Motion Media

Television – In just 80 years, its effects on the world have been staggering.

• Estimated 1.6 billion television sets in the world – one for every four humans on the planet

• In America, the average home has more television sets (2.73) than people (2.55)

• Less than 1 percent of Americans don’t have a television

• Average American watches four hours a day – that equates to nine years of the average life span

• Ability to see, understand happenings on the other side of the world has become instant.

• When coups occur, one of the first things usually seized in a country is the national television station.

• The World Cup final can often bring in a television audience of one billion people – that’s one-sixth of humanity.

• Super Bowls are the most watched TV shows in U.S. history

• The 2014 Super Bowl had the largest U.S. television audience of all-time with 167 million viewers

• The series finale of M*A*S*H on Feb. 28, 1983 had 106 million viewers. For 27 years, it had the largest audience in American television history for a single broadcast.

• New York City water levels hit dangerous lows because everyone watching M*A*S*H finale went to the bathroom at same time.

• Philo T. Farnsworth – First to transmit moving pictures in 1927, widely credited as the inventor of television

History

• David Sarnoff – Radio pioneer who claimed one of his employees established patent for television. Farnsworth sued and won, forcing Sarnoff to pay royalties to Farnsworth.

• With royalty issue resolved, Sarnoff and RCA formally unveiled television during the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, saying “Now we add sight to sound.”

• With radio successful, Congress decided the same standards would work for television.

• Federal Communications Act of 1934:– Abolished Federal Radio

Commission, established Federal Communication Commission, or FCC

– Expanded scope of government’s ability to regulate from radio to television broadcasts

• First television station licensed by the FCC in 1941 but World War II halted further licensing.

• In 1948, coaxial cables that linked New York to the Midwest were in place, allowing television networks to develop. By 1951, they reached the West Coast.

• Television networks mostly came from radio networks.

• NBC– Sarnoff brought stable

of radio talent onto television when it first began in late 1940s.

– First big hit became Milton Berle on Texaco Star Theater.

– In 1952, Pat Weaver began a morning wake-up program called The Today Show.

• CBS– Founded by William

Paley, who brought soap operas, other shows from radio.

– Created cachet of “Tiffany Network” to mean top-notch TV.

– First hits were The Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy.

• ABC– Although established

in 1948, habitually ran third among the “Big Three” networks.

– Began first Saturday morning programs in 1950.

– Early shows include Disneyland and Ozzie and Harriet.

– First real success came in 1961 with Wide World of Sports.

• Edward R. Murrow – Known for his radio reporting in World War II, started See it Now. In 1954, he broadcast an episode about Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communism that led to the senator’s downfall.

• Cable television– Television signals were

picked up by antennas.

– Some mountainous regions couldn’t receive broadcast transmissions.

– Communities banded together to run cable from an antenna at highest point to the town below

– This became known as CATV, or community antenna television.

• Ed Parsons of Astoria, Ore., built first system in 1949

• Became the advent of cable television now

• HBO –– Time Inc. executive

named Gerald Levin decided to create a network solely for cable users.

– Started in 1975 with 265,000 users

– At first a movie channel, branched into shows like The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

• ESPN– In 1979, Bill

Rasmussen started Entertainment and Sports Programming Network to broadcast Connecticut sports

– Filled time with Australian football, NFL draft, boxing

– Became largest sports brand in America

• FOX– Rupert Murdoch

bought seven TV stations and 20th Century Fox studios

– Used those to create first broadcast television network in 40 years in 1986.

– Hit it big with The Simpsons, which has run since 1989.

• Television Consolidation– Ownership meld: When a company is

subsumed into the ownership of a competing company.

– That has happened as media conglomerates have added both broadcast, cable outlets.

