Broadcasting and Television Production

Television Production

Television production entails the creation of programs and videos that are broadcast via a network communication channel. Broadcasting is the distribution of generated information across a specific television channel. According to Doyle (2016), the distribution and consumption of television programming drives the creation of new material and shows. Management of television businesses must evaluate the profits on all programming provided to consumers. Following the assessment, the manager, in collaboration with the strategic team, selects and retains the programs with the most substantial gains. Programs and content that do not generate significant returns are phased out. The task of the strategic team in television production is to conduct comprehensive research and determine the content that is of interest to the consumers. Doyle states that release of program content is done in a sequence and is aimed at capitalizing on returns for the organization. The content from the television program and videos is referred to as an intellectual property and is protected by the intellectual property rights (IPRs). Windowing is the progressive release of content over the organization’s television channel. Changes in the IPRs brings transformations and prompts television station owners to reevaluate the strategies of obtaining maximum returns from each content released over the channel. According to Doyle, the traditional windowing models have been affected by the development of digital platforms and outlets. Availability of digital content has prompted TV station owners to devise new ways of sequential release of content with the aim of maintaining customer base, avoid overlays, and gain maximum returns. Doyle concludes that the dynamics in the production and distribution of television content have caused communication companies to exploit the IPRs for maximum returns.

Television Distribution

Evens and Donders (2016) evaluate the aspect of television distribution citing both economic dimensions and emerging television content control policies. They state that there has been tremendous changes and significant transformations in the television industry since the 1990s. In the early 1990s, television companies monopolized the industry since the distribution of the content used cables to propagate their content. The communication cables have a limited bandwidth, and only the companies that were allocated a frequency from the spectrum were able to distribute television content. The use of traditional communication cables with limited bandwidth brought monopoly in the industry. After the invention of the digital content, numerous changes have taken place in the industry. Digitization of television content has ensured that there is no single company or group of companies that can monopolize the industry. Additionally, the size of the bandwidth is wide due to the use of digital content. The channels of communication became many after digitization of television content, and therefore many companies can invest in the television industry. The invention of communication techniques such as multiplexing and DE multiplexing has transformed the aspect of television content production and distribution. Besides, the struggle for the market share has led the television companies to increase the amount of content distributed over a channel. Each company tries to attract customers, control access to specific television programs. More content in the channels means that more power is required to propagate the content over long distances. The demand for additional power for content propagation has affected the power structures of the audiovisual systems. According to Beccarne, Evens, and Schuurman (2013), there has been an increased use of worldwide over-the-top (OTT) streaming techniques such as YouTube and Netflix. The numerous reforms in television production and distribution have created a great instability in the association among key stakeholders. The reforms have stimulated the need to alter policies within the television industry to ensure that producers, consumers, and distributors accrue significant benefits. The extreme fragmentation of the television content distributed to consumers has adversely affected the outmoded business models. Introduction of digital platforms has had an impact in the television industry, and further transformations in the future are inevitable. Availability of cable and satellite communication tools have provided corporate flexibility. However, the use of broadband might bring a change in the distribution of digital videos hence the use of satellite television channels might reduce.

Impact of Television Content on Consumers

According to Lis and Post (2013), the type of content distributed over the television channels has affected the lives of consumers. There are television programs that have contributed to the degradation of moral values in the society. Although there are challenges in filtering the content of a program, Bettina and Martin state that the television companies seek to satisfy the consumer demands. Content considered offensive by one group of people is consumed by another without complaints. The brand image and credibility of celebrities affect the consumption of television content. The preference of television content by consumers depends on the brand image and influence of celebrities on the content.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the production and distribution of television content have under significant transformations. The traditional method of content distribution has been replaced by modern ways where cables with higher bandwidth, satellites, and broadband technologies are used. The techniques used in branding television content determines the consumption of the content. The use of celebrities improves brand imaging and increases the acceptance of the content by the consumers.

Bibliography

Baccarne, Bastiaan, Tom Evens, and Dimitri Schuurman. “The television struggle: an assessment of over-the-top television evolutions in a cable dominant market.” (2013).

Doyle, Gillian. “Digitization and changing windowing strategies in the television industry: negotiating new windows on the world.” Television & New Media 17, no. 7 (2016): 629-645.

Evens, Tom, and Karen Donders. “Television distribution: Economic dimensions, emerging policies.” Telematics and Informatics 33, no. 2 (2016): 661-664.

Lis, Bettina, and Martin Post. “What’s on TV? The impact of brand image and celebrity credibility on television consumption from an ingredient branding perspective.” International Journal on Media Management 15, no. 4 (2013): 229-244.