1. Chapter 9
TV Programming

2. Two reasons
• Information
• Entertainment

3. The Rise of TV News
Pew study, March 2010: In order, local news, national
news, cable news are more popular than the
internet for news
•
•
78% of Americans say they get news from a local TV station.
•
•
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61% say they get some kind of news online.
73% say they get news from a national network such as CBS or cable TV station such as CNN or Fox
News.
54% say they listen to a radio news program at home or in the car.
50% say they read news in a local newspaper.
17% say they read news in a national newspaper such as the New York Times or USA Today.
Roper findings: The assassination of JFK first led TVs introduction as a source of major news

4. Current News Trends

5. November 22, 1963
•
Within 10 minutes of the shooting, TV news
had the story
•
for 4 days, all regular programming was
suspended, and TV news took over
•
500 million people in 23 countries were
watching as well, as the coverage was fed to
a new device: the communications satellite
•
News expanded from 15 minutes to 30
minutes nightly
Kennedy Assassination News Coverage:
•CBS
•ABC
•NBC

6. TV and Civil Rights
•
1957: Little Rock, AK -- TV captured the violence upon
integrating Central High School
•
•
•
covered thousands of civil rights rallies in Washington, DC
Montgomery sit ins
revealed the hatred of the Ku Klux Klan

7. Vietnam War
•
Called the “first
television war”
•
Demonstrated TVs
ability to bring distant
events into our living
rooms
•
TV made many major
advances: portable
cameras, satellite relay
systems, color,
videotape relay

8. On the Moon
• TV news grew
with the space
program
• “Space shots”
were a major focus
in TV news
reporting

9. Lunar Landing on TV
• Witnessed by the largest global TV audience
up to that time
• Small camera was mounted on the steps of
the landing craft
• Nixon talks to the astronauts via phone
• RCA camera set up in lunar soil

10. TV News comes of age
•
•
•
•
TV and Civil Rights
TV in Vietnam, (2)
TV on the Moon
MLK Assassination

11. TV news is big business
• Civil Rights,Vietnam, Watergate, Challenger
and Columbia disasters, Hurricane Katrina all
brought TV news to the forefront
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=j4JOjcDFtBE

12. The new newscaster
•
•
•
•
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In the 1970s, a new breed of newscaster was emerging
Younger, more daring, good-looking, modern, stylish
Women anchors began to appear
“happy talk” with one another between stories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iQ7zAPhkyw

13. ENG
•
•
Dependence on new communications
technologies
•
•
Included a lightweight TV camera and small
videotape recorder.
Electronic News Gathering: emerged I the
1970s, when portable video cameras and
recorders became commercially available
Today: includes camera-recorder combos – aka
camcorders

14. SNG
•
Prior to ENG, TV news relied on big and costly
film equipment, film stock had to be processed
and physically assembled, or edited. No way to
do it “on the fly.” Film could not be re-used
•
Satellite News Gathering: refers to the use of
mobile trucks mounted with satellite
communications equipment to report local,
national and international events

15. News gathering today?
March 2010 Pew Research study on The New News Landscape:
Rise of the Internet, Understanding the Participatory News
Consumer, news today is….
•
Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their
cell phones.
•
Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their
home page to include news from sources and on topics that
particularly interest them.
•
Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the
creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via
postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

16. TV news as showbiz
• TV news is subject to ratings, and can be
quite profitable
• Sweeps: intense periods of competition for
ratings, when Neilsen conducts local TV
surveys
• Sweeps periods: February, May, July &
November
• Minidocs: short documentary series

17. 24/7 News
• C-SPAN begins in 1979
• CNN starts in 1980
• Fox News, Headline News, CNBC, MSNBC,
Financial News Network all follow suit

18. TV News Today
•
Coventuring: usually occurs between a local news
leader at a network affiliate and an independent
station
•
•
TV also coventures with radio
•
Coventuring can save stations money; provide
stations new forms of revenue
•
Regional cable-news: 24 hour cable news for a
localized region
Example: WIVB staff completes a 10pm newscast for
WNLO 23 in Buffalo

19. TV News Jobs
•
News director: overall responsibility for the
news department. Hires personnel, establishes
and enforces policies, evaluates newscasts,
responsible for budgets
•
News Producer: in charge of a specific newscast.
Maintain editorial control over stories, prepare
the lineup of stories, determines stories’
lengths, proofreads copy, makes last minute
changes

20. TV News Jobs
•
Assignment Editor: sends out reporters and
photographers to cover news stories. Maintain a
future file – stories that will air in the future
(30-60 days in advance).
•
Field producer: prepares research and
background for a story, scouts locations,
coordinates coverage
•
Reporters: research stories, obtain interviews,
edit tape, record voiceovers

