Blog #5

·       What were the major technical standards established for television in the 1940s? What happened to analog television?

Only one percent of Americans households, in 1948, had a TV set then by 1953 more than 50 percent had one, and since early 1960s, more than 90 percent of all homes have TV. The rise in television created many fears and competition for radio, books, magazines, and movies because they believed that all of those items would become irrelevant and unnecessary but both radio and print media adapted. TV was trying to be figured out how to be pushed as a business and elevate it to a mass medium meant creating a coherent set of technical standards for product manufacturers. In the late 1930s, the National Television Systems Committee, which was a group representing major electronics firms, began outlining industry-wide manufacturing practices and compromising on technical standards. In 1941, the Federal Communications Commission adopted an analog standard for all U.S. TV sets. Up until 2009, the United States continued to use analog signals when they were replaced by digital signals. They translate TV images and sounds into binary codes and allow for increased channel capacity and improved image quality and sound.

·       How did the sponsorship of network programs change during the 1950s?

The broadcast networks became increasingly unhappy with the lack of creative control in this arrangement in the early 1950s. The growing popularity and growing cost, luckily, of television offered opportunities to alter this financial setup. The introduction of two new types of programs, the magazine format and the TV spectacular, greatly helped the networks gain control over content. The magazine program featured multiple segments like news, talk, comedy, and music that are similar to the content variety found in general interest or news magazine of the day.

·       How have computers and mobile devices challenges the TV and cable industries?

In a 2010 Nielson survey found out that in a one-month period, an average viewer spent three and a half hours using a computer and television at the same time. It was also estimated that 60 percent of viewers are online at least once a month while they are watching television. Multitasking has further accelerated with new fourth-screen technologies like smart-phones, iPods, iPads, and mobile TV devices. These devices are forcing major changes in consumer viewing habits and media content creation. Cable and DBS operators are capitalizing on this trend, that Cablevision, Time Warner, and DISH Network released iPad apps in 2011, allowing their subscribers to watch live TV on their iPads at no additional charge, in the hopes of deterring their customers from cutting their subscriptions.

·       What rules and regulations did the government impose to restrict the networks' power?

In the late 1960s, a progressive and active FCC had passed a series of regulations that began undercutting their power. The first, Prime Time Access Rule, introduced in April 1970, reduced the networks’ control of prime-time programming from four to three hours. The move was an effort to encourage more local news and public-affairs programs. In 1970, the FCC created the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules-called fin-syn, which “constituted the most damaging attack against the network TV monopoly in FCC history. This network demanded as much as 50% of the profits that TV producers earned from airing older shows as reruns in local TV markets. In 1975, the Department of Justice instituted a third Policy, reacting to a number of legal claims against monopolistic practices, the Justice Department limited the networks production of non-news shows, requiring them to seek most of their programming from independent production companies and film studios.

·       How did the Telecommunications Act of 1996 change the economic shape and future of the television and cable industries?

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed the economic shape and future of the television and cable industries. Congress finally rewrote the nation’s communications laws in the act, which brought cable fully under the federal rules that had long governed the telephone, radio, and TV industries. Congress used the act to knock down regulatory barriers, allowing regional phone companies, long-distance carriers, and cable companies to enter one another’s markets. The Telecommunications Act allows cable companies to offer telephone services, and it permits phone companies to offer Internet services and buy or construct cable systems in communities with fewer than fifty thousand residents. Owners, for the first time, could operate TV or radio stations in the same market where they owned a cable system. The act has had mixed impact on cable customers, the cable companies argued that it would lead to more competition and innovations in programming, services, and technology. The cable industry delivered on some of its technology promises, investing nearly $150 billion in technological infrastructure between 1996 and 2009- mostly installing high-speed fiber-optic wires to carry TV and phone services.

·       Why has television's roles as a national cultural center changed over the years? What are the programmers doing to retain some of their influence?

Televisions roles as a national cultural center changed over the years. Televisions appearance significantly changed the media landscape, particularly the radio and magazine industries, both of which had to cultivate specialized audiences and markets to survive. The development of cable, VCRs and DVD players, DVRs, the Internet and smartphone services have fragmented television’s audience by appealing to viewers’ individual and special needs. Altering televisions former role as a national unifying cultural force, potentially de-emphasizing the idea that we are all citizens who are part of a larger nation and world by providing more specialized and individual choices. Ipods, iPads, smartphones, and Internet services that now offer or create our favorite “TV” programs are breaking down the distinctions between mobile devices and TV screens. Television provides a gathering place for friends and family at the same time that it provides access anywhere to a favorite show, that is the bottom line for TV.