granting
  franchise to British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB)
  collapses by 1990
• Sky absorbed BSB resulting in British Sky
  Broadcasting (BSkyB), a five channel service
  which began in April 1991
• IBA tried to prevent this by revoking BSB licence
  and ordered broadcasting to be suspended by the
  end of 1992. The new company simply refused to
  obey as it was effectively beyond IBA control
• Satellite operations are transnational business.

4
Format trade

• No international legal basis but generally
  respected - except in China
• Packets include use of title, set designs, PR
  auxilliary material, ratings etc.
• Format Recognition and Protection Association
  (FRAPA) founded in London in 2000

5
TV and the internet

• Many popular series have internet sites which are
  either producer based or which have grown from
  private initiative Xena Warrior Princess, Buffy
  the Vampire Slayer, My So-Called Life
• At times even screenwriters have participated in
  discussing the themes and undertones of the
  series
• Fans have sometimes succeeded in ensuring the
  continuation of a series
• Sites have also been used to distribute pirate
  material
• Programmes and sites may interact with one
  another just like films and videogames.

6
PBS traditional justifications that remain

• Commitment to universal service
• Nurturing of diversity
• Securing representative character of content in
  political, social and cultural terms
• Guaranteeing democratic accountability
• Adhering to non-profit goals ? dependence on some
  form of public financing
• A public service remit aimed at protecting moral
  values, cultural traditions, pluralism and
  democracy
• Main source Lowe Bardoel (eds) From Public
• Service Broadcasting to Public Service media

7
PBS new justifications

• Convergence, globalization and digitalization
  legitimate the social importance of PSM
• Vertical and horizontal integration leads into
  prohibitive costs and thus narrowing of choice
• Synergy of economies of scale reduce market
  competition and override domestic media policy
  objectives
• PSM must operate on a sufficiently large scale to
  insure quality and competitiveness
• The need to create social cohesion in order to
  counter cultural and social fragmentation
• Main source Lowe Bardoel (eds) From Public
• Service Broadcasting to Public Service media

8
Arguments against PBS/PMS

• PBS ethos is based on value judgements based on
  traditional taste and cultural values that are
  not self-evidently valid
• No forms or contents are more valid than others ?
  no justification for a privileged position
• Spectators as consumers with their free choices
  are the only relevant arbiters of value
• People should only pay for what they actually use
• TV production just like any other form of
  enterprise should be open to free competition
• Main source Lowe Bardoel (eds) From Public
• Service Broadcasting to Public Service media

9
Challenges for PSB - or PSM in the new media
environment

• From supply orientated to demand orientated
  content provision
• From providing to audiences to interacting with
  users
• From products to processes
• PSM must legitimate itself more explicitly than
  PSB in the past
• Public value test
• Confirming contribution to public interest
• Assessing impact on the commercial market
• Linear viewing habits have decreased ?
  multichannel platforms with a public service
  ethos
• New media supplement rather than replace existing
  media each medium occupies its own niche in the
  social practices of everyday life
• Main source Lowe Bardoel (eds) From Public
• Service Broadcasting to Public Service media

10
Television history in a nutshell (Ellis)

• Era of scarcity
• Era of availability
• Era of plenty
• Change fatigue it is tiring to have to choose
• all the time. One only ends up feeling one
• never has enough time