Where do program ideas come from? How are concepts developed into saleable productions? Who do you talk to about getting a show produced? How do you schedule shows on the lineup? What do you do if a series is in trouble? The answers to these questions, and many more, can be found in this comprehensive, in-depth look at the roles and responsibilities of the electronic media programmer. Topics include: Network relationships with affiliates, the expanded market of syndication, sources of programming for stations and networks, research and its role in programming decisions, fundamental appeals to an audience and what qualities are tied to success, outside forces that influence programming, strategies for launching new programs or saving old ones. Includes real-life examples taken from the authors' experiences, and 250+ illustrations!
The collision of new technologies, changing business strategies, and innovative storytelling that produced a new golden age of TV. Cable television channels were once the backwater of American television, programming recent and not-so-recent movies and reruns of network shows. Then came La Femme Nikita, OZ, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead. And then, just as “prestige cable” became a category, came House of Cards and Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, and other Internet distributors of television content. What happened? In We Now Disrupt This Broadcast, Amanda Lotz chronicles the collision of new technologies, changing business strategies, and innovative storytelling that produced an era termed “peak TV.” Lotz explains that changes in the business of television expanded the creative possibilities of television. She describes the costly infrastructure rebuilding undertaken by cable service providers in the late 1990s and the struggles of cable channels to produce (and pay for) original, scripted programming in order to stand out from the competition. These new programs defied television conventions and made viewers adjust their expectations of what television could be. Le Femme Nikita offered cable's first antihero, Mad Men cost more than advertisers paid, The Walking Dead became the first mass cable hit, and Game of Thrones was the first global television blockbuster. Internet streaming didn't kill cable, Lotz tells us. Rather, it revolutionized how we watch television. Cable and network television quickly established their own streaming portals. Meanwhile, cable service providers had quietly transformed themselves into Internet providers, able to profit from both prestige cable and streaming services. Far from being dead, television continues to transform.
This widely used text (over 250 adoptions) offers a current strategies approach to broadcast and cable programming, with network/local and commercial/noncommercial perspectives. It focuses on three primary responsibilities of programming executives: (1) evaluating audiences and programs; (2) selecting programs; and (3) scheduling, or organizing, programs into coherent program services. The book is divided into five major sections: Part One introduces the concepts and vocabulary for understanding the remaining chapters; Parts Two through Five look at programming strategy respectively for television, cable, radio, and public broadcasting from the perspective of industry programming experts.
Looks beyond broadcasting's mainstream, toward cable's alternatives, to critically consider the capacity of commercial media to serve the public interest. This work offers an overview of the industry's history and regulatory trends, case studies of cable newcomers aimed at niche markets, and analyses of programming forms introduced by cable TV.
This book is primarily about television and radio and it focuses on entertainment and informational programs coming to viewers as pre-produced units of content. -Pref. [This book] provides students with ... information on the techniques and strategies used in the programming industry. [This] text covers all aspects of media programming for broadcast and cable television, radio, and the Internet ... The authors explore how programs (units of content) are selected (or not selected), how programs are arranged in schedules of various kinds, how programs are evaluated by the industry, and how they are promoted to audiences and advertisers. The book also delves into the limits of media programming arising from technology, regulations, policies, and marketing needs, as well as how things like human attention spans, lifestyle patterns and economics determine the availability and arrangement of media entertainment content. -http://www.wadsworth.com.
Fisher concentrates on several aspects of starting a TV channel and includes information on Internet, cable TV, satellite, and analog and digital broadcast TV.
Ever since Newton Minow taught us sophisticates to bemoan the descent of television into a vast wasteland, the dyspeptic chorus of jeremiahs who insist that television news in particular has gone from gold to dross gets noisier and noisier. Charles Ponce de Leon says here, in effect, that this is misleading, if not simply fatuous. He argues in this well-paced, lively, readable book that TV news has changed in response to broader changes in the TV industry and American culture. It is pointless to bewail its decline. "That s the Way It Is "gives us the very first history of American television news, spanning more than six decades, from Camel News Caravan to Countdown with Keith Oberman and The Daily Show. Starting in the latter 1940s, television news featured a succession of broadcasters who became household names, even presences: Eric Sevareid, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Peter Jennings, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and, with cable expansion, people like Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart, and Bill O Reilly. But behind the scenes, the parallel story is just as interesting, involving executives, producers, and journalists who were responsible for the field s most important innovations. Included with mainstream network news programs is an engaging treatment of news magazines like "60 Minutes" and "20/20, " as well as morning news shows like "Today" and "Good Morning America." Ponce de Leon gives ample attention to the establishment of cable networks (CNN, and the later competitors, Fox News and MSNBC), mixing in colorful anecdotes about the likes of Roger Ailes and Roone Arledge. Frothy features and other kinds of entertainment have been part and parcel of TV news from the start; viewer preferences have always played a role in the evolution of programming, although the disintegration of a national culture since the 1970s means that most of us no longer follow the news as a civic obligation. Throughout, Ponce de Leon places his history in a broader cultural context, emphasizing tensions between the public service mission of TV news and the quest for profitability and broad appeal."
Current, relevant, and student-friendly, MEDIA PROGRAMMING, 9E, International Edition delivers the most accurate coverage of the techniques and strategies used in the programming industry today. Reflecting the latest developments from real-world practice, this market-leading text covers all aspects of media programming for broadcast and cable television, radio, and the Internet with clear illustrations and examples to which you can relate. It offers in-depth coverage of emerging trends, including multiplatform strategies, cross-media, new media, high definition media, new programming strategies, and wireless and pay-per-view media. It explains how programs (units of content) are selected (or not selected), arranged, evaluated and promoted with the need to consider pressures from technology, financing, regulations, policies, and marketing. Covering the latest trends and issues in the industry, MEDIA PROGRAMMING, 9E, International Edition includes practical examples, insight from noted industry authorities, a useful website, and an expanded glossary to reflect the latest trade jargon and practices.
Cable television is arguably the dominant mass media technology in the U.S. today. Blue Skies traces its history in detail, depicting the important events and people that shaped its development, from the precursors of cable TV in the 1920s and '30s to the first community antenna systems in the 1950s, and from the creation of the national satellite-distributed cable networks in the 1970s to the current incarnation of "info-structure" that dominates our lives. Author Patrick Parsons also considers the ways that economics, public perception, public policy, entrepreneurial personalities, the social construction of the possibilities of cable, and simple chance all influenced the development of cable TV. Since the 1960s, one of the pervasive visions of "cable" has been of a ubiquitous, flexible, interactive communications system capable of providing news, information, entertainment, diverse local programming, and even social services. That set of utopian hopes became known as the "Blue Sky" vision of cable television, from which the book takes its title. Thoroughly documented and carefully researched, yet lively, occasionally humorous, and consistently insightful, Blue Skies is the genealogy of our media society.
