TEXTBOOK: Ch. 8: Television, Cable, and Mobile Video
live; 3 Hollywood; film; New York refused
"I LOVE LUCY" AND MORE CHANGES: In 1951 CBS asked Lucille Ball to move her hit radio program, "My Favorite Husband", to television. Lucy was willing but wanted her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, to play the part of her on-air spouse. The network refused (some historians say the network objected to the prime-time presentation of an interracial marriage— Desi Arnaz was Cuban— but CBS denies this). But Lucy made additional demands. Television programming at the time was broadcast ______: Images were typically captured by ___ large television cameras, with a director in a booth choosing among the 3 available images. Lucy wanted her program produced in the same manner— in front of a live audience with 3 simultaneously running cameras— but these cameras would be film cameras. Editors could then review the 3 sets of film and edit them together to give the best combination of action and reaction shots. Lucy also wanted the production to take place in _______________, the
Cable Television Consumer Protection and Consumer Act of 1992 *expanded basic cable* *Multiple system operators (MSO's)* *à la carte pricing*
Basic Cable Programming: In recognition of the growing dependence of the public on cable delivery of broadcast service as the spread of cable increased, Congress passed the _____________________________________. This law requires operators to offer a truly basic service composed of the broadcast station sin their area and their public access channels. Cable operators also offer another form of basic service, *___________________________*, composed primarily of local broadcast stations and services with broad appeal such as TBS, TNT, the USA Network, and Comedy Central. These networks offer a wide array of programming not unlike that found on the traditional, over-the-air broadcast networks. Ad-supported cable networks such as these want to be on cable's basic tiers because sponsors covet those large potential audiences. This is the dispute, for example, at the heart of the NFL Network's frequent battles with many of the nation's cable operators. Most operators want to put the ne
*digital video disc (DVD)*
DVD: In March 1996 the *_______________________*WENT ON SALE IN u.s. STORES. uSING A dvd, viewers can stop images with no loss of fidelity; can subtitle a movie in a number of languages; can search for specific scenes from an on-screen menu; and can access bonus features that give background on the movie, its production, and its personnel. Scenes and music not used in the theatrical release of a movie are often included on the disc. Innovations such as these made DVD at the time of its introduction the fastest-growing consumer electronic product of all time. DVD players now sit in about 50% of U.S. homes, down from 80% just a few years ago. Because of the many viewing options now available, DVD sales and rental have fallen dramatically for the last several years. In 2012, the number of online movie transactions (sales and rentals) exceeded the number of physical, that is disc, transactions for the first time, 3.4 billion to 2.4 billion; and in 2016, video streaming subscription
*digital video recorder (DVR)*
DVR: In March 1999 Philips Electronics unveiled the *____________________________*. It contains digital software that puts a significant amount of control over content in viewers' hands. They can "rewind" and play back portions of a program while they are watching and recording it without losing any of that show. By designating their favorite shows, viewers can instruct DVR to automatically record and deliver not only those programs but all similar content over a specified period of time. This application can even be used with the name of a favorite actor. Type in Shemar Moore, and DVR will automatically record all programming in which he appears. DVR does not deliver programming the way broadcasters, cable casters, and DBS systems do. Rather, it is employed "in addition to" these content providers. Bot DBS providers and almost every MSO now offer low-cost DVR as part of their technology platform, significantly hastening its diffusion into American homes. Today, about 1/2 o
*iconoscope tube* *kinescope*
Electronic scanning came either from another Russian or from a U.S. farm boy; historians disagree. Vladimir Zworykin, a Russian immigrant living near Pittsburgh and working for Westinghouse, demonstrated his *___________________*, the first practical television camera tube, in 1923. In 1929 David Sarnoff lured him to RCA to head its electronics research lab, and it was there that Zworykin developed the *_________________*, an improved picture tube. At the same time, young Philo Farnsworth had moved from Idaho to San Francisco to perfect an electronic television system, the design for which he had shown his high school science teacher when he was 15 years old. In 1927, at the age of 20, he made his first public demonstration— film clips of a prize fight, movie scenes, and other graphic images. The "Boy Wonder" and Zworykin's RCA spent the next decade fighting fierce patent battles in court. In 1939 RCA capitulated, agreeing to pay Farnsworth royalties for the use of his pa
network; streamed
Free from __________ television's commercial restrictions, producers of _____________ content can take creative chances.
