Ch. Television

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Ch. --Television
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Early comments

• Television is a whore. Any man who wants her
  full favors can have them in five minutes with a
  pistol.
• Anonymous

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• You have debased my childYou have made him a
  laughing stock of intelligencea stench in the
  nostrils of the gods of the ionosphere.
• Lee DeForest (1873-1961)

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• Television is an invention that permits you to
  be entertained in your living room by people you
  wouldnt have in your home.
• David Frost, journalist

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• It is a medium of entertainment which permits
  millions of people to listen to the same joke at
  the same time, and yet remain lonesome.
• T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

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• I find television very educational. Every time
  someone switches it on, I go into another room
  and read a good book.
• Groucho Marx

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• I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts.
  But I cant stop eating peanuts.
• Orson Welles

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• As the age of television progresses, the Reagans
  will be the rule, not the exception. To be
  perfect for television is all a president has to
  be these days.
• Gore Vidal

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• Almost from the moment the horror occurred,
  television changed. It was no longer a small box
  containing entertainment, news and sports
  suddenly, it was window opening onto violently
  unpredictable life in Washington and in Dallas,
  where a president had been assassinated.
• Newsweek, 1963

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The Ratings

• Television viewing is measured by the A.C.
  Nielsen Co., using 5,000 households at any one
  time.
• Nielsen divides the country into 5,000 groups
  of residents and picks a random home from each.

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Nielsen Services

• Nielsen Television Index (NTI) Overnights
• Nielsen Station Index (NSI) Sweeps
• Nielsen Homevideo Index
• Nielsen Syndication Services
• Nielsen Retail Index

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TVs profile today

• 1,518 TV stations in U.S.
• 99 of homes have at least one TV
• 75 have multiple sets
• 99 have color sets

• Average home has TV on 7 hours and 5 minutes a
  day
• 830-900 p.m. is most popular half hour for TV.
• Sunday night is most popular viewing night

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• February is the most popular viewing month.
• Households viewing the most TV have
• 3 or more people
• Cable
• Children

• Women watch more TV than men.
• African-Americans watch more TV than whites.
• Sitcom is most popular program type.

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• 90 of American homes have VCRs.
• Half of VCR recordings made with TV off.
• Average viewer receives nearly 40 channels.

• VCR playback accounts for less time than
  recording.

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Timeline

• 1907Word television first used in Scientific
  American.
• 1923 Westinghouse scientist, Vladimir Zworykin
  invents iconoscope, a camera tube , and
  kinescope, a receiving tube. Image created with
  30 lines of pixels.

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• 1927Philo Farnsworth, an Idaho farm boy, patents
  another version of TV. Gets pixel idea from
  planting potatoes. A decade of patent disputes
  with Zworykin follow.

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• 193717 experimental stations operating. First
  TVs available to consumers, though little
  programming exists. RCA offers 12-inch screen for
  600
• Adolph Hitler delivers early televised address in
  Nuremberg.

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• 1939RCA demonstrates television at New York
  Worlds Fair.
• 1942FCC enforces wartime freeze on TV
  development.
• 1944First commercial time sold to TV sponsors in
  blocks, with sponsors creating programming.

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• 1945FCC give part of FM band to TV.
• Arthur C. Clarke theorizes that orbiting
  satellites could relay TV and radio around the
  globe.

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• 1945In October, government lifts wartime ban on
  the construction of new stations and sets.
• Gimbels department store holds first large-scale
  TV demonstration in years. More than 25,000
  people come over three weeks to watch NBC
  programs.

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• First national advertiser air ads on TV Bulova
  Watch, Pan-Am, Firestone Tire, RCA, Gillette.
• 1946150,000 viewers watch Joe Louis boxing match
  on 5,000 sets.

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• 1947Howdy Doody, a childrens show, premieres.
  Remains on air to 1960.

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• NBC debuts Meet the Press.
• 1948 The Ed Sullivan Show debuts in June and
  runs until 1971.

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• 515 increase in TV time sold to sponsors from
  1947
• Remote areas get first cable TV.
• FCC freezes granting of TV licenses because
  industry is growing faster than it can be
  regulated. Freeze lifted in 1951.

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• NBC first airs Today Show and Tonight Show.
  Creations of Sylvestor Pat Weaver.
• CBS debuts See It Now, with Edward R. Murrow.

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• 1951 I Love Lucy becomes top-rated show of 50s.
• 1953On January 19, the birth of Little Ricky on
  the show makes national headlines, taking
  spotlight away from Eisenhowers inauguration.

