Broadcasting

Harold L. Vogel

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511510786.009

Chapter 7 - Broadcasting

from Part II - Media-dependent entertainment

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 August 2009

Harold L. Vogel

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Summary

Programs are scheduled interruptions of marketing bulletins.

Marketing bulletins, in fact, are the essence of commercial broadcasting in the United States.

This chapter is concerned with the economics of radio and television broadcasting, a topic closely tied to developments in the movie, recorded music, sports, and other entertainment-distribution businesses. By its end, it should be evident that maybe Marshall McLuhan (McLuhan 1964) was onto something when he said, “the medium is the message.”

Going on the air

Technology and history

Broadcasting began the twentieth century as a laboratory curiosity; it ended the century as a business generating over $50 billion per year. But monolithic the industry is not. In fact, many subsegments compete vigorously with each other.

Strictly speaking, commercial broadcasters sell time that is used for dissemination of advertising messages. In actuality, though, what is sold is access to the thoughts and emotions of people in the audience. Companies selling beer prefer to buy time on sports-events programs, whereas toy and cereal manufacturers prefer time on children's shows.

To distribute commercial messages to audiences, or conversely, to deliver audiences to advertisers, four basic broadcasting media have evolved over the past 80 years: AM (amplitude-modulation) and FM (frequency-modulation) radio and VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra-high frequency) television. All these technologically defined media operate under identical macroeconomic conditions but different microeconomic conditions.

AM radio was the first broadcast medium to gain widespread popularity, attracting, in the 1920s, a national mass audience.

Type: Chapter
Information: Entertainment Industry Economics
A Guide for Financial Analysis
, pp. 267 - 303

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511510786.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

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Chapter 7 - Broadcasting

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