"An engaging, balanced and thoroughly researched history. It is often a moving and amusing tale containing plenty of mavericks and colourful episodes." (Lawrence James, The Times) Auntie's War is a love letter to radio. The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British institution unlike any other, and its story during the Second World War is also our story. This was Britain's first total war, engaging the whole nation, and the wireless played a crucial role in it. For the first time, news of the conflict reached every living room - sometimes almost as it happened; and at key moments: - Chamberlain's announcement of war - The Blitz - The D-Day landings - De Gaulle's broadcasts from exile - Churchill's fighting speeches Radio offered an incomparable tool for propaganda; it was how coded messages, both political and personal, were sent across Europe, and it was a means of sending less than truthful information to the enemy. Edward Stourton is a sharp-eyed, wry and affectionate companion on the BBC's wartime journey, investigating archives, diaries, letters and memoirs to examine what the BBC was and what it stood for. Auntie's War is an incomparable insight into why we have the broadcast culture we do today. A BBC RADIO 4: BOOK OF THE WEEK

In this study of the laws and policies associated with commercial radio and television, the author reverses the usual take on broadcasting and markets by showing that government regulation creates rather than intervenes in the market. Analyzing the processes by which commercial media are organized, Streeter asks how it is possible to take the practice of broadcasting - the reproduction of disembodied sounds and pictures for dissemination to vast unseen audiences - and constitute it as something that can be bought, owned and sold. With a command of broadcast history, as well as critical and cultural studies of the media, Streeter shows that liberal marketplace principles - ideas of individuality, property, public interest and markets - have come into contradiction with themselves. Commercial broadcasting is dependent on government privileges, and Streeter provides a critique of the political choices of corporate liberalism that shape the landscape of cultural property and electronic intangibles.

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.

A guide to the nature, purpose, and place of public service television within a multi-platform, multichannel ecology. Television is on the verge of both decline and rebirth. Vast technological change has brought about financial uncertainty as well as new creative possibilities for producers, distributors, and viewers. This volume from Goldsmiths Press examines not only the unexpected resilience of TV as cultural pastime and aesthetic practice but also the prospects for public service television in a digital, multichannel ecology. The proliferation of platforms from Amazon and Netflix to YouTube and the vlogosphere means intense competition for audiences traditionally dominated by legacy broadcasters. Public service broadcasters-whether the BBC, the German ARD, or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation-are particularly vulnerable to this volatility. Born in the more stable political and cultural conditions of the twentieth century, they face a range of pressures on their revenue, their remits, and indeed their very futures. This book reflects on the issues raised in Lord Puttnam's 2016 Public Service TV Inquiry Report, with contributions from leading broadcasters, academics, and regulators. With resonance for students, professionals, and consumers with a stake in British media, it serves both as historical record and as a look at the future of television in an on-demand age. Contributors include Tess Alps, Patrick Barwise, James Bennett, Georgie Born, Natasha Cox, Gunn Enli, Des Freedman, Vana Goblot, David Hendy, Jennifer Holt, Amanda D. Lotz, Sarita Malik, Matthew Powers, Lord Puttnam, Trine Syvertsen, Jon Thoday, Mark Thompson

The American public has consistently declared itself less concerned with foreign affairs in the post-Cold War era, even after 9/11, than at any time since World War II. How can it be, then, that public attentiveness to U.S. foreign policy crises has increased? This book represents the first systematic attempt to explain this apparent paradox. Matthew Baum argues that the answer lies in changes to television's presentation of political information. In so doing he develops a compelling "byproduct" theory of information consumption. The information revolution has fundamentally changed the way the mass media, especially television, covers foreign policy. Traditional news has been repackaged into numerous entertainment-oriented news programs and talk shows. By transforming political issues involving scandal or violence (especially attacks against America) into entertainment, the "soft news" media have actually captured more viewers who will now follow news about foreign crises, due to its entertainment value, even if they remain uninterested in foreign policy.

