Television in the United States
Encyclopedia
Television
is one of the major mass media
of the United States
. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one. As a whole, the television network
s of the United States are the largest and most syndicated in the world.
: broadcast
, or "over-the-air" television, unencrypted satellite or "free-to-air
", Direct Broadcast Satellite
, cable television
, and IPTV
(internet protocol television).
Over-the-air and free-to-air TV is free with no monthly payments while Cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite, and IPTV require a monthly payment that varies depending on how many channels a subscriber chooses to pay for. Channels are usually sold in groups, rather than singly.
. Local media markets have their own television stations, which may be affiliated with
or owned and operated by a TV network. Stations may sign affiliation agreements with one of the national networks. Except in very small markets with few stations, affiliation agreements are usually exclusive: If a station is an NBC affiliate, the station would not air programs from ABC, CBS or other networks.
However, to ensure local presences in television broadcasting, federal law restricts the amount of network programming local stations can run. Until the 1970s and '80s, local stations supplemented network programming with a good deal of their own produced shows. Today, however, many stations produce only local news shows. They fill the rest of their schedule with syndicated
shows, or material produced independently and sold to individual stations in each local market..
, CBS
, ABC
, Fox
, and The CW. The first three began as radio networks: NBC and CBS in the 1920's, and ABC was spun off from NBC in 1943. Fox is a relative newcomer which began in 1986. The CW was created in 2006 when UPN merged with The WB.
Weekday schedules on ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates tend to be similar. (Fox does not air network daytime programming.) Typically, they begin with an early-morning local news show, followed by a network morning show, such as NBC's Today, which mixes news, weather, interviews and music. Network daytime schedules consist of talk shows, soap opera
s or game shows; local news may air at midday. Syndicated talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show
appear in the late afternoon, followed by local news again in the early evening. ABC, CBS and NBC offer network news, generally at 6:30 or 7:00 in the Eastern Time zone and 5:30 or 6:00 in other areas. Local newscasts or syndicated programs fill the "prime access" hour or half-hour, and lead into the networks' prime time
schedules, which are the day's most-watched three hours of television.
Typically, family-oriented comedy
programs led in the early part of prime time, although in recent years, reality television
like Dancing with the Stars has largely replaced them. Later in the evening, drama
s like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
, House, M.D., and Grey's Anatomy
air.
At the end of prime time, another local news program comes on, usually followed by late-night interview shows, such as Late Show with David Letterman
or The Tonight Show
. Rather than sign off for the early hours of the morning (as was standard practice until the early 1970s in larger markets and until the mid 1980's in smaller ones), TV stations now fill the time with syndicated programming, reruns of prime time television shows or the local late news o'clock news, or 30-minute advertisements, known as infomercial
s, and in the case of CBS and ABC, overnight network news programs.
Saturday mornings usually feature network programming aimed at children (including animated cartoons), while Sunday mornings include public-affairs programs that help fulfill stations' legal obligations to provide public-service programming. Sports and infomercials can be found on weekend afternoons, followed again by the same type of prime-time shows aired during the week.
s of old TV series and old movies, take up much of their schedule.
In 1986, however, the Fox Broadcasting Company
launched a challenge to the big three networks. Thanks largely to the success of shows like The Simpsons
, as well as the network's acquisition of rights to show National Football League
games, Fox has established itself as a major player in broadcast television. However, Fox differs from the three older networks in that it does not air daily morning and nightly news programs or have network-run daytime or weeknight late night schedules (though late night shows do air on Saturday nights), its nightly prime-time schedule is only two hours long (three hours on Sundays), some of its big-city affiliates used to broadcast on UHF before the transition to digital, many of its smaller-market affiliates outsource news production to Big Three affiliates rather produce their own newscasts, and its flagship station
s are WNYW
(not "WFOX") and KTTV
, not KFOX (but the KFOX-TV
callsign is used for El Paso's Fox affiliate). Its only scheduled news program is Fox News Sunday
, on Sunday mornings; special news coverage on Fox comes from the staff of cable's Fox News Channel
, though not all affiliates carry breaking news bulletins from Fox News outside of primetime presidential addresses. Most Fox affiliates now have local newscasts, in primetime usually airing an hour earlier competing with network dramas, rather than other local newscasts, and in the morning for two additional hours.
In the 1990s, three new networks -- The WB
(1995), UPN
(1995) and PAX (1998; became "i" in 2005 and ION in 2007) -- launched. The fledging WB and UPN merged into The CW
in fall 2006, while News Corporation
's MyNetworkTV
, created to replace UPN programming on Fox's O&Os
, debuted in fall 2006 as well.
ION broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making the ION network totally responsible for its affiliates, although it mostly airs infomercials outside its prime time. MyNetworkTV
broadcasts 10 hours a week, Monday through Saturday. The CW
broadcasts 10 hours a week in prime time, 10 hours in daytime.
, a network of Spanish language
stations, is the fifth-largest TV network behind NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox. Its major competition is Telemundo
, a sister network of NBC. Univision-owned TeleFutura
, aimed at a younger Hispanic demographic, and Azteca América
, the American version of Mexico's TV Azteca
, are two other popular Spanish-language over-the-air networks.
In addition, the Miami, Florida
-based Haitian Television Network offers locally produced Haitian Creole and French language
programming in Miami and parts of New Jersey, New York City, and Boston.
Especially after the transition to digital television
, many large cities have Asian language broadcast stations, such as KYAZ in Houston.
There have also been a few, local stations in American Sign Language
accompanied by closed captioned English
.
. The income received from the government is insufficient to cover expenses and stations rely on corporate sponsorships and viewer contributions.
American public television stations air programming that commercial stations do not offer, such as educational, including cultural, and public affairs programming. Most public TV stations are affiliates of the Public Broadcasting Service
, sharing programs like Sesame Street
and Masterpiece Theatre
. Unlike the commercial networks, PBS does not produce its own programming; instead, individual PBS stations create programming and provide these to other affiliates. New York City's
municipally-owned broadcast service, NYCTV
, creates original programming that airs in several markets. Few cities have major municipally-owned stations.
Many religious broadcasting
stations exist, also surviving on viewer contributions, including Trinity Broadcasting Network
, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Hope Channel, Amazing Facts
Television, Daystar Television Network
, The Word Network, The Worship Network
, Total Christian Television
, and INSP
.
only brought distant over-the-air TV to rural areas without local stations. This role was reflected in the original meaning of the CATV acronym: community antenna TV. In that decade, national networks dedicated exclusively to cable broadcasting appeared along with cable-TV systems in major cities with over-the-air TV. By the mid 1970's some form of cable-TV was available in almost every market that already had over-the-air TV. Today, most American households receive cable TV, and cable networks collectively have greater viewership than broadcast networks.
Unlike broadcast networks, most cable networks air the same programming nationwide. Top cable networks include USA Network
(general entertainment), ESPN
and Fox Sports (sports), MTV
(music), CNN
, Fox News, and MSNBC
(news), Syfy
(science fiction), Disney Channel
(family), Nickelodeon
and Cartoon Network
(Children's), Discovery Channel
and Animal Planet
(documentaries), TBS (comedy), TNT
(drama) and Lifetime
(women's).
