Television: Industries and Audiences

L/O: To research the history, companies and regulators in the television industry 

Exam Unit Introduction:

Paper 1: Section A

You will be given an unseen extract from a TV drama to watch and analyse

You will be asked three questions about the extract.

You could be asked about:

• How media language has been used to create meaning 
• How the industry has influenced the meaning 
• The audience's reaction to the extract
• The social, cultural and historical context 

Terminology

Publicity owned TV Channel - Owned media is any communication channel or platform that belongs to your brand that you create and have control over. Funded by government and license fees for the public service. 

Commercial TV Channel - Is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship.

Convergence - Media convergence is the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content,media companies and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularisation of the Internet as well as the activities.

Watershed - Protecting children from harmful material on TV and radio is one of Ofcom’s most important duties. Rules what are shown before 9pm and 5:30am are Watershed.

Segmented market - Market segmentation is the activity of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as segments).

Mainstream - Mass audience. Traditional forms of mass communication, such as newspapers, television, and radio (as opposed to the Internet) regarded collectively. 

Self-regulating - Newspapers on a laptop. The Representative helps the media create or develop self-regulation mechanisms that are independent from government control and are designed to uphold the quality of media.

Franchise - Also known as multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Regulated by outside bodies.

Channel-surfing - Channel surfing (also known as channel hopping or zapping) is the practice of quickly scanning through different television channels or radio frequencies to find something interesting to watch or listen to.

PSB - Public Service Broadcasting is broadcasting made, financed and controlled by the public, for the public. It is neither commercial nor state-owned, free from political interference and pressure from commercial forces. Through PSB, citizens are informed, educated and also entertained.

TV License - A TV Licence is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, and to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer.

Scheduling - Media Scheduling refers to the pattern of timing of an advertising which is represented as plots on a flowchart on a yearly basis. The plots in the flowchart indicate the pattern of periods that matches with favourable selling periods.

Conglomerate - A conglomerate is a large company composed of a number of smaller companies (subsidiaries) engaged in generally unrelated businesses.

Research Task:

1. When was TV introduced to the UK? Broadcast television started in the UK in 1936, but was subsequently shutdown during the war years (1939 - 45). Broadcasts were restarted in 1946.
2. In 1965, how many channels were there in the UK and what were they?
3. When did ITV start? Why was it different? It was an independant company
4. Which UK channels have to follow PSB remits?
5. Who regulates TV now?
6. Who regulates TV channels in the 1960s?
7. List the differences between TV in the 60s and now.