Baum rigorously tests his theory through content analyses of traditional and soft news media coverage of various post-WWII U.S. foreign crises and statistical analyses of public opinion surveys. The results hold key implications for the future of American politics and foreign policy. For instance, watching soft news reinforces isolationism among many inattentive Americans. Scholars, political analysts, and even politicians have tended to ignore the soft news media and politically disengaged citizens. But, as this well-written book cogently demonstrates, soft news viewers represent a largely untapped reservoir of unusually persuadable voters.

The environment for public, educational, and governmental (PEG) cable channels is being roiled by public policy and budgetary changes at the federal, state, and local levels and by technological changes in cable networks. More than 100 PEG access centres -- which provide community groups and individuals free access to video production facilities and equipment, training, and programming time -- have closed since 2005, and many more may close when provisions in recently enacted state laws that eliminate requirements for cable companies to provide funding support take effect. This book examines the challenges and policy considerations facing small-market television.

The media industry plays a vital role in informing and entertaining the public. Media ownership and the availability of diverse programming have been a long-standing concern of Congress. Despite numerous programming choices in television and radio available to the public, some studies have reported that independently produced programming, that is, programming not affiliated with broadcast networks or cable operators, has decreased through the years. This book discusses the extent to which the sources of television programming have changed over the last decade; the factors industry stakeholders identified as affecting the availability of independent television programming; and the factors industry stakeholders identified as influencing decisions in radio.

Most broadcast television stations' viewing areas extend far beyond the borders of their city of license, and in many cases extend beyond state borders. Under existing FCC rules, which are intended to foster "localism," the licensee's explicit public interest obligation is limited to serving the needs and interests of viewers within the city of license. Yet, in many cases, the population residing in the city of license is only a small proportion of the total population receiving the station's signal. Hundreds of thousands of television households in New Jersey (outside New York City and Philadelphia), Delaware (outside Philadelphia), western Connecticut (outside New York City), New Hampshire (outside Boston), Kansas (outside Kansas City, Missouri), Indiana (outside Chicago), Illinois (outside St. Louis), and Kentucky (outside Cincinnati) have little or no access to broadcast television stations with city of license in their own state. The same holds true for several rural states ? including Idaho, Arkansas, and especially Wyoming, where 54.55% of television households are located in television markets outside the state. Although market forces often provide broadcasters the incentive to be responsive to their entire serving area, that is not always the case. This report provides, for each state, detailed county-by-county data on the percentage of television households located in television markets outside the state and whether there are any in-state stations serving those households. The Nielsen Designated Market Areas ("DMAs") also often extend beyond state borders. Local cable operators are required to carry the broadcast signals of television stations located in their DMA. If they are located in a DMA for which the primary city is in another state, and most or all of the television stations in that DMA have city of license in the other state, then the broadcast television signals they must carry will be primarily or entirely from out of state. In some cases, they may not be allowed to carry signals from within the state but outside the DMA to provide news or sports programming of special interest in their state because of network non-duplication, syndicated exclusivity, or sports programming blackout rules or because of private network affiliation contract agreements, or may be discouraged to do so because these signals do not qualify for the royalty-free permanent compulsory copyright license for local broadcast signals. The Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004 expanded the scope of in-state television signals that satellite operators are permitted (and in some cases required) to offer subscribers. In addition to the signals of those broadcast television stations with city of license within the DMA in which the subscriber is located ("local-into-local" service), satellite operators may offer (subject to certain restrictions) signals from outside the DMA if those signals are "significantly viewed" by those households in the subscriber's geographic area that only receive their broadcast signals over-the-air (not via cable or satellite). In addition, satellite operators may offer certain subscribers located in New Hampshire, Vermont, Mississippi, and Oregon certain in-state signals from outside the subscribers' DMA and must offer subscribers in Alaska and Hawaii certain in-state signals.