The national cable TV network became possible in the mid 1970s with the launch of domestic communication satellites that could economically broadcast TV programs to cable operators anywhere in the continental US. (Some domestic satellites also covered Alaska and Hawaii with dedicated spot beam
s.) Until then, cable networks like HBO had been limited to regional coverage by expensive terrestrial microwave links leased from the telephone companies (primarily AT&T
). Satellites were generally used only for international (i.e., transoceanic) communications; their antennas covered an entire hemisphere, producing weak signals that required large, expensive receiving antennas. The first domestic communications satellite, Westar 1
, was launched in 1974. By concentrating its signal on the continental United States with a directional antenna, Westar 1 could transmit to TVRO ("TV, receive only") dishes only a few meters in diameter, well within the means of local cable TV operators.
Cable system operators now receive programming by satellite, terrestrial optical fiber
, off the air, and from in-house sources and relay it to subscribers' homes. Usually, local governments award a monopoly to provide cable-TV service in a given area. By law, cable systems must include local over-the-air stations in their offerings to customers.
Enterprising individuals soon found they could install their own satellite dishes and eavesdrop on the feeds to the cable operators. The signals were transmitted as unscrambled analog
FM
that did not require advanced or expensive technology. Since these same satellites were also used internally by the TV networks they could also watch programs not intended for public broadcast such as affiliate feeds without commercials and/or intended for another time zone; raw footage from remote news teams; advance transmissions of upcoming programs; and live news and talk shows during breaks when those on camera might not realize that anyone outside the network could hear them.
Encrypting was introduced to prevent people from receiving pay content for free, and nearly every pay channel was encrypted by the mid to late 1980s. (This did not happen without protest; see Captain Midnight (HBO)
). Satellite TV also began a digital transition, well before over the air broadcasting did the same, to increase satellite capacity and/or reduce the size of the receiving antennas, and this also made it more difficult for individuals to intercept these signals.
Eventually the industry began to cater to individuals who wanted to continue to receive satellite TV (and were willing to pay for it) in two ways: by authorizing the descrambling of the original satellite feeds to the cable TV operators and with new direct broadcast satellite
television services using their own satellites.
These latter services, which began in the mid 1990s, offer programming similar to cable TV. Dish Network
and DirecTV
are the major DBS providers in the country.
Although most networks make viewers pay, some networks are broadcasting unencrypted feeds. After broadcast TV switched to all digital, new channels became available on unencrypted satellites to bring more free TV to Americans some of these are available as a digital subchannel
to local broadcasters, this reason may be for the expensive costs of the DVB-S
equipment. NASA TV
, Pentagon Channel
, ABC News Now
, ThisTV, TheCoolTV
, and Retro Television Network
(through its affiliates) are examples, international news channels like Al Jazeera English are commonly watched this way as a result to the lack of availability on Cable, DBS and IPTV.
. According to a 2001 survey, broadcast stations allocated 16 to 21 minutes per hour to commercials. Most cable networks also generate income from advertisements, although most basic cable networks also receive subscription fees. However, premium cable networks, such as the movie network HBO, do not air commercials. Instead, cable-TV subscribers must pay extra to receive the premium networks.
In the days of broadcast television, networks allocated a portion of commercial time for their shows to the local affiliates, which allowed the local stations to generate revenue. In the same manner, cable-TV system operators generate some of their revenue by selling local commercial time for each cable network being broadcast. The other main source of revenue for the cable-TV operators is subscription fees.
Primetime comedy has included situation comedies
such as I Love Lucy
, M*A*S*H, All in the Family
, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
, The Jeffersons
, The Cosby Show
, Seinfeld
, Friends
, Boy Meets World
, George Lopez
, The King of Queens
and Everybody Loves Raymond
, as well as sketch comedy/variety series such as Saturday Night Live
and Milton Berle
's early shows, The Carol Burnett Show
and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
Dramatic series have taken many forms over the years. Westerns such as Gunsmoke
had their greatest popularity in the '50s and '60s. Medical dramas have endured (Marcus Welby, M.D.
, St. Elsewhere
, ER
), as have family dramas (Eight is Enough
, The Waltons
, Little House on the Prairie
) and crime dramas (Dragnet, Hawaii Five-O
, Hill Street Blues
, Law & Order
and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- the last two of which have spawned multiple spin-offs
).
The major networks all offer a morning news program (NBC's The Today Show and ABC's Good Morning America
are the standard bearers), as well as an early-evening newscast anchored by the de facto face of the network's news operations (Walter Cronkite
and Dan Rather
for CBS; NBC's Chet Huntley
, David Brinkley
and Tom Brokaw
; ABC's Peter Jennings
). Successful news magazines have included 60 Minutes
, 20/20, and Dateline
in primetime and Meet the Press
(the US's oldest series, having debuted in 1947), Face the Nation
and This Week
on Sunday mornings.
Reality television
has long existed in the United States, both played for laughs (Candid Camera
, Real People
) and as drama (COPS
, The Real World
). A new variant - competition series placing ordinary people in unusual circumstances or in talent contests, generally eliminating one participant per week - exploded in popularity in 2000 with the launch of Survivor. Big Brother, America's Next Top Model
and So You Think You Can Dance followed; American Idol
, based on the UK's Pop Idol
, debuted in 2002 and has dominated the ratings consistently as of 2009, while The Amazing Race
has won the Emmy for its program category every year since its 2001 debut.
American soap operas have been running for over six decades. Of the six current daytime soaps, four have been on the air for over forty years: General Hospital, Days of our Lives
, One Life to Live
and All My Children
. Previous long-running daytime dramas included Search for Tomorrow
, Love of Life
, The Doctors, Another World
, As The World Turns
, and Guiding Light
- the latter of which ended a 72-year run (combining TV and radio) in September 2009. Primetime soap operas of note have included Peyton Place
, Dallas
, Dynasty
, Beverly Hills, 90210
and Desperate Housewives
.
Daytime has also been home of many popular game shows over the years (particularly during the 1970s), such as The Price is Right
, Family Feud
, Match Game
, The Newlywed Game
and Concentration
. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
have found their greatest success in the early-evening slot before primetime, while game shows actually aired within primetime had great popularity in the 1950s and 1960s (What's My Line?
, I've Got a Secret
, To Tell the Truth
) and again, intermittently, in the 2000s (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
, The Weakest Link
, Deal or No Deal
). The Price Is Right, which has appeared on CBS since 1972, was the only daytime game show remaining on the broadcast networks for fifteen years (prior to CBS's announcement it would be joined by a remake of Let's Make a Deal
in October 2009).
The most successful talk show has been the late-night
(after 11:30 PM Eastern/Pacific) Tonight Show
(particularly during the 29-year run of third host Johnny Carson
). Tonight ushered in a multi-decade period of dominance by one network in American late-night programming and paved the way for many similar combinations of comedy and celebrity interviews, such as those hosted by Merv Griffin
and David Letterman
.
Daytime talk show hits have included The Oprah Winfrey Show
, Phil Donahue
, The Ellen DeGeneres Show
, and Live with Regis and Kelly
, and run the gamut from serious to lighthearted; a subset of so-called trash TV talk shows such as The Jerry Springer Show
also veered into exploitation and titillation.