*pilots* *put* *First-run syndication* *stripped*
How a Program Traditionally Gets on the Air: The national broadcast and cable networks look at about 4,000 proposals a year for new television series. Many, if not most, are submitted at the networks' invitation or instigation. Of the 4,000, about 90 will be filmed as *____________*, or trial programs, at a cost of $3 million for a 30-minute pilot to $7 million for an hour drama. Perhaps 20 to 30 will become one of the 400 scripted series on air at any time. The networks spend over $500 million a season to suffer this process. For this reason, they prefer to see ideas from producers with established track records and financial and organizational stability— for example, Jerry Bruckheimer is the source of CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, The Amazing Race, Cold Case, and Without a Trace in addition to nearly 20 other prime-time series aired in recent years. The way a program typically makes it onto the air differs somewhat for those who have been asked to submit an idea and for p
*digital cable television* *video-on-demand (VOD)*
Interactive Television: The Internet is not the only technology that permits interactivity. Cable and satellite also allow viewers to "talk back" to content providers. But it is *___________________________*, the delivery of digital images and other information to subscribers, that offers the truest form of interactive television. There are 61 million digital cable subscribers in the U.S. Cable's digital channels permit multiplexing, carrying 2 or more different signals over the same channel. This, in turn, is made possible by "digital compression", which "squeezes" signals to permit multiple signals to be carried over one channel. Digital compression works by removing redundant information from the transmission of the final. For example, the set behind 2 actor in a movie scene ,night not change for several minutes. So why transmit the information that the set is there? Simply transmit the digital data that indicate what has changed in the scene, not what has not. This expan
own; CBS reruns live off-network syndication New York; Hollywood quickly; inexpensively
Lucy and Desi borrowed the necessary money and produced "I Love Lucy" on their _____, selling the broadcast rights to _______. In doing so, the woman now best remembered as "that zany redhead" transformed the business and look of television: -Filmed __________ were now possible, something that had been impossible with ______ television, and this, in turn, created the _______________________ industry. -The television industry moved from _______________, with its stage drama orientation, to _________________, with its entertainment film mind-set. More action and more flash came to the screen. -Weekly series could now be produced relatively __________ and ______________. A 39-week series could be completed in 20 or 24 weeks, saving money on actors, crew, equipment, and facilities. In addition, the same stock shots— for example, certain exterior views— could be used in different episodes.
Advertisers
MCCARTHYISM: THE GROWING POWER OF TELEVISION: The Red Scare that cowed the movie business also touched television, aided by the publication in 1950 of "Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television", the work of 3 former FBI agents operating a company called American Business Consultants. Its 200 pages detailed the alleged pro-Communist sympathies of 151 broadcast personalities, including Orson Welles and journalist Howard K. Smith. __________________ were encouraged to avoid buying time from broadcasters who employed these "Red sympathizers." Like the movie studios, the television industry caved in. The networks employed security checkers to look into people's backgrounds, refused to hire suspect talent, and demanded loyalty oaths from performers. In its infancy, television had taken the safe path. Many gifted artists were denied not only a paycheck but also the opportunity to shape the medium's content. Ironically, it was this same Red Scare
*Nipkow disc* *pixels* mechanical
Mechanical and Electronic Scanning: In 1884 Paul Nipkow, a Russian scientist living in Berlin, developed the first workable device for generating electrical signals suitable for the transmission of a scene that people could see. His *_______________* consisted of a rotating scanning disc spinning in front of a photoelectric cell. It produced 4,000 *__________* (picture dots) per second, producing a picture composed of 18 parallel lines. Although his ______________ system proved too limiting, Nipkow demonstrated the possibility of using a scanning system to divide a scene into an orderly pattern of transmittable picture elements that could be recomposed as a visual image. British inventor John Logie Baird was able to transmit moving images using a mechanical disc as early as 1925, and in 1928 he successfully sent a television picture from London to Hartsdale, New York.
neutral ubiquitous; powerful
No one is ___________ about television. We either love it or hate it. Many of us do both. This is because it is our most _______________ and socially and culturally ________________ mass medium. Several recent and converging technologies promise to make it even more so.
