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Over the years Television has
gone inside our blood, we breath TV - we eat TV - we live TV... but
how much do we understand Television?
For a normal viewer it is almost
impossible to understand Television though they live in it's surreal world day
in and day out. Its impossible because for us professionals also Television
creates a great challenge to understand it - because it ultimately depends upon
the viewer's choice. When you have 1 channel in your
country you grow up with that and you take in and learn whatever we tell you,
then with time as more comes in we all try to retain you so that you will keep
on watching us - because television is our way of sustenance. But in the process
how much do you gain as a individual and how much do we gain as part of the
Television Industry will always be debated upon. "Understanding the Business of
Television" is just a small effort to understand the business of
Television. Articles written by eminent Industry Professionals from the UK and
US television Industry have been featured here who are in turn are trying to
understand the business of Television. Though the articles are US and UK centric
- the theory applies to all the countries. Some country reached the saturation
point yesterday, some are reaching today and some will reach it tomorrow. We are presenting the selection
of articles in an effort so that every body can take a brief look at the
Television Industry from a different angle and Understand The Business of
Television.
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Part 1: Saturation Point?
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Part 2: Delivery
Platforms
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Television
these days is an industry that is always seeking your attention. They want you
to watch their programmes and remember their channel. They want you to
identify with their channel brand, just like you identify with other brands.
TV channels are always looking to promote their brand and keep you on their
channel...more
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I'm not sure if you've noticed or not,
 but
we seem to have had a revolution in broadcasting. The digital revolution, some
people like to call it. The entire method to which we receive broadcast
pictures and sounds has changed. Perhaps for the better, perhaps not,
but the truth is it's here and we're stuck with it...more
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Part 3: Why run 24 hrs ?
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Part
4: The Branding Game
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In an age where TV channels surround us at all hours
of the day, the idea of questioning the true viability of 24-hour TV seems a
strange one. But with ITV companies, Channel 4, Sky, Telewest and NTL all feeling the pinch, surely the
question really needs to be asked now...more
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ITV has become ITV1,
SkySports.comTV has reverted to being known as Sky Sports News - two recent
examples of just how important the correct brand is to television stations and
networks. But branding isn't just the station name, it's also everything that
identifies the station as being what it is. So, just why is the brand so
important?...more |
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Part 5: Too many Brands
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Part 6: Branding Loyalty
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In the
early days of television, there weren't many channel, or channel-like brands.
One of the earliest would have been the separate Children's Television brand
for children's programmes on the BBC Television Service in the late 1940's and
early 1950's. Independent Television News, or ITN, was the brand on the news
bulletins of the early ITA services of the 1950's and 1960's. Slowly, over the
years, more brands have come into being and become accepted, as channel or
channel-like brands...more |
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Branding today is more about
making money than it seemed to be back in the 1950s. Back then it was used to
get the viewers to watch and trust the channel before putting adverts on in
front of them. That is how the past of television presentation seems to the
younger presentation enthusiast...more
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Part 7:Inventing new formulas!
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Part 8: We are the Best
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Broadcasting has changed. A revolution began in 1987, when satellite
television arrived in the UK, first with Sky Channel and SuperChannel, then
with the ill-fated British Satellite Broadcasting...more |
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The thing about good presentation is that it is
insidious. The more ill-informed may believe that ‘the majority’ failing to
notice presentation is an example of how unimportant it is...more |
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Part 9: The business of TV Import
& Export
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Part 10: Where to do Imports
and Exports
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Imported series have been a major part of
British
 television
schedules for nearly half a century. The BBC might not have been a huge
importer of programmes until the end of the 1950s, but ITV quickly realised that they
could be attractive to viewers. One, Dragnet, even appeared on Associated-Rediffusion's
first solo evening of programming...more |
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The launch of Sky Television in
 1989
and British Satellite Broadcasting the following year opened up a new market
for imports. With negligible audiences and minuscule programming budgets,
neither side was able to offer up a schedule based around original
productions, so repeats and imports would inevitably form a large part of
the schedules...more |
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Part 11: Should we stop watching TV?
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First off, I have to admit the
falseness of the title. You can’t give up television.
You might want to. You might try. You might even succeed for about 24 hours.
But, eventually and inexorably, you will fail.
Giving up television isn’t possible. Even if, through some superhuman effort,
you did manage to actually stop watching (rather than just claiming to have done
so), you can’t escape TV...more |
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