The Television Industry

Chapter 9

THE RISE OF TELEVISION

TELEVISION BROADCASTING – scanning a visual image and transmitting it, generally with accompanying sound, in the form of electromagnetic waves that when received can be reconverted into visual images

Some familiar themes with regard to television

1. Television as we know it did not arrive in a flash as a result of one inventor’s grand change

2. Television as a medium of communication developed as a result of social, legal, and organizational responses to the technology during different periods

3. The television industry developed and changed as a result of struggles to control its channels to audiences

FIGURE 13.1 Timeline of the Television Industryhttp://www.routledge.com/cw/turow

TIMELINE: THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY

MORE ABOUT TELEVISION

BROADCAST LIVE – broadcast as it was actually being performed, rather than being taped, filmed, or otherwise recorded

GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION – the period of time from approximately 1949 to 1960, marked by the proliferation of original and classic dramas produced for live television

SYNDICATION – the licensing of mass media material to outlets on a market-by-market basis

TELEVISION PROGRAM RATINGS – audits of people’s viewing behaviors that gauge which shows households are viewing and how many are viewing them; they help network executives decide which shows should stay, which should be dropped from the lineup, and how much advertisers should pay to hawk their products during breaks in the program

THE CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION INDUSTRY

It is useful to think of the television world as divided into three domains:

• Television broadcasting • Subscription cable and satellite services • Online and mobile platforms

TELEVISION BROADCASTING

COMMERCIAL STATIONS and NONCOMMERCIAL STATIONS

BILLBOARDS

UNDERWRITING

TELEVISION NETWORK

VERTICALLY INTEGRATED

BROADCAST OUTLETS

O&OS (OWNED AND OPERATED STATIONS)

NETWORK AFFILIATES

PROGRAM FEED

STATION GROUPS

INDEPENDENT BROAD STATION

COMMERCIALS

RETRANSMISSION FEES

BIG FOUR TELEVISION NETWORKS

ABCCBSFOXNBC

TABLE 13.1 Top 5 and Bottom 5 Broadcast Television Markets in the U.S., 2012

BROADCAST TELEVISION MARKETS

TABLE 13.2 Top 10 Multiple Systems Owners, June 2012

TOP 10 MULTIPLE SYSTEMS OWNERS

THE CABLE TELEVISION BUSINESS CABLE TELEVISION – television service provided to subscribers by signals sent through a wire (usually a coaxial cable, but increasingly via fiber optic lines)

CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEM – the cable television retailer that physically installs the cable and markets the program service to consumers in a particular geographic area

MULTIPLE SYSTEM OWNER (MSO) – a cable television firm that owns two or more cable television systems

SUBSCRIPTION NETWORKS – nonbroadcast programs channels for which people pay a monthly subscription fee to receive them via cable or satellite

THE TELCO AND SATELLITE BUSINESS

TELCOS – telephone companies that offer television and internet services

SATELLITE TELEVISION – programming that comes directly to the home from a satellite orbiting the earth

DIRECT BROADCAST SATELLITE (DBS) TECHNOLOGY – technology that allows a household to receive hundreds of channels, from signals that are delivered digitally from satellites operating in orbit to a small dish installed on the side of a dwelling; a set-top box decodes digital signals so that they appear on the TV set

PRODUCTION IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY

LINEUP – the menu of channels that a cable television system offers potential subscribers

FORMAT – a collection of elements that constitutes a channel’s recognizable personality, created through a set of rules that guide the way the elements are stitched together with a particular audience-attracting goal in mind

Network Considerations

• Consumer satisfaction • The technological limitations of the system • The amount of money a network demands from

exhibitors • Whether or not the exhibitor owns a piece of the network

COVERING COSTS

LICENSE FEES – the costs that particular networks charge exhibitors for carrying the networks’ lineups in the exhibitors’ cable or satellite systems

TIERING – the strategy to which different levels of television programming are priced differently

PAY-PER-VIEW (PPV) – a transaction in which a cable provider, satellite company, or telco charges the customer for viewing an individual program, such as boxing event, a live broadcast of a concert, or a newly released motion picture