How big data is transforming the creative industries, and how those industries can use lessons from Netflix, Amazon, and Apple to fight back. "[The authors explain] gently yet firmly exactly how the internet threatens established ways and what can and cannot be done about it. Their book should be required for anyone who wishes to believe that nothing much has changed." -The Wall Street Journal "Packed with examples, from the nimble-footed who reacted quickly to adapt their businesses, to laggards who lost empires." -Financial Times Traditional network television programming has always followed the same script: executives approve a pilot, order a trial number of episodes, and broadcast them, expecting viewers to watch a given show on their television sets at the same time every week. But then came Netflix's House of Cards. Netflix gauged the show's potential from data it had gathered about subscribers' preferences, ordered two seasons without seeing a pilot, and uploaded the first thirteen episodes all at once for viewers to watch whenever they wanted on the devices of their choice. In this book, Michael Smith and Rahul Telang, experts on entertainment analytics, show how the success of House of Cards upended the film and TV industries-and how companies like Amazon and Apple are changing the rules in other entertainment industries, notably publishing and music. We're living through a period of unprecedented technological disruption in the entertainment industries. Just about everything is affected: pricing, production, distribution, piracy. Smith and Telang discuss niche products and the long tail, product differentiation, price discrimination, and incentives for users not to steal content. To survive and succeed, businesses have to adapt rapidly and creatively. Smith and Telang explain how. How can companies discover who their customers are, what they want, and how much they are willing to pay for it? Data. The entertainment industries, must learn to play a little "moneyball." The bottom line: follow the data.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was created out of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (P.L. 90-129). The CPB was intended to provide a funding mechanism for individual public broadcasting stations, but not subject these stations to political influence or favouritism. Therefore, the CPB receives an annual appropriation, and then uses this money, in addition to foundation, corporate, individual memberships, and other funding sources, to provide grants to individual public television and radio broadcast entities. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), National Public Radio (NPR), and Public Radio International (PRI) do not receive any direct appropriations from CPB; all of the appropriated money goes directly to member stations of these organisations. The number of radio and television public broadcasting stations supported by the CPB increased from 270 in 1969 to approximately 1,100 as of August 2003, of which 356 are television stations. Public broadcasting stations are mostly run by universities, non-profit community associations, and state government agencies. Public broadcasting is regarded as a public service. To serve most Americans, public television reaches approximately 99% of the population and public radio, 91%. With regard to programming, the public broadcasting system observes the principle of local autonomy. That is, public broadcasting stations make decisions independently of the CPB as to what programming will be available to their viewing or listening audience as well as on their programming schedule. The CPB serves as an umbrella organisation for public television and radio Broadcasting. The CPB's principal function is to receive and distribute government contributions (or federal appropriations) to fund national programs and to support qualified member radio and television stations based on legislatively mandated formulas. The bulk of these funds are to provide Community Service Grants (or CSGs) to member stations that have matching funds. By law, the CPB is authorised to exercise minimum control of "program content or other activities" of local member stations. The CPB is prohibited from owning or operating any of the primary facilities used in broadcasting. In addition, it may not produce, disseminate, or schedule programs. This new book presents the issues dealing with this 'hot' topic.

On 12 September 1988 the BBC news carried the story of the attempted assassination of Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, then Head of the Civil Service in Northern Ireland. In the aftermath of this event Gerry Adams used the media to warn all other Civil Service 'collaborators' that they were under threat from the IRA. In response Margaret Thatcher introduced the broadcasting ban, ensuring that terrorists were unable to freely articulate threats through the British media. Though the ban was not advocated by Ken Bloomfield, this event provided his first major role in the contemporary history of the BBC.From 1927-2007 the Board of Governors of the BBC regulated the Corporation and represented the public in its management. Ken Bloomfield served as Regional Governor for Northern Ireland, Head of the BBC Audit Committee, and Chair of the Northern Ireland Broadcasting Council from 1991-1999, one of the longest terms in that position. During this time he brought considerable political and managerial experience to the Corporation in a period of uncertainty and change, presiding over a challenging period within Northern Ireland but also within at least two revolutions within the BBC. Bloomfield was the only Governor to serve on the Board through the entire period from John Birt's accession to the Director Generalship to the choice of Greg Dyke to succeed him. He offers critical judgements on the Birt and Dyke regimes, and on the Hutton Inquiry and events leading up to and following it. He expresses regret at the replacement of Governors by a Trust and examines the challenges facing the Corporation today.