Media Conglomerates

• ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, ESPN, SoapNet

• NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Mun2TV, SciFi Channel, USA

• Fox, Fox Movie, Fox News, Fox Sports, Fuel, National Geographic Channel

• CW, Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies

• CBS, CW, BET, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin, Spike, VH1

• Satellite TV– Minnesota TV station

owner Stanley Hubbard first to offer direct broadcast satellite, meaning transmitting broadcast signals directly to TV, not from a local station or cable system

– Eventually sold to DirecTV for $1.3 billion

Satellite-direct transmissions are so expensive that only two major companies remain. DirecTV has 19 million subscribers while the Dish Network has 14 million subscribers

• Dallas became the first major city in 2003 to have more satellite customers than cable customers.

• TiVo started a trend toward digital video recorders, or DVRs.

• For years, networks dictated viewers’ time habits. With this “time shifting,” viewers gain control.

• Portable devices– The video iPod

unveiled in 2005 meant viewers could not only watch programming whenever they want, but wherever as well.

– Now networks sell programming for iPods, other devices, like cell phones.

• Network advertising –– Television made money

mostly through 30-second spots of airtime, which is fading in age of video on demand, TV fragmentation

– Upfront ads, or advance commitments to buy network time make up 80 percent of yearly ads

– Make-goods: When more airtime is given because ratings fall short.

• Newton Minow – In 1961, as FCC chair, he called television “a vast wasteland,” called for educational programming.

• Corporation for Public Broadcasting created six years later to develop public radio, television.

• PBS– Launched in 1970 as

antidote to commercial television, paid for by funding from government, foundations and station members.

– Took off after broadcast of a children’s show called Sesame Street.

– Now home to NewsHour, Frontline, Nova, Ken Burns documentaries

Advertisers have created Webisodes, mini-movies that feature story and product placement. Jerry Seinfeld created Superman Webisode for American Express in 2004.

• The future of TV– New television: Term that

includes all delivery options like cable, satellite, handheld, others.

– Space shifts, change in where people could see television, could lead to new programming like mobisodes, short episodes that fit into smaller time frames viewers have available.

Few media have taken hold of the consciousness of America and the world than the movie

• U.S., international film industry statistics– In 2012, movies at box office made $10.8 billion, double what it

was 20 years ago– 1.4 billion movie tickets were sold in North America– More than 650 U.S. films were released– The average movie ticket cost $7.94

• Movies have immense power, mostly through the effect of sitting in a darkened theater and staring at an oversized screen with a group sharing the experience

• This leads to the suspension of disbelief, where doubts about the truth of the story are overcome.

• Movies wield a tremendous amount of power, through sharing experiences of common humanity.

• Sometimes that helps represent real change in society, like 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

• Another example is 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, which was controversial because of the story of a same-sex relationship between two cowboys, which went against the John Wayne image.

• Movies are one of the U.S.’s best exports. About 60 percent of U.S. films go to Europe, 30 percent go to Asia. Action films with little dialogue to translate do the best overseas.

• Narrative films– Films that tell a story,

what most people think of when they think of a movie.

– First pioneered by French magician and inventor, George Melies, who made 10-minute short stories in 1890s

• First coherent narrative film made in U.S. was Life of an American Fireman made by Edwin Porter in 1902, which startled audiences with close-ups.

• The Great Train Robbery, which used more cutting of shots between characters, was made in 1903.

• Silent films continued until 1927 when the first “talkie” debuted, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. It only had two segments with sound. The Singing Fool the next year, also with Jolson, was the first full-length “talkie.”

• The Black Pirate in 1925 starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was the first color feature film.

• In 1939, though, Gone With The Wind became the first major full color film as well as the first blockbuster.

• Special effects date back to an 1895 film about the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

• First use of 3D computer-generated imagery came from 1976 movie Futureworld.

• Key to later movies from Star Wars to Jurassic Park.

• CGI Positives– Can replace unsafe stunts

– Saves money on extras

– Can allow supernatural events to occur (like walking through bars)

• CGI Negatives– Can take place of story

– Cause some actors, extras to not be hired

– Extremely expensive• Superman Returns cost $204

million largely because of CGI

• A frame can take 20 hours to make

• Animation– An animated film is a

narrative with drawn scenes and characters

– The first animated film was Steamboat Willie in 1928 created by Walt Disney.

– Steamboat Willie character eventually became Mickey Mouse.

