Television History and Genres

Nature of television research Primary material is almost totally lacking from the first decades of television Most of the secondary material is relatively difficult to get hold of Particularly as regards distribution television is even more technology-bound than cinema Partly due to technical reasons state and international control has been inevitable The question about commercial concerns and public responsibilities has always been prominent The social significance is even greater than that of cinema Television enjoys less cultural prestige than film Study of television aesthetics is only gradually emerging

Major innovations Samuel F.B. Morse: Telegraph (1843 ) Alexander Bain: Copy-telegraph (1843, a predecessor of the fax machine) Alexander Graham Bell: electric transmission of sound (1876) → telephone Willoughby Smith & Joseph May: the conductivity of selenium alters according to the lighting (1873) → the idea of electrical transmitting of images Constantine Perskyi: uses the word television in his lecture at a conference on the magnetic properties of selenium in Paris in 1900 Archibald Swinton: the idea of the cathode ray tube (1908) Several attempts at electrical transmission of images (1909)

Institutional frameworks of broadcasting Main modes of nationwide operation – Commercial networks (USA) – Centralized state governed system (BBC, YLE) – Ideologically controlled state system (USSR) Local radios – Near anarchy on radio waves necessitates state control irrespective of the nationwide mode of operation (1920s) – Some local radio stations survive precariously – Political and technological development gradually enable the resurgence of local radio stations Pirate radio stations (1960s)

Broadcasting begins in the USA Westinghouse Electric establishes KDKA radio station in 1920 KDKA’s success leads to rapid increase of radio stations all over the country Licences granted without restraint: within three years almost 600 stations radio amateurs licensed to broadcast → chaos on radio waves Attempts to drown competitors by using ever more powerful transmitters Freedom of speech vs. anarchy 1922 restraints imposed on licensing

Networks (verkkoryhmät) produce or acquire the rights to programs distribute them through a network of radio stations (affiliates) secure uniform scheduled broadcast on a dispersed group of local outlets insure fixed costs of program production offer efficient distribution and maximum degree exposure to mass audiences pay for affiliates in proportion to the markets they reach (station compensation)

Networks in the USA National Broadcasting Company (NBC, 1926). Director: ’General’ David Sarnoff. Owned by Radio Corporation of America (RCA) Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS, 1928). Director: William S. Paley American Broadcasting Company (ABC, created as NBC is split into two due to anti trust measures 1943). Founder: Edward Noble DuMont Network ( ). Director: Allen B DuMont Fox (1985). Director: Rupert Murdoch

Public control and commercial interests Radio companies have general public service duties Supervising body: Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Division into sponsored and sustaining (cultural, educational, informative) programs. At first a show was usually sponsored by a single business Formats targeted on certain sectors of the audience begin to from in the 1930s In the 1950s DuMont starts selling advertising blocks to multiple sponsors

John Reith’s (long serving director of BBC) ideals “ Broadcasting is a servant of culture.” “As we conceive it, our responsibility is to carry out into the greatest possible number of homes everything that is best in every department of human knowledge, endeavour or achievement” Goals: to inform, to educate, to entertain

Reith’s concept of national broadcasting The broadcasting company should broadcast to everyone in the country who wants to listen maintain high standards have a monopoly be financed by a licence fee be institutionally and editorially independent, both as regards commercial concerns and government interference

The first TV-demonstrations Supported by General Electric Company and Westinghouse Charles Francis Jenkins demonstrates his device to journalists in1923 Three week demonstration of John Logie Baird’s electromechanical system at Selfridges in London 1925 Westinghouse Electric “radio-movies” demonstration at KDKA radio stations in 1928 Dr. Vladimir K Zworykin 1929 introduces the kinescope he has patented to a scholarly public. In order to avoid flicker Zworykin divided in his iconoscope each frame into two consecutie fields RCA demonstration at the New York World Exhibition in 1939

First broadcasts in Europe Germany – Televising of the Berlin 1936 Olympics (180 lines) – Only a few Volksfernsehen are sold – Broadcasts also during the war (441 lines) Britain – BBC Broadcasts from Alexandra Palace in London (405 lines) – Varied programming for two separate hours on weekdays – Equipment was expensive and only a few thousand were sold – Activities were discontinued as the war begun

BBC pre-war television programming Quizzes Music and revue numbers Cricket and boxing matches Outside broadcasts Drama from Shakespeare, Shaw and Coward to light entertainment Special broadcasts – Coronation of George VI – Neville Chamberlain’s return from Munich