Children's television programs are also quite popular, though with FCC rules on E/I
content and regulations on commercial time during children's shows, over-the-air broadcast stations have found it much harder to profit from these programs compared to in the past. Children's programming has mostly migrated to cable television with such successful shows of recent such as Fanboy & Chum Chum, SpongeBob SquarePants
, iCarly
, The Suite Life on Deck
, Big Time Rush
, Victorious
, Phineas & Ferb, The Fairly OddParents
among others becoming popular on the Disney Channel
and Nickelodeon
cable channels. Other channels offering kids and family programming include PBS Kids Sprout
, Disney XD, Cartoon Network
, Boomerang
and others. FCC rules on E/I content may prevent series airing on these channels from being syndicated on over-the-air television stations.
While the majority of programs broadcast on United States television are produced domestically, some programs carried in syndication, on public television or on cable television are imported from outside the U.S.; most commonly, these imported programs come from the primarily English-speaking countries of Canada
and the United Kingdom
. PBS
in particular, is commonly known for its broadcasts of British comedies such as Are You Being Served?
, Keeping Up Appearances
and As Time Goes By
, which typically air on most PBS member stations on weekend evenings. As for Canadian programs, most of the programming imported from Canada includes children's programs from family-oriented specialty channels YTV and Family such as Are You Afraid of the Dark?
, Naturally, Sadie
and Life with Derek
. Among some of the more well-known Canadian television series among American viewers include the Degrassi High
franchise (which aired in Canada on CBC Television
, with the later incarnation Degrassi: The Next Generation
airing on CTV and presently MuchMusic
), SCTV Network and The Red Green Show
. American Spanish-language networks also import much of their programming; for example, Univision
imports much of its programming, especially telenovelas that are broadcast on the network, from Mexican broadcaster Televisa
and Venezuelan broadcaster Venevision
.
either commission teleplay
s for TV pilots or buy spec script
s. Some of these scripts are turned into pilots. Those which the production company thinks might be commercially viable are then marketed to television networks—or television distributors for first-run syndication. (KingWorld distributes Oprah
in first-run syndication, for example, because that show is syndicated—is not affiliated with a particular network.) A few things in consideration for a TV network to pick up a show is if the show itself is compatible with the network's target audience, the cost of production, and if the show is well liked among network executives.
Networks sometimes preemptively purchase pilots to prevent other nets from controlling them, and the purchase of a pilot is no guarantee that a show will get an order for more episodes. Those that do get "picked up" get either a full or partial-season order, and the show goes into production, usually establishing itself with permanent sets, a full crew and production offices. Writers are hired, directors are selected and work begins, usually during the late spring and summer before the fall season-series premieres. (Shows can also be midseason replacement
, meaning they are ordered specifically to fill holes in a network schedule created by the failure and cancellation of shows which premiered in the fall. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Office are examples of successful midseason replacements.)
The standard broadcast television season in the United States is 22 episodes per season; sitcoms may have 24 or more; animated programs may have more (or fewer) episodes; cable networks with original programming seem to have settled on about 10 or 12 episodes per season, much in line with British television programming.
American soap operas air in the afternoon, five days a week, without any significant break in taping and airing schedules throughout the year. This means that these serials air approximately 260 episodes a year, making their casts and crews the busiest in show business. These shows are rarely, if ever, repeated, making it difficult for viewers to "catch up" when they miss programming. However, cable channel SOAPnet
provides weekly repeats for some broadcasts.
Networks use profits from commercials run during the show to pay the production company, which in turn pays the cast and crew, and keeps a share of the profits for itself. (Networks sometimes act as both production companies and distributors.) As advertising rates are based on the size of the audience, measuring the number of people watching a network is very important. This measurement is known as a show or network's ratings
. Sweeps months (November, February, May, and to a lesser extent July) are important landmarks in the television year — ratings earned during these periods determining advertising rates until the next sweeps period, therefore shows often have their most exciting plot developments happen during sweeps.
Shows that are successful with audiences and advertisers receive authorization from the network to continue production, until the plotline ends (only for scripted shows) or if the contract expires. Those that are not successful are often quickly told to discontinue production by the network, known as cancellation. There are instances of initially low-rated shows surviving cancellation and later becoming highly-popular, but these are rare. For the most part, shows that are not immediately even moderately successful will be cancelled by the end of November sweeps. Usually if a show is canceled, there is little chance of it ever coming back again especially on the same network it was canceled from, the only show in the US to ever come back from cancellation on the same network is Family Guy
. However, canceled shows like Scrubs
, Southland
, and Medium
have been picked up by other networks, which is becoming an increasingly common practice.
. The FCC awards licenses to local stations, which stipulate stations' commitments to educational and public-interest programming. The FCC also prohibits the airing of "indecent" material over the air between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Although broadcast stations can legally air almost anything they want late at night—and cable networks at all hours—nudity
and graphic profanity
are very rare on American television, though they are common on pay television services that are free from FCC regulations and pressure from advertisers to tone down content, and often require a subscription to view. Broadcasters fear that airing such material will turn off advertisers and encourage the federal government to strengthen its regulation of television content.
Premium cable networks are exceptions, and often air very racy programming at night, though premium channels often air program content with strong to graphic profanity, violence and nudity in some cases during the daytime hours. Some networks, such as Playboy TV
, are devoted exclusively to "adult" content and therefore viewers may find scenes of simulated or graphic sexual intercourse
and nudity on such channels. Cable television is largely, but not entirely, unregulated. Cable systems must include local over-the-air stations in their offerings (see must-carry
) and give them low channel numbers. The systems cannot show broadcast-network affiliates from other parts of the country, however cable systems can air stations out of nearby markets if there are no stations affiliated with one of the major networks (though this is becoming far less common with the existence of over-the air stations carrying one network affiliation on the main channel, and affiliating with another network on a digital subchannel, thus allowing these network-affiliated digital subchannels to be carried via digital cable).
Cable systems can also air satellite-relayed over-the-air stations originating from other areas of the United States, known as superstations (of which there are currently only six around the country, the most prominent being WGN America, which airs some programming carried by WGN-TV
in Chicago), which for the most part are often aired in rural areas and if carried nationally, may have a separate feed carrying different programming than that of the local area feed that is SyndEx-proof (i.e., syndicated programming that the superstation has obtained full signal rights to) and may omit network programming from that station's network affiliation; all superstations, except for WSBK-TV
in Boston, are currently affiliated with a broadcast television network as WGN-TV, WPIX
in New York City, KWGN in Denver and KTLA
in Los Angeles all being affiliated with The CW and WWOR-TV
in Secaucus, New Jersey affiliated with MyNetworkTV
.
(through NBC
, which it owned) and CBS. A number of different broadcast systems had been developed through the end of the 1930s. The National Television System Committee
(NTSC) standardized on a 525-line broadcast in 1941 that would provide the basis for TV across the country through the end of the century. Television development halted with the onset of World War II
, but pioneers returned to the airwaves when that conflict ended.
There were only a few dozen stations operating at the end of the decade, concentrated on the East and West coasts. The FCC began handing out broadcasting licenses to communities of all sizes in the early 1950s, spurring an explosion of growth in the medium. A brief debacle over the system to use for color
broadcasts occurred at this time, but was soon settled. Half of all U.S. households had TV sets by 1955, though color was a premium feature for many years (most households able to purchase TV sets could only afford black-and-white models, and few programs were broadcast in color until the mid-1960s).