In print for more than seven decades as Broadcasting Yearbook and more recently, Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook, this directory has been the go-to source for station data and industry contacts in the US and Canadian television, radio and cable marketplace.

""NBC: America's Network" makes a significant contribution to our understanding of American broadcasting. Hilmes makes a convincing case for the appropriateness of an examination of a single firm, NBC, to illuminate the major themes and events of American broadcast history. In addition, she adeptly synthesizes a strong set of individually-authored chapters on specific historical periods, controversies, and program genres into a coherent whole. The writing is concise and lively and the breadth and depth of the material makes this a exceptional work."--William Boddy, author of "New Media and Popular Imagination"
""NBC: America's Network" is an outstanding book about one network across US television history. Hilmes is an excellent editor who brings broad insights about the television industry to bear on this volume. The individual essays present different approaches and methods, and together provide an integrated history of NBC with analysis that respects the medium and the people that worked in it."--Mary Beth Haralovich, co-editor of "Television, History, and American Culture: Feminist Critical Essays."
"Filled with highly readable essays by the top scholars in the field, "NBC: America's Network "explores key, often watershed moments in the network's history to illuminate the central role broadcasting has played in constituting public discourse about what is-and what is not-in the public interest. A welcome addition to the history of broadcasting, and essential reading for anyone interested in the transformative role of radio and TV in modern life."--Susan J. Douglas, author of "Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination"

Unique, readable first hand accounts of one of the most significant periods in British television history. Introductory essay from leading academic Julia Hallam (University of Liverpool), sets the creation of Granada in the context of British broadcasting history and of television as it is today. Provides an insight into the culture of Granada TV during its pioneering early years, from the perspectives of writers, producers, directors, technicians and presenters.. An illustrious collection of contributors, to name a few; Lord Isaacs, Lord MacDonald, Lord Birt, Michael Parkinson, Michael Apted, Stan Barstow, Nick Elliott, Victoria Wood, Kenith Trodd, Jack Rosenthal, Charles Sturridge, Anna Ford, Chris Kelly and Alan Plater. Concerns the production of such legendary programmes as World in Action,'Brideshead Revisited, Coronation Street, A Family at War and What the Papers Say. -- .

The Aesthetics of Nostalgia TV explores the aesthetic politics of nostalgia for 1950s and 60s America on contemporary television. Specifically, it looks at how nostalgic TV production design shapes and is shaped by larger historical discourses on gender and technological change, and America's perceived decline as a global power. Alex Bevan argues that the aesthetics of nostalgic TV tell stories of their own about historical decline and progress, and the place of the baby boomer television suburb in American national memory. She contests theories on nostalgia that see it as stagnating, regressive, or a reversion to outdated gender and racial politics, and the technophobic longing for a bygone era; and, instead, argues nostalgia is an important form of historical memory and vehicle for negotiating periods of historical transition. The book addresses how and why the shows construct the boomer era as a placeholder for gender, racial, technological, and declensionist discourses of the present. The book uses Mad Men (AMC, 2007-2015), Ugly Betty (ABC, 2006-2010), Desperate Housewives (ABC, 2004-2012), and film remakes of 1950s and 60s family sitcoms as primary case studies.