*bundling*
Phone-over-Cable: Another service offered by many MSOs is phone service over cable wires. Currently there are 31 million cable-delivered residential telephone subscribers. Phone-over-cable offers a special benefit to MSOs. If telephone service can be delivered by the same cable that brings television into the home, so too can the Internet. And what's more, if the cable line is broadband and capable of handling digitally compressed data, that Internet service can be even faster than the service provided over traditional phone lines. Cable, in other words, can become a one-stop communication provider: television, VOD, audio, high-speed Internet access, long-distance and local phone service, multiple phone lines, and fax. This *__________________.* How valuable isa bundle-receiving subscriber to an MSO? Add together the bills you're probably paying right now - basic or premium cable, your Internet service provider, and your phone bill. What does that total? Now speculate how m
*subscription TV* DirecTV; Dish Network *cord-cutting* *cord-nevers* *over-the-top (OTT)* *zero-TV homes*
Premium Cable: As the FCC lifted restrictions on cable's freedom to import distant signals and to show current movies, HBO grew and was joined by a host of other satellite-delivered pay networks. Today, among the most familiar and popular premium cable networks are HBO, Showtime, Sundance Channel, and Cinemax. In addition to freedom from regulatory constraint, 2 important programming discoveries ensured the success of the new premium channels. After television's early experiments with over-the-air *__________________________* failed, many experts believed people simply would not pay for television. So the first crucial discovery was that viewers would indeed pay for packages of contemporary, popular movies. These movie packages would be sold less expensively than could films bought one at a time, and viewers were willing to be billed on a monthly basis for the whole package rather than pay for each viewing. The second realization boosting the fortunes of the premium networks w
ABC; CBS; NBC; Fox *tiers*
Programming: Cable's share of the prime-time audience exceeded that of the Big 4 broadcast networks for the first time in 2002. Its total audience share has exceeded that of _______, ________, ________, and ______ eery year since. What attracts these viewers is programming, a fact highlighted by 2 pieces of recent industry data: cable shows annually garner the majority of all prime-time Emmy Awards nominations (HBO's "Game of Thrones" earned 38 Emmy Awards in 2016, an industry record for a single show), and cable viewing exceeds network viewing for every single American age demographic. As we've seen, cable operator attract viewers through a combination of basic and premium channels, as well as with some programming of local origin. There are more than 900 national and regional cable networks. We all know national networks such as CNN, Lifetime, HBO, and the History Channel. Regional network North-West Cable News serves Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, northern California, a
*clear time* *reverse compensation* *retransmission fees*
Scope and Nature of the Broadcast Television Industry: Today, as it has been from the beginning, the business of broadcast television is dominated by a few centralized production, distribution, and decision-making organizations. These networks link affiliates for the purpose of delivering and selling viewers to advertisers. The large majority of the 1,387 commercial stations in the United States are affiliated with a national broadcasting network: ABC, NBC, and CBS each have over 200 affiliates, and Fox has close to that number. Many more stations are affiliated with the CW Network, jointly owned by CBS and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Although cable has introduced us to dozens of popular cable networks— ESPN, MTV, Comedy Central, and A& E, to name a few— for decades most programs that came to mind when we thought of television were either conceived, approved, funded, produced, or distributed by the broadcast networks. Although, as you read at this chapter's outset, that
*bandwidth* *broadband*
Streaming Video: Television on the Internet was slow to take off because of copyright and piracy concerns, and because few viewers had sufficient *________________*, space on the wires bringing content into their homes. So for several years the most typical video fare on the Internet was a variety of short specialty transmissions such as movie trailers, music videos, and news clips. But the development of increasingly sophisticated video compression software and the parallel rise of homes with *____________________* Internet connections (73% of all US. Inernet homes have broadband) have changed that. Because broadband offers greater information carrying capacity (that is, it increased bandwidth), watching true television on the Internet is now common. Much of that viewing is of content that originated on network and cable television, but much is also Web-only video ("most" if streaming service video is considered; half of all U.S. TV homes subscribe to a streaming video service).
