Chapter 8: Television, Cable, and Specialization inVisual
Culture
True/False
1. Many of the program conventions in television actually came from radio.
2. An Idaho teenager named Philo T. Farnsworth is credited with transmitting the first TV picture
electronically.
3. The quiz-show scandals of the late 1950s resulted from quiz shows’ frequently accepting
incorrect answers from contestants and then covering up the mistakes.
4. DVR technology allows advertisers to get more specific information about what viewers watch.
5. All syndicated programming consists of off-network reruns.
6. Concerned that cable television would undermine broadcast television, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) enacted rules limiting cable’s early growth.
7. Only a few TV series from the 1950s have survived, and that is because they were originally
shot on film.
8. DBS (direct broadcast satellite) television services in the United States were first developed in
the 1940s, but did not become widely used until the 1970s.
9. In the landmark Midwest Video case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the cable industry was a
form of electronic publishing with the same First Amendment rights as print and broadcast.
10. Public television was created by Congress to serve viewers whose needs were ignored by
commercial TV.
11. In TV syndication, a barter deal involves exchanging a show for a percent of ad revenue.
12. As a result of the number of cable offerings, the four major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC,
and Fox) no longer attract a majority of the viewing audience, as ABC, CBS, and NBC did in
the 1960s and 1970s.
13. A share gauges the percent of homes tuned to a program compared with those actually using
their sets at the time of the sample.
14. Film studios are becoming less important to independent TV producers because worldwide
syndication has reaped such high profits.
15. Most television shows live or die by advertising.
16. Grey’s Anatomy and CSI are both examples of chapter shows.
17. The major television networks—CBS, ABC, Fox, and NBC—own most of their affiliated
stations.
18. Must-carry rules require cable operators to assign channels to and carry all local TV broadcasts
on their systems.
19. An hour-long television newsmagazine show such as Dateline NBC and 60 Minutes costs about
twice as much to produce as a typical hour-long drama.
20. The development of cable and satellite TV has helped fragment the audience.
21. CNN emerged as a serious competitor to CBS, NBC, and ABC with its coverage of the 1996
presidential election.
Multiple Choice
Note: The correct answer is asterisked.
22. The FCC’s must-carry rules
23. What is the most important ramification of the Telecommunications Act of 1996?
24. Who transmitted the first electronic TV picture?
25. The first TV picture tube, which converted light rays into electric signals, was called
26. The FCC began assigning TV station licenses in the 1940s
27. Sketch comedy is a direct descendant of
28. Cable television’s dominant premium channel is
29. Which of the following was not one of Sylvester “Pat” Weaver’s strategies for forcing
advertisers to relinquish some of their power over television programming?
30. The development of satellites in the 1970s allowed cable to
31. Which development was a consequence of the quiz-show scandal?
32. In TV history, the “network era” refers to which time period?
33. In its early days, television drama drew on ____________ for many of its ideas, sets, actors, and
directors.
34. Some FCC and consumer groups maintain that cable operators
35. Anthologies did not last long on network TV because
36. Which of the following was not a factor in the decline of network control of television?
37. Below-the-line costs for a TV program include the
38. Fringe is the time
39. In a television situation comedy
40. The practice of recording shows and watching them later when it is more convenient is called
41. The Closer is an example of a(n)
42. The talk show Oprah is an example of
43. A television station not affiliated with any network is called a(n)
44. Which of the following are examples of basic cable channels?
45. Which term best describes the financial arrangement that most TV producers and movie studios
enter into to make prime-time TV shows?
A. Insane
Fill in the Blank
46. Since 1950, ________ has been the major organization tracking and rating prime-time viewing.
47. Although independently owned, __________________ are radio or TV stations that sign a
contract to be part of a network and receive money to carry the network’s programs.
48. ___________________, a popular form of early TV programming that brought live dramatic
theater to television, were influenced by stage plays.
49. In television, ______________________ is the process whereby a TV production company
leases its programs to a network for a license fee that is actually less than the cost of production.
50. ________________, a relatively recent technology, are devices that enable users to find and
record specific TV shows (and movies) and store them in computer memory to be played back
at a later time.
51. In television, _______________ refers to the process whereby new programs are specifically
produced for sale in syndication markets rather than for network television.
52. WGN in Chicago and WPIX in New York are examples of ________________.
53. A 1950s technique for preserving television broadcasts by using a film camera to record a live
TV show off a studio monitor was called ____________.
54. The FCC has mandated ____________ in the nation’s top one hundred TV markets, requiring
cable systems to provide free nonbroadcast channels that local citizens, educators, and
governments could use.
Matching
Match the individuals with the television terms and events with which they are most closely
associated.
A. HBO series creator
B. Increased program length
C. Famous news anchor
D. WTBS
55. Sylvester “Pat” Weaver
56. Walter Cronkite
57. Ted Turner
58. Lena Dunham
Match the companies with the TV networks they own.
A. Fox
B. ABC
C. NBC
59. Comcast
60. News Corp.
61. Disney
Essay
62. How has new technology fragmented the television audience, and what are the consequences for
our society?
63. How did the sponsorship of network programs change during the 1950s?
64. What are the differences between off-network and first-run syndication?
65. What were the major threats to the television networks in the 1970s and 1980s?
66. What is the difference between sketch comedy and situation comedy in television?
67. How does the television industry make money?
68. What services does PBS provide, and how has it fared in comparison with the major networks?