INTRODUCTION TO TELEVISION PRODUCTION

MODULE 1
Evolution of TV as a medium- global scenario- characteristics of the
medium- potential and limitations

Introduction
The name television comes from a Greek word meaning ‘far’ and a Latin word
meaning ‘to see’. Thus the word television means to see far away programmes
and events.
The television is one the most prominent inventions of the 20th Century. Few
inventions have had as much effect on the contemporary world as television.
Since replacing radio as the most popular mass medium in the 1950s, television
has played such an integral role in modern life that, for some, it is difficult to
imagine being without it. Both reflecting and shaping cultural values, television
has at times been criticised for its alleged negative influences on children and
young people and at other times lauded for its ability to create a common
experience for all its viewers. Major world events such as the John F. Kennedy
and Martin Luther King assassinations and the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the
Challenger shuttle explosion in 1986, the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center, and the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have
all played out on television, uniting millions of people in shared tragedy and
hope. Today, as Internet technology and satellite broadcasting change the way
people watch television, the medium continues to evolve, solidifying its position
as one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.
The Evolution of Television - Global Scenario

Inventors conceived the idea of television long before the technology to create it
appeared. Early pioneers speculated that if audio waves could be separated from
the electromagnetic spectrum to create radio, so too could TV waves be
separated to transmit visual images. As early as 1876, Boston civil servant
George Carey envisioned complete television systems, putting forward
drawings for a “selenium camera” that would enable people to “see by
electricity” a year later (Federal Communications Commission, 2005).

During the late 1800s, several technological developments set the stage for
television. The invention of the cathode ray tube (CRT) by German physicist
Karl Ferdinand Braun in 1897 played a vital role as the forerunner of the TV
picture tube. Initially created as a scanning device known as the cathode ray
oscilloscope, the CRT effectively combined the principles of the camera and
electricity. It had a fluorescent screen that emitted visible light (in the form of
images) when struck by a beam of electrons. The other key invention during the
1880s was the mechanical scanner system. Created by German inventor Paul
Nipkow, the scanning disk was a large, flat metal disk with a series of small
perforations arranged in a spiral pattern. As the disk rotated, light passed
through the holes, separating pictures into pinpoints of light that could be
transmitted as a series of electronic lines. The number of scanned lines equaled
the number of perforations, and each rotation of the disk produced a television
frame. Nipkow’s mechanical disk served as the foundation for experiments on
the transmission of visual images for several decades.

In 1907, Russian scientist Boris Rosing used both the CRT and the mechanical
scanner system in an experimental television system. With the CRT in the
receiver, he used focused electron beams to display images, transmitting crude
geometrical patterns onto the television screen. The mechanical disk system was
used as a camera, creating a primitive television system.
Figure 9.1 Two key inventions in the 1880s paved the way for television to
emerge: the cathode ray tube and the mechanical disk system.

Mechanical Television versus Electronic Television

From the early experiments with visual transmissions, two types of television
systems came into existence: mechanical television and electronic television.
Mechanical television developed out of Nipkow’s disk system and was
pioneered by British inventor John Logie Baird. In 1926, Baird gave the world’s
first public demonstration of a television system at Selfridges department store
in London. He used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into
electrical impulses, which were transmitted by cable to a screen. Here they
showed up as a low-resolution pattern of light and dark. Baird’s first television
program showed the heads of two ventriloquist dummies, which he operated in
front of the camera apparatus out of the audience’s sight. In 1928, Baird
extended his system by transmitting a signal between London and New York.
The following year, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) adopted his
mechanical system, and by 1932, Baird had developed the first commercially
viable television system and sold 10,000 sets. Despite its initial success,
mechanical television had several technical limitations. Engineers could get no
more than about 240 lines of resolution, meaning images would always be
slightly fuzzy (most modern televisions produce images of more than 600 lines
of resolution). The use of a spinning disk also limited the number of new
pictures that could be seen per second, resulting in excessive flickering. The
mechanical aspect of television proved to be a disadvantage that required fixing
in order for the technology to move forward.

At the same time Baird (and, separately, American inventor Charles Jenkins)
was developing the mechanical model, other inventors were working on an
electronic television system based on the CRT. While working on his father’s
farm, Idaho teenager Philo Farnsworth realised that an electronic beam could
scan a picture in horizontal lines, reproducing the image almost instantaneously.
In 1927, Farnsworth transmitted the first all-electronic TV picture by rotating a
single straight line scratched onto a square piece of painted glass by 90 degrees.

