Television Today and Tomorrow: It Won't Be What You Think by Gene F. Jankowski

By Gene F. Jankowski

Lately, the media has been awash in exuberant stories of the coming of the data superhighway, while tv will explode with interesting probabilities, supplying a few 500 channels in addition to a wedding of television and computing device that may supply, on command, entry to the newest video clips, magazines, newspapers, books, activities occasions, inventory trade figures, your checking account, and masses, even more. And the most important television networks, pundits upload, may be doomed to extinction by means of this revolution in cable, pcs, and fiber optics. yet in tv this day and the next day, Gene Jankowski--former President and Chairman of the CBS Broadcast Group--and David Fuchs--also a former most sensible govt at CBS--tell a special tale. They are expecting a bumpy street forward for the data superhighway, and the foremost networks, they are saying, are abundantly fit and should stay so good into the subsequent century. the knowledge superhighway, Jankowski and Fuchs admit, will dramatically elevate the distribution channels, however it could have little influence at the quantity of programming created--and this can spell catastrophe. The authors convey how the networks begun so as to supply courses to neighborhood stations (who couldn't have the funds for to supply their own), who in flip supplied the distribution that gave networks entry to mass audiences and eventually huge ads funds. They then supply us an within examine tv production--showing us, for example, a veteran scriptwriter placing jointly a breakfast desk scene for "Cloud Nine"--to underscore how a lot attempt is going into generating simply mins of primetime programming. They exhibit that the current 20 channels require a few 20,000 hours of programming every year, that is greater than the entire Broadway performs produced during this century, and so they finish that and not using a dramatic raise in programming (which will not ensue if simply a result of very finite provide of talent), the superhighway should be jammed bumper-to-bumper with reruns, previous videos, and cheap programming geared toward tightly targeted audiences ("narrowcasting" instead of "broadcasting"). this is often hardly ever the bonanza the pundits have promised. The authors indicate that the media blitz in regards to the new expertise has infrequently interested in programming, or on investment, or on what wishes those 500 channels will fill. the foremost networks, nevertheless, will stay the single technique of attaining the total nation, and the single channels that provide an entire time table of present, stay, and unique courses, at no cost. And therefore they are going to proceed to draw lots of the viewers of television audience. the true loser within the cable revolution, the authors contend, is PBS, whose position in its place to community television has been usurped by means of cable stations reminiscent of the invention Channel and Nickelodeon. this can be a brass tacks examine tv with a watch at the final analysis by means of males who boast over sixty years of expertise within the medium. with a purpose to comprehend tv in the USA, the place it got here from and the place it really is going, it is very important learn this publication.