RTV 3007 Exam 2
What are the three program sources for stations? Understand the types (Ex. First-run vs.off-net) and the benefits/costs/ roles that each play for a station.
1. Local Programming: Local Television, Cable, Radio Television: All the necessary resources are acquired by the local operation, including personnel, such as on-air talent, producers and director, and technical facilities, such as studios, cameras, and web sites. The most obvious downside to going local all the time is the cost of production To increase their audience reach and offset production costs, some stations produce special newscasts for, or rerun their regular programs on, independent stations or cable systems. Cable: About a third of the cable systems in the United States originate local programs other than automated services such as time, weather, and channel guides. Those that do produce such programs mostly offer either commercial local-origination (LO) channels, controlled and programmed by the cable operators themselves, or noncommercial public-access channels, programmed by private citizens and nonprofit institutions such as schools and municipal governments. Radio: Even with the economic benefits of ownership consolidation, in which a single individual or company can own several stations in one market, the desire among most operators is to keep local production costs to the lowest possible level. Managers have learned that it is possible for a DJ to voice track an hour of on-air programming in perhaps 15 or 20 minutes. Today, stations increasingly set up strict playlists of songs from which the host must select or even play in the order listed. 2. Syndicated Programming The FCC defines a syndicated program as any program sold, licensed, distributed, or offered to radio and television stations in more than one market within the United States for noninterconnected (i.e., no network) television broadcast exhibition, but not including live presentations. In practice, programmers classify as syndicated all nonlocal programs not currently licensed to a network, including movies, and even some live presentations. There are two types of syndicated programming: first-run and off-network. First-run syndication refers to fresh programming that typically has never been on a network. Entertainment Tonight, Oprah, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune are examples. A syndicated transaction involves the station purchasing the exclusive broadcast rights for the program in that designated broadcast market. This is a contractual agreement for a specified period of time, typically two to five years. At the conclusion of the contract, and assuming the program is still popular with audiences, the station management and the syndicator can negotiate a renewal agreement for one or more subsequent years. Exclusive broadcast rights are sold to individual stations based on not only the number of episodes produced, but also on the number of allowable repeat airings or runs per episode. Unlike first-run syndicated programs, in which episodes are almost always new, off-network syndication contracts typically deal with several runs for each episode over many years. Cash-Barter Deals: The purchase of almost any syndicated program today involves not only a cash payment to the syndicator, but also what the industry calls a barter arrangement in which the syndicator is permitted to sell a specified number of commercials within the program to national advertisers. This commercial time cannot be used by the local station's sales department and none of the derived revenue goes to the station. Consequently, the forfeiture of these commercial opportunities is part of the overall "cost" of the program. These types of transactions are called cash-barter deals. The barter syndication practice began in the 1970s as a device to help lower the cash cost of syndicated programming for stations, but over the years it has mutated into merely a second source of impressive profits for syndicators. Today, stations have little choice but to relinquish these avails and often pay out big cash payments as well. Negotiating Factors: When negotiating the purchase price of a syndicated program, the station must weigh several crucial factors. First, the station must predict the program's audience attraction (i.e., expected ratings) and its expected long term performance over several years. This analysis involves looking at (a) when the program will be scheduled, (b) its lead-in and lead-out programs, and most importantly, (c) the type of competition it may face from other stations during that time period. Rarely does the introduction of a new program increase substantially the total number of listeners or viewers available in a specific time period. The audience composition of the time period may be radically different than in prime time. The syndicated programming landscape is strewn with familiar titles, such as historic sitcoms All in the Family, Murphy Brown, and Frasier, that were huge hits in primetime network TV and equally huge flops in local station syndication. Many syndication contracts contain upgrading and downgrading provisions in which the cost per episode will vary according to the time period in which the program is scheduled. Occasionally, syndicated contracts will stipulate certain ratings thresholds in which the rights fees can be altered either up or down, depending on audience delivery reflected in Nielsen ratings. Based on calculated expected audience levels, the second step in the negotiation process is to determine beforehand how much the station plausibly can earn from owning the rights to this program, often referred to as a program's revenue potential. Step number three is to compare the revenue potential of the program with its anticipated cost (i.e., the syndicated broadcast rights). An important factor that must be included in these calculations is the number of barter avails provided to the syndicator. Too many barter avails can interfere with the revenue potential of a program in that the station cannot take full advantage of its