The former president (Jankowski) and senior vice president (Fuchs)
of CBS consider television's future and find the corporate networks
in great shape despite cable TV's rise. The authors argue that the
networks possess inherent strengths that will keep them powerful
for many years to come. These include: tremendous concentrations of
money, talent, and experience with long-established methods of
creating popular entertainment; alliances with affiliates that pool
news and other resources; and enormous audiences that will continue
to lure advertisers. The virtues of the network concept explain
Rupert Murdoch's recent success in building Fox and Ted Turner's
attempted takeover of CBS, which occurred even as the media was
sounding the networks' death knell. Meanwhile, a growing number of
cable channels and emerging alternatives, though hobbled by a
scarcity of money and talent, must fight for ever tinier slices of
the viewer pie. This argument may be seen as self-serving, given
the authors' backgrounds, and much of the rest of the book is
little more than an apologia for TV. Sections on violence fail to
consider important evidence of links between television and
real-world violence. Other arguments - that Americans want lowest
common denominator entertainment, and that TV can't provide more
balanced electoral coverage - also fail to persuade. But there's a
strong dose of common sense in the authors' skepticism about the
threat posed by cable and by developments like high-definition
television, pay-per-view, and home shopping. The book also offers a
solid overview of how networks function, of government regulation
of TV, and of public television. Anyone betting heavily on the
"information superhighway" should consider this bottom-line view.
Take the rest with a grain of salt. (Kirkus Reviews)
In recent years, the media has been awash in exuberant tales of the
arrival of the information superhighway, when television will
explode with exciting possibilities, offering some 500 channels as
well as a marriage of TV and computer that will provide, on
command, access to the latest movies, magazines, newspapers, books,
sports events, stock exchange figures, your bank account, and much,
much more. And the major TV networks, pundits add, will be doomed
to extinction by this revolution in cable, computers, and fiber
optics. But in Television Today and Tomorrow, Gene
Jankowski--former President and Chairman of the CBS Broadcast
Group--and David Fuchs--also a former top executive at CBS--tell a
different story. They predict a bumpy road ahead for the
information superhighway, and the major networks, they say, are
abundantly healthy and will remain so well into the next
century.
The information superhighway, Jankowski and Fuchs admit, will
dramatically increase the distribution channels, but it will have
little impact on the amount of programming created--and this may
spell disaster. The authors show how the networks began as a way to
provide programs to local stations (who could not afford to produce
their own), who in turn provided the distribution that gave
networks access to mass audiences and ultimately large advertising
dollars. They then offer us an inside look at television
production--showing us, for instance, a veteran scriptwriter
putting together a breakfast table scene for "Cloud Nine"--to
underscore how much effort goes into producing just two minutes of
primetime programming. They reveal that the present 20 channels
require some 20,000 hours of programming each year, which is more
than all the Broadway plays produced in this century, and they
conclude that without a dramatic increase in programming (which
won't happen if only because of the very finite supply of talent),
the superhighway will be jammed bumper-to-bumper with reruns, old
movies, and inexpensive programming aimed at tightly focused
audiences ("narrowcasting" as opposed to "broadcasting"). This is
hardly the bonanza the pundits have promised. The authors point out
that the media blitz about the new technology has hardly focused on
programming, or on funding, or on what needs these 500 channels
will fill. The major networks, on the other hand, will remain the
only means of reaching the whole country, and the only channels
that offer a full schedule of current, live, and original programs,
free of charge. And thus they will continue to attract most of the
audience of TV viewers. The real loser in the cable revolution, the
authors contend, is PBS, whose role as an alternative to network TV
has been usurped by cable stations such as The Discovery Channel
and Nickelodeon.
This is a brass tacks look at television with an eye on the bottom
line by two men who boast over sixty years of experience in the
medium. If you want to understand television in America, where it
came from and where it is going, you will need to read this book.
General
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