Farnsworth barely profited from his invention; during World War II, the
government suspended sales of TV sets, and by the time the war ended,
Farnsworth’s original patents were close to expiring. However, following the
war, many of his key patents were modified by RCA and were widely applied in
broadcasting to improve television picture quality.

Having coexisted for several years, electronic television sets eventually began to
replace mechanical systems. With better picture quality, no noise, a more
compact size, and fewer visual limitations, the electronic system was far
superior to its predecessor and rapidly improving. By 1939, the last mechanical
television broadcasts in the United States had been replaced with electronic
broadcasts.

Early Broadcasting

Television broadcasting began as early as 1928, when the Federal Radio

Commission authorised inventor Charles Jenkins to broadcast from W3XK, an
experimental station in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. Silhouette
images from motion picture films were broadcast to the general public on a
regular basis, at a resolution of just 48 lines. Similar experimental stations ran
broadcasts throughout the early 1930s. In 1939, RCA subsidiary NBC (National
Broadcasting Company) became the first network to introduce regular television
broadcasts, transmitting its inaugural telecast of the opening ceremonies at the
New York World’s Fair. The station’s initial broadcasts were transmitted to just
400 television sets in the New York area, with an audience of 5,000 to 8,000
people (Lohr, 1940).

Television was initially available only to the privileged few, with sets ranging
from $200 to $600—a hefty sum in the 1930s, when the average annual salary
was $1,368 (KC Library). RCA offered four types of television receivers, which
were sold in high-end department stores such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s,
and received channels 1 through 5. Early receivers were a fraction of the size of
modern TV sets, featuring 5-, 9-, or 12-inch screens. Television sales prior to
World War II were disappointing—an uncertain economic climate, the threat of
war, the high cost of a television receiver, and the limited number of programs
on offer deterred numerous prospective buyers. Many unsold television sets
were put into storage and sold after the war.

NBC was not the only commercial network to emerge in the 1930s. RCA radio
rival CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) also began broadcasting regular
programs. So that viewers would not need a separate television set for each
individual network, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) outlined a
single technical standard. In 1941, the panel recommended a 525-line system
and an image rate of 30 frames per second. It also recommended that all U.S.
television sets operate using analog signals (broadcast signals made of varying
radio waves). Analog signals were replaced by digital signals (signals
transmitted as binary code) in 2009.

With the outbreak of World War II, many companies, including RCA and
General Electric, turned their attention to military production. Instead of
commercial television sets, they began to churn out military electronic
equipment. In addition, the war halted nearly all television broadcasting; many
TV stations reduced their schedules to around 4 hours per week or went off the
air altogether.

Colour Technology

Although it did not become available until the 1950s or popular until the 1960s,
the technology for producing colour television was proposed as early as 1904,
and was demonstrated by John Logie Baird in 1928. As with his
black-and-white television system, Baird adopted the mechanical method, using
a Nipkow scanning disk with three spirals, one for each primary color (red,
green, and blue). In 1940, CBS researchers, led by Hungarian television
engineer Peter Goldmark, used Baird’s 1928 designs to develop a concept of
mechanical colour television that could reproduce the colour seen by a camera
lens.

Following World War II, the National Television System Committee (NTSC)
worked to develop an all-electronic colour system that was compatible with
black-and-white TV sets, gaining FCC approval in 1953. A year later, NBC
made the first national colour broadcast when it telecast the Tournament of
Roses Parade. Despite the television industry’s support for the new technology,
it would be another 10 years before colour television gained widespread
popularity in the United States, and black-and-white TV sets outnumbered
colour TV sets until 1972 (Klooster, 2009).
Figure 9.3 During the so-called “golden age” of television, the percentage of
U.S. households that owned a television set rose from 9 percent in 1950 to 95.3
percent in 1970.

The 1950s proved to be the golden age of television, during which the medium
experienced massive growth in popularity. Mass-production advances made
during World War II substantially lowered the cost of purchasing a set, making
television accessible to the masses. In 1945, there were fewer than 10,000 TV
sets in the United States. By 1950, this figure had soared to around 6 million,
and by 1960 more than 60 million television sets had been sold (World Book
Encyclopedia, 2003). Many of the early television program formats were based
on network radio shows and did not take advantage of the potential offered by
the new medium. For example, newscasters simply read the news as they would
have during a radio broadcast, and the network relied on newsreel companies to
provide footage of news events. However, during the early 1950s, television
programming began to branch out from radio broadcasting, borrowing from
theatre to create acclaimed dramatic anthologies such as Playhouse 90 (1956)
and The U.S. Steel Hour (1953) and producing quality news films to accompany
coverage of daily events.

