Week 9 - Television And The Changing Channels (20xx) PDF

Introduction to Mass Media Television and the changing channels Television: a timeline 1884 In Germany, Paul Nipkow patents the Nipkow disk, which forms the basis for TV’s development through the 1920s. 1907 The word television first appears in the June 1907 issue of Scientif...

Introduction to Mass Media Television and the changing channels Television: a timeline 1884 In Germany, Paul Nipkow patents the Nipkow disk, which forms the basis for TV’s development through the 1920s. 1907 The word television first appears in the June 1907 issue of Scientific American. 1939 NBC (National Broadcasting Company) debuts television at the World’s Fair in New York City. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, broadcasting from the fair, is the first U.S. president to appear on TV. NBC that made significant strides in establishing scheduled programming. NBC began regular television broadcasts in 1939 at the New York World's Fair. 1947 NBC and CBS begin broadcasting television news. 1951 CBS launches I Love Lucy, a situation comedy (Sitcom), which becomes TV’s most durable type of entertainment program. 1962 Telstar I sends the first transatlantic satellite broadcast. 1963 Public television begins broadcasting as National Educational Television. Network television provides nonstop coverage of the assassination and funeral of President John F. Kennedy. Public Television: Public television is owned and operated by non-profit organizations, government agencies, or educational institutions. It is often funded by a combination of sources, including government grants, viewer donations, corporate sponsorships, and grants from private foundations. Network Television: Network television refers to the major commercial broadcast networks in a country, such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox in the United States. These networks are typically privately owned and funded primarily through advertising revenue. They are profit-driven entities. 1973 The television networks present live broadcasts of the Watergate hearings. 1979 Ted Turner starts Cable News Network. CNN’s global reach gives the U.S. audience instant access to news about international events. 1983 More than 120 million people tune in for the final episode of M*A*S*H, the highest-rated program ever. 1  1993 More than 80 million people tune in for the final episode of Cheers. 2001 TV news offers nonstop, ad-free coverage of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in rural Pennsylvania. 2003 TV broadcasts live news coverage of the Iraq War. 2006 Congress mandates that TV broadcasters switch totally to digital high-definition signals by February 17, 2009. 2008 More than 70 million people watch President Barack Obama’s election night victory on TV on November 4, a record audience for a presidential election night. 2009 The U.S. changes to a national high-definition television transmission standard (HDTV). 2010 Television manufacturers introduce 3-D television. 2012 Netflix offers original programming via video streaming. 2014 Sesame Street celebrates its 45th anniversary. Today HDTV is the standard for broadcast TV. TV programming is delivered by over-the-air broadcast, cable, satellite and Internet streaming. 1. Watching Television - If there is one thing that the young an old partake in is watching television. - Watching television becomes the single most unifying culture. - AC Nielsen Company reports that television is turned on for an average of eight hours a day in American households. 2. Television and daily life - Because of its penetration in daily life those who want to understand society and its values always look at television. - From parents to religious leaders, governments and civil society television is praised and blamed for happenings in society. - For instance, television is praised for informing us about the world and about ourselves. 2 - Television is also blamed for violence in society; fall in literacy, trivialization of politics. Etc. - On television one can see the preacher, the president, thieves, murderers, sports people, celebrities etc., the good, the bad and the ugly. - Television gives you access to all types of news and entertainment— drama, comedy, sports, news, game shows and talk shows. 3. Television delivers audiences to advertisers - Television brings us so many programs on a daily basis. - But commercial television exists for the purpose of advertising. - Television delivers audiences to the advertiser faster than any medium and that is why it makes more advert money than other media. During a widely watched TV program like the 2015 Super Bowl (with an estimated audience of half the U.S. population and an even larger audience worldwide), a 30-second ad can cost as much as $4.5 million. 4. Television overtakes radio - The word ‘television’ first appeared in an academic journal in 1907. - Before that time, all experiments in image transmission had been called ‘visual radio’. Regular television broadcasting in the United States began on July 1, 1941. This date marks the official start of commercial television broadcasting in the country. The first regularly scheduled television service was launched by RCA's NBC (National Broadcasting Company) at their station WNBT (now WNBC) in New York City. - By 1945 there were 10 TV stations in the US and by the late 1940s TV was clearly on the way to overtaking all other media. - For instance, in 1949 radio had 81% of all broadcast audiences but by the end of the year TV was taking 41% of the audiences. - As soon as people began enjoying the pleasure of audio and video the superiority of TV was clear. NBC and CBS were the original TV networks. A network is a collection of radio or television stations that offers programs, usually simultaneously, throughout the country, during designated program times. In 1943, ABC, the third major network, grew out of NBC’s old Blue network. 5. News with pictures - The programming patterns that existed in radio was soon transferred to TV - News, therefore, became a regular program on TV from the beginning. - However, audiences were not interested in what was reported in the news but more fascinated by the fact that they see a human being talking on the screen. 3  Broadcast news, pioneered by radio, adapted awkwardly at first to the new broadcast medium—television. In 1947, CBS launched Television News with Douglas Edwards, and NBC broadcast Camel News Caravan (sponsored by Camel cigarettes). At first, network TV news reached only the East Coast because there was no national hookup to deliver television across the country. By 1948, AT&T’s coaxial cable linked Philadelphia with New York City and Washington, D.C. The 1948 political conventions were held in Philadelphia and broadcast to 13 eastern states. CBS had developed a strong group of radio reporters during World War II, and by 1950 many of them had moved to the new medium. CBS News also made a practice, more than the other networks, of using the same reporters for radio and television news. The major early news figure at CBS was Edward R. Murrow. 6. Entertainment - Television entertainment programs were also largely transferred from radio. - The only exception was of course movies and the talk show. a. Variety Shows: Program featuring popular entertainers. b. Situation Comedies (Sitcoms)- Comedy show featuring established set of characters at home or work situation. c. Others are TV drama, Western, Quiz shows, and Soap Operas etc. - Most popular entertainment is shown during prime time. - Prime time refers to the period when there is large audience for broadcast media (7-11pm for TV). 