radio; television A. C. Nielsen Company radio; television *Global Television Audience Metering (GTAM) meter* actively; passively programs; who; time *nonlinear TV* *L + 7* *C3* TV; internet; mobile video commercials all Total Content Ratings drop *share* all time
THE NIELSEN RATINGS: The concept of measuring audience was carried over from _______ to _______________, but the ratings as we know them today are far more sophisticated. The _______________________ began in 1923 as a product-testing company but soon branched into market research. In 1936 Nielsen started reporting ________ ratings and was doing the same for _________________ by 1950. To produce the ratings today, Nielsen selects 41,000 households, about 100,000 people, thought to be representative of the entire U.S. viewing audience. To record data on what people in those TV households are watching, Nielsen employs the *________________________________*, which __________ (requiring viewer input) and _______________ (automatically reading digital codes embedded in video content) measures viewing as people, with increasing mobility, consume video on a growing array of technologies. The data are then sent to Nielsen via the Internet, and the company determines the _____________
time brokers *spot commercial sales* golden age
THE QUIZ SHOW SCANDAL AND CHANGES IN SPONSORSHIP: Throughout the 1950s the networks served primarily as ______________, offering airtime and distribution (their affiliates) and accepting payment for access to both. Except for their own news and sports coverage, the networks relied on outside agencies to provide programs. An advertising agency, for example, would hire a production company to produce a program for its client. That client would then be the show's sponsor— The Kraft Television Theatre and Westinghouse Studio One are two examples. The agency would then pay a network to air the program over its national collection of stations. This system had enriched the networks during the heyday of radio, and they saw no reason to change. But in 1959 a quiz show scandal (enveloping independently produced, single-advertiser-sponsored programs) changed the way the networks did business. When it was discovered that popular shows like The $64,000 Question had been fixed by ad
*all-channel legislation* Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) *vast wasteland*
Television and Its Audiences: The 1960s saw some refinement in the technical structure of television, which influenced its organization and audience. In 1962 Congress passed *__________________________*, which required that all sets imported into or manufactured in the United States be equipped with both VHF and UHF receivers. This had little immediate impact; U.S. viewers were now hooked on the 3 national networks and their VHF affiliates. Still, UHF independents and educational stations were able to at least attract some semblance of an audience. The UHF independents would have to wait for the coming of cable to give them clout. Now that the educational stations were attracting more viewers, they began to look less educational in the strictest sense of the word and began programming more entertaining cultural fare. The _________________________________ united the educational stations into an important network, the _________________________________, which today has 350 memb
90% born feature films; talk shows radio personalities powerful quiz show; "I Love Lucy"; McCarthyism; ratings cable
The 1950s: In 1952, 108 stations were broadcasting to 17 million television homes. By the end of the decade, there were 559 stations, and nearly ____% of U.S. households had televisions. In the 1950s more television sets were sold in the United States (70 million) than there were children _______ (40.5 million). The technical standards were fixed, stations proliferated and flourished, the public tuned in, and advertisers were enthusiastic. The content and character of the medium were set in this decade as well: -Carried over from the radio networks, television genres included variety shows, situation comedies, dramas (including Westerns and cop shows), soap operas, and quiz shows. -Two new formats appeared: ________________ and __________. -Talk shows were instrumental in introducing _______________________ to the television audience, which could see its favorites for the first time. -Television news and documentary remade broadcast journalism as a _______________ forc
*community antenna television (CATV)* cable *importation of distant signals*
The Coming of Cable: In 1948 in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, appliance sales representative John Walson was having trouble selling televisions. The Pocono Mountains sat between his town and Philadelphia's 3 new stations. But Walson was also a powerline worker, so he convinced his bosses to let him run a wire to his store from a tower he erected on New Boston Mountain. As more and more people became aware of his system, he began wiring the homes of customers who bought his sets. In June of that year, Walson had 727 subscribers for his *__________________________________* system. Although no one calls it CATV anymore, _______ television was born. The cable Walson used was a twin-lead wire, much like the cord that connects a lamp to an outlet. To attract even more subscribers, he had to offer improved picture quality. He accomplished this by using "coaxial cable" and self-manufactured boosters (or amplifiers). Coaxial cable — copper-clad aluminum wire encased in plasti
