Drawing on a wealth of academic research, statistics and interviews with key Australian media people including present and former Australian Broadcasting Corporation staffers, this book explores the transitions of the ABC under various types of organisational re-strategising, governance and political shifts. The book provides the reader with an authoritative narrative as to how the ABC has lost its iconic status in Australian society, and unfolds how the ABC has strayed from its respected public charter which endowed the ABC with a distinctive and important role in informing, educating and entertaining the Australian public. Successive federal government funding cuts have shrunk staffing levels and services while it has pursued a corporatist model that mimics the trappings and practices of commercial media. In that process it has become politicised and trivialised, thereby threatening its demise. The book is a unique and timely contribution at a time of dwindling interest for the funding of public assets everywhere. There is no other book in the market that addresses the decline of the organisation (the ABC) and analyses the reasons for its demise within an organisational theoretical framework. The book is written for an educated general audience, with academics and media practitioners specifically in mind, and has everyday applications for business organisations operating in the public sector by bringing together important findings of public funding, budgets, management and organisational strategies and evolution.

Inside the BBC and CNN provides a unique insight into two of the world's best-known media organisations, during a period of great change and new challenges. The BBC and CNN have very different histories, remits and identities, but both must now compete to provide news in a media environment being reshaped by increasing competition, globalisation, digitisation and convergence.
Drawing on intensive research carried out among senior managers in both organisations, Lucy Küng-Shankleman's study explores the beliefs and attitudes that shape management priorities and broadcasting policy. More controversially, it examines how each organisation's distinct cultural beliefs - about broadcasting's fundamental purpose, about the nature of competition, and about the relationship between competition and quality - have laid the foundations for their current and past success, but could now threaten to limit their ability to respond to the unprecedented changes underway in the world's media landscape.

Game of Thrones was an international sensation, and has been looked at from many different angles. But to date there has been little research into its audiences: who they were, how they engaged with and responded to it. This book presents the findings of a major international research project that garnered more than 10,000 responses to an innovative 'qualiquantitative' questionnaire. Among its findings are: a new way of understanding the place and role of favourite characters in audiences' responses; new insights into the role of fantasy in encouraging thinking about our own world; and an account of two combined emotions - relish and anguish - which structure audiences' reactions to controversial elements in the series. -- .

"European Television History" brings together television historians and media scholars to chart the development of television in Europe since its inception. The volume interrogates the history of the medium in divergent political, economic, cultural and ideological national contexts
Taking a comparative approach to the topic, the volume is organized around a set of common questions, themes, and methodological reflectionsDeals with European television in the context of television historiography and transnational traditionsCase study chapters written by scholars from different European countries to reflect their specific areas of expertise

This book seeks to investigate 'platform power' in the multi-platform era and unravels the evolution of power structures in the TV industry as a result of platformisation. Multiple TV platforms and modes of distribution are competing-not necessarily in a zero-sum game-to control the market. In the volume, the contributors work to extend established 'platform theory' to the TV industry, which has become increasingly organised as a platform economy. The book helps to understand how platform power arises in the industry, how it destabilises international relations, and how it is used in the global media value chain. Platform Power and Policy in Transforming Television Markets contributes to the growing field of media industry studies, and draws on scholarly work in communication, political economy and public policy whilst providing a deeper insight into the transformation of the TV industry from an economic, political and consumer level. Avoiding a merely legal analysis from a technology-driven perspective, the book provides a critical analysis of the dominant modes of power within the evolving structures of the global TV value chain.

This book explores the challenges facing women from their mid-forties as they attempt to build/maintain careers in the screen industries. Essays are concerned with the intersection of gender and age on screen and behind the camera and how that can create a 'double jeopardy'. Existing research in this area has been primarily directed to onscreen representation. Female actors, with notable exceptions, struggle to get screen time and expansive roles as they age. Behind the camera, women 45+ also face challenges and roadblocks; to date, less attention has been directed to this group. The cross-cultural research in this collection offers an analysis of representation, on and off screen, touching on film, television, streaming services and film festivals. It includes an exploration of gendered ageism, age bias and stereotyping. It also highlights the achievements of mature female practitioners who, in their work and working lives, embody a resistance to restrictive cultural discourses about ageing women.

