Media Today, 4th Edition
Chapter Recaps and Study Guide
Chapter 13: The Television Industry
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
o Compare and contrast broadcast, cable, and satellite television.
o Explain the role of advertisers in these three form of television.
o Name and describe the different types of cable and satellite services.
o Identify the ways in which broadcasters, cable companies, and satellite
companies produce, distribute, and exhibit programming.
o Describe the issues facing the TV industry and society in a rapidly changing
TV world.
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The rise of television.
o Laboratory experimentation in the development of television started as early
as the 1880s in Germany and continued in a number of countries, including
the U.S., for decades.
o Nazi Germany maintained the world’s first regular television service between
1935 and 1938; RCA introduced a television system in 1938, and TV was
introduced commercially in the U.S. in 1946 (dominated by the established
radio networks).
o The FCC, following the so-called freeze on television licenses (1948–1952),
organized the channels in two parts of the available band of frequencies, the
very high frequency (VHF) and the ultra high frequency (UHF), although
the networks concentrated their channels in VHF.
o Consumers invested in TV receivers very quickly and, because Hollywood
regarded it as a major threat to the film industry, most of the early broadcasts
were live and done in New York; this period (the early 1950s) is referred to as
Television’s golden age.
o Program syndication developed early as a major activity in the industry, and
the film studios eventually provided product to the new medium.
o AC Nielsen emerged as the dominant supplier of television program ratings
to serve the interests of advertisers.
o During the 1960s, the TV industry contended with negative critical
assessments of its programming, charges that it contributed to the rise in racial
violence in the U.S., and a major scandal involving the rigging of quiz
programs.
o In 1971, the Justice Department established the financial interest and
syndication rules (fin-syn rules), prohibiting the networks from owning their
own programs or engaging in syndication.
o The FCC’s 1970 prime time access rule prohibited the networks from
supplying programming to local affiliates in the 7:30–8:00 time block.

The rise of cable television.
o Cable television, originating as community antenna television (CATV),
took advantage of coaxial cable to provide individual homes with television
signals received by a large antenna.
o Although the FCC initially protected the TV industry from the threat of cable,
the 1971 Cable Technical Advisory Committee provided support for a rule
change that allowed cable TV to advance.
o The FCC’s free skies policy allowed the use of communication satellites for
commercial purposes, encouraging the development of HBO and the
Superstation concept pioneered by Ted Turner, two elements that led the way
to the establishment of cable networks and a whole new—and significantly
fragmented—television environment that included new networks.
o Multiple options for TV viewing developed, including the videocassette
recorder (VCR), the digital versatile (or digital video) disk (the DVD), and
direct-to-home satellite services.
o The Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed anyone to enter any
communications business and let any communications business compete in
any market against any other business; telephone and cable companies were
thus allowed to compete.

Consolidating ownership.
o A new political, economic, and regulatory environment in the 1980s and the
1990s resulted in the consolidation of the television industry in a relative few
media conglomerates.
o New players like Google and Yahoo allowed the posting of video clips on the
internet.