Two new types of programs—the magazine format and the TV

spectacular—played an important role in helping the networks gain control over
the content of their broadcasts. Early television programs were developed and
produced by a single sponsor, which gave the sponsor a large amount of control
over the content of the show. By increasing program length from the standard
15-minute radio show to 30 minutes or longer, the networks substantially
increased advertising costs for program sponsors, making it prohibitive for a
single sponsor. Magazine programs such as the Today show and The Tonight
Show, which premiered in the early 1950s, featured multiple segments and ran
for several hours. They were also screened on a daily, rather than weekly, basis,
drastically increasing advertising costs. As a result, the networks began to sell
spot advertisements that ran for 30 or 60 seconds. Similarly, the television
spectacular (now known as the television special) featured lengthy
music-variety shows that were sponsored by multiple advertisers.
Figure 9.4 ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire brought the quiz show back to
prime-time television after a 40-year absence. sonicwwtbamfangamer2 –
millionaire – CC BY-SA 2.0.

In the mid-1950s, the networks brought back the radio quiz-show genre.
Inexpensive and easy to produce, the trend caught on, and by the end of the
1957–1958 season, 22 quiz shows were being aired on network television,
including CBS’s $64,000 Question. Shorter than some of the new types of
programs, quiz shows enabled single corporate sponsors to have their names
displayed on the set throughout the show. The popularity of the quiz-show genre
plunged at the end of the decade, however, when it was discovered that most of
the shows were rigged. Producers provided some contestants with the answers
to the questions in order to pick and choose the most likeable or controversial
candidates. When a slew of contestants accused the show Dotto of being fixed
in 1958, the networks rapidly dropped 20 quiz shows. A New York grand jury
probe and a 1959 congressional investigation effectively ended prime-time quiz
shows for 40 years, until ABC revived the genre with its launch of Who Wants
to Be a Millionaire in 1999 (Boddy, 1990).

The Rise of Cable Television

Formerly known as Community Antenna Television, or CATV, cable television

was originally developed in the 1940s in remote or mountainous areas,
including in Arkansas, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, to enhance poor reception of
regular television signals. Cable antennas were erected on mountains or other
high points, and homes connected to the towers would receive broadcast signals.

In the late 1950s, cable operators began to experiment with microwaves to bring
signals from distant cities. Taking advantage of their ability to receive
long-distance broadcast signals, operators branched out from providing a local
community service and began focusing on offering consumers more extensive
programming choices. Rural parts of Pennsylvania, which had only three
channels (one for each network), soon had more than double the original
number of channels as operators began to import programs from independent
stations in New York and Philadelphia. The wider variety of channels and
clearer reception the service offered soon attracted viewers from urban areas. By
1962, nearly 800 cable systems were operational, serving 850,000 subscribers.
Figure 9.5 The Evolution of Television

Cable’s exponential growth was viewed as competition by local TV stations,

and broadcasters campaigned for the FCC to step in. The FCC responded by
placing restrictions on the ability of cable systems to import signals from distant
stations, which froze the development of cable television in major markets until
the early 1970s. When gradual deregulation began to loosen the restrictions,
cable operator Service Electric launched the service that would change the face
of the cable television industry—pay TV. The 1972 Home Box Office (HBO)
venture, in which customers paid a subscription fee to access premium cable
television shows and video-on-demand products, was the nation’s first
successful pay cable service. HBO’s use of a satellite to distribute its
programming made the network available throughout the United States. This
gave it an advantage over the microwave-distributed services, and other cable
providers quickly followed suit. Further deregulation provided by the 1984
Cable Act enabled the industry to expand even further, and by the end of the
1980s, nearly 53 million households subscribed to cable television (see Section
6.3 “Current Popular Trends in the Music Industry”).

In the 1990s, cable operators upgraded their systems by building

higher-capacity hybrid networks of fibre-optic and coaxial cable. These
broadband networks provide a multichannel television service, along with
telephone, high-speed Internet, and advanced digital video services, using a
single wire.