"Distribution Revolution" is a collection of interviews with leading film and TV professionals concerning the many ways that digital delivery systems are transforming the entertainment business. These interviews provide lively insider accounts from studio executives, distribution professionals, and creative talent of the tumultuous transformation of film and TV in the digital era. The first section features interviews with top executives at major Hollywood studios, providing a window into the big-picture concerns of media conglomerates with respect to changing business models, revenue streams, and audience behaviors. The second focuses on innovative enterprises that are providing path-breaking models for new modes of content creation, curation, and distribution--creatively meshing the strategies and practices of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. And the final section offers insights from creative talent whose professional practices, compensation, and everyday working conditions have been transformed over the past ten years. Taken together, these interviews demonstrate that virtually every aspect of the film and television businesses is being affected by the digital distribution revolution, a revolution that has likely just begun.
Interviewees include:
- Gary Newman, Chairman, 20th Century Fox Television
- Kelly Summers, Former Vice President, Global Business Development and New Media Strategy, Walt Disney Studios
- Thomas Gewecke, Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Warner Bros. Entertainment
- Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, Netflix
- Felicia D. Henderson, Writer-Producer, "Soul Food," "Gossip Girl"
- Dick Wolf, Executive Producer and Creator, "Law & Order"

Modeled after the BBC, the Palestine Broadcasting Service was launched in 1936 to serve as the national radio station of Mandate Palestine, playing a pivotal role in shaping the culture of the emerging middle class in the region. Despite its significance, the PBS has become nearly forgotten by scholars of twentieth-century Middle Eastern studies. Drawn extensively from British and Israeli archival sources, “This Is Jerusalem Calling” traces the compelling history of the PBS’s twelve years of operation, illuminating crucial aspects of a period when Jewish and Arab national movements simultaneously took form. Andrea L. Stanton describes the ways in which the mandate government used broadcasting to cater to varied audiences, including rural Arab listeners, in an attempt to promote a “modern” vision of Arab Palestine as an urbane, politically sophisticated region. In addition to programming designed for the education of the peasantry, religious broadcasting was created to appeal to all three main faith communities in Palestine, which ultimately may have had a disintegrating, separatist effect. Stanton’s research brings to light the manifestation of Britain’s attempts to prepare its mandate state for self-governance while supporting the aims of Zionists. While the PBS did not create the conflict between Arab Palestinians and Zionists, the service reflected, articulated, and magnified such tensions during an era when radio broadcasting was becoming a key communication tool for emerging national identities around the globe.

Go behind the TV screen to explore what is changing, why it is changing, and why the changes matters Many proclaimed the "end of television" in the early years of the twenty-first century, as capabilities and features of the boxes that occupied a central space in American living rooms for the preceding fifty years were radically remade. In this revised, second edition of her definitive book, Amanda D. Lotz proves that rumors of the death of television were greatly exaggerated and explores how new distribution and viewing technologies have resurrected the medium. Shifts in the basic practices of making and distributing television have not been hastening its demise, but are redefining what we can do with television, what we expect from it, how we use it-in short, revolutionizing it. Television, as both a technology and a tool for cultural storytelling, remains as important today as ever, but it has changed in fundamental ways. The Television Will Be Revolutionized provides a sophisticated history of the present, examining television in what Lotz terms the "post-network" era while providing frameworks for understanding the continued change in the medium. The second edition addresses adjustments throughout the industry wrought by broadband delivered television such as Netflix, YouTube, and cross-platform initiatives like TV Everywhere, as well as how technologies such as tablets and smartphones have changed how and where we view. Lotz begins to deconstruct the future of different kinds of television-exploring how "prized content," live television sports and contests, and linear viewing may all be "television," but very different types of television for both viewers and producers. Through interviews with those working in the industry, surveys of trade publications, and consideration of an extensive array of popular shows, Lotz takes us behind the screen to explore what is changing, why it is changing, and why the changes matter.