Many of the earliest TV programs were modified versions of well-established radio
shows. The '50s saw the first flowering of the genres that would distinguish TV from movies and radio: talk show
s like The Jack Paar Show and sitcom
s like I Love Lucy
. Stations across the country also produced their own local programs. Usually carried live, they ranged from simple advertisements to game show
s and children's shows that often featured clown
s and other offbeat characters. Local shows could often be popular and profitable, but concerns about product promotion and other issues led them to almost completely disappear by the mid-1970s.
Subscription television (such as cable
and satellite
) became popular in the early 1980s, and has been growing in significance since then- spurring the emergence of multinational conglomerates such as Fox
The U.S. has now moved to digital television
. A law passed in 2006 required over-the-air stations to cease analog broadcasting by February 2009, but was delayed to June 12.
In 2008, there were an estimated 327 million television sets in the US.
On Sunday, February, 6, 2011, 111 million viewers tuned in to watch the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 45, making it the largest television audience ever for a U.S. TV program. The previous record was set at last year's Super Bowl when the New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts (106.5 million viewers).
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
is one of the major mass media
Media of the United States
Media of the United States consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. The U.S...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one. As a whole, the television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
s of the United States are the largest and most syndicated in the world.
Television channels and networks
There are at least 200 basic types of television in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
: broadcast
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
, or "over-the-air" television, unencrypted satellite or "free-to-air
Free-to-air
Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...
", Direct Broadcast Satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
, cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, and IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
(internet protocol television).
Over-the-air and free-to-air TV is free with no monthly payments while Cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite, and IPTV require a monthly payment that varies depending on how many channels a subscriber chooses to pay for. Channels are usually sold in groups, rather than singly.
Broadcast television
The United States has a decentralized, market-oriented television system. The United States has a national public broadcast service known as PBS Public Broadcasting ServicePublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. Local media markets have their own television stations, which may be affiliated with
Network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...
or owned and operated by a TV network. Stations may sign affiliation agreements with one of the national networks. Except in very small markets with few stations, affiliation agreements are usually exclusive: If a station is an NBC affiliate, the station would not air programs from ABC, CBS or other networks.
However, to ensure local presences in television broadcasting, federal law restricts the amount of network programming local stations can run. Until the 1970s and '80s, local stations supplemented network programming with a good deal of their own produced shows. Today, however, many stations produce only local news shows. They fill the rest of their schedule with syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
shows, or material produced independently and sold to individual stations in each local market..
Major broadcast networks
The five major U.S. networks are NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, and The CW. The first three began as radio networks: NBC and CBS in the 1920's, and ABC was spun off from NBC in 1943. Fox is a relative newcomer which began in 1986. The CW was created in 2006 when UPN merged with The WB.
Weekday schedules on ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates tend to be similar. (Fox does not air network daytime programming.) Typically, they begin with an early-morning local news show, followed by a network morning show, such as NBC's Today, which mixes news, weather, interviews and music. Network daytime schedules consist of talk shows, soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s or game shows; local news may air at midday. Syndicated talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
appear in the late afternoon, followed by local news again in the early evening. ABC, CBS and NBC offer network news, generally at 6:30 or 7:00 in the Eastern Time zone and 5:30 or 6:00 in other areas. Local newscasts or syndicated programs fill the "prime access" hour or half-hour, and lead into the networks' prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
schedules, which are the day's most-watched three hours of television.
Typically, family-oriented comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
programs led in the early part of prime time, although in recent years, reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
like Dancing with the Stars has largely replaced them. Later in the evening, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
s like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, House, M.D., and Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
air.
At the end of prime time, another local news program comes on, usually followed by late-night interview shows, such as Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
or The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
. Rather than sign off for the early hours of the morning (as was standard practice until the early 1970s in larger markets and until the mid 1980's in smaller ones), TV stations now fill the time with syndicated programming, reruns of prime time television shows or the local late news o'clock news, or 30-minute advertisements, known as infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s, and in the case of CBS and ABC, overnight network news programs.
Saturday mornings usually feature network programming aimed at children (including animated cartoons), while Sunday mornings include public-affairs programs that help fulfill stations' legal obligations to provide public-service programming. Sports and infomercials can be found on weekend afternoons, followed again by the same type of prime-time shows aired during the week.
Other over-the-air commercial television
From 1955 until 1986, all English-language stations not affiliated with the big three networks were independent, airing only locally produced and syndicated programming. Many independent stations still exist in the U.S., usually historically broadcasting on the UHF band. Syndicated shows, often rerunRerun
A rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...
s of old TV series and old movies, take up much of their schedule.
In 1986, however, the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
launched a challenge to the big three networks. Thanks largely to the success of shows like The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, as well as the network's acquisition of rights to show National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
games, Fox has established itself as a major player in broadcast television. However, Fox differs from the three older networks in that it does not air daily morning and nightly news programs or have network-run daytime or weeknight late night schedules (though late night shows do air on Saturday nights), its nightly prime-time schedule is only two hours long (three hours on Sundays), some of its big-city affiliates used to broadcast on UHF before the transition to digital, many of its smaller-market affiliates outsource news production to Big Three affiliates rather produce their own newscasts, and its flagship station
Flagship station
In broadcasting, a flagship is the broadcast which originates a television network, or a particular radio show or TV show, primarily in the United States and Canada. This includes both direct network feeds and broadcast syndication, but generally not backhauls...
s are WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
(not "WFOX") and KTTV
KTTV
KTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
, not KFOX (but the KFOX-TV
KFOX-TV
KFOX-TV is a Fox affiliated television station based in El Paso, Texas. It broadcasts its digital signal on channel 15. It is owned by Cox Enterprises. Its transmitter is located in El Paso and it is also aired on cable channel 8 and HD channel 870.-History:...
callsign is used for El Paso's Fox affiliate). Its only scheduled news program is Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...
, on Sunday mornings; special news coverage on Fox comes from the staff of cable's Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, though not all affiliates carry breaking news bulletins from Fox News outside of primetime presidential addresses. Most Fox affiliates now have local newscasts, in primetime usually airing an hour earlier competing with network dramas, rather than other local newscasts, and in the morning for two additional hours.
In the 1990s, three new networks -- The WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
(1995), UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
(1995) and PAX (1998; became "i" in 2005 and ION in 2007) -- launched. The fledging WB and UPN merged into The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
in fall 2006, while News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
's MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
, created to replace UPN programming on Fox's O&Os
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
, debuted in fall 2006 as well.
ION broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making the ION network totally responsible for its affiliates, although it mostly airs infomercials outside its prime time. MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
broadcasts 10 hours a week, Monday through Saturday. The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
broadcasts 10 hours a week in prime time, 10 hours in daytime.
Broadcast television in non-English languages
UnivisionUnivision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
, a network of Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
stations, is the fifth-largest TV network behind NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox. Its major competition is Telemundo
Telemundo
Telemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....
, a sister network of NBC. Univision-owned TeleFutura
TeleFutura
TeleFutura is a U.S. Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by Univision with headquarters in Miami, Florida.-Overview:TeleFutura Is America’s #2 Spanish-Language Network in prime time...
