Television broadcaster
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2023) |
A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United States, multichannel video programming distributors. Until the mid-1980s, broadcast programming on television in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of terrestrial networks. Many early television networks such as the BBC, CBS, CBC, NBC or ABC in the USA and in Australia evolved from earlier radio networks.
Overview
In countries where most networks broadcast identical, centrally originated content to all of their stations, and where most individual television transmitters therefore operate only as large "repeater stations", the terms "television network", "television channel" (a numeric identifier or radio frequency) and "television station" have become mostly interchangeable in everyday language, with professionals in television-related occupations continuing to make a differentiation between them. Within the industry, a tiering is sometimes created among groups of networks based on whether their programming is simultaneously originated from a central point, and whether the network master control has the technical and administrative capability to take over the programming of their affiliates in real-time when it deems this necessary – the most common example being during national breaking news events.
In North America in particular, many television networks available via
A network may or may not produce all of its own programming. If not, production companies (such as Warner Bros. Television, Universal Television, Sony Pictures Television and TriStar Television) can distribute their content to the various networks, and it is common that a certain production firm may have programs that air on two or more rival networks. Similarly, some networks may import television programs from other countries, or use archived programming to help complement their schedules.
Some stations have the capability to interrupt the network through the
On the other hand, television networks also undergo the impending experience of major changes related to cultural varieties. The emergence of cable television has made available in major media markets, programs such as those aimed at American bi-cultural Latinos. Such a diverse captive audience presents an occasion for the networks and affiliates to advertise the best programming that needs to be aired.
This is explained by author Tim P. Vos in his abstract A Cultural Explanation of Early Broadcast, where he determines targeted group/non-targeted group representations as well as the cultural specificity employed in the television network entity. Vos notes that policymakers did not expressly intend to create a broadcast order dominated by commercial networks. In fact, legislative attempts were made to limit the network's preferred position.
As to individual stations, modern
Global
A major international television broadcaster is the British Broadcasting Corporation (
United States
The largest television network in the United States, however, is the Public Broadcasting Service (
This works as each network sends its signal to many local affiliated television stations across the country. These local stations then carry the "network feed", which can be viewed by millions of households across the country. In such cases, the signal is sent to as many as 200+ stations or as little as just a dozen or fewer stations, depending on the size of the network.
With the adoption of
), along with networks focusing on music, sports and other niche programming).History
Television broadcasting in the United States was heavily influenced by radio. Early individual experimental radio stations in the United States began limited operations in the 1910s. In November 1920, Westinghouse signed on "the world's first commercially licensed radio station", KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[3] Other companies built early radio stations in Detroit, Boston, New York City and other areas. Radio stations received permission to transmit through broadcast licenses obtained through the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), a government entity that was created in 1926 to regulate the radio industry. With some exceptions, radio stations east of the Mississippi River received official call signs beginning with the letter "W"; those west of the Mississippi were assigned calls beginning with a "K". The number of programs that these early stations aired was often limited, in part due to the expense of program creation. The idea of a network system which would distribute programming to many stations simultaneously, saving each station the expense of creating all of their own programs and expanding the total coverage beyond the limits of a single broadcast signal, was devised.
NBC set up the first permanent coast-to-coast radio network in the United States by 1928, using dedicated telephone line technology. The network physically linked individual radio stations, nearly all of which were independently owned and operated, in a vast chain, NBC's audio signal thus transmitted from station to station to listeners across the United States. Other companies, including CBS and the Mutual Broadcasting System, soon followed suit, each network signed hundreds of individual stations on as affiliates: stations which agreed to broadcast programs from one of the networks.
As radio prospered throughout the 1920s and 1930s, experimental television stations, which broadcast both an audio and a video signal, began sporadic broadcasts. Licenses for these experimental stations were often granted to experienced radio broadcasters, and thus advances in television technology closely followed breakthroughs in radio technology. As interest in television grew, and as early television stations began regular broadcasts, the idea of networking television signals (sending one station's video and audio signal to outlying stations) was born. However, the signal from an electronic television system, containing much more information than a radio signal, required a broadband transmission medium. Transmission by a nationwide series of radio relay towers would be possible but extremely expensive.
