COMM 122 – MEDIA PROGRAMMING AND INSTITUTIONS
Spring 2014
STUDY GUIDE FOR FINAL EXAM
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Sources of economic support for media systems;
Types of financial arrangements in different systems and countries
 Permissive,  what we are told we have in te US, in sense the
government doesn’t regulate directly the content of media.
Government doesn’t approve script of sitcom…
o First amendment prohibits censorship
 Paternalistic,  encourages uplifting and culturally diverse
programs, believe broadcasters should create programming
that doesn’t just serve the masses and popularly, but create
programs for smaller groups and interests
 Authoritarianmedia exists to serve the state. Authoritarian
is third world, Russia government controls everything that
go out on media, media are organs of government, people who
work in media are GOV. employees, they control every script
everything in news
 Libertarian favors private ownership and free-market
economics as best means for satisfying the needs out citizens.
More Complex/ More Recent Categories of Governmental Control of Media Content
 Authoritarian media serve the state/[powerful ruler
 Communist state control, censorship, media serve ruling party
 Libertarian-private media, free-market, laissez-faire  permissive, but more
extreme
 Social Responsibility insure balance, open debate, media should be used to
benefit all segments of society, not just ones most profitable for advertisers
 Developmental improve social conditions
 Democratic-participant citizens create content, everyone can film, can
participate with all the technology around
Economic Basis of Program ProductionWho pays for it? Where does money come
from?
 commercial,  advertisers supported commercial television. Advertisers spend 70
billion dollars on national television
 license fees money goes to produce programming without commercials
o BBC uses this to produce TV without commercials
 tax revenues like we support roads, libraries, schools, national parks
o support media this way like media are public service just like list above
 Support media this way like media are public service just like the list
above
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Everybody should contribute through taxes not through commercials
or fees, in most countries this is how media have been supported  A
Is always general Tax Revenues, will always be A, general tax
revenues on test
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subscriptions
hybrid/pluralistic systems their have been major changes around the world, tend
is called pluralism or hybrid or mixed systems where media is support in
combination of methods of funding.
common carriers a business that transports people, goods, or services and offers
its services to the general public under license or authority provided by a regulatory
body. A common carrier holds itself out to provide service to the general public
without discrimination.
trends in global distribution and production of programming
cultural imperialism
Legal requirements of broadcast license holders
implications of the “public interest” standard
evolution of regulation from 1927 Radio Act to the 1934 Communication Act (no
significant change) to the 1996 Telecommunications Act (more de-regulation) and
beyond no educational provisions, liscense extended 3 years, FCC will
grant/revoke licenses absed on public interest, convenience, or necessity. Mainly
combine jurisdiction of both wire and wireless communication within a single
federal agency.
o the industry’s role in regulation;
o the role of scarcity
FCC rules and regulations;
o FCC commissioners
o self-regulation
o public service obligations
o FCC enforcement and fines
o Indecency the FCC defines indecency as language or material that depicts
or describes in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary
community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory
activities or organs
o network standards and practices
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Standards and Practices Screen every show for things that would get them in trouble
with FCC, advertisers, and businesses
 Ensure programs show both sides of controversial issues
 Without approval, nothing goes on the air
 Screened everything after 9/11 so much for anything about
plane crashes, etc. that could upset people
 Clinton Years: more tolerant of sex and foul language, cracked
down on violence
 Goal: make sure no one is ever mad, ever
 NYPD Blue: 37 vulgarities per episode, on an approved list
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o “fleeting expletives”
o the FCC, Congress, the Courts, and communication industries and
technologies
o shifts in philosophy over time
o regulation vs. marketplace solutions
Programming assumptions, strategies, and goals
 Strip: daily Monday- Friday
 Checkerboard: each program once a week
 Hammock: between two popular shows to build it up
 Tentpole: put a strong show in between two weak shows to build uo
the weak shows
 Stunting: many specials, last minute changes, to through off other
networks
 Block: several of the same type of show back to back
 Counter: sharply different from competition (romance vs. football)
 Challenge: head-to-head with the same program type
 Repurposing: running program on different owned channel (NBC>USA, ABC-> Lifetime) (local affiliates don’t like this)
 Bridging: starting after the hour or half-hour(9:05-10:05 other shows
have started lets just stay on this channel)
 Hot-switching: seamless from one program to next, no risk of loosing
the audience, no commercial
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syndication  (first-run, off-netowrk) record and sell their programs to others
o domestic
o international
o first-run a form of syndicated programming that typically has never been
on a network.