Media critics invariably disparage the quality of programming produced by the U.S. television industry. But why the industry produces what it does is a question largely unasked. It is this question, at the crux of American popular culture, that "Switching Channels" explores.

In the past twenty-five years, the expansion of cable and satellite systems has transformed television. Richard Caves examines the economics of this phenomenon--and the nature and logic of the broadcast networks' response to the incursion of cable TV, especially the shift to inexpensive unscripted game and "reality" shows and "news" magazines. An explanation of these changes, Caves argues, requires an understanding of two very different sectors: the "creative industry," which produces programs; and the commercial channels, which bring them to viewers. His book shows how distributors' judgment of profitability determines the quality and character of the programs the creative industry produces. This determination, writes Caves, depends on the number and types of viewers that various programs can attract and advertisers' willingness to pay for their attention, as well as the organization of the networks that package programs, the distributors that transmit them, and the deals these parties strike with one another.

The advanced industrial countries considered replacing the existing analog television infrastructure with a new digital one in the late 1980s and 1990s. Jeffrey Hart's study demonstrates how nationalism and regionalism combined with conflicting ideas over technology to produce three different and incompatible DTV standards in the U.S., Japan and Europe. The outcome has led to missed opportunities in developing new technologies. Hart's work contributes to our understanding of relations between business and government, and of competition between the world's great economic powers.

"You can't win races without working harder than the other guy."

A blazing ball of contradictions and a genuine original, Ted Turner has been labeled a philanthropist and humanist, a fascist and a racist, a madman and one of the canniest entrepreneurs of all times. Hard-driving and hypercompetitive, he has amassed one of the world's largest personal fortunes, only to give much of it away to liberal causes, including $1 billion to the United Nations.

As "Terrible Ted" has proven time and again, behind his outrageous public persona lies one of the most highly disciplined and creative business minds ever. Beginning with a family billboard advertising company, Turner forged a global media empire, and in the process revolutionized television broadcasting. He pioneered the Superstation concept and founded CNN-the first 24-hour, all-news network-along with more than a half-dozen cable channels. Starting with the Atlanta Braves baseball team, Turner also assembled one of today's most lucrative sports conglomerates.

Ted Turner Speaks brings together hundreds of quotes drawn from a wide array of sources. Hear straight from the maverick's mouth the secrets of his phenomenal success in business, entertainment, and philanthropy. Here is just a sample of what you'll find inside:

"Exposure to defeat is a very important thing. Anyone who doesn't look to get beaten is doing a disservice to himself. "

"I may look like a clown doing back flips at a baseball game, but I'm a very deadly serious person trying to accomplish things just for the satisfaction of accomplishing them."

"I bet you're all wondering what it feels like to be a billionaire. It's disappointing really. . . . I've learned that great wealth isn't nearly as good as average sex."

"I give [the networks] hell because they don't serve the public interest. They look at the viewer the same way a slaughterhouse looks at pigs and cattle. They sell them by the pound to the advertiser-the same way they sell ham hocks and spareribs."

"My desire to excel borders on the unhealthy."

The world listens when TED TURNER Speaks

"Losing is simply learning how to win."

"The worst sin, the ultimate sin for me, in anything, is to be bored."

"I just love it when people say I can't do something. There's nothing that makes me feel better, because all my life people have said I wasn't going to make it."

"When you're little, you have to do crazy things. You just can't copy the big guys.

To succeed you have to be innovative."

"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise."

This book has not been prepared, approved, licensed, or endorsed by Ted Turner.

The first comprehensive history of rock and pop on British television, from the early days of Oh Boy and Ready Steady Go!, through the institution that was Top Of The Pops, global events like Live Aid right up to date with Jools Holland's Later.