, aimed at a younger Hispanic demographic, and Azteca América
Azteca América
Azteca América is a broadcast television network marketed toward Spanish-speaking families residing in the United States. As a rapidly-growing Spanish language network, Azteca América now reaches 89% of the Hispanic households in the U.S., operating in sixty-two markets nationwide. Wholly owned by...
, the American version of Mexico's TV Azteca
TV Azteca
Azteca, is the second largest Mexican television entertainment. It was established in 1983 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión , a holding of the national TV networks channel 13 and 7 and was privatized under its current name in 1993 and now is part of Grupo Salinas...
, are two other popular Spanish-language over-the-air networks.
In addition, the Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
-based Haitian Television Network offers locally produced Haitian Creole and French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
programming in Miami and parts of New Jersey, New York City, and Boston.
Especially after the transition to digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
, many large cities have Asian language broadcast stations, such as KYAZ in Houston.
There have also been a few, local stations in American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
accompanied by closed captioned English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Non-commercial television
Public television has a far smaller role than in most other countries. There is no federal state-owned broadcasting authority. However, a number of states, including Wisconsin, Maryland, Minnesota, and South Carolina, among others, do have state-owned public broadcasting authorities which operate and fund all public television stations in their respective states. The federal government does subsidize non-commercial educational television stations through the Corporation for Public BroadcastingCorporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress, funded by the United States’ federal government to promote public broadcasting...
. The income received from the government is insufficient to cover expenses and stations rely on corporate sponsorships and viewer contributions.
American public television stations air programming that commercial stations do not offer, such as educational, including cultural, and public affairs programming. Most public TV stations are affiliates of the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, sharing programs like Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
and Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly prime time drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions...
. Unlike the commercial networks, PBS does not produce its own programming; instead, individual PBS stations create programming and provide these to other affiliates. New York City's
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
municipally-owned broadcast service, NYCTV
NYCTV
NYC TV is a group of Government-access television broadcast and cable TV channels operated by NYC Media Group, a division of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications...
, creates original programming that airs in several markets. Few cities have major municipally-owned stations.
Many religious broadcasting
Religious broadcasting
Religious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
stations exist, also surviving on viewer contributions, including Trinity Broadcasting Network
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Hope Channel, Amazing Facts
Amazing Facts
Amazing Facts is an American Christian ministry. Beginning as a single radio program in 1966 it has expanded into television programming, training, health, prophecy seminars and online Bible study ministries. Its theology is largely that of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.-History:Amazing Facts...
Television, Daystar Television Network
Daystar Television Network
The Daystar Television Network is an American evangelical Christian television religious broadcasting network headquartered near Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Bedford, Texas...
, The Word Network, The Worship Network
The Worship Network
The Worship Network, or Worship, is a broadcast television service that provides alternative Christian worship-themed programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week...
, Total Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
, and INSP
INSP
INSP can refer to*A short form of Inspector*The Inspiration Network , a Christian cable network*International Network of Street Papers...
.
Cable and satellite television
While pay television systems existed as early as the late 1940s, until the early 1970s cable televisionCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
only brought distant over-the-air TV to rural areas without local stations. This role was reflected in the original meaning of the CATV acronym: community antenna TV. In that decade, national networks dedicated exclusively to cable broadcasting appeared along with cable-TV systems in major cities with over-the-air TV. By the mid 1970's some form of cable-TV was available in almost every market that already had over-the-air TV. Today, most American households receive cable TV, and cable networks collectively have greater viewership than broadcast networks.
Unlike broadcast networks, most cable networks air the same programming nationwide. Top cable networks include USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
(general entertainment), ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
and Fox Sports (sports), MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
(music), CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, Fox News, and MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
(news), Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
(science fiction), Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
(family), Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
and Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (United States)
Cartoon Network is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting which primarily airs animated programming. The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 after Turner purchased the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991...
(Children's), Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
and Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
(documentaries), TBS (comedy), TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
(drama) and Lifetime
Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...
(women's).
The national cable TV network became possible in the mid 1970s with the launch of domestic communication satellites that could economically broadcast TV programs to cable operators anywhere in the continental US. (Some domestic satellites also covered Alaska and Hawaii with dedicated spot beam
Spot beam
A spot beam, in telecommunications parlance, is a satellite signal that is specially concentrated in power A spot beam, in telecommunications parlance, is a satellite signal that is specially concentrated in power A spot beam, in telecommunications parlance, is a satellite signal that is specially...
s.) Until then, cable networks like HBO had been limited to regional coverage by expensive terrestrial microwave links leased from the telephone companies (primarily AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
). Satellites were generally used only for international (i.e., transoceanic) communications; their antennas covered an entire hemisphere, producing weak signals that required large, expensive receiving antennas. The first domestic communications satellite, Westar 1
Westar 1
Westar 1 was America's first domestic and commercially launched geostationary communications satellite, launched by Western Union and NASA on April 13, 1974. It was built by Hughes for Western Union, using the HS-333 platform of spin-stabilized satellites. Westar 1 was the first of five Westar...
, was launched in 1974. By concentrating its signal on the continental United States with a directional antenna, Westar 1 could transmit to TVRO ("TV, receive only") dishes only a few meters in diameter, well within the means of local cable TV operators.
Cable system operators now receive programming by satellite, terrestrial optical fiber
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
, off the air, and from in-house sources and relay it to subscribers' homes. Usually, local governments award a monopoly to provide cable-TV service in a given area. By law, cable systems must include local over-the-air stations in their offerings to customers.
Enterprising individuals soon found they could install their own satellite dishes and eavesdrop on the feeds to the cable operators. The signals were transmitted as unscrambled analog
Analog signal
An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e., analogous to another time varying signal. It differs from a digital signal in terms of small fluctuations in the signal which are...
FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
that did not require advanced or expensive technology. Since these same satellites were also used internally by the TV networks they could also watch programs not intended for public broadcast such as affiliate feeds without commercials and/or intended for another time zone; raw footage from remote news teams; advance transmissions of upcoming programs; and live news and talk shows during breaks when those on camera might not realize that anyone outside the network could hear them.
Encrypting was introduced to prevent people from receiving pay content for free, and nearly every pay channel was encrypted by the mid to late 1980s. (This did not happen without protest; see Captain Midnight (HBO)
Captain Midnight (HBO)
John R. MacDougall also known as Captain Midnight, is a Florida electronic engineer and business owner who jammed HBO's satellite signal in 1986 to broadcast a message protesting their rates for satellite dish owners.- Scrambling :...
). Satellite TV also began a digital transition, well before over the air broadcasting did the same, to increase satellite capacity and/or reduce the size of the receiving antennas, and this also made it more difficult for individuals to intercept these signals.
Eventually the industry began to cater to individuals who wanted to continue to receive satellite TV (and were willing to pay for it) in two ways: by authorizing the descrambling of the original satellite feeds to the cable TV operators and with new direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
television services using their own satellites.
These latter services, which began in the mid 1990s, offer programming similar to cable TV. Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
and DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
are the major DBS providers in the country.