21. TV News Jobs
• Writers: some larger organizations may
employ writers to create the copy for
reporters or anchors to read
• Editors: create “packages,” pre-produced,
self-contained news stories
• Editing software: Final Cut Pro, Avid
Newscutter

22. Issues in TV News
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•
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The Pew study acknowledges TV news is the primary
source for news; also shows credibility has steadily
declined between 1996 and 2004
Perceived preoccupation with scandal, the
“tabloidization” of news
“Missing White Woman Syndrome”

23. TV Entertainment
Programming
• A major TV network may spend more than
$25M a week on entertainment
programming
• 3 ways a TV station or cable company can
acquire programming
• Network, Syndication and Local Origination

24. Network Programming
• Original programming funded by, produced
for, and distributed by the major TV and
cable networks
• Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, The Office

25. Cable programming
• Works a little differently than network
programming; it originates via the network
directly to cable franchises
• No affiliate distribution

26. Syndication
•
TV programming sold by distribution companies to local TV
stations and cable services
•
Off-network: appeared first on the networks and are being
re-run by local stations or cable systems
•
First-run: shows produced exclusively for syndication

27. Local origination
• Programs produced by local TV stations for
viewers in their own communities

28. Networks
• ABC
• NBC
• CBS
• FOX
• UPN + WB = CW

29. Affiliation
• The individual stations that receive network
programming
• To become an affiliate, a station must enter
into an affiliation agreement, where the
major networks pay a fee for broadcasting
network programs (network compensation)
• The fee ranges from $500-10K an hour,
depending on the station’s market size,
popularity and coverage area

30. Affiliations today…
• Due to the high cost of creating original
programming, networks and affiliates partner
to bring exclusive programming to their
markets (i.e. deals with the NFL)
• Today, compensation occurs when networks
provide affiliates with more time within
network programs for local sales
• Local affiliates can charge more for ad time
during a popular network programming
during prime time

31. The network programming
process
•
Financial interest and syndication rules: “fin-syn” rules limited network
participation in the ownership of programs produced for them and in
subsequent syndication
•
Networks pay license fees to use the programs rather than paying for
them outright
•
Fin-syn rules were abandoned by 1995; now networks can own their
own shows, and syndicate them after they complete network runs
•
For example, NBC owns Law & Order

32. PTAR
•
•
Prime time access rule: implemented by the
FCC in 1971 (and mostly scrapped by 1996)
restricting the amount of time an affiliate could
accept from the network – in effect, allowing
networks to control no more than 3 hours of
the 4-hour prime time nightly schedule
(typically 8-11pm)
Meant to stimulate independent (or local) TV
production, the early fringe typically will be filled
by first-run syndication (Wheel of Fortune,
Jeopardy)

33. TV Programs
• Created by major studios or independent
producers
• May follow one of the three network
seasons, or not follow a season at all
• Major studios create most of the TV
programming on the air

34. Pitching a program
•
Programs get on the air two ways: some commissioned by the network,
some pitched
•
Pitch is based on an idea or concept, and a short story narrative –
known as a treatment (sample script)
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Development process: involves lawyers, accountants and agents
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Network gets “right of first refusal” the right to prohibit the production
company from producing the show for another network
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Each year, the networks will order 30-35 pilots to be produced
The program is developed under the terms of a step deal –
contractually puts the show together in a series of phases
Pilots go to test audiences before they make it (or not) to the TV
schedule

35. Program Costs
• Major miniseries: $4-7M
• Movie of the week: $3-5M
• Adventure/mystery/drama: $2-4M
• Sitcom: $0.9-2M
• Reality/newsmagazine: $0.75 – 1.5M
(per episode)

36. Public Television
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Operates in reverse fashion from the major
networks
PBS charges membership dues to its stations
Individual stations decide when to run
programming
PBS “Core-schedule” is designated for samenight carriage, but not a must do
Must-carriage allows for national marketing of
shows

37. TV Syndication
• Syndicators: companies that sell programs
directly to TV stations and cable services
• $9B annual business
• Two primary buyers for syndicated
programs: local TV and cable networks

38. Syndication Market
• Over 1300 local TV stations obtain
syndicated programming to fill their
programming schedules
• Major buyers: TNT, TBS, Lifetime, USA
• NATPE (National Association of Television
Program Executives) show: where
syndication buyers can see what’s out there

39. Off-net syndication
• Normally at least 100 episodes are needed
to launch it off-net syndication
• Ideally, the number is 130 – to allow a show
to run episodes twice annually (260
weekdays in a yearly schedule)
• Scheduling a show to run in the same
daypart each day is known as stripping

40. Programming strategies
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Audience flow: moving audiences from one
program to another
•
Putting together programs that attract the same
audience
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Popular shows as a lead-in to new shows
Challenge programming: when a network or
station goes head-to-head with a major
competitor