*off-network* Availability production; distribution; established audience
The Networks and Program Content: Networks control what appears on the vast majority of local television stations, but they also control what appears on non-network television, that is, when affiliates program their own content. In addition, they influence what appears on independent stations and on cable channels. This non-network material not only tends to be network-type programming but most often is programming that originally aired on the networks themselves (called *____________________* programs). Why do network and network-type content dominate television? ________________ is one factor. -There is 75 years' worth of already successful network content available for airing on local stations. A second factor is that the _______________ and ________________ mechanisms that have long served the broadcast networks are well _________________ and serve the newer outlets just as well as they did NBC, CBS, and ABC. The final reason is us, the ________________. -The form
*time-shifting* *zipping*
VCR: Introduced commercially in 1976, videocassette recorders (VCRs) quickly became common in American homes but were declared dead in 2016 as the last manufacturer, Japan's Funai Electronics, ceased production. Still, in its prime, this technology further eroded the audience for traditional over-the-air television, as people, for the first time, could now watch rented and purchased videos on their own schedules. VCR also introduced the public to *_____________________*, taping a show for later viewing, and *_______________*, fast-forwarding through taped commercials. As a result, people became comfortable with, and in fact came to expect, more control over when, what, and how they watched television.
50%; Netflix creative freedom
Whether or not our aspiring star will ever benefit from it, there is indeed quite a bit of action surrounding contemporary television and video. In the last few years, Netflix outbid established video giants HBO and AMC for "House of Cards", originally ordering two seasons for over $100 million. YouTube committed $100 million to commission original programming designed exclusively for some 2 dozen new channels. Online retailer Amazon commissions program pilots, offers them free to viewers who vote on which should be turned into full series, and then produces the winners for its Amazon Prime subscribers. Its show "Transparent" won a Golden Globe for Best TV series in 2015, and its star, Jeffrey Tambor, won Best Actor, both firsts for streaming television. Hulu Plus streams original shows like "Casual" and "The Handmaid's Tale". Viewers have enthusiastically taken to this new form of television— _______ of all U.S. households now subscribe to at least one of these services
World War II cable advertising
Yes, television is changing, and this chapter details that change, from early experiments with mechanical scanning to the electronic marvel that sits in our homes to the mobile screens we carry in our pockets. We trace the rapid transformation of television into a mature medium after _________________ and examine how the medium, the entire television industry in fact, was altered by the emergence and success of ________ television. And significant change is once again remaking what we currently know as television ... and what we once knew as the audience. All of us are now TV executives, choosing our programs and our schedules, no longer limited by what some distant network television executives think is the schedule that best serves their advertisers' needs. The remarkable reach of television— in all its forms— accounts for its attractiveness as an ________________ medium. We discuss this reach, and we explore the structure, programming, and economics of the television an
*premium cable* *fiber optic*
Cable and Satellite Television: John Walson's brainchild reshaped the face of modern television. During cable's infancy, many over-the-air broadcasters saw it as something of a friend. It extended their reach, boosting both audience size and profits. Then, in November 1972, Sterling Manhattan Cable launched a new channel called Home Box Office. Only a handful of homes caught the debut of what we now call HBO, but broadcasters' mild concern over this development turned to outright antagonism toward cable in 1975, when new HBO owner Time Ince. began distributing the movie channel by satellite. Now *_____________________* was eating into the broadcasters' audience by offering high-quality, nationally produced and distributed content. The public enthusiastically embraced cable, which, coupled with the widespread diffusion of *________________* cable (the transmission of signals by light beam over glass, permitting the delivery of hundreds of channels), brought the medium to maturit