The behind-the-scenes story of how admen and sponsors helped shape broadcasting into a popular commercial entertainment medium.
During the "golden age" of radio, from roughly the late 1920s until the late 1940s, advertising agencies were arguably the most important sources of radio entertainment. Most nationally broadcast programs on network radio were created, produced, written, and/or managed by advertising agencies: for example, J. Walter Thompson produced "Kraft Music Hall" for Kraft; Benton & Bowles oversaw "Show Boat" for Maxwell House Coffee; and Young & Rubicam managed "Town Hall Tonight" with comedian Fred Allen for Bristol-Myers. Yet this fact has disappeared from popular memory and receives little attention from media scholars and historians. By repositioning the advertising industry as a central agent in the development of broadcasting, author Cynthia B. Meyers challenges conventional views about the role of advertising in culture, the integration of media industries, and the role of commercialism in broadcasting history.
Based largely on archival materials, A Word from Our Sponsor mines agency records from the J. Walter Thompson papers at Duke University, which include staff meeting transcriptions, memos, and account histories; agency records of BBDO, Benton & Bowles, Young & Rubicam, and N. W. Ayer; contemporaneous trade publications; and the voluminous correspondence between NBC and agency executives in the NBC Records at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Mediating between audiences' desire for entertainment and advertisers' desire for sales, admen combined "showmanship" with "salesmanship" to produce a uniquely American form of commercial culture. In recounting the history of this form, Meyers enriches and corrects our understanding not only of broadcasting history but also of advertising history, business history, and American cultural history from the 1920s to the 1940s.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report have attracted much interest in recent years from popular audiences as well as scholars in various disciplines. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been named on Time magazine's list of the most influential people in the world. The ten essays in this interdisciplinary collection explore the issues engendered by the popularity of entertainment news, including the role of satire in politics, the declining level of trust in traditional sources of media, the shows' cathartic or informational function, and the ways in which these shows influence public opinion. It is a vital addition to the scholarship on the collision of pop culture and politics.

This book provides an in-depth introduction to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) and the policies that govern them. Established in 1906, these regulations define the allocation of different frequency bands to different radio services, the mandatory technical parameters to be observed by radio stations, especially transmitters, and the procedures for spectrum use coordination at the international level. The book analyzes the interactions between different national policies and the ITU RR, noting how these interactions influence spectrum policy on the national level, setting up a comparative framework within which to view these regulations and their effects. Beginning with an overview of the history of the origins ITU RR, the book takes a deep dive into the components of spectrum management including radio communication service allocation, wireless technology selection, radio usage rights, and spectrum rights assignment, placing each analysis within the context of the push and pull between national and international regulations. The book concludes with chapters discussing issues affecting the future of spectrum policy, including spectrum policy reform in developing countries, the WRC-19, and IMT-2020. Shedding light on the longest-running treaty documents in the history of modern telecommunications and arguing for reforms that allow it to address the needs of all nations, this book is useful to scholars and students of telecom policy, digital policy, ICT, governance, and development as well as telecom industry practitioners and regulators.

Examining work by novelists, filmmakers, TV producers and songwriters, this book uncovers the manner in which the radio – and the act of listening – has been written about for the past 100 years. Ever since the first public wireless broadcasts, people have been writing about the radio: often negatively, sometimes full of praise, but always with an eye and an ear to explain and offer an opinion about what they think they have heard. Novelists including Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Evelyn Waugh, and James Joyce wrote about characters listening to this new medium with mixtures of delight, frustration, and despair. Clint Eastwood frightened moviegoers half to death in Play Misty for Me, but Lou Reed's ‘Rock & Roll’ said listening to a New York station had saved Jenny's life. Frasier showed the urbane side of broadcasting, whilst Good Morning, Vietnam exploded from the cinema screen with a raw energy all of its own. Queen thought that all the audience heard was ‘ga ga’, even as The Buggles said video had killed the radio star and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers lamented ‘The Last DJ’. This book explores the cultural fascination with radio; the act of listening as a cultural expression – focusing on fiction, films and songs about radio. Martin Cooper, a broadcaster and academic, uses these movies, TV shows, songs, novels and more to tell a story of listening to the radio – as created by these contemporary writers, filmmakers, and musicians.