o off-network
network/affiliate relations
o compensation
o retransmission fees a stipulation which allows a full-power US television
station to negotiate with a cable system operator for carriage of its broadcast
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programming. A station ma propose that the cable operator pay cash to carry
the station or ask for any other form or consideration.
deficit financing when considering the adoption of a new program to its
schedule, a major broadcast network will ask the program producer to share in the
financial risk, at least for the first season.
o financial interest and syndication rules (FIN-SYN) a body of rules
established by the FCC in 1970. These rules prevented the Big Three
television networks form owning or acting as the syndicator of any of the
programming that they aired in prime time. The rules were progressively
relaxed over time and were finally abolished in 1993.
o factors that do (e.g., the economic basis of program production) and don’t
(e.g., the public interest standard) directly affect programming;
concentration and diversity
Consolidation of production and distribution
o network/studio mergers
 Comcast and NBC
 Comcast & Time-Warner
o broadcast/cable/internet convergence
 YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc.
 implications for broadcast & cable networks
Audience fragmentation
o Audience segmentation this is a term used to represent the dividing or
slicing of an audience into different categories based on factors such as
geographic locations, demographic attributes and lifestyle attributes
o audience flow
o broadcasting and narrowcasting
o implications of new technologies for target marketing and advertising
o advertising markets
 scatter leftovers
 upfront in spring 60-70% of market is filled by advertisiers
 makegoods for networks and large-market stations and cable
systems, the media essentially promise a certain minimum audience
delivery reflected in Nielsen and Arbitron ratings. If the program or
day part does not deliver what was promised, them media are often
obliged to compensate for this shortfall-make good on the original
primes-by offering additional free commercials
Reciprocal influences between technology and institutions, policies, and regulations
(and examples)
Ratings  an estimate of the number of households tuned to a specific channel
expressed as a percentage of available households (or persons). “Available” refers to
the entire potential audience, even those who may not have either receivers turned
on. The equation is N/TVHH (HH is percent of total potential audience watching
program)
Shares an estimate of the number of households (or persons, for radio) tuned to a
given channel, expressed as a percentage of all those households ( or persons)
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actually using their receivers at that time. Recall that a rating is based n all those
owning receivers, not necessarily using them. Equation is N/HUT, percent of those
watching anything who are watching program (always larger than rating)
o Formulas
o audience measurement issues and new challenges
o relative broadcast & cable ratings
o target demographics (e.g., 18-49) a form of measurement where the
overall ratings are divided into such subgroups as those for men, women, and
teens. Adult audience age group categories typically consists of decade units
for radio for radio larger units for television
o new ratings developments
 C3
 C7
 Live+SD
 Live+3, etc
o DVR and online ratings
Technical aspects of radio/TV broadcasting and reception
o wave frequencies the number of separate radio waves produced each
second
o channel bandwidths/locations
o VHF/UHF
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Wave Length: short, medium, long, micro
Frequency:
o Very Low Frequency(VLF)
o Low Frequency(LF)
o Medium Frequency(MF)
o High Frequency(HF)
o Very High Frequency(VHF)
o Ultra High Frequency(UHF)
o Super High Frequency(SHF)
o Extremely High Frequency(EHF)
They all travel at the same speed no matter what
Frequency X _________ = ___________
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Interference:
 Co-Channel- same frequency, nearby city
 Adjacent channels- too close to same frequency
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Ground waves: (AM) follow curvature of earth
Sky Waves:
 (MF)-AM absorbed during the day, bounce at night,
 (HF)waves
 Direct Waves-(VHF/UFH) libe of sight (TV/FM)
modulation  ways of imposing meaningful variations on a transmitters
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carrier wave to enable it to carry information
 AM
 FM a technique used for transmitting information via a radio carrier
wave. FM works by varying the frequency of the electromagnetic
waves while keeping amplitude constant.