Although most networks make viewers pay, some networks are broadcasting unencrypted feeds. After broadcast TV switched to all digital, new channels became available on unencrypted satellites to bring more free TV to Americans some of these are available as a digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
to local broadcasters, this reason may be for the expensive costs of the DVB-S
DVB-S
DVB-S is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Satellite; it is the original Digital Video Broadcasting forward error coding and demodulation standard for satellite television and dates from 1994, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997...
equipment. NASA TV
NASA TV
NASA TV is the television service of the United States government agency NASA. NASA TV is broadcast by satellite with a simulcast over the Internet. Local cable television systems across the U.S. and amateur television repeaters may carry NASA TV at their discretion, as NASA-created content is...
, Pentagon Channel
Pentagon Channel
The Pentagon Channel is a TV channel broadcasting military news and information for the 2.6 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is widely available on US Public, educational, and government access cable tv channels, can be viewed FTA in most Central and Western European countries ,...
, ABC News Now
ABC News Now
ABC News Now is an American 24-hour news channel offered via digital television, broadband and streaming video at ABCNews.com and on mobile phones. It delivers breaking news, headline news each half hour, and wide range of entertainment and lifestyle programs. The channel is currently available in...
, ThisTV, TheCoolTV
TheCoolTV
THECOOLTV is a United States over-the-air digital subchannel launched in March 2009. The network's current program schedule consists of an all-music video lineup that can be customized to meet an affiliate's preference, along with the three hours per week of E/I programming as required by the...
, and Retro Television Network
Retro Television Network
The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...
(through its affiliates) are examples, international news channels like Al Jazeera English are commonly watched this way as a result to the lack of availability on Cable, DBS and IPTV.
The business of television
Over-the-air commercial stations and networks generate the vast majority of their revenue from advertisementsAdvertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
. According to a 2001 survey, broadcast stations allocated 16 to 21 minutes per hour to commercials. Most cable networks also generate income from advertisements, although most basic cable networks also receive subscription fees. However, premium cable networks, such as the movie network HBO, do not air commercials. Instead, cable-TV subscribers must pay extra to receive the premium networks.
In the days of broadcast television, networks allocated a portion of commercial time for their shows to the local affiliates, which allowed the local stations to generate revenue. In the same manner, cable-TV system operators generate some of their revenue by selling local commercial time for each cable network being broadcast. The other main source of revenue for the cable-TV operators is subscription fees.
Programming
American television has had very successful programming that has inspired television networks across the world to make shows of similar types or broadcast these shows in their own country. Some of these shows are still on the air and some are still alive and well in syndication. The opposite is also true; a number of popular American programs were based on shows from other countries, especially the United Kingdom and Canada.Primetime comedy has included situation comedies
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
such as I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, M*A*S*H, All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
, The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, through June 25, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The show was produced by the T.A.T. Communications Company from 1975–1982 and by Embassy Television from 1982-1985...
, The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
, Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
, George Lopez
George Lopez
George Lopez is an American comedian, actor, and talk show host. He is mostly known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom George Lopez. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including the Mexican American culture...
, The King of Queens
The King of Queens
The King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
and Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of lead actor Ray Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff...
, as well as sketch comedy/variety series such as Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
and Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
's early shows, The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
Dramatic series have taken many forms over the years. Westerns such as Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
had their greatest popularity in the '50s and '60s. Medical dramas have endured (Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television program that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, and was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell...
, St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
, ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
), as have family dramas (Eight is Enough
Eight Is Enough
Eight Is Enough is an American television comedy-drama series which ran on ABC from March 15, 1977 until August 29, 1981. The show was modeled after syndicated newspaper columnist Thomas Braden, a real-life parent with eight children, who wrote a book with the same name...
, The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
, Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
) and crime dramas (Dragnet, Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
, Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
, Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
- the last two of which have spawned multiple spin-offs
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
).
The major networks all offer a morning news program (NBC's The Today Show and ABC's Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
are the standard bearers), as well as an early-evening newscast anchored by the de facto face of the network's news operations (Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
and Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
for CBS; NBC's Chet Huntley
Chet Huntley
Chester Robert "Chet" Huntley was an American television newscaster, best known for co-anchoring NBC's evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, for 14 years beginning in 1956.-Early life:...
, David Brinkley
David Brinkley
David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997....
and Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors...
; ABC's Peter Jennings
Peter Jennings
Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...
). Successful news magazines have included 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, 20/20, and Dateline
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
in primetime and Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
(the US's oldest series, having debuted in 1947), Face the Nation
Face the Nation
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is an American Sunday-morning political interview show which premiered on the CBS television network on November 7, 1954. It is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television...
and This Week
This Week (ABC TV series)
This Week is ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program.The Sunday morning talk show has aired on Sunday mornings on ABC since 1981; the program is initially aired at 9:00 AM ET, although many stations air the program later, especially those in other time zones...
on Sunday mornings.
Reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
has long existed in the United States, both played for laughs (Candid Camera
Candid Camera
Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...
, Real People
Real People
Real People is an NBC reality television series that aired from 1979 to 1984, on Wednesday and then Sunday nights. Its initial episodes aired live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones.-Synopsis:...
) and as drama (COPS
COPS (TV series)
Cops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
, The Real World
The Real World
The Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. First broadcast in 1992, the show, which was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family, is the longest-running program in MTV history and one of the...
). A new variant - competition series placing ordinary people in unusual circumstances or in talent contests, generally eliminating one participant per week - exploded in popularity in 2000 with the launch of Survivor. Big Brother, America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
and So You Think You Can Dance followed; American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
, based on the UK's Pop Idol
Pop Idol
Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...
, debuted in 2002 and has dominated the ratings consistently as of 2009, while The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams...
has won the Emmy for its program category every year since its 2001 debut.
American soap operas have been running for over six decades. Of the six current daytime soaps, four have been on the air for over forty years: General Hospital, Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
, One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
and All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
. Previous long-running daytime dramas included Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
, Love of Life
Love of Life
Love of Life is an American soap opera which aired on CBS Daytime from September 24, 1951 to February 1, 1980. It was created by Roy Winsor, whose previous creation Search for Tomorrow had premiered three weeks before Love of Life, and who would go on to create The Secret Storm two and a half years...
, The Doctors, Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
, As The World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
, and Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
- the latter of which ended a 72-year run (combining TV and radio) in September 2009. Primetime soap operas of note have included Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
, Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
, Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
, Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
and Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
.
Daytime has also been home of many popular game shows over the years (particularly during the 1970s), such as The Price is Right
The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right is a television game show franchise originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and created by Bob Stewart, and is currently produced and owned by FremantleMedia. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed...
, Family Feud
Family Feud
Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...
, Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
, The Newlywed Game
The Newlywed Game
The Newlywed Game is an American television game show that pits newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know each other. The program, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir The Newlywed Game is an American...
and Concentration
Concentration (game show)
Concentration was an American TV game show based on the children's memory game of the same name. Matching cards represented prizes that contestants could win...
. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
have found their greatest success in the early-evening slot before primetime, while game shows actually aired within primetime had great popularity in the 1950s and 1960s (What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
, I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...
, To Tell the Truth
To Tell the Truth
To Tell the Truth is an American television panel game show created by Bob Stewart and produced by Goodson-Todman Productions that has aired in various forms since 1956 both on networks and in syndication...
) and again, intermittently, in the 2000s (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
, The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and will end its run in 2012 when its host Anne Robinson ends her contract. The original British version of the show airs around the world on BBC Entertainment...
, Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which was the Dutch Miljoenenjacht produced by Dutch producer Endemol. It is played with up to 26 cases with certain sums of money...