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• 1950sWhat had been old radio shows find new life
  in TV.

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• 1952When VP candidate Richard Nixon is connected
  to illegal contributions, Eisenhower considers
  dropping him from ticket. Nixons Checkers
  Speech saves him.

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• 1954Army-McCarthy hearings televised.
• Murrow challenges McCarthy on See It Now.
• Father Knows Best debuts, as well as Amos n
  Andy.

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• 1955 The 64,000 Question becomes first popular
  TV game show.
• Mickey Mouse Club
• Queen for a Day
• Gunsmoke

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• 1956Eisenhower-Stevenson campaigns covered.
• Sullivan pays Elvis 50,000 to appear on his show.

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• Nate King Cole Show cancelled after several weeks
  without a national sponsor.
• 1957 American Bandstand on ABC reaches out to
  teen viewers and would become responsible for the
  careers for many rock stars.

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• 1959To highlight color TV, NBC creates Bonanza
  for its fall lineup.

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• 1960Kennedy-Nixon debates.
• 1961Kennedy first president to permit live
  coverage of news conferences.
• ABCs Wide World of Sports debuts.

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• 1962ATT puts satellite Telstar in orbit,
  proving Clarke correct.

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• Walter Cronkite takes over CBS news from Douglas
  Edwards.

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• 1962Johnny Carson takes over Tonight Show from
  Jack Paar.

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• Nov. 22, 1963Kennedy assassination, after which
  TV programming suspended for three days, helps
  make TV news credible.
• Killing of Lee Harvey Oswald seen live on TV on
  Nov. 24.

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• 1964Instant replay comes to TV sports.
• Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan Show.
• Peyton Place is first prime-time soap.

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• 1965First Peanuts special airs.
• I Spy airs, an hour-long drama with the first
  black TV co-star, Bill Cosby.

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• 1966Star Trek debuts.
• Dating Game and Newlywed Game air.
• 1967Corporation for Public Broadcasting formed.

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• 1968Coverage of funerals of King and Robert
  Kennedy.
• TV covers disastrous Democratic convention.
• 60 Minutes debuts.

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• 1969Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon.
  Landing seen by nearly 2 billion people.

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• 1969Sesame Street debuts.
• 1970Monday Night Football
• 1971All in the Family premiers on CBS.

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• 1972HBO begins as a pay-per-view service.
• 1973Watergate hearings are televised.
• Nixon resigns on TV.

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• 1975Ted Turner turns floundering UHF station
  into Super Station TBS out of Atlanta.
• Saturday Night Live premieres.
• 1977Roots is critical and commercial success.

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• 1980Prime-time soaps, such as Dallas, Knots
  Landing and Dynasty, are biggest TV trend.

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• 1980sStandards and Practices departments of
  networks reduce restrictions to compete with
  cable.
• 1981FCC deregulates broadcasting. Fairness
  doctrine repealed.

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• 1984Networks hold only 77 of prime-time
  audience, down from 93 in 1978.
• 1987Nielsen begins using peoplemeter in
  measured households.

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• 1988Low power TV stations (LPTVs) in use in
  urban neighborhoods.
• Presidential campaigns of Bush and Dukakis resort
  to sound bite fights. Everyone blames TV.

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• 1989Tiannemen Square revolt seen worldwide on TV
  until transmissions are halted by Chinese
  government. CNN last to have plug pulled.
• 1990Infomercials become popular alternative to
  commercial.

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• 1991Gulf War becomes first true living room
  war, with TV covering exciting air attacks.
• War gives ratings and integrity to CNN.
• PBS has ratings hit with Civil War series by Ken
  Burns.

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• 1992Presidential campaigns use electronic
  townhall meetings for first time.
• Rodney King seen beaten on home video.
• Reginald Denny seen beaten by news coverage.

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• 199497 million Americans watch O.J. Simpson
  low-speed chase.
• 1995O.J. Simpson trial wins ratings on cable in
  any time slot its shown. Live verdict affects
  water usage, power usage and Stock market.

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• 2000World Series between NY Yankees and Mets has
  lowest viewership for a World Series ever.

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TV let millions watch live as the atrocities of
9/11/2001 unfolded...
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TV Programming Techniques

• Block programming
• Counter programming
• Stripping

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Racial Divide What Whites and Blacks
WatchSource Nielsen Media Research (March
29-June 27, 1999)
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