Lecture 9: Programs: Network, Syndicated, Local

Learning objectives

Prime-time entertainment -- Understand formats, development of, and issues associated with prime-time programming

Non-prime-time entertainment -- Characteristics of network programming for daytime, early morning, late nighrt, and weekend time slots

Network sports programs -- Importance of network sports to viewers, advertisers, and networks themselves

Network children's programs -- Understand issues and concerns surrounding cable and broadcast programs aimed at children

TV network news and public affairs programs -- Understand the role of these network and cable shows in informing the public and establishing a network's image

Radio networks -- Understand the changing role of radio networks and their information services for specific formats and audiences

Syndicated television programs -- Understand differences between off-network and first-run syndicated and how movies contribute to the mix

Locally produced TV programs -- Local news contribution to station revenue and prestige

Local radio programs -- Understand why local radio stations retain more local program autonomy than do broadcast TV and cable

WWW programming -- How the web supplements electronic media and how it may rival media in the future

Program critiques -- Compare visions of media as the vast electronic wasteland and the TV as a toaster with pictures, differentiate between popular taste and bad taste

**Special Note:  Many of the items in the following sections are merely terms for certain types of programming, and are not associated with much explanatory material.  That's because your textbook merely gives a number of examples of each type of programming, usually in a historical context.  They are all program types with which we are very familiar, and they need no explanation.  You could probably tell me more about many of them than I can tell you. Some terms do require some explanation, and I have included it where necessary.

Prime-time Network TV Entertainment

This is where the most well-known and popular programs appear.  Generally primetime entertainment consists of weekly half-hour and hour series, but the schedule is sprinkled with other forms of programming. Audience share for the networks has been declining steadily for years, but they still command the largest single-show numbers in television.  Following are some familiar forms of programming.

sitcoms					slobcoms			
dramadies					spin-offs and clones
crime shows					movies
made-for-TV movies			made-for-cable movies
mini-series					music and variety shows

Non-Prime-Time Network TV Entertainment

Primetime shows are the most popular, but the broadcast networks make more money (as profit) with daytime shows because they sell more commecial minutes and the programming is cheaper to produce.  Certain types of programming are associated with certain dayparts (**see exhibit 8.d on page 225).  Following are some examples of non-primetime programming.

soap operas					telenovelas				
game shows					home shopping (infommercials)
magazine format				talk shows					

Network Television Sports Programs

Professional football, basketball, and major league baseball attract the largest audiences by far.  Everything else falls off very rapidly in viewership.  Some of the most popular shows of the year are the major sporting events such as the Superbowl, the World Series, the NBA playoffs, and the Olympics.  Over the years, the networks began losing viewers to sports cable channels.  They responded by purchasing major shares of sports cable networks.  ABC, for instance, owns ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNews.  During the 90s, the Fox network has outbid the other networks for major sporting events, further eroding the networks' audience share for sports.  The tremendous rise in popularity of sports programming has resulted in a number of situations that have drawn many critics who note the negative effects on college sports, the rise in player salaries, TV timeouts, and prevalent sponsorship by beer companies.  Following are examples of outlets for sports programming.

ESPN						SportsChannel America
Home Team Sports				Midwest Sports Channel
CNN/SI					Prime Network
PPV Sports					Monday Night Football

Children's Programs

Children's programming is probably the most controversial of all programming, and a certain kind of educational children's programming (along with general public service programming) is the only kind of programming mandated by the FCC.  The big three networks have been reducing the amount of children's programming over the years as the new networks and cable channels have added more.  Following are some examples of children's programming and some other terms with which you should be familiar.

Disney Channel				E/I icon
"teens and tweens"				cartoons
live action programs				Nickelodeon
Nick at Night					Cartoon Network
The Learning Channel			Children's Cable Network
The Family Channel				V-chip

Network TV News and Public Affairs Programs

The once-strict separation of news and entertainment programming has been steadily eroding for a number of years, blurring the line between information and show business, and lowering the quality and credibility of news, in general. However, the majority of people get their news from TV rather than other sources like newspapers. As in every area, network newscasts, once dominant, are now facing competition from cable and the web.

Aside from news, there are a number of information channels such as the Weather Channel and Court TV. Public Affairs programming includes shows such as 60 Minutes and 48 Hours, as well as coverage of public events, speeches, and political discussion.  Following are some related terms and topics.
CNN						CNN Headline News
public affairs					documentaries
60 Minutes					Meet the Press
Face the Nation				C-SPAN

Syndicated TV Programs

There are three main types of syndicated programming: off-network, first-run, and movies. Off-network programs are the most numerous and profitable because they haven proven popularity.  They are widely watched during any daypart.  Most first-run programs are low budget, such as game and talk shows, but they can include expensive and popular hour-long shows such as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Entertainment Tonight.  Movies are movies.  The newer and more desirable, the higher the syndication costs.  To get a good movie, stations sometimes have to accept a package of lesser-knowns.

off-network syndication			first-run syndication
reality shows					trash TV
tabloid TV					block-booking

Radio Network and Syndicated Programs

Radio networks were once full-service programmers, but now distribute mainly news, talk shows, and sports.  However, music networks have reappeared – Westwood One and Unistar each has more than 1000 affiliates.  Following are a number of terms or personalities with which to become acquainted.

RADAR					Paul Harvey
talk shows					Rush Limbaugh
Larry King					Casey Casem

Locally Produced TV Programs

Local TV stations make as much as half of their entire revenue from advertising sold during the local news. Major stations spend many millions of dollars annually to maintain the news department with personnel and technology – some have two hours of newscast every evening.  Network affiliates schedule news early in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at 11:00 PM.  Independent stations schedule their most popular shows against those newscasts, and typically have a newscast at 10:00 PM.  A number of cable companies in very large markets have very successful regional news services.  Following are some related terms.
ENG, SNG					backhaul
stringers					camcorders
family centered news			updates
local origination				public access

Local Radio Programs

Local radio music shows are the cheapest possible broadcast shows – all recorded music and a low-paid (for the most part) DJ.  But since the music in similarly-formatted stations is the same, it is often the DJs that attract the listeners within a certain interest and demographic.  Virtually all radio stations are formatted in one of the following formats (with a few other terms thrown in for good measure).

music formats				playlists
adult contemporary				contemporary hit radio
classic rock					oldies
urban contemporary				alternative
rap/hip-hop					country music
religious/gospel				variety
full-service					beautiful music
easy-listening				classical music
information formats				talk

World Wide Web Programming

With the porn industry leading the way, more and more programming is being produced for the web as streaming audio and video.  However, there is plenty of mainline material being produced, including movie trailers and online concerts.  Though still in development, it is possible for information and entertainment sources to distribute far more content than they could in any traditional form, and to allow consumers to pick their own interests.  Following are some familiar terms.

Internet					World Wide Web
bandwidth bottleneck			interactivity

Program Critique

Don't worry about this too much – much of it we discussed in other contexts – especially in the section on effects of the mass media.