). The Price Is Right, which has appeared on CBS since 1972, was the only daytime game show remaining on the broadcast networks for fifteen years (prior to CBS's announcement it would be joined by a remake of Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal is a television game show which originated in the United States and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The show is based around deals offered to members of the audience by the host. The traders usually have to weigh the possibility of an offer being...
in October 2009).
The most successful talk show has been the late-night
Late night television
Late night television in the United States is the block of television programming airing after 11:00 pm and usually through 2:00 am. Traditionally, this type of programming airs after the late local news and is most notable for being the daypart used for a particular genre of programming that falls...
(after 11:30 PM Eastern/Pacific) Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
(particularly during the 29-year run of third host Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
). Tonight ushered in a multi-decade period of dominance by one network in American late-night programming and paved the way for many similar combinations of comedy and celebrity interviews, such as those hosted by Merv Griffin
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
and David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
.
Daytime talk show hits have included The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue
Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...
, The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...
, and Live with Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
, and run the gamut from serious to lighthearted; a subset of so-called trash TV talk shows such as The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show is a syndicated television tabloid talk show hosted by Jerry Springer, a former politician, broadcast in the United States and other countries...
also veered into exploitation and titillation.
Children's television programs are also quite popular, though with FCC rules on E/I
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
content and regulations on commercial time during children's shows, over-the-air broadcast stations have found it much harder to profit from these programs compared to in the past. Children's programming has mostly migrated to cable television with such successful shows of recent such as Fanboy & Chum Chum, SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
, iCarly
ICarly
iCarly is an American sitcom that focuses on a girl named Carly Shay who creates her own web show called iCarly with her best friends Sam and Freddie. The series was created by Dan Schneider, who also serves as executive producer. It stars Miranda Cosgrove as Carly, Jennette McCurdy as Sam, Nathan...
, The Suite Life on Deck
The Suite Life on Deck
The Suite Life on Deck is an American sitcom that aired on Disney Channel from September 26, 2008 to May 6, 2011. It is a sequel/spin-off of the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody...
, Big Time Rush
Big Time Rush
Big Time Rush is a Nickelodeon television series created by Scott Fellows about the Hollywood misadventures of four hockey players from Minnesota—Kendall, Logan, James, and Carlos, after they are selected to form a boy band. The series premiered with an hour-long pilot episode, "Big Time...
, Victorious
Victorious
Victorious is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series revolves around aspiring singer Tori Vega , a teenager who attends a performing arts high school called Hollywood Arts High School, after taking her older sister Trina's place in a showcase while getting into...
, Phineas & Ferb, The Fairly OddParents
The Fairly OddParents
The Fairly OddParents is an American-Canadian animated television series created by Butch Hartman about the adventures of Timmy Turner, who is granted fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda. The series started out as cartoon segments that ran from September 4, 1998 to March 23, 2001 on Oh Yeah!...
among others becoming popular on the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
and Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
cable channels. Other channels offering kids and family programming include PBS Kids Sprout
PBS KIDS Sprout
PBS Kids Sprout is a U.S. digital cable television channel, video-on-demand service, and website providing PBS Kids shows and original programming for preschoolers and their families...
, Disney XD, Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
, Boomerang
Boomerang (TV channel)
Boomerang is a 24-hour American cable television channel owned by Turner Broadcasting System, a division of Time Warner. Boomerang specializes in reruns of animated programming from Time Warner's extensive archives, including pre-1986 MGM, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
and others. FCC rules on E/I content may prevent series airing on these channels from being syndicated on over-the-air television stations.
While the majority of programs broadcast on United States television are produced domestically, some programs carried in syndication, on public television or on cable television are imported from outside the U.S.; most commonly, these imported programs come from the primarily English-speaking countries of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in particular, is commonly known for its broadcasts of British comedies such as Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served? is a British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London department store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John...
, Keeping Up Appearances
Keeping Up Appearances
Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. Centred on the life of eccentric, social-climbing snob Hyacinth Bucket , the sitcom portrays a social hierarchy-ruled British society...
and As Time Goes By
As Time Goes By (TV series)
As Time Goes By is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One from 1992 to 2005. Starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, it follows the relationship between two former lovers who meet unexpectedly after not having been in contact for 38 years....
, which typically air on most PBS member stations on weekend evenings. As for Canadian programs, most of the programming imported from Canada includes children's programs from family-oriented specialty channels YTV and Family such as Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Are You Afraid of the Dark? may refer to:* Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a 1992 television series* Are You Afraid of the Dark? , a 2004 novel by Sidney Sheldon...
, Naturally, Sadie
Naturally, Sadie
Naturally, Sadie was a Canadian teen drama sitcom that ran for three seasons from June 24, 2005 to August 26, 2007. It was produced in Canada, set in Whitby, Ontario. Filmed in Toronto, Ontario, most of the show was shot inside a former Catholic elementary school in Little Italy, including the...
and Life with Derek
Life with Derek
Life with Derek is a Canadian television sitcom that aired on Family and VRAK.TV in Canada and on Disney Channel in the United States. The series premiered on Family on September 18, 2005 and ran for four seasons ending on March 25, 2009. The series starred Michael Seater and Ashley Leggat as the...
. Among some of the more well-known Canadian television series among American viewers include the Degrassi High
Degrassi High
Degrassi High is the third television show in the Degrassi series of teen dramas about the lives of a group of kids living on or near De Grassi Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It first aired from 1989 to 1991 and followed the kids from Kids of Degrassi Street and Degrassi Junior High through...
franchise (which aired in Canada on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
, with the later incarnation Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama television series set in the Degrassi universe, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. Degrassi is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, and follows The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and...
airing on CTV and presently MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...
), SCTV Network and The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show is a Canadian television comedy that aired on various channels in Canada, with its ultimate home at CBC Television, and on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States, from 1991 until the series finale April 7, 2006 on CBC...
. American Spanish-language networks also import much of their programming; for example, Univision
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
imports much of its programming, especially telenovelas that are broadcast on the network, from Mexican broadcaster Televisa
Televisa
Televisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
and Venezuelan broadcaster Venevision
Venevisión
Venevisión is one of Venezuela's largest television networks and a Venezuelan cable and terrestrial television network, which is owned and presided over by Gustavo Cisneros...
.
The life cycle of U.S. television shows
Television production companiesProduction company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
either commission teleplay
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
s for TV pilots or buy spec script
Spec script
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio....
s. Some of these scripts are turned into pilots. Those which the production company thinks might be commercially viable are then marketed to television networks—or television distributors for first-run syndication. (KingWorld distributes Oprah
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
in first-run syndication, for example, because that show is syndicated—is not affiliated with a particular network.) A few things in consideration for a TV network to pick up a show is if the show itself is compatible with the network's target audience, the cost of production, and if the show is well liked among network executives.
Networks sometimes preemptively purchase pilots to prevent other nets from controlling them, and the purchase of a pilot is no guarantee that a show will get an order for more episodes. Those that do get "picked up" get either a full or partial-season order, and the show goes into production, usually establishing itself with permanent sets, a full crew and production offices. Writers are hired, directors are selected and work begins, usually during the late spring and summer before the fall season-series premieres. (Shows can also be midseason replacement
Midseason replacement
In American and Canadian television, a midseason replacement is a television series that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between January and May...
