Comm 121 1st Edition Lecture 13Last Lecture Notes OutlineI. Return to radioII. Back to “War of the Worlds”: Why the panic?III. Struggle over regulatingIV. Broadcast TelevisionCurrent Lecture Notes OutlineI. Broadcast TelevisionII. RatingsIII. Cable TelevisionBroadcast and Cable Television and Understanding RatingsI. Broadcast Television- Industry players beat the FCC in deciding what technical frequencies to use (UHF vs.VHF: UHF selected)- RCA, makers of UHF TV sets, retains economic control over equipment sales- 1945-55: 2 key features of program context:o 1. Increase (from radio) in the number of commercialso 2. Cold war era political repression in TV programs and sponsorship- Quote 1 (week 8 quote sheet on Moodle)- You could not write anything that stirred up political activism against the stationin the name of anti-Americanism (product boycotters), this was a very repressivetime period and many people lost their job.- Quote 2 (week 8 quote sheet on Moodle)- All kinds of anti-communist activists were saying that the actors in the media needed to be screened and confirm their name isn’t on the blacklist. (Blacklist was a long list of people that were possible candidates for sympathizing with communism)- The anti-communists had high control over the media through producers/advertisers fear of being accused of having communistic actors/employees and being put on the blacklist- Program control went from advertisers to networks in the late 50so This was a shift away from sponsor control, but why?o There were 2 main reasons:1. Quiz show scandalsNetworks loved them for a few reasons. People loved watching the Quiz shows and they were very cheap to produce. They usually did not have “stars” just average people in which the audience could easily connect with. Also, Quiz shows had built in drama because off the bat is the question, who is going to win?When a man began winning all the Quiz shows and would not lose (so he remained on the television show) producers and networks were unhappy and wanted him to lose, with racist reasoning behind it. This man realizedthat that show along with almost all other Quiz shows were rigged.  Sponsors did not like this man because he was Jewish and did not havea formal education and for this reason they did not want this man representing them.Sponsors may not longer have this kind of control over content production. “This stopped sponsors saying jump and producers saying how high”2. Economic efficiency: too expensive for advertisers to pay production costsand buy time for spots- At that point 3 important actors emerge:1. Independent Producers2. Networks3. AdvertisersII. Ratings- The measurement of the size of the audience- In the broadcast network era in the 80s ratings were measurements taken basically twice a year (February and November) in which you would see spectacular guest stars and special programs because this was when the networks were trying to optimize their audience (during the measurement periods)- AC Nielsen Company measures the audience- Rating: percentage of total potential audience (everyone with a TV set)- Share: Percentage of watching audience (everyone with their TV set turned on at a given time)- Network era: a rating of 30 was great: now a broadcast rating of 10 is considered strong2 factors determine what advertisers will pay for a spot:- Size of audience- Demographic characteristics of audience- Quote 5:o Network executives increase in targeting a specific audience (gender and age are extremely important parts of demographics)o 18-49 are usually the targeted audience for advertisersIII. Cable Television- Started in the 1960s to deliver TV in remote areas who could not receive the signal from broadcasting.- Cable was a sales strategy because the people who could not receive a signal did not want to buy a television.- Laying cable from unobstructed transmitters to carry signals unblocked terrain (especially around mountains)- CATV (Community Access TV) also a part of early