commercial inventory. A station that carries a barter program typically agrees that, if the program is downgraded to another, less desirable time period, the station will continue to air the syndicator's barter commercials in the original time period. Group Deals: The bigger is often better theme presented earlier resonates with the notions of purchasing syndicated programming. Today, most radio and television stations are group owned and therefore a common practice is for the group owner to negotiate a multi-station deal in which the syndicator offers a substantial discount on the total price. NATPE. : Television syndicators showcase new productions at annual meetings of the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) and at other national and international program trade fairs. Each year several thousand TV professionals attend the annual NATPE convention to discuss programming issues and preview new syndicated offerings. Broadcast Network Involvement in Syndication: Designed to prevent network domination of program production and distribution, the financial interest and syndication (fin/syn) rules severely limited network freedom to participate in production and ownership of prime-time programs or in their domestic syndication. A source of some confusion among students of programming is that programs that go into off-network syndication end up on stations with a completely different network affiliation. Radio Syndication: Syndicators use satellites to relay news, sports, and entertainment material to stations. Programmers distinguish between syndicated formats and syndicated features. A station might buy the use of a ready-made syndicated country music format, for example, supplementing it with syndicated news and entertainment features from other sources. Thus, stations can create unique programming mixes from commonly available syndicated elements. Radio feature material is often bartered, whereas syndicated formats are usually cash deals. Cable "Syndication.": For decades the term "syndication" referred to the purchase of programming by individual broadcast stations, but in recent years the phrase cable syndication has entered the lexicon of programming, and describes the movement of programs from broadcast networks to cable networks, essentially bypassing conventional station syndication. The confusion with using the term cable syndication is that students sometimes presume that individual local cable systems or multiple system operators (MSOs) are purchasing these programs for their franchise areas in a manner similar to that used by local TV stations purchasing syndicated rights for their individual markets. On the contrary, these former network broadcast programs are purchased by the major cable networks. In reality, local cable systems rarely become involved with true market-by-market syndicated programming, although they certainly could from a legal perspective. That is, a local cable system could purchase the syndicated rights to a popular program that typically is distributed through local TV stations around the country. 3. Network Programming The third source for programming for a station is a network. Whether we are addressing a television network, radio network or cable network, the essential business model is the same. A program network produces or acquires program content that it distributes through various "affiliates" operating throughout the country. Unlike syndicated programming, radio and TV stations usually receive network program content for free and sometimes receive some kind of cash compensation, although the compensation has dropped dramatically in recent years. On the other hand, cable systems usually must pay a monthly per-subscriber fee to a cable program network in order to carry its programming. For several decades, with only ABC, CBS, and NBC operating full-scale national networks, many stations in the United States had no network affiliation and were designated as independent stations, relying on local and syndicated programming to attract audiences. In the late 1980s, Fox became a major network player. In recent years, a number of broadcast networks have attempted to compete with "The Big Four." Prime-time entertainment network programs come as weekly series, with a sprinkling of movies and occasional one-time specials. A series can run for an indefinite number of episodes. Those designed typically with three to eight episodes are known as miniseries. As with syndicated programming, the local broadcast station or cable system does not participate directly in the cost of producing the program content, which can amount to many millions of dollars. Radio Networks: A radio network is a network system which distributes programming to multiple stations simultaneously, for the purpose of extending total coverage beyond the limits of a single broadcast signal. Radio networks often pay compensation to major-market affiliates, but radio syndicators usually charge for their programs. Stations can choose from dozens of specialized networks catering to every conceivable audience interest. Direct-to-listener, subscriber-based satellite radio hopes to become a major competitor of conventional broadcast radio, particularly of network radio. Offering hundreds of nationally distributed program "channels" of original programming, satellite radio cannot be defined as a network provider in the strict definition because it has no "affiliates," such as a station or cable system, to act as an intermediary between the content provider and the audience member. Another point of distinction is that the majority of program offerings on satellite radio are commercial-free.
What are economies of scale?
-A large business can be more efficient than a small one
How does the democratization of Media influence media brand management and what happens when shows get cancelled?
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Know about the different types and goal of promotions, media brand management
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What are the major TV programming strategies?
