mobility, and theatricality—redefined the medium from its network-era norm. Their significance results from the considerably revised and varied uses of television that consequently have emerged and that contrast with the unstoppable flow of linear programming, the domestic confinement, and the staid aesthetic quality of the network era. Rather than these technological assassins causing the death of television, as many writing about television in the mid-2000s claimed, the unprecedented shift of programming onto tiny mobile phone screens, office computers, and a wide range of portable devices ultimately reasserted the medium’s significance. But the new technological capabilities required adjustments in television distribution and business models in order to make content available on the new screens, which provided a challenging task given the inconsistent interests of rights holders such as content creators (studios) and distributors (traditional channels and networks). Studios sought to maintain tight control over content so as not to disrupt the traditional revenue streams and the long-term value of copyright ownership. Networks desired strategies likely to drive viewers to other content on the network or to other network locations—like network-owned websites—from which the distributor might earn additional value. Both studios and networks sought to maintain their established status in the television industry while new broadband distributors and consumer electronics developers endeavored to rethink many of the business’s established “rules.”
The various post-network technologies produced complicated consequences for the societies that adopted them. Viewers gained greater control over their entertainment experience, yet became attached to an increasing range of devices that demanded their attention and financial support. Many viewers willingly embraced devices that allowed them greater authority in determining when, where, and what they would view, although as fees and services enabling new conveniences proliferated, they also struggled with the burden of the many costs previously borne by advertisers. In many cases, the “conventional wisdom” forecasting that the new technologies would have negative consequences for established industry players proved faulty; technologically empowered viewers used devices to watch more television and provided the industry with unexpected new revenue streams at the same time they eroded old ones. The emergence of these technologies consequently resulted in contentious negotiations within and between factions as viewers assessed what capabilities were worth the cost, the consumer electronics industry endeavored to embed its products in the daily use of as many as possible, legacy media (such as broadcast networks) evolved their business models, and legacy and new media services (cable providers and Internet aggregators like YouTube and Hulu) developed mechanisms to make new technologies useful and programming accessible.
Network-Era and Multi-Channel Transition Technologies
The lack of technological variation during the network era enforced a fairly uniform television experience for viewers. Television sets that received very few signals over the air functionally defined the technological experience in the network era, while the use of antennas and CATV added complexity and limitations for some viewers. These devices, however, tended only to enable viewers in rural or mountainous areas the same access to the medium enjoyed by their urban brethren. Either way, viewers had no technological control over television and little choice among content. Certainly, the transition to color television was significant, and many of the technologies that began to revolutionize television use during the multi-channel transition were introduced to early adopters while all other characteristics of the network era remained firmly intact. For most, however, a single television in the home without remote control or VCR characterized the network-era technological experience with television. This uniformity of use aided the industry’s production processes because it enabled the industry to assume certain viewing conditions and rely on viewers to watch network-determined schedules.
Technological developments of the multi-channel transition introduced profound changes for users, first by enhancing choice and control with analog technologies such as cable network distribution, VCRs, and remote control devices. Experiments with remote controls began in the early days of radio and continued through its refinement and into the television era.3 The industry sold as many as 134,000 remote-equipped televisions as early as 1965. Despite these early starts, Bruce Klopfenstein argues that 1984 to 1988 marked the period of most rapid overall remote control diffusion, due to the simultaneous distribution of cable and VCR remote controls in concert with those of television sets.4
The VCR is one of the first technologies to trouble our understandings of “television.” The distribution of the VCR as an affordable technology, which achieved mass diffusion at the same time as the remote control, significantly expanded viewers’ relationship with and control over television entertainment. Nearly 50 percent of U.S. homes owned VCRs by 1987;5 this figure increased to 65.4 percent by 1990, 88.1 percent at the end of the century, and peaked at 98.4 percent in 2003, after which VCR rates declined and DVDs (and later DVRs) began replacing the technology.6 The recording devices allowed viewers to negate programmers’ strategies through time shifting and introduced new competitors such as the home video purchase and rental market. In addition to enhancing viewers’ television capabilities by allowing them to record and review television shows, the VCR also enabled the television set to function entirely independently of the networks’ linear program schedules.
Another key characteristic of the early multi-channel transition resulted from the arrival of cable, which introduced profound changes in both technology and distribution. As a technology, cable substantially altered viewers’ experience with its introduction of a vast array of channels. In 1988, 50 percent of U.S. households subscribed to cable, which was the subscription base analysts believed necessary for cable operators to provide a large enough audience to achieve profitability.7 This subscription level marked an increase from just 19.9 percent in 1980, grew to 56.4 percent by 1990, and reached 68 percent in 2000. By 2000, nearly ten million additional households received programming via direct broadcast satellite (DBS—services such as DirecTV or Dish Network).8 In the mid-2000s, “telcos”—companies traditionally known for providing phone service, such as Verizon and AT&T—began competing in some markets, offering packages of channels and then-state-of-the-art Internet service. By 2014, 10 percent of homes received television content from a telco. Since the mid-2000s, cable, satellite, and telco penetration grew to roughly 90 percent of U.S. television homes.9
Broadcasters maintained many of their network-era programming practices throughout the multi-channel transition even though the audience that regularly viewed them decreased in scope. The increase in program outlets significantly shifted the size and composition of the audience watching the Big Three networks, but it required decades for this change to reach an economic crisis point. In some ways, a paradox of remaining the “most mass” programming outlet reaffirmed the status of broadcasters and allowed them to remain disproportionately dominant throughout much of the multi-channel transition despite their slipping share of the audience. Cable channels drew audiences, but the multiplicity of cable channels was significant only in aggregate; any one channel drew a small fraction of the audience still reached by a broadcaster, and other than content-specific channels such as CNN, MTV, and ESPN, cable channels created very limited original programming during the multi-channel transition. The broadcast networks achieved some cost cutting by scheduling more programs from cheaper genres such as newsmagazines and early “reality” shows, but the broadcast networks were able to maintain many of their core practices throughout the multi-channel transition. Broadcasters’ continued dominance and cable channels’ limited encroachment enabled a conciliatory coexistence that ruptured once cable channels began producing “broadcast-quality” series in the early 2000s and deviated from broadcast norms of season length and scheduling patterns.
Analog technologies enabled limited control and choice during the multi-channel transition, but the arrival of digital television technologies at the end of the century vastly reconfigured technological capabilities and introduced characteristics of a post-network era. The shift from an analog technology such as the VCR to the DVR and DVD may seem insignificant in terms of the similar capabilities each provides, but the arrival of digital technologies profoundly changed television.
Digital