This book presents a compelling case for a paradigmatic shift in the analysis of television drama production that recentres questions of power, control and sustainability. Television drama production has become an increasingly lucrative global export business as drama as a form enjoys increased prestige. However, this book argues that the growing emphasis on international markets and global players such as Netflix and Amazon Prime neglects the realities of commissioning and making television drama in specific national and regional contexts. Drawing on extensive empirical research, Producing British Television Drama demonstrates the centrality of public service broadcasters in serving audiences and sustaining the commercial independent sector in a digital age. It attends closely to three elements-the role of place in the production of content; the experiences of those working in the sector; and the interventions from cultural intermediaries in articulating and ascribing value to television drama. With chapters examining the evolution of British TV drama, as well as what might be in store in its future, this book offers invaluable insights into the UK as a major supplier of and market for television drama.

Delinquent presenters, controversial executive pay-offs, the Jimmy Savile scandal...The BBC is one of the most successful broadcasters in the world, but its programme triumphs are often accompanied by management crises and high-profile resignations.One of the most respected figures in the broadcasting industry, Roger Mosey has taken senior roles at the BBC for more than twenty years, including as editor of Radio 4's Today programme, head of television news and director of the London 2012 Olympic coverage.Now, in Getting Out Alive, Mosey reveals the hidden underbelly of the BBC, lifting the lid on the angry tirades from politicians and spin doctors, the swirling accusations of bias from left and right alike, and the perils of provoking Margaret Thatcher.Along the way, this remarkable memoir charts the pleasures and pitfalls of life at the top of an organisation that is variously held up as a treasured British institution and cast down as a lumbering, out-of-control behemoth.Engaging, candid and very funny, Getting Out Alive is a true insider account of how the BBC works, why it succeeds and where it falls down.

This collection of 51 essays contains rich memories of Singapore's broadcasting pioneers based in their station atop Caldecott Hill. ON AIR captures the breadth and depth of their experiences over 82 years on the Hill; from the founding in 1936 of the British Malayan Broadcasting Corporation, to Radio and Television Singapore (RTS), to Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), and finally to what is today, Mediacorp. In this book, the writrers have recorded eight decades worth of work experiences and have shared untold stories from the Japanese Occupation of Caldecott Hill, to the fascinating behind-the-scenes happenings that cast light and well known and well loved shows. Illustrated with rare, archival photographs, many not seen before, this publication is the first of its kind that gives an insight into the development of broadcasting in Singapore.

"Radio in the Global Age "offers a fresh, up-to-date, and wide-ranging introduction to the role of radio in contemporary society. It places radio, for the first time, in a global context, and pays special attention to the impact of the Internet, digitalization and globalization on the political-economy of radio. It also provides a new emphasis on the links between music and radio, the impact of formatting, and the broader cultural roles the medium plays in constructing identities and nurturing musical tastes.

Individual chapters explore the changing structures of the radio industry, the way programmes are produced, the act of listening and the construction of audiences, the different meanings attached to programmes, and the cultural impact of radio across the globe. David Hendy portrays a medium of extraordinary contradictions: a cheap and accessible means of communication, but also one increasingly dominated by rigid formats and multinational companies; a highly 'intimate' medium, but one capable of building large communities of listeners scattered across huge spaces; a force for nourishing regional identity, but also a pervasive broadcaster of globalized music products; a 'stimulus to the imagination', but a purveyor of the banal and of the routine. Drawing on recent research from as far afield as Africa, Australasia and Latin America, as well as from the UK and US, the book aims to explore and to explain these paradoxes - and, in the process, to offer an imaginative reworking of Marshall McLuhan's famous dictum that radio is one of the world's 'hot' media.

"Radio in the Global Age "is an invaluable text for undergraduates and researchers in media studies, communicationstudies, journalism, cultural studies, and musicology. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy-makers in the radio industry.

Since its establishment in 1922 the BBC has continually asserted itself as one of the great British institutions at home and abroad. David Pat Walker offers an in-depth analysis of the history of BBC Scotland from its creation in 1923 through to its 50th anniversary in the seventies. Examining how the firm developed over the course of the 20th century, the author portrays how the broadcaster developed its own Scottish identity despite governance from London and how it thrived within the context of the history it reported and created.