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What are the major radio programming strategies?
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What are the characteristics of a commercial broadcast station?What are the general functions of a station?
1. Holds a license from federal government to serve a specific community 2. Transmits programs over the air using designated radio frequencies 3. Carries commercial messages, receives compensation
Why was there a need for the reserved channels principle & similar allocations for TV?
Allowing for more noncommercial services. noncommercial have their own set of frequencies.
Why is reality TV programming content attractive to programmers? Why isn't it?
Attractive: In virtually every line of the production budget, reality-based programming is cheaper than traditional programming. Reality programs offer the temptation of programming that costs less than $500,000 for an hour or one-third of the cost of an hour of comedy or drama. Not attractive: Must go through hours of tape. All of these series share a dominant characteristic of the reality-soap genre: They find compelling storylines in hundreds of hours of video- taped life and, through careful writing and editing, shape the real-life subjects into reality-show characters.
What is audience segmentation? Long tail marketing?
Audience segmentation: The need to target people willing and able to buy products and services, whether as advertisers or as subscribers, has led to audience targeting throughout all electronic media. Researchers often use the term segmentation to denote the dividing or slicing of an audience into all types of geographic, demographic, and lifestyle categories. Long tail marketing: The "long tail" refers to a portion of a graph that compares popularity with inventory. The conventional way of doing business is to match one's inventory with high demand products and services. This creates the high point of a distribution curve while less popular items, of which there can be many, are revealed in the long tail of the curve that travels further away from the highpoint of the curve. The underlying assumption has been that less popular items are not cost efficient to produce.
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How does funding between the govt., CPB, PBS, and npr work?
Goes from CPB to local stations then PBS or NPR.
What are the sources of funding for noncommercial stations?
Government support: federal and state for example CPB. Foundation grants for example Carnegie Corp.
Understand dayparts, audience flow, and hot clocks
In addition to specific programs, electronic media often deal with dayparts, which are blocks of time in which several programs may be scheduled or one consistent type of program content may be offered. Radio programmers generally divide the day into morning drive, midday, afternoon drive, night, and overnight segments. These audience attraction and retention efforts focus on controlling audience flow—the movement of viewers or listeners from one program to another. Flow occurs mostly at the junctions between programs or, on radio, after one block of songs ends and before the next begins. Audience flow includes both flow through (on the same stations or channel) and outflow or inflow (to or from competing programs). Hot clocks/Hot switching: fine-tunes the previous lead-in strategy through the use of "seamless," commercial- free transitions from one show to another. Running crunched-together credits at warp speed while viewers are enticed to stay tuned by promotions occupying two-thirds of the screen further enhances a seamless transition.
How is cable different than affiliates? How are they the same? Know the three types of program providers?
In the beginning the FCC was reluctant to to have too many of these locally licensed stations owned by the networks themselves. Part of the local designation is done so in part to encourage content and advertising that specifically serves each community. And so, affiliates were born. A major Broadcast Network (ABC, CBS, NBC, & FOX - this list will also typically include the CW, Telemundo, Univision, though they have a smaller number of affiliates) has over 200 Affiliates - this is the local NBC WESH 2 station.
What is the paradox of choice? What can it lead to?
Instead, the result is more choice for the existing target audience and a more competitive, and sometimes more ruthless, battle for market share by rival stations.
What did the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 stipulate?What document was it largely modeled after?
It is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purpose. Creation of the CPB and Nine member board appointed by the President (no more than 5 from the same party)
What are the arguments for and against government support for noncommercial media?
It shows the government is interested in having an educated and culturally informed electorate. Public broadcasting reaches 73 million people. The public deserves a broadcast alternative that is not driven by advertising. Government support has helped maintain some centralized, and without support, the system might become weaker and more decentralized. The current system allows local stations to influence on the national programming choices. Struggle for funding is nothing new. Money spent on public broadcasting could be used for actual education. In a time with great national debt, public broadcasting is a grill we can't afford. Commercial broadcasting offers similar programing. People don't watch TV to learn, they watch to relax. "we should focus on wall street, not on sesame street". Lack of public participation. Lack of public appeal. too liberal in news and documentary programs.
What is the current state of government funding for public broadcasting like? Are these new struggles?