An overview of the television industry.
o Currently, the U.S. television industry is divided into four general domains
that include television broadcasting, cable television services, satellite
television, and the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), which are
the several companies that emerged from the old telephone system in the U.S.
and which are now moving into areas other than telephone service.
o TV broadcasting is dominated by the Big Four commercial networks that are
all vertically integrated and that operate the so-called owned and operated
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(O&O) stations, as well as providing program feeds to their many network
affiliated stations.
TV broadcasting is further divided into station groups and the so-called
independents that are not affiliated with a network; the industry is also
divided along commercial and noncommercial lines.
Cable television systems are typically owned by a multiple system owner
(MSO) and provide a multitude of cable networks and premium
subscription networks.
The RBOCs are the most recent players, and they use fiber optics to send
cable programming to TV sets.
Direct broadcast satellite technology allows subscribers to receive
programming direct from the communication satellites.
The various subscription services argue over which one is superior, and much
of the competition has involved who supplies the potentially superior image in
the area of high definition television (HDTV), a new technology.
The various subscription services also compete in providing services in
addition to television.
Production in the television industry.
o In cable television, the major kind of production is the line-up of channels,
determined by the technological limitations of the system, the amount of
money a network demands from exhibitors, whether the exhibitor owns a
piece of the network.
o Each cable network engages in a form of production that creates a format, the
entire flow of programming on a cable network.
o Cable networks charge license fees that allow cable operators to carry their
programming.
o The cable TV industry offers different levels of programming called tiering,
and the various subscription tiers include basic cable, expanded (or enhanced)
basic, digital cable, premium channels, pay-per-view (PPV), and video on
demand (VOD).
o The move to digital technology will probably allow local TV stations to
develop as mini-cable TV systems, offering a number of different channel
lineups to audiences.
o Congress and the FCC have facilitated the development of HDTV by
mandating a switch to digital TV by March 2009.
o The job of producing a television channel is daunting, whether the channel is a
cable/satellite network like CNN or is a broadcast station like WWOR or
KNBC.
o Local or network programmers typically consider four factors when deciding
on their intended audience targets: the competition, the available pool of
viewers, the interests of sponsors, and the costs of relevant programming.
o The Nielsen Media Research company dominates the television audience
ratings business and uses people meters and viewer diaries to estimate the size
of television audiences.
o Ratings measurements taken during periods called sweeps—conducted in the
months of February, May, August, and November—are crucial to the success
of television programs, because they help determine advertising rates.
o Programmers develop schedules for different day parts, including the most
important day part: prime time.
o The basic building block of a television schedule is the program series,
usually a weekly program that attracts predictable audiences based on its
regular availability.
o Scheduling techniques include establishing strong lead-in and lead-out
programs, encouraging audiences to sample a new series scheduled in
between, a position called the hammock.
o A position in the schedule is called a program time slot, and programmers
attempt to use the strategy of counterprogramming when determining which
shows go into which time slots; counterprogramming is the practice of
scheduling a program that does not directly compete for the same target
audiences that competing programs seek.
o A program idea typically emerges as a pitch made by producers to
programmers, followed by a treatment, the establishment of the program’s
format, followed by concept testing, the production of a pilot show, and the
test viewing of the pilot in a preview theater.

Distribution in the television industry.
o Television networks distribute programming to their various affiliated stations
throughout the country.
o Independent stations are non-network affiliates that rely on the production of
their own programming or on syndication to fill their schedules.
o Off-network syndication is an important part of television distribution and
involves the reuse of network series by local stations.
o Cable and satellite networks also make use of off-network syndication to fill
their schedules.
o So-called out-of-home or captive audience locations (waiting rooms, airport
waiting areas, etc.) also constitute an increasingly important outlet for
programs distributed by networks and cable services.
o International distribution is a lucrative part of the television business.

Challenges to traditional TV production and distribution.
o Digital technology has opened up new ways to distribute television
programming, and broadcast and subscription networks have developed the
following ways to earn extra money from their programming: insisting on
DVR ratings, allowing cable firms to offer programs through video on
demand, encouraging people to view programs with commercials on the
internet, and offering shortened or promotional versions of the programs for
use on mobile phones.
o Production companies have found other new ways to distribute their
programming, including the retail marketing of DVDs and the use of the
internet as a platform for original content.

Exhibition in the television industry.
o The television exhibition system is undergoing dramatic changes and now
includes the older system of affiliated and non-affiliated stations, as well as
cable systems, satellite delivery systems, and wireline phone and wireless
phone systems.
o Affiliates are worried about the declining audience shares of the traditional
networks, as well as the networks’ movement into subscription television
services like ESPN and MSNBC.
o As networks place programs on the Web, audiences are not as dependent on
affiliates as they once were for programming.
o The conversion to digital television offers the prospect of multiple program
channels operating within a bandwidth formerly occupied by just one station.
o Cable television now faces competition from newer distribution services such
as direct broadcast satellite companies and by broadband services that are
capable of duplicating cable services.

Television and media literacy.
o Media literacy for the television industry involves three major controversies:
controversies about audiences, controversies about the nature of television
content, and controversies regarding industry control.
 Critics decry the commodification of audiences.
 Content issues involve controversies about violence, sex and
stereoptypes.
 Critiques of industry control complain that a small number of TV
companies have become too powerful.
o Media literate persons should consider how audience research helps determine
television content targeted at specific demographics.
o Additionally, media literate persons should keep in mind how the imperative
of advertising impacts most of the program content we see, and how the needs
of advertisers result in the commodification of audiences (the treatment of
people as products).
o Media literate persons should be aware of current issues involving television
content and issues involving industry control.