Television debuted to the masses of the United States at the 1939 World Fair held in New York City when RCA head David Sarnoff showcased the TRK-12 which was the first set available for purchase by the public. Sarnoff also headed the group that began television network broadcasts by granting rights to the newly created NBC for coverage of the opening ceremonies and events of the fair and eventually a regular schedule of broadcasts that would consist of 2 hours in the afternoon and roughly an hour in the evening, what we now know as “Prime Time”.
Later on that year, as television set ownership and viewership continued to grow at a rough rate of 10 percent per week, NBC broadened the scope of what it would show from produced shows to broadcasting of live events. This would include the introduction of live sports broadcasts to the television platform.
On May 17th, 1939 a college baseball game between Ivy League rivals Princeton and Columbia became the first sports broadcast on television. The game, ironically goes extra innings with the Princeton Tigers pulling out the 2-1 victory.
The single camera sat atop a 12 foot wooden platform and sent signals through a coiling wire to an amplifier truck which then boosted the signal to an antenna sitting on top of a flag pole and eventually would be picked up via airwaves on the 