, meaning they are ordered specifically to fill holes in a network schedule created by the failure and cancellation of shows which premiered in the fall. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Office are examples of successful midseason replacements.)
The standard broadcast television season in the United States is 22 episodes per season; sitcoms may have 24 or more; animated programs may have more (or fewer) episodes; cable networks with original programming seem to have settled on about 10 or 12 episodes per season, much in line with British television programming.
American soap operas air in the afternoon, five days a week, without any significant break in taping and airing schedules throughout the year. This means that these serials air approximately 260 episodes a year, making their casts and crews the busiest in show business. These shows are rarely, if ever, repeated, making it difficult for viewers to "catch up" when they miss programming. However, cable channel SOAPnet
SOAPnet
SOAPnet is an American cable television channel that broadcasts current and past soap operas and primetime dramas, along with some original programming. The channel launched on January 20, 2000, and is owned by Disney-ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
provides weekly repeats for some broadcasts.
Networks use profits from commercials run during the show to pay the production company, which in turn pays the cast and crew, and keeps a share of the profits for itself. (Networks sometimes act as both production companies and distributors.) As advertising rates are based on the size of the audience, measuring the number of people watching a network is very important. This measurement is known as a show or network's ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. Sweeps months (November, February, May, and to a lesser extent July) are important landmarks in the television year — ratings earned during these periods determining advertising rates until the next sweeps period, therefore shows often have their most exciting plot developments happen during sweeps.
Shows that are successful with audiences and advertisers receive authorization from the network to continue production, until the plotline ends (only for scripted shows) or if the contract expires. Those that are not successful are often quickly told to discontinue production by the network, known as cancellation. There are instances of initially low-rated shows surviving cancellation and later becoming highly-popular, but these are rare. For the most part, shows that are not immediately even moderately successful will be cancelled by the end of November sweeps. Usually if a show is canceled, there is little chance of it ever coming back again especially on the same network it was canceled from, the only show in the US to ever come back from cancellation on the same network is Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. However, canceled shows like Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
, Southland
Southland (TV series)
Southland is an American drama series created by writer Ann Biderman and produced by Warner Bros. Television. It premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009...
, and Medium
Medium (TV series)
Medium is an American television drama series that premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005, and ended on CBS on January 21, 2011. Themed on supernatural gifts, its lead character, Allison DuBois , is a medium employed as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office...
have been picked up by other networks, which is becoming an increasingly common practice.
Regulation
Broadcast television is regulated by the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
. The FCC awards licenses to local stations, which stipulate stations' commitments to educational and public-interest programming. The FCC also prohibits the airing of "indecent" material over the air between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Although broadcast stations can legally air almost anything they want late at night—and cable networks at all hours—nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
and graphic profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
are very rare on American television, though they are common on pay television services that are free from FCC regulations and pressure from advertisers to tone down content, and often require a subscription to view. Broadcasters fear that airing such material will turn off advertisers and encourage the federal government to strengthen its regulation of television content.
Premium cable networks are exceptions, and often air very racy programming at night, though premium channels often air program content with strong to graphic profanity, violence and nudity in some cases during the daytime hours. Some networks, such as Playboy TV
Playboy TV
Playboy TV is a premium monthly subscription television channel. Since its launch in 1982 in partnership with Cablevision which eventually sold their share back to Playboy, Playboy TV has become a leading entertainment channel for adult entertainment...
, are devoted exclusively to "adult" content and therefore viewers may find scenes of simulated or graphic sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
and nudity on such channels. Cable television is largely, but not entirely, unregulated. Cable systems must include local over-the-air stations in their offerings (see must-carry
Must-carry
In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally-licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.- Canada :...
) and give them low channel numbers. The systems cannot show broadcast-network affiliates from other parts of the country, however cable systems can air stations out of nearby markets if there are no stations affiliated with one of the major networks (though this is becoming far less common with the existence of over-the air stations carrying one network affiliation on the main channel, and affiliating with another network on a digital subchannel, thus allowing these network-affiliated digital subchannels to be carried via digital cable).
Cable systems can also air satellite-relayed over-the-air stations originating from other areas of the United States, known as superstations (of which there are currently only six around the country, the most prominent being WGN America, which airs some programming carried by WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
in Chicago), which for the most part are often aired in rural areas and if carried nationally, may have a separate feed carrying different programming than that of the local area feed that is SyndEx-proof (i.e., syndicated programming that the superstation has obtained full signal rights to) and may omit network programming from that station's network affiliation; all superstations, except for WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
in Boston, are currently affiliated with a broadcast television network as WGN-TV, WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
in New York City, KWGN in Denver and KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
in Los Angeles all being affiliated with The CW and WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
in Secaucus, New Jersey affiliated with MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
.
History of American television
Television first became commercialized in the U.S. in the early 1950s, initially by RCARCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
(through NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, which it owned) and CBS. A number of different broadcast systems had been developed through the end of the 1930s. The National Television System Committee
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
(NTSC) standardized on a 525-line broadcast in 1941 that would provide the basis for TV across the country through the end of the century. Television development halted with the onset of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but pioneers returned to the airwaves when that conflict ended.
There were only a few dozen stations operating at the end of the decade, concentrated on the East and West coasts. The FCC began handing out broadcasting licenses to communities of all sizes in the early 1950s, spurring an explosion of growth in the medium. A brief debacle over the system to use for color
Color television
Color television is part of the history of television, the technology of television and practices associated with television's transmission of moving images in color video....
broadcasts occurred at this time, but was soon settled. Half of all U.S. households had TV sets by 1955, though color was a premium feature for many years (most households able to purchase TV sets could only afford black-and-white models, and few programs were broadcast in color until the mid-1960s).
Many of the earliest TV programs were modified versions of well-established radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
shows. The '50s saw the first flowering of the genres that would distinguish TV from movies and radio: talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s like The Jack Paar Show and sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
s like I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
. Stations across the country also produced their own local programs. Usually carried live, they ranged from simple advertisements to game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
s and children's shows that often featured clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
s and other offbeat characters. Local shows could often be popular and profitable, but concerns about product promotion and other issues led them to almost completely disappear by the mid-1970s.
Subscription television (such as cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
and satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
) became popular in the early 1980s, and has been growing in significance since then- spurring the emergence of multinational conglomerates such as Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
The U.S. has now moved to digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
. A law passed in 2006 required over-the-air stations to cease analog broadcasting by February 2009, but was delayed to June 12.
In 2008, there were an estimated 327 million television sets in the US.
On Sunday, February, 6, 2011, 111 million viewers tuned in to watch the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 45, making it the largest television audience ever for a U.S. TV program. The previous record was set at last year's Super Bowl when the New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts (106.5 million viewers).
External links
- The Museum of Television & Radio
- Museum of Broadcast Communications: The Encyclopedia of Television
- Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
- Now with Bill Moyers: Politics & Media - Big Media - Media Regulation Timeline
- FCC: Television Technology - A Short History
- Turner:Cable Primed to Beat Broadcast, by Anthony Crupi, Mediaweek Dec. 7, 2005.
- AAAA/ANA Annual Study Shows TV Clutter Levels Up Across Most Dayparts by the Association of National Advertisers, Feb. 14, 2002.