Introduction: Defining Television

Earlier editions of this book began with a lengthy history of American and global broadcasting. During the 15 years that this book has been published in its various editions, the television business has dramatically changed. While academically interesting, stories of Alexander Graham Bell, the young David Sarnoff, and the early years of RCA, NBC, and CBS are no longer as relevant as they were when we wrote our first edition in 1990. Those who are interested in this early history are encouraged to read Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television (second edition) by Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik, and Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television by Erik Barnouw. Our book begins with a cursory overview of the first century, and picks up in the 1970s, as the preliminary outline of television’s modern shape begins to become clear.

The development of contemporary media is rooted in the era just after World War I, as young men began to experiment with the radio technology they had seen during military service. They purchased parts, and built radio transmitters and receivers. Mostly, they spoke to one another, sometimes telling stories, sometimes playing music. The technology was rudimentary, but its popularity rapidly, and by the early 1920s, thousands of households owned a radio set.

AT&T believed radio to be an extension of its telephone service. General Electric and Westinghouse believed in the potential of radio receivers for the home. General Electric already owned the assets of American Marconi, the result of a British Marconi divestiture orchestrated by the U.S. Navy, which then controlled all wireless communications (wireless had traditionally been associated with ship-to-shore transmissions); these assets were held in a new company called Radio Corporation of America, or RCA. By the early 1920s, the government was issuing hundreds of radio licenses to corporations like AT&T, Westinghouse and General Electric; to newspapers like the Chicago Tribune; and to entrepreneurs of every sort.

Within five years, most major cities were served by multiple radio stations, often connected via telephone cables for program sharing. These telephone cables were controlled by AT&T, which denied access to its competitors who could not, therefore, build or operate radio networks. After the government intervened, a settlement was negotiated: AT&T would provide the connecting lines, and sell its radio stations and related technology to General Electric’s RCA subsidiary. Westinghouse added its stations to RCA, and a new entity was born in 1927: the National Broadcasting Company, or NBC.

By this time, radio’s business model was clear: accumulate audiences with entertainment programming, and require sponsors to pay a fee to be associated with these programs. Some companies paid for exclusive sponsorship; others paid for commercial time within the program or between programs. With minor variations, the model has remained unchanged for over 75 years.

By 1927, NBC was operating the nation’s two largest and most popular radio networks: NBC Red and NBC Blue. A year later, William Paley bought the fledgling United Independent Broadcasters, renamed it the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and began aggressively seeking affiliates in major cities. Smaller radio networks captured some listeners, but for about 15 years, network radio was dominated by NBC. (When the FCC required NBC to sell one of its radio networks in 1943, the spin-off was called the American Broadcasting Company, or ABC.)

The technical development of television dates back to the 1880s, but image clarity was a daunting limitation until 1939, when RCA engineers managed fully 441 lines of resolution. In 1941, the National Television Standards Committee, representing 15 leading manufacturers, approved the 525-line system still in use today. (New high-definition [HD] standards double the resolution.) The Second World War delayed the development of commercial broadcasting, but the radio networks were busily experimenting with new television program formats (often based upon popular radio programs).

Contemporary television began in 1948, when ABC, CBS, and NBC began broadcasting for four hours each night. Programs were modest: public affairs, talk shows, sports coverage, and the occasional variety show. There were, however, glimmers of hope for television as an entertainment medium. In 1948, Sid Caesar, Ed Sullivan, and Milton Berle hosted early versions of their popular series. By the early 1950s, situation comedies were beginning to replace the low cost filler, and more stars hosted variety series. More costly dramatic series emerged first as live drama, then found a viable commercial model by replacing high-quality New York theater with cowboys, cops, and other American icons as leading characters—this format had proven very popular on radio, and it remains popular today. Inexpensive game shows were also popular prime time entertainment.

As tastes changed, network programming executives learned to adjust the mix. In the fall of 1958, there were a dozen game shows on the prime time schedules; in 1962, there were four; and by 1967, game shows were found only on daytime schedules. In 1999, game shows were popular for an instant due to the success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Similarly, variety shows featuring big stars were among the 1950s’ and 1960s’ most popular shows; schedules were filled with hour long programs featuring Jackie Gleason, Perry Como, Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, Red Skelton and more. By the 1970s, only Carol Burnett remained, and it’s been decades since we’ve seen a successful weekly variety show. Some years, it’s all about cop shows; others, it’s about single parent families. In the early 2000s, it’s been reality shows, which cost less than network comedies and dramas, and tend to attract a desirable younger audience. Despite decades of creative development, nearly all of these formats can be traced back to similar radio programs. The same is true of daytime programs: talk shows and soap operas have occupied homemakers since the early 1930s.