It shows the government is interested in having an educated and culturally informed electorate. Public broadcasting reaches 73 million people. The public deserves a broadcast alternative that is not driven by advertising. Government support has helped maintain some centralized, and without support, the system might become weaker and more decentralized. The current system allows local stations to influence on the national programming choices. Struggle for funding is nothing new. Money spent on public broadcasting could be used for actual education. In a time with great national debt, public broadcasting is a grill we can't afford. Commercial broadcasting offers similar programing. People don't watch TV to learn, they watch to relax. "we should focus on wall street, not on sesame street". Lack of public participation. Lack of public appeal. too liberal in news and documentary programs.
What are the three categories of station owners? How do they differ from one another
Licenses encompass transmission and programming functions - this means any station typically combines 3 types of faciltiies: business offices, studio facilities, transmitter (antenna & tower). How do cable/satellite companies commercial differ from broadcasters in terms of how they make money? They rely mostly on subscription fees for their support, but also sell advertising.
What is the goal of commercial electronic media?
MONEY
How do affiliate agreements work? i.e. know the vocab here: clearance, adjacencies, network comp
Networks and their affiliates agree to contracts with varying clauses and compensation changing hands. Affiliates provide clearance which is a clear program schedule for network's programming at regularly scheduled times. Networks allow time in the program for local ad spots called adjacencies and traditionally cash called network comp.
What are the different types of advertising in Radio/TV? Know the associated vocabulary.
Operations (a.k.a. traffic) - responsible for placing advertising on the station schedule Program Department - overall responsibility for the station's sound Sales - responsible for sale of commercial time Engineering - keeps the station on the air
What are the sources of programming available to public broadcasters? What genres of content are typical?
PBS, Major marketing producing stations, independent and syndicated production services like children's television, local production companies, cable channels like c-span which offers c-span in the classroom.
What are some basic arguments for and against commercial ownership regulation/deregulation?
Point: Deregulation advocates say it was needed in order to compete with cable, satellite, and internet. Counter point: Critics worry about the loss of content diversity and true localism.
How are advertisers making up for "zapping" through commercials? Also know plugola, payola.
Product integration and product placement.
What is the Carnegie Commission? What did their report suggest?
Progressive initiative to construct a blueprint for public education. They adopt many of the ideas and best practices of what was considered to be the best public education system in the world at the time. Core requirements will socialize and produce happy, productive, useful citizens able to propagate US democracy..... Set up 2+ production centers. Use the word "public" not "education". Establish a centralized organization: CPB, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Help develop infrastructure for networking.
What does the zero-sum phenomenon mean for programming strategies?
Rarely does the introduction of a new program increase substantially the total number of listeners or viewers available in a specific time period. Instead, the programmer must assume a zero sum market, in which ratings and revenue must be taken away from direct competitors.
What is reach? What is frequency?
Reach •The "width" of a media plan •Number of different people exposed to a spot Frequency •The "depth" of a media plan •Number of times the average person is exposed to the same spot.
Who owns noncommercial stations?
States and municipalities. Colleges and universities. Public school board. Community foundations.
How do ownership regulations work for commercial radio & TV?
TV ownership within the same market is restricted to no more than two TV stations, duopoly, in most markets. "Trioploies" allowed in markets with more than 18 stations. For duopoly or "triopoly" only one can be in the top 4 for the market. No owner or group station may own stations that collectively reach more than 39% of the national audience.
How does the 80/20 Principle apply in a traditional business model? How does it apply to channel repertoire?
the lopsided distribution of audiences and advertising revenue among most electronic media in a competitive market can be explained by means of a common business phenomenon known as the 80/20 Principle or (80/20 Rule). the 80/20 Principle can be applied to the previously-mentioned repertoire in that the amount of time allocated to these chosen items is not distributed equally. In general, one could say that a person spends roughly 80 percent of his or her media time with only 20 percent of the content items contained within an already small repertoire.
How are advertising rates determined?
• Overall advertiser demand for the medium • Advertiser demand for target audience • Audience delivery-ratings • Discounted pricing for large contracts-bulk rate • Competitor pricing Taking all of those factors into consideration, advertisers often use CPM to make decisions - CPM = Cost per reaching 1,000 - Typically households - Used to compare pricing across medi