As the first collection dedicated to the relationship between television and the U.S. South, Small-Screen Souths addresses the growing interest in how mass culture represents the region and influences popular perceptions of it. In sixteen essays divided into three thematic sections, scholars of southern culture analyse representations of the South in a variety of television shows spanning the history of the medium, from classic network programs such as The Andy Griffith Show and Designing Women to some of today's popular franchises like Duck Dynasty and The Walking Dead. The first section, ""Politics and Identity in the Televisual South,"" focuses on how television constructs understandings of race, gender, sexuality, and class, often adapting to changing configurations of community and identity. The next section, ""Caricatures, Commodities, and Catharsis in the Rural South,"" examines the tension between depictions of southern rural communities and assumptions about abject whiteness, particularly conceptions of poverty and profitized culture. The concluding section, ""(Dis)Locating the South,"" considers the influence of postcolonialism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism in understanding television featuring the region. Throughout, the essays investigate the profuse, often contradictory ways that the U.S. South has been represented on television, seeking to expand and pluralize myopic perspectives of the region. By analysing depictions of the South from the classical network era to the contemporary post-broadcast age, Small-Screen Souths offers a broad historical scope and a multiplicity of theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives on what it means to see the South from the television screen.

TV on Strike examines the 2007 upheaval in the entertainment industry by telling the inside story of the hundred-day writers' strike that crippled Hollywood. The television industry's uneasy transition to the digital age was the driving force behind the most significant labour dispute of the twenty-first century. The strike put a spotlight on how the advent of new-media distribution platforms is reshaping the traditional business models that have governed the entertainment business for decades. The uncertainty that sent writers out into the streets of Los Angeles and New York with picket signs laid bare the depth of the divide, after years of industry consolidation, between the handful of media barons who rule Hollywood and the writers whose works support the industry. With both sides afraid of losing millions in future profits, a critical communication breakdown spurred a brief but fierce fight with repercussions that continue today. The saga of the Writers Guild of America strike is told here as seen through the eyes of key players on both sides of the negotiating table and of the foot soldiers who shocked even themselves with the strength of their resolve to fight for their rights in the face of an ambiguous future.

In an age of proliferating choices, television nevertheless remains the most popular medium in the United States. Americans spend more time with TV than ever before, and many 'new media' forms, such as blu-ray movies, Hulu videos, and Internet widgets, are produced and delivered by the world's most lucrative and powerful television industry. Yet that industry has undergone profound changes since the 1980s, moving from a three-network oligopoly to a sprawling range of channels and services dominated by a handful of major conglomerates. Viewers can now access hundreds of channels at all hours of the day and can search and select from hundreds of thousands of individual programmes on video and Internet services. This diversity has fragmented the size of television audiences and transformed relationships between viewers and television companies. Unlike the first fifty years of television, today's industry leaders can no longer rely on mass audiences and steady revenue flows from big-budget advertisers, and this in turn affects their programming and production strategies.
"The American Television Industry" offers a concise and accessible introduction to TV production, programming, advertising and distribution. Michael Curtin and Jane Shattuc outline how programmes are made and marketed, and provide an insightful overview of key players, practices and future trends. Although star-driven dramas and comedies continue to attract a great deal of critical praise and audience attention, television is increasingly characterised by niche programming services, that, with modest production budgets, compete for audience attention. In this environment, reality TV genres have emerged as attractive programming alternatives for cable services such as the History Channel and the Food Network. Moreover, programming is increasingly delivered on an a la carte, on-demand basis to a diverse array of viewing devices, such as iPods and cell phones.
The book analyses the corporate strategies, technological innovations and cultural transformations that have driven changes in industry strategy, discourse and practice. Making reference to numerous case examples, the authors identify definitive trends and describe key players in industry and government. These are indeed vibrant but unstable times for the American television industry and this volume explains the major forces that will shape the future of the medium in North America and around the world.