7. Television ratings and the audience - Ratings provide advertisers with detailed information about the audiences they have been reaching. 4 - Since 1950s A.C. Nielsen Company has been providing a description of audiences to the advertiser through surveys. - A.C. Nielsen provides two types of numbers known as RATINGS and SHARE. - Rating is a percentage of households with TV sets turned on to a particular program. - Share refers to share-of-audience, and it compares the audience of one show with that of another. - Sweeps refer to the most important months when rating companies gather their biggest ratings information. - Rating companies deliver information on demographics-age, gender, occupation and income. - Advertisers can target particular audience demographic based on such information. 1. Audiences begin to choose - In the early days of television in the 1950s audiences were ready to watch anything that was offered by television. - By the 1960s however, television audiences started choosing and preferring some programs over others. - Indeed, audiences now began to question how well television was serving the people. - As a result of such concerns the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) instructed television broadcasters to provide descent programming to the public and keep them informed about the world. 2. Public Television - Public Service Television is the television that is committed to the public through the broadcasting of programs that would keep them informed and educated. - Public television is different from commercial television whose commitment is not to the public but profit seeking. - In the 1950s few television stations came together and started offering public service programs without any advertisement. - In 1967 the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was set up and, with government assistance was delivering public service programs. 3. Pressure mounts on CPB - In 1995 the American congress called for the privatization of public television so that it could sustain itself. 5  - Privatization means that private investors will now own public service television and that the network should carry advert and provide programming that would bring big ratings and big advert money. - But CPB attracts only less than 3% of the American audience and therefore, advertisers would not be interested. 4. Television changes national politics - Like radio, television started as an entertainment medium. - Later on, however, it went into covering important news events. - In 1960 President Kennedy featured in a Presidential debate with Richard Nixon. - Kennedy’s good understanding of how to use television was said to have given him the chance to win. - But the same television that was credited with handing victory to Kennedy brought the downfall of President Nixon later by its coverage of the Watergate scandal that made him to resign. - Today the coverage of politics by television is said to have trivialized politics by turning it into a spectacle. - Because of television politics is now more about image bite and sound bite. 5. Television and global events - In its early days television news lasted 15 minutes only. - Today, television news is broadcast 24-hours a day and features coverage of events around the world. - Such events that received global coverage include September 11 attack on New York, Iraq war on 10th October 2010 and the rescue of 33 miners in Santiago, Chile etc. Satellites Make Transatlantic Tv and Live Broadcasts Possible On July 10, 1962, Telstar I sent the first transatlantic satellite broadcast. Before Telstar, copper cable linked the continents, film footage from overseas traveled only by plane and in most homes a long-distance telephone call was a special event. Today, Telstar’s descendants orbit at a distance of more than 22,000 miles. A single modern communication satellite can carry more than 30,000 telephone calls and 3 television channels. By 1965, all three networks were broadcasting in color. Television demonstrated its technological sophistication in December 1968 with its live broadcast from the Apollo spacecraft while the spacecraft circled the moon, and seven months later television showed Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon. 6  Telstar I Live broadcast from the Apollo spacecraft Tv Promotes Professional sports Sports is one of TV’s most profitable types of television programming because most sports events are broadcast live, and viewers tend to watch the entire program, including commercials. In 1964, CBS paid $28 million for television rights to the 1964–1965 National Football League (NFL) games. In 1990, the networks paid $3.6 billion to broadcast NFL football. In 2012, ESPN (owned by the Walt Disney Company) spent $5.6 billion for an 8-year contract to carry Major League Baseball on ESPN as well as for radio, international and digital rights to the games. In 2014, NBC Universal paid $7.75 billion for broadcast rights to the six Olympic games from 2022 to 2032. Digital Technology Broadens TV’s Focus When technological developments move like a rocket, as they have in the past decade, program delivery becomes easier and less expensive. New technologies have brought more competition. Several new delivery systems and products have been developed to bring more choices to consumers than ever before—from the size of the screen to the clarity of the picture—and to change further the way people use television. Digital Video Recorders Digital video recorders (DVRs), available since the 1990s, download programming from any program service (including the broadcast networks and satellite and cable programmers). This allows viewers to decide what they want to watch and when, a practice called time-shifting, 7  which makes consumers’ viewing habits much more difficult for advertisers to track accurately. High-Definition Television, 3-D and 4K Screens A traditional television picture scans 525 lines across the screen. High-definition television (HDTV) scans at least 1,125 lines. CBS first demonstrated HDTV in the U.S. in 1982. HDTV, which offers a wider, sharper digital picture and better sound, requires more spectrum space than conventional television signals. 6. The future of the television industry - Some events that will affect the television industry over the next decade. - These events are: a. Ownership changes: and mergers: New policies that came in 1996 allowed companies to own TV stations that reach up to 35% of the country’s homes. - An owner of a station is also free to sell it anytime unlike before when the policy said one must own for at least 3 years before selling. - The four biggest stations cannot be owned by one company. - Today, most local stations are not locally owned. b. Shrinking role of networks: Adverts revenue started falling because of new developments like cable, satellite broadcasts, VCRs and DVDs etc. that have led to audience fragmentation and decline in ratings. - Television stations must expand their audience beyond the prime time to stay profitable. c. Ratings: A.C. Nielsen introduced people’s meter in 1987 and since then there are complaints that the system leaves out some groups. d. Sports: Today TV has made big impact on sports and turned sports people into stars and celebrities. Sports bring big money to TV as well. 8