 PCM Pulse-Code Modulation is high-speed sapling process
involving cutting up an original analog signal and leaving out some
pieces of the same. Each sample derived consists of a short pulse of
energy, proportional in strength to the original signals amplitude at
that point
o adjacent/co-channel interference Adjacent channel interference is
inference between two or more stations operating on frequencies next to
each other . Co-channel interference is interference between any two or
more stations operating on the same frequency,
o propagation the process through which waves travel outward form the
antenna
o carrier wave the basic emission of a broadcasting station; an unmodulated wave that conveys information superimposed on it. It is
analogous to a road that carries traffic
o spectrum demands and allocations
o resolution the number of lines making up the image hels determine the
resolution. The clarity of an image on a screen depends on the number of
lines. The more lines, the greater is the resolution.
o cathodes a cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun
and a fluorescent screen. The electron gun scans images on the fluorescent
screen. CRT screens are widely sued in TV and other monitors
o LCD
o plasma
o transducers
 iconoscope the anme given to the early television camera tub
 CCDa charge coupled device is an image sensor chip used in video
and still cameras that contain hundreds of thousands of tiny lightsensitive elements(pixels) light is converted (transduced) into
electrical charges corresponding to the intensity of the light striking
the pixel. The electrical charges making up the image are then
transferred (read out) from the chip.
Important events in TV history
o 1948-52 freeze
o transition to digital broadcasting
o DTV-related spectrum changes a technology for sending and receiving
moving images and sound by using digital signals
 digital compression a process for reducing the amount of data that
must be stored or transmitted. Compression is accomplished by
encoding and later decoding a digital data steam. Compression can be
lossy where some data is permanently lost, “loseless” where all
information can be restored
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 700 MHz spectrum auction,
 shrinkage of UHF channel space,
 FCC plans for spectrum auctions
Technology
media ownership
new delivery systems and program content diversity
mergers and "un-mergers"
evolution of networks
military influences on communications technology
80s and 90s critiques of developments in new technologies (e.g., Schiller)
storage and relay technologies
o tradiaotnlly disk or tape
 Audio
 Analog: disk 78, 45, 33 tape: reel to reel, carts, 8-track,
cassettes
 Digital: disk CD (CD-R, Dc-RW, minidisc) hard-drive/flash
memory tape: DAT, Digital Compact Tape
Video
 Analog: disk: laser disk tape: Beta, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, 8mm
 Digital: disk: DVD, HD-DVD, Blue-Ray (BD), DVR(TiVo) tape:
DVC-Pro,D7,Dig-8, D-VHS
 Cloud Based Storage: Dropbox, iCloud, google drive, sky drive
 Bad for the environment rn
Relay Technologies
o distribution, delivery, interconnection
o make networks possible
o three ways to interconnect stations:
 cable, microwave, satellite
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History of cable/CATV Community Antenna Television
o legal and technological status of cable
o shifts in cable regulations
o Cable Regulation Milestones
 1966- FCC restricts cable to protect networks
 1977- Restrictions loosened, HBO ruling, distant signals,
superstations, cable networks
 1984- Major de-regulation
 1992- Re-regulated(Clinton), over consumer backlash from rate
increase
 1996- De-regulation again (telecoms. Act)
 cable rates wen up 45% in three years
 since 1984 De-Regulation, cable rates up 250%-- way beyond
the rate of inflation
 Up 6%( or more) annually…. 2020 it will cost $200 monthly
just for cable….
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o 1977 HBO case
o competition from satellites and phone companies
o shifts to fiber and digital (from tree-and-branch to hybrid fiber/coax);
o cable rates; niche services; concentration in MSOs and network
ownership; MSOs are cable companies that own more than one
individual cable system
MSO- Multiple System Operators
 Numbers are dropping… concentration and consolidation
 The largest MSO is Comcast
o implications for programming
o 70/70 rule, a la carte
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FCC could regulate cable again when:
 When cable available to 70% of HH
 When 70% of those subscribe
2007: FCC says 68.9% is enough but they actually didn’t even really
have that
FCC wanted to:
 Cap ownership
 Unbundle programs- a la carte
FCC Chair lost vote, accused of fudging/ suppressing the data
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o churn
Developments in DTV
o HDTV a digital television system providing a larger screen, vastly
improved picture resolution, and multichannel sound
o HD-Radio (IBOC)
o DVD a popular optical disc storage medium used of radio, video and data
storage. DVDs have the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs) but store
more than six times as much data
o DAT
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o DBS/DTH a system for the distribution of video and audio streams directly
to subscribers over satellite systems
o ITV Independent Television Britain is a public service network of British
commercial television broadcasters set up under the ITA. It provides
alternative to the British Broadcast Corporation
o VOD programming content available at any time that can accessed by the
customer of capable or DBS system
o DVR a device that records video in a digital format to a hard disk drive or
other memory medium with-in a media device
o other new delivery systems
o implications for programming
Current events, new trends, and “news” presented in class; readings on Moodle site