Cable and Newer Media

1. Cable and Newer Media

2. Old Business • Tell me what country you are doing next class. If you don’t have a country, one will be assigned to you. • Country Profiles will begin AFTER we finish Chapter 7, International Landscapes. The Midterm will follow the profiles. • Since we are about a class and a half behind, the presentations will begin 3/10. This gives us about 3 weeks to make a 10-minute presentation. Easy.

3. The Story So Far… • The partisan press (18th c), penny press and the age of sensational journalism (19th c) set many precedents for modern journalism • Radio began as a form of point to point communication, but eventually grew into modern broadcasting. TV replaced much of what radio did, but the radio industry responded by shifting to music formats and “narrowcasting.”

4. Leading Up To Cable • 1925: First television transmission. • 1936: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) opens the first electronic television service in 1936. • 1941: National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) establishes the standards for broadcast television. • 1941-1945: United States involvement in World War II delays the proliferation of television. • 1945-1950s: Soldiers return home and families move to the suburbs where television quickly proliferates.

5. Problems with Broadcast TV • The 1952 Channel Allotment left “White Areas” • Both people and companies sought to extend the reach of broadcast • Repeaters extend coverage areas by receiving and repeating the signal • Translators are the most common type of repeater. Translators transmit on a different channel than the original signal so as to not interfere with the originating station’s signal.

6. CATV • CATV= Community Antenna Television • Origin of cable TV • Some debate as to who was the first to use CATV, but it was likely an inventive individual or a small town entrepreneur

7. Who was the First? • One story, especially popular in the North East, is that a PA business man named John Walson was trying to sell TV sets in the mountains near Mahanoy City, PA. People he was trying to sell to couldn’t get broadcast signals. Mr. Walson was a salesman, so enetr the art of “No problem…”

8. Who was the First? • Historian R. J. Reiman argues that cable TV actually started in Astoria, Oregon in the summer of 1949 • E. L. Parsons from Astoria Oregon placed an antenna in a position where it could receive a television signal from KRSC (now KING-TV) in Seattle, Washington so that he and his wife could watch high school football games. • Then Parsons figured he could make a few bucks.

9. Reiman writes • "E. L. Parsons of KAST, Astoria, Oregon, in the summer of 1949, erected an antenna system to receive Station KING-TV, Seattle, from 125 miles away, and he distributed the signal received by coaxial cable to twenty-five 'subscribing neighbors.' This may have been the first installation of Cable Television. The concept spread to small towns in Pennsylvania and Washington."

10. SO… • John R. Bittner, (Broadcasting and Telecommunication - An Introduction, 1985) tries to explain the discrepancy.

11. John R. Bitner “Parsons is credited with a working cable system in Astoria, Oregon, in 1948. John Walson is believed to have had a cable system operating in Mahoney City, Pennsylvania that same year. Some of the discrepancy results from the definition of what is, or was, a true cable system. ”

12. CATV • Our textbook gently states that CATV started in the rural areas of Oregon and PA in 1948 (Walson claims the 1948 date, which would put him ahead of Parsons) • But regardless, it seems that a primary motivation for CATV was similar to that of radio--to sell receivers (Walson’s Company, Service Electric still exists as a cable provider)

13. Program Augmentation • Early cable providers sought to add value to their product by “augmenting” programming. • Some had broadcast stations from far away, but eventually started doing original programming. • In 1960, 1% of TV households subscribed to basic cable. By 1975 13% subscribed to basic and 24% subscribed for a pay service.

14. Program Augmentation • This, of course, started to worry broadcasters. • Program exclusivity started to fall apart and audiences fragmented. • An early form of the limited eye ball problem that hurts the ad industry today (greater supply, same demand). • Eventually FCC regulators stepped in (1962 and 1972). Then in 1977 the FCC stepped out issuing in an age of deregulation. • The pendulum of regulation swings. We are likely entering a regulatory age because of the financial and housing markets and because of FDA food scandals.

15. Changing Role of Cable TV • Refer to graph on page 58 of text

16. Cable becomes a player • Domsats (domestic satellites) allowed for satellite relay services (satellite feeds) • In 1979, the FCC deregulated satellite relays with TVRO (Television Receive Only) antennas. This allowed cable systems to use satellite relays without cumbersome licensing.

17. The Atlanta Braves, Almost as Cool As The Yankees • 1970 Ted Turner bought a low rated UHF station (WTCG) in Atlanta, GA. (eventually renamed WTBS) • He also purchased the Atlanta braves in 1976 • Turner packed WTCG with movies and sports (and after 1976 a lot of Braves games) and distributed this via satellite. He charged nothing at first, but eventually began charging 10 cents a subscriber. • Big money came in from advertising • This became the model of the “super station.”

18. Next Quiz • Either 2/26 or 3/3. Whenever we finish chapter 6. • You are responsible for readings, even if e don’t cover in class. • Class lectures usually take some aspect of the reading and expand on it. • That means that if something is in the text and in a lecture (Ted Turner, cough) it will likely be on the quiz and likely be on the midterm or final (non-cumulative, by the way)

19. Next Quiz • Also, in the chapter reading pay special attention to: • Pay cable • DBS • “The Electronics Revolution” (Professor Wasser has a whole book on the VCR, so this stuff is pretty important to understand) • Rupert Murdoch and FOX • What happened to the radio industry • How Telcos made a return