The Emergence of Digital Television

Following the FCC standards set out during the early 1940s, television sets
received programs via analog signals made of radio waves. The analog signal
reached TV sets through three different methods: over the airwaves, through a
cable wire, or by satellite transmission. Although the system remained in place
for more than 60 years, it had several disadvantages. Analog systems were
prone to static and distortion, resulting in a far poorer picture quality than films
shown in movie theatres. As television sets grew increasingly larger, the limited
resolution made scan lines painfully obvious, reducing the clarity of the image.
Companies around the world, most notably in Japan, began to develop
technology that provided newer, better-quality television formats, and the
broadcasting industry began to lobby the FCC to create a committee to study the
desirability and impact of switching to digital television. A more efficient and
flexible form of broadcast technology, digital television uses signals that
translate TV images and sounds into binary code, working in much the same
way as a computer. This means they require much less frequency space and also
provide a far higher quality picture. In 1987, the Advisory Committee on
Advanced Television Services began meeting to test various TV systems, both
analog and digital. The committee ultimately agreed to switch from analog to
digital format in 2009, allowing a transition period in which broadcasters could
send their signal on both an analog and a digital channel. Once the switch took
place, many older analog TV sets were unusable without a cable or satellite
service or a digital converter. To retain consumers’ access to free over-the-air
television, the federal government offered $40 gift cards to people who needed
to buy a digital converter, expecting to recoup its costs by auctioning off the old
analog broadcast spectrum to wireless companies (Steinberg, 2007). These
companies were eager to gain access to the analog spectrum for mobile
broadband projects because this frequency band allows signals to travel greater
distances and penetrate buildings more easily.

The Era of High-Definition Television

Around the same time the U.S. government was reviewing the options for
analog and digital television systems, companies in Japan were developing
technology that worked in conjunction with digital signals to create crystal-clear
pictures in a wide-screen format. High-definition television, or HDTV, attempts
to create a heightened sense of realism by providing the viewer with an almost
three-dimensional experience. It has a much higher resolution than standard
television systems, using around five times as many pixels per frame. First
available in 1998, HDTV products were initially extremely expensive, priced
between $5,000 and $10,000 per set. However, as with most new technology,
prices dropped considerably over the next few years, making HDTV affordable
for mainstream shoppers.
Figure 9.6 HDTV uses a wide-screen format with a different aspect ratio (the
ratio of the width of the image to its height) than standard-definition TV. The
wide-screen format of HDTV is similar to that of movies, allowing for a more
authentic film-viewing experience at home. Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA
3.0.

As of 2010, nearly half of American viewers are watching television in high

definition, the fastest adoption of TV technology since the introduction of the
VCR in the 1980s (Stelter, 2010). The new technology is attracting viewers to
watch television for longer periods of time. According to the Nielsen Company,
a company that measures TV viewership, households with HDTV watch 3
percent more prime-time television—programming screened between 7 and 11
 p.m., when the largest audience is available—than their standard-definition
counterparts (Stelter, 2010). The same report claims that the cinematic
experience of HDTV is bringing families back together in the living room in
front of the large wide-screen TV and out of the kitchen and bedroom, where
individuals tend to watch television alone on smaller screens. However, these
viewing patterns may change again soon as the Internet plays an increasingly
larger role in how people view TV programs. The impact of new technologies
on television is discussed in much greater detail in Section 9.4 “Influence of
New Technologies” of this chapter.

Figure 9.7 Since 1950, the amount of time the average household spends
watching television has almost doubled.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
● Two key technological developments in the late 1800s played a vital
role in the evolution of television: the cathode ray tube and the
scanning disk. The cathode ray tube, invented by German physicist
Karl Ferdinand Braun in 1897, was the forerunner of the TV picture
tube. It had a fluorescent screen that emitted visible light (in the form
of images) when struck by a beam of electrons. The scanning disk,
invented by German inventor Paul Nipkow, was a large, flat metal
disk that could be used as a rotating camera. It served as the
foundation for experiments on the transmission of visual images for
several decades.
● Out of the cathode ray tube and the scanning disk, two types of
primitive television systems evolved: mechanical systems and
electronic systems. Mechanical television systems had several
technical disadvantages: Low resolution caused fuzzy images, and
the use of a spinning disk limited the number of new pictures that
could be seen per second, resulting in excessive flickering. By 1939,
all mechanical television broadcasts in the United States had been
replaced by electronic broadcasts.
● Early televisions were expensive, and the technology was slow to
catch on because development was delayed during World War II.
Colour technology was delayed even further because early colour
systems were incompatible with black-and-white television sets.
Following the war, television rapidly replaced radio as the new mass
medium. During the “golden age” of television in the 1950s,
television moved away from radio formats and developed new types
of shows, including the magazine-style variety show and the
television spectacular.
● Since 1960, several key technological developments have taken place
in the television industry. Colour television gained popularity in the
 late 1960s and began to replace black-and-white television in the
1970s. Cable television, initially developed in the 1940s to cater to
viewers in rural areas, switched its focus from local to national
television, offering an extensive number of channels. In 2009, the
traditional analog system, which had been in place for 60 years, was
replaced with digital television, giving viewers a higher-quality
picture and freeing up frequency space. As of 2010, nearly half of
American viewers have high-definition television, which offers a
crystal-clear picture in wide-screen to provide a cinematic experience
at home.

