3. Origins of TV
• 1939: NBC first
broadcasts regularly
• 1950s: First Golden Age
of Television
• 1945: 10,000 sets; 1950:
6 million; 1960: 60 million
4. Rise of cable TV
• By 1962, 800 systems
with 850,000 subscribers
• Pay service HBO founded
in 1972
• Deregulation provided by
1984 cable act allows
expansion; 53 million
households by end of ’80s
5. Digital and HD
• U.S. switches from analog
to digital fully in 2009
• High-Definition Television
popularized; by 2010,
nearly half of U.S.
audience watch in HD
• HD viewers watch 3%
more prime time
(7-11 p.m.)
6. Television and
culture
• Domestic comedy in
1950s: “Leave it to
Beaver” etc. depict
generic idealized families
• Leave out minorities; don’t
address social issues;
focus on middle-class
whites exclusively
7. 1960s and 1970s
• 1960s: TV news brings
reality home (Cronkite)
• Sitcoms popularized
(“Bewitched,” “Beverly
Hillbillies”)
• 1970s: Sketch comedy
(“SNL”); programming
diversifies somewhat
8. TV in the 1980s
• Some call early ’80s
Second Golden Age
(scripted dramas like “Hill
Street Blues”)
• CNN, ESPN, MTV “Cosby
Show,” “Family Ties”
• BET launches in 1980
• Content more violent and
more sex-related
9. 1990s and 2000s
• More specialized cable
channels
• Programming migrates
online (Netflix, Hulu,
YouTube)
• Conversation increasingly
dominated by those
outlets, HBO, ESPN, MTV
10. Netflix disrupts
• Netflix pays to license
content from networks:
streaming and rentals
• Subscriptions: 31 million
in U.S. (HBO: 28 million)
• Getting into original
programming
• Interconnected with
networks, cable
11. Hulu and YouTube
• Hulu: streaming site
created by NBC, Fox,
ABC; 5 million subscribers
• YouTube: owned by
Google
• YouTube is busiest “TV
platform”: 6 billion hours
of video a month watched
by 1 billion unique visitors
12. TV and culture
• TV news comes to
forefront during crisis
(9/11)
• Partisan news networks
influential
• Social issues (“Ellen”)
• Reality television
13. Industry trends
• Corporate sponsorship
• Networks rise and fall
• Fox rises to rival big 3 in
early 1990s (ABC, NBC,
CBS)
• Big four share of market
falls from 43% in 1994 to
27% in 2009
14. Industry trends
• Cable continues to eat
into network market share
• Narrowcasting: Channels
focus on specific
audiences (sports, news,
fashion, hobbies)
• Cable pushes the
envelope on explicit
content; so do networks
15. New technology
• Satellite TV: DirecTV vs.
Dish Network; both
compete with cable
• DVRs popularized
• Internet: Streaming
content competes with TV
• VOD (video on demand)
becomes more common
• Interactive TV
16. Revenue sources
• Networks: advertising,
licensing content
• Netflix and
HBO/Showtime:
subscriptions
(HBO/Showtime license
content)
• Cable companies:
subscriptions to cable TV,
broadband Internet
18. Revenue and trends
• Local TV affiliates: local
advertising, charging
cable operators
• Ownership trend in cable
is toward consolidation
• Cable companies offer
single “pipe” for TV,
Internet, phone
19. Third Golden Age
• Complex, years-long
dramas (“Sopranos,” “The
Wire,” “Mad Men,”
“Breaking Bad”)
• Starting mid-1990s
• Anti-hero protagonists
• Culturally influential
• Freedom of cable/pay TV
20. Major threats to TV
• Advertising declining:
DVR users skip ads;
viewers use ad-free
services more
• Viewers streaming more
video, using devices such
as game consoles; giving
up cable subscriptions