VIDEO ON DEMAND (VOD) – a television viewing technology whereby a customer uses the remote control to navigate to a menu of programs and then click on the program he or she wants to watch; unlike pay-per-view, in which the customer has to wait for the show to appear at a certain time, the program immediately appears for viewing

HEAD END – a cable system’s regional delivery location

PRODUCING BROADCAST CHANNEL LINEUPS

HIGH-DEFINITION TELEVISION (HDTV) – a television display technology that provides picture quality similar to that of 35mm movies with sound quality similar to that of today’s compact discs. Some television stations have begun transmitting HDTV broadcasts to users on a limited number of channels, generally using digital rather than analog signal transmission

CHANNEL MULTIPLEXING (MULTICHANNEL BROADCASTING) – sending multiple signals or streams of information on a carrier at the same time in the form of a single complex signal and then recovering the separate signals at the receiving end

DETERMINING THE CHANNEL’S INTENDED AUDIENCE

Four interrelated considerations

• The COMPETITION

• The available pool of viewers

• The interests of sponsors

• The costs of relevant programming

Link: The Story of Television https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxbdMl1flUc

Link: Ted Talk: Lauren Zalaznick – The Conscience of Televisionhttp://www.ted.com/talks/lauren_zalaznick

RATINGS

RATINGS – audits of people’s television viewing behavior that help to determine where much of the money for programming and advertising should go

Aspects of the Television Rating System

• PEOPLE METER• SWEEPS • HOUSEHOLD RATINGS• PEOPLE RATINGS• HOUSEHOLD SHARE• REACH • NATIONAL RATING POINTS • AVERAGE COMMERCIAL MINUTE• C3 STANDARD

PREPARING A SCHEDULE

SCHEDULES – patterns in which programs are arranged

• DAY PARTS

• PRIME TIME

• SERIES

• AUDIENCE FLOW

• LEAD-IN

• SAMPLING

• LEAD-OUT

• HAMMOCK

• TIME SLOT

• COUNTERPROGRAMMING

FIGURE 13.2 Prime-Time Lineups on Thursday Evenings

PRODUCING INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMS

PITCH – brief summary of a program idea

TREATMENT – a multipage elaboration of a television series producer’s initial pitch to network programming executives; the document describes the proposed show’s setup and the way in which it relates to previous popular series

CONCEPT TESTING – research commissioned by network executives in order to determine whether the format of a proposed series appeals to members of the series’ target audience; this often involves reading a one-paragraph description of series formats to people who fit the profile of likely viewers

MORE ABOUT INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMS

PILOT – a single episode that is used to test the viability of a series

PREVIEW THEATERS – venues to which members of a target audience are invited to engage in concept testing or to evaluate newly completed series pilots

LICENSE – the contract between a production company and network executives that grants the network permission to air each episode a certain number of times; usually 13 episodes of a series are ordered

DISTRIBUTION IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY

STRIPPING – five-day-a-week placement of a television show; programmers believe that, in certain day parts, placing the same show in the same time slot each weekday lends a predictability to the schedule that target audiences appreciate

OFF-NETWORK SYNDICATION – a situation in which a distributor takes a program that has already been shown on network television and rents episodes of that program to TV stations for local airing

OUT-OF-HOME LOCATIONS (OR CAPTIVE AUDIENCE LOCATIONS) – places such as airline waiting areas and store checkout lines where people congregate and are likely to pay attention to TV clips and commercials

TABLE 13.3 Top 25 Syndicated Shows for the Week Ending September 23, 2013

TOP 25 SYNDICATED SHOWS

EXHIBITION IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY• Local stations, cable systems, satellite delivery systems, and

wired phone and wireless phone companies take on the role of exhibitor when they deliver material directly to viewers

• Network affiliates are particularly worried about the declining ability of ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC to grab the lion’s share of the U.S. television audience. Local TV executives are also concerned about the networks’ strong and increasing participation in the subscription video world

• Tensions are also running high in the cable exhibition business. For decades cable systems were the only major exhibitors competing with local TV stations. Now cable operators worry that their power will be eroded substantially by DBS firms such as DirecTV and DISH, as well as by broadband services from Verizon and AT&T that duplicate cable services