From the start, network television has been dominated by a handful of companies. DuMont was a fourth network until 1956, and for several years in the 1960s and 1970s, station groups shared programs in quasi-networks (Metromedia, for example). A true fourth network emerged in the mid-1986, when Rupert Murdoch purchased several major market stations and created the FOX network. In 1995, UPN was formed by Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, and The WB Network made a network of stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting and other station groups.

From the 1950s until the 1980s, most local stations were owned by a combination of large corporations, regional media companies, and local businesses, such as newspapers or radio stations. By the mid-1980s, investment banks and Wall Street favored the buying, selling, and consolidation of local radio and television stations into larger and more powerful corporate station groups. The FCC and other government agencies have generally supported this movement toward media consolidation.

One reason for the government approval for broadcast television ownership consolidation has been the widespread growth of new networks distributed via cable television and satellites. This process began in the mid-1970s when the fledgling HBO and WTCG, Atlanta (now TBS Superstation) rented satellite time to distribute their signals nationwide. By the mid-1980s, many of today’s popular cable television networks were already operating, but their distribution was limited; a decade later, cable networks were seriously eroding broadcast network ratings. The widespread availability of movies on tapes, discs, and, recently, through digital on-demand systems, has further eroded viewership. The popularity of videogames and the internet has also affected television viewing.

Like local television broadcasters, operators of local cable television systems were originally small operations, locally owned or affiliated with regional owners of multiple systems (MSOs). As MSOs have acquired cable systems, and one another, consolidation is commonplace in cable system ownership. In addition, many MSOs also own substantial stakes in the programming networks they carry.

In some cities, educational television stations were broadcasting in the early 1950s. The present-day system of public television broadcasting did not take shape until 1967, when the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television recommended that Congress establish a corporation for public television. Later that year, Congress established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as both a funding source for public television stations and a buffer between Congress and the new public network. What began as a non-commercial network financed by the government and foundation grants has since become a confederation of independently owned non-profit stations that have become indispensable to certain audience segments. Public television is especially popular and with viewers who enjoy high quality documentaries, opera, classical music, ballet, nature shows, drama, and British comedy, but its sometimes-conflicting purpose is to serve a far broader audience.

Completing the story is an increasing number of alternative uses for the television medium. Large corporations have long used video to communicate with employees, train the sales force, present and sell products and services and more. Coursework on video has been popular since the 1970s, albeit within a relatively small market. Exercise tapes have been commonplace for twenty years. Cooking shows have a longer history. Art instruction, music instruction, pre-school education, travel tapes, and other specialties have proven especially well suited to the video medium, and to video publishing. With the widespread acceptance of broadband internet service, video has become a part of many websites. Promotional CDs and DVDs are now routinely used by colleges and universities to promote their institutions. Several companies have developed subscription and promotion businesses based upon internet distribution of video programming. For many families, video has supplemented or replaced family snapshots. High school students now create “films” using small, relatively inexpensive camcorders, and then edit their work on surprisingly sophisticated desktop computer editing systems. Many of these alternative forms of television are growing rapidly.

So, what, exactly, is television? We’re careful not to define the term too narrowly. Certainly, television is NBC, CBS, ABC and the other broadcast networks. Television is also the many program networks accessed by subscription to cable or satellite services. Television an international business, and increasingly, a global enterprise. It’s also a conglomeration of new technologies that distort and expand traditional program delivery: VHS, DVD, TiVo, portable video players and screens that play movies in cars and on planes; video files that play on your computer and the ones that play on super-sized screens in Times Square. Television the video that your high schooler makes when she dreams of becoming a filmmaker, but it’s also the nightly news, the Super Bowl, and thousands of commercials we watch each month. Television is a medium in evolution, the basis of a related group of industries that have been steadily evolved for more than a half century.

If you’re a part of “the industry,” or want to be, you must be prepared to embrace change. And you must understand that television is rarely about fine art.

Television has always been a commercial endeavor. With few exceptions, television is about the money.

This Business of Television

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