Unit 25 Structure of the TV and Video Industry

Multi threading in the media world began in 1981 with the arrival of the show “Hill Street Blues”. This new structure of television

Broadcasting is media programming that focuses on many genres of television. For instance, on a broadcasting channel, you can watch a drama, comedy, and news all in the same day. The three broadcasting networks, known as “The Big 3”, are ABC, NBC, and CBS. When these broadcasting channels present news, they want to stay as close to the middle of the political spectrum as possible. The goal of a broadcasting channel is to appeal to everyone and the more neutral, fact-based information released, the more views “The Big 3” will get, resulting in more money. However, narrowcasting is media programming that is focused on a particular audience. Examples of narrowcasting networks include C-SPAN, ESPN, Fox News, and CNN. ESPN stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network so they specialize in sports news and cater to the sports audience. Unlike broadcasting, narrowcasting will not try to appeal to the majority of Americans, so it can lean left or right on political issues and interject slightly more opinions.

The television industry is one of the most rapidly changing media industries to date. Its evolution from black and white, to colour, to digital and now three-dimensional viewing, there is nothing slow about its development. Focusing particularly on commercial free-to-air (FTA) television, the FTA television industry plays a critical role in the Australian ecosystem. Due to its free delivery, it generates $3.2 billion per annum in economic and advertising surplus (Venture Consulting, 2015). This is why the value of commercial FTA television to the Australian public remains high whereby FTA television is watched by more than 14 million Australians daily (Free TV Australia, 2014). However, television nowadays is much more than a medium of entertainment and information. It is also used as a method for engaging in social interaction (Morely, 1986, p. 22), and this digital divide of interaction is what harms the television industry. The launch of streaming services not only confronts the traditional ‘linear’ TV format by allowing users to select what they want to watch and when they want it, it also broadens the offering to almost any device (Spooner, 2015). The research methods in the television industry despite its strength as a medium, must however, walk hand in hand with the fast progression of new technology and challenge the rise of digital omnivores.

While the five major commercial broadcasters in the United States - ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and The CW - are all networks, PBS is not. PBS is a program distributor and broadcaster.

ITV has become a successful organisation by following 3 approaches, inclusiveness, community and environment leading them to become one of the biggest broadcasters.

According to John Fiske, “Television as a culture is a crucial part of the social dynamics.” Indeed any television genre is based on apparent similarities, differences and on expectations as well as assumptions shared by the viewers. It is also a cross-cultural translatability as it is understood in a diversity of contexts and markets. According to Graeme Burton (2000), the genre study leads to understanding of audience pleasures and revelation of cultural myths. Also an understanding of finance and marketing within television and finally an understanding of intertextuality and postmodernist forms of television. However audiences are aware of the codes and conventions that distinguish one genre product from the next. Genre has to be what

The biggest game in the world is the movie business but television is the complete opposite. TV had to draw your attention quickly and keep the audience attention. In 1936, Hollywood never thought that small box with a screen only inches in size could ever compete with a movie screen over 30 Ft wide, but in 1951, movie thea-ters were closing in waves and a TV set was in 2/3 of American households. This was due to the fact that Hollywood lost its monopoly over the film industry and now independent producers could compete with the “Big 5”. Hollywood reacted in a way that had movie plot feel. At first they were in denial that TV could even compete with them. They soon turned threatened then encouraged fierce competition but fi-nally embraced and

The BBC is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world. Its mission statement is to enrich people lives with programs that inform, educate and entertain. The BBC has the second largest budget of any UK broadcaster with an operating expenditure of £4.23 billion in 2009/2010. The only UK broadcaster with a larger operating expenditure is British Sky Broadcasting with £5.9 billion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Finance). The reason that Sky’s operating expenditure is higher is because Sky is a private sector PLC, which means that the public can buy shares in a company. Selling shares means more capital income is invested in

Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and

TVI is “the era of channel scarcity, the mass audience, and the three-network hegemony” (Pearson [Jenner, 2]). TVII is “ the era of channel/network expansion, quality television, and network branding strategies” (Pearson [Jenner, 2]). TVIII is “the era of proliferating digital distribution platforms, further audience fragmentation, and…a shift from second-order to first-order commodity relations” (Pearson [Jenner, 2]). While these distinctions are made, they are not necessarily set in stone. Hence the introduction of TVIV. Netflix “draws into question the previous notions of multi-platform as television, due to its independence from more traditional modes…” (Jenner, 3). Michael Curtin argues that there is an alternative means of understanding the current television trend, that of matrix media. “The matrix era is characterized by interactive exchanges, multiple sites of productivity and diverse modes of interpretation and use” (Curtin [Jenner, 4]). The entrance of Netflix as both a television producing and streaming system has led to the argument for TVIV, which “can be understood as an era of matrix media where viewing patterns, branding strategies, industrial structures, the way different media forms interact with each other or the various ways content is made available shift completely away from the television set” (Jenner, 4). Netflix does fit into TVIII’s guidelines in many ways, but its format is different from the existing

In Hall’s encoding and decoding model he argues that encoding and decoding the meaning of media is not a single-sided process but one shared by both the producers and the audience. The producers encode their preferred meaning into the media using frameworks of knowledge, relations of production, and technical infrastructure (Hall, 1997). Frameworks of knowledge are the producers’ beliefs and what they assume about the audience’s beliefs. Relations of production are the needs of the financial side of the industry. Technical

Finally the public television is used as an example to describe the peculiarities of the media and the political economy of the media.

Summarise the future of the sectors of free-to-air television, retail and exhibition due to the rise of

The British media has contributed to spreading elements of national identity but how has national identity influenced the British media? When it comes to the BBC, it has been closely defined in regards to servicing the British population as a whole, and this common link that everyone is supposed to be able to enjoy serves as yet another facet of national identity. Because of its founding principles of public service broadcasting, the BBC's identity was grounded in the idea

Channels Television is an Independent television station based in Lagos, Nigeria. The company licensed in June 1993 and allocated a radio frequency, Ultra High