– Snow White and Seven Dwarfs first full-length animated film, also created by Disney

• Walt Disney– Came to Los Angeles

from Missouri in 1923

– Created first animated short and full-length film

– Led to animated films like Fantasia, Pinocchio

– Eventually created more films, weekly television show, theme parks and now one of America’s largest multimedia companies

• Toy Story, created by Disney Co. in 1995, became the first film completely animated by computers

• George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic created effects for films like Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean

• Pixar, owned by Apple’s Steve Jobs, created films like Monsters Inc., Cars and WALL-E

• Documentaries– Arctic explorer Robert

Flaherty ended up making the first full-length documentary in 1922 with Nanook of the North, which attracted interest after it was learned that Nanook died of starvation after the film was made.

– Documentary – video examination of a historical or current event or a natural or social phenomenon

• During World War II, documentaries gave way to propaganda.

• Director Frank Capra, who made It’s a Wonderful Life, was asked by the Army to make several instructional films for soldiers.

• He produced Why We Fight, a series of seven 50-minute films.

• Propaganda – A promotion of ideas to further one’s cause

• Docu-ganda– What critics call a new

form of documentary that seeks to influence viewers

– Michael Moore most popular maker of documentary films with point-of-view with Roger and Me, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine

– Spurred a wave of doc films, including Super Size Me

• Hollywood – Los Angeles enclave that’s home to worldwide film industry.

• Originally, filmmakers came in 1910s, ‘20s for cheap costs and sunny weather.

• Now Hollywood is synonymous with film industry as a whole

• Studio system – When a handful of companies produced, distributed and exhibited much of U.S. film

• The companies had complete control, excluded outsiders and coercing the marketplace.

• Paramount with Adolph Zukor was first to create movie stars which would draw audiences, later led to the “star system”

• Studios would control all facets of operation:– Block booking – Rental

agreements where movie houses accepted batches of studio-owned films

– Vertical integration – One company owning multiple stages of production to the detriment of competition

• This ended in 1948 with Supreme Court’s Paramount decision that broke up studio’s oligarchy.

• Independent studios– Films, producers not affiliated

with the studio system

– More difficult to find financing, production materials. However, more artistic freedom.

– Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith formed first independent studio, United Artists, in 1919 after being frustrated by the studio system.

– United Artists flourished until 1980 big-budget flop Heaven’s Gate sank company

• DreamWorks– Steven Spielberg joined

David Geffen and Jeff Katzenberg to create DreamWorks studio in 1994, which produced Spielberg’s films as well as Gladiator and Shrek films

• Miramax– Harvey and Bob Weinstein

took low-budget, critically-acclaimed films like My Left Foot and Pulp Fiction and turned Miramax studios into an independent empire.

• Moviegoing– In the 1920s and 30s, watching a

movie was an experience. Lush theaters, designed for plays and musicals, were retrofitted for movies.

– In 1946, 90 million movie tickets a week were sold in America, the high point of attendance.

– The rise of television caused numbers to decrease.

– In 1970s, multiplexes, or theater complexes with multiple screens, came to the suburbs, reviving attendance somewhat.

– In the 1990s, theaters began expansion around US

• Movie theater companies began overextending, consolidating:– Regal: 5,800 screens

– Carmike: 3,700 screens

– AMC: 3,300 screens

• What once was a six-month window between theater and home video now 4½ months

• Chains raising money now through increased food prices, pre-show advertising

• Blockbusters– Director D.W. Griffith made

first blockbuster with 1915’s Birth of a Nation, pushed further with expensive 1920 Intolerance which bombed.

– Exposed the gamble of searching for the big film. A winner like 1997’s Titanic can cause profits to soar. A flop like 1980’s Heaven’s Gate can bankrupt a studio

– Today, studios hedge bets through product placement, merchandising tie-ins and shared financing.

• Independent or smaller films are on rise through film festivals, like Sundance by Robert Redford, and Independent Movie Channel

• Arthouses, smaller movie houses that show artistic films, are also increasing

• Foreign films are also increasing, causing U.S. studios to invest in bankrolling some foreign projects