Researchers at
AT&T laid the first L-carrier coaxial cable between New York City and Philadelphia, with automatic signal booster stations every 10 miles (16 km), and in 1937 it experimented with transmitting televised motion pictures over the line.[6] Bell Labs gave demonstrations of the New York–Philadelphia television link in 1940 and 1941. AT&T used the coaxial link to transmit the Republican National Convention in June 1940 from Philadelphia to New York City, where it was televised to a few hundred receivers over the NBC station W2XBS (which evolved into WNBC) as well as seen in Schenectady, New York via W2XB (which evolved into WRGB) via off-air relay from the New York station.[7]
NBC had earlier demonstrated an inter-city television broadcast on 1 February 1940, from its station in New York City to another in Schenectady, New York by General Electric relay antennas, and began transmitting some programs on an irregular basis to Philadelphia and Schenectady in 1941. Wartime priorities suspended the manufacture of television and radio equipment for civilian use from 1 April 1942 to 1 October 1945, temporarily shutting down expansion of television networking. However, in 1944 a short film, "Patrolling the Ether", was broadcast simultaneously over three stations as an experiment.
AT&T made its first postwar addition in February 1946, with the completion of a 225-mile (362 km) cable between New York City and Washington, D.C., although a blurry demonstration broadcast showed that it would not be in regular use for several months. The DuMont Television Network, which had begun experimental broadcasts before the war, launched what Newsweek called "the country's first permanent commercial television network" on 15 August 1946, connecting New York City with Washington.[8][9] Not to be outdone, NBC launched what it called "the world's first regularly operating television network" on 27 June 1947, serving New York City, Philadelphia, Schenectady and Washington.[10] Baltimore and Boston were added to the NBC television network in late 1947. DuMont and NBC would be joined by CBS and ABC in 1948.
In the 1940s, the term "chain broadcasting" was used when discussing network broadcasts,
Each of the four major television networks originally only broadcast a few hours of programs a week to their affiliate stations, mostly between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, when most viewers were watching television. Most of the programs broadcast by the television stations were still locally produced. As the networks increased the number of programs that they aired, however, officials at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) grew concerned that local television might disappear altogether. Eventually, the federal regulator enacted the Prime Time Access Rule, which restricted the amount of time that the networks could air programs; officials hoped that the rules would foster the development of quality local programs, but in practice, most local stations did not want to bear the burden of producing many of their own programs, and instead chose to purchase programs from independent producers. Sales of television programs to individual local stations are done through a method called "broadcast syndication", and today nearly every television station in the United States obtains syndicated programs in addition to network-produced fare.
Late in the 20th century, cross-country microwave radio relays were replaced by fixed-service satellites. Some terrestrial radio relays remained in service for regional connections.
After the failure and shutdown of DuMont in 1956, several attempts at new networks were made between the 1950s and the 1970s, with little success. The
Regulation
FCC regulations in the United States restricted the
Canada
A number of different definitions of "network" are used by government agencies, industry, and the general public. Under the
Only three national over-the-air television networks are currently licensed by the CRTC: government-owned CBC Television (English) and Ici Radio-Canada Télé (French), French-language private network TVA, and APTN, a network focused on Indigenous peoples in Canada. A third French-language service, Noovo (formerly V), is licensed as a provincial network within Quebec, but is not licensed or locally distributed (outside of carriage on the digital tiers of pay television providers) on a national basis.
Currently, licensed national or provincial networks must be carried by all cable providers (in the country or province, respectively) with a service area above a certain population threshold, as well as all satellite providers. However, they are no longer necessarily expected to achieve over-the-air coverage in all areas (APTN, for example, only has terrestrial coverage in parts of northern Canada).
In addition to these licensed networks, the two main private English-language over-the-air services, CTV and Global, are also generally considered to be "networks" by virtue of their national coverage, although they are not officially licensed as such. CTV was previously a licensed network, but relinquished this license in 2001 after acquiring most of its affiliates, making operating a network license essentially redundant (per the above definition).
Smaller groups of stations with common branding are often categorized by industry watchers as
Most local television stations in Canada are now owned and operated directly by their network, with only a small number of stations still operating as affiliates.
Europe, Asia, Africa and South America
Most television services outside North America are national networks established by a combination of publicly funded broadcasters and commercial broadcasters.[citation needed] Most nations established television networks in a similar way: the first television service in each country was operated by a public broadcaster, often funded by a television licensing fee, and most of them later established a second or even third station providing a greater variety of content. Commercial television services also became available when private companies applied for television broadcasting licenses. Often, each new network would be identified with their channel number, so that individual stations would often be numbered "One", "Two", "Three" and so forth.
United Kingdom
The first television network in the United Kingdom was operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). On 2 November 1936 the BBC opened the world's first regular high-definition television service, from a 405 lines transmitter at Alexandra Palace. The BBC remained dominant until eventually on 22 September 1955, commercial broadcasting was established to create a second television network. Rather than creating a single network with local channels owned and operated by a single company (as is the case with the BBC), each local area had a separate television channel that was independently owned and operated, although most of these channels shared a number of programmes, particularly during peak evening viewing hours. These channels formed the ITV network.
When the advent of
Sweden
Sweden had only one television network from 1956 until the early-1990s: the public broadcaster
Netherlands
Until 1989,
Russia
Soviet era
The first television network in the Soviet Union launched on 7 July 1938 when Petersburg – Channel 5 of Leningrad Television became a unionwide network. The second television network in the
1990s
Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, USSR Gosteleradio ceased to exist as well as its six networks. Only Channel One had a smooth transition and survived as a network, becoming
2000s
The 2000s were marked by the increased state intervention in Russian television. On 14 April 2001 NTV experienced management changes following the expulsion of former oligarch and NTV founder Vladimir Gusinsky. As a result, most of the prominent reporters featured on NTV left the network. Later on 22 January 2002, the second largest private television network TV-6, where the former NTV staff took refuge, was shut down allegedly because of its editorial policy. Five months later on 1 June, TVS was launched, mostly employing NTV/TV-6 staff, only to cease operations the following year. Since then, the four largest television networks (Channel One, Russia 1, NTV and Russia 2) have been state-owned.
Still, the 2000s saw a rise of several independent television networks such as
Brazil
The major commercial television network in Brazil is
Other networks include
.Australia
Australia has two national public networks,
The first commercial networks in Australia involved commercial stations that shared programming in
As well as these free-to-air channels, there are others on Australia's Pay television network Foxtel.
New Zealand
New Zealand has one public network,
New Zealand also has several privately owned television networks with the largest being operated by
All television networks in New Zealand air the same programming across the entire country with the only regional deviations being for local advertising; a regional news service existed in the 1980s, carrying a regional news programme from TVNZ's studios in New Zealand's four largest cities, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
In the 1960s, the service operated at the time by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation was four separate television stations – AKTV2 in Auckland, WNTV1 in Wellington, CHTV3 in Christchurch and DNTV2 in Dunedin – which each ran their own newscast and produced some in-house programmes, with other shows being shared between the stations. Programmes and news footage were distributed via mail, with a programme airing in one region being mailed to another region for broadcast the following week. A network was finally established in 1969, with the same programmes being relayed to all regions simultaneously. From the 1970s to the 1990s, locally produced programmes that aired on TV One and TV2 were produced out of one of the four main studios, with TVNZ's network hub based in Wellington. Today, most locally produced programmes that are aired by both TVNZ and other networks are not actually produced in-house, instead they are often produced by a third party company (for example, the TV2 programme Shortland Street is produced by South Pacific Pictures). The networks produce their own news and current affairs programs, with most of the content filmed in Auckland.
New Zealand also operates several regional television stations, which are only available in individual markets. The regional stations will typically air a local news programme, produce some shows in-house and cover local sports events; the majority of programming on the regional stations will be imported from various sources.
Philippines
In the Philippines, in practice, the terms "network", "station" and "channel" are used interchangeably as programming lineups are mostly centrally planned from the networks' main offices, and since provincial/regional stations usually just relay the broadcast from their
, which respectively broadcast on VHF channel 5, and UHF channels 23 and 25).Unlike the United States, where networks receive programmes produced by various production companies, the two largest networks in the Philippines produce all of their prime time programmes. Other networks adopt block-time programming, which uses programming arrangements similar to the relationship between a U.S. network and station.
See also
- Broadcast network
- Cable television in the United States
- Concentration of media ownership
- List of television networks by country
- Holding company
- Skypath
- Television system
References
- ^ "1920s". bbc.com. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-563-20102-1.
- doi:10.1080/08838157709363817. Archived from the originalon 6 March 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
- ^ "Coaxial Cable", Time, 14 October 1935.
- ^ Television in Germany, Berlin, 1936.
- ^ "Television 'Piped' From New York to Philadelphia Archived 2012-07-30 at archive.today," Short Wave & Television, February 1938, pp. 534, 574–575.
- ^ GOP Convention of 1940 in Philadelphia, UShistory.org.
- ISBN 978-0-231-51218-3.
- ISBN 1-59213-499-8.
- ^ "Beginning," Time, 7 July 1947.
- ^ "The Impact of the FCC's Chain Broadcasting Rules". The Yale Law Journal, 60(1) (1951): 78–111
- ^ Barcousky, Len (16 May 2010). "Eyewitness: 1949 / TV makes Pittsburgh 'A New Promise'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- ^ "Canadian Broadcasting Act of 1991". laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. July 2020.
- ^ "Brazil profile". BBC News. 24 May 2016.