Characteristics of Television

Televisions, as we know, became a popular mass medium in India in the late

1980s. The Government controlled Doordarshan was the only television channel
available to the masses. The private television channels emerged in the 1900s.
With increasing reach, television has become the most powerful mass medium
in India. Let us discuss some of the important characteristics of television

1. An audio-visual medium

TV has both sound and sight. A TV broadcast is conceived and produced and
received in audio-visual terms. As eyes absorb and retain much more than the
ear, TV broadcasts have greater influence on viewers than radio’s audience.
 2. Features of other media

It has borrowed movement from the stage, camera from the film and the
microphone from the radio and integrated all these into a whole that makes TV
a uniquely new medium.

3. Wide reach and high credibility

It’s a supreme medium of mass communication which has turned the world into
a global village. It has turned our society into an information society. It has
widened the mental horizon of man by humanising knowledge and making them
feel as a citizen of the world. Its credibility lies in the fact that seeing is
believing.

Because of its reach and believability, it becomes a powerful medium for

projecting the world of politics, sports, arts, personalities, events and ideas.

4. A glamorous medium

It shows glittering personalities, fashion shows, rich and famous people etc. and
all this sitting back at home which adds to its glamour. Because of this TV has
also been called the magic box, which fascinates millions.

However on the bad side, the glamour and magic of TV has a potential of
attracting people to the point of addiction.

5. A medium of the close-up

Because of the small screen, it is ideal for close up of human faces, expression,
reaction and interaction between people, for presenting an interview and
discussion etc.
 6. A living room medium

TV is a medium of and for the family. TV watching brings the family together.

7. A democratising medium

It is a democratizing medium as it is available to all the people. It democratizes

information, informal education and literature etc. by catering to all sections of
society. Most of the TV programs are for the common man.

8. A medium of Immediacy

TV is a supreme reporter and it captures the events as they are happening. TV

operates in fixed time units which makes performers, writers of the scripts and
producer to be disciplined.

9. Advertisers Influence

TV is a great salesman of modern times. The businessman sells his product and
services through TV and it allows them to reach out to a vast no. of potential
and actual customers.

Potential and Limitations of Television

Newspapers, magazines and radio are considered portable mass media, that is,
they can be shifted from one place to another without much difficulty. But
television, on the other hand, is not portable. It
has a fixed place mostly in the living rooms of a house. People gathered in front
of this gadget to watch the programmes. For many decades, television enjoyed
an unrivalled position among the masses as the number one mass medium. The
vast reach of the internet and emergence of numerous digital media platforms
via the smart phones have begun to unseat the pivotal role of television. We are
experiencing a great media convergence in this digital media age. Let us briefly
assess the strength and limitations of television.
Strength of television
● Demonstration ability by combining sight, sound and motion
● Ability to reach large national audiences instantaneously
● Credible and prestige media
● Considered highly persuasive
● Low cost per minute (CPM) in reaching the target audience
● High impact medium
Limitations of television
● Very expensive production costs
● High costs of entry
● Difficult to generate adequate reach and frequency unless media budget is
very large
● Availabilities greatly affected by season cycles and viewing patterns

Conclusion & Summary

Samuel Morse’s telegraph in 1844, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone in 1876 and
Thomas Edison’s light bulb in 1879 were important predecessors to the development
of radio. The unit traced the development of radio as well as the challenges faced.
Besides, major landmarks in the development were discussed in great detail.

The major people who are contributors to the development were highlighted and
discussed. More importantly, the great contributions of the much acclaimed father of
radio, Guglielmo Marconi were discussed.

The progress in the development of Television was encouraging because of the

people’s ever growing interest in the broadcast medium. This unit was able to describe
the development of Television the world over. Besides, the unit emphasised the
development of colour television which came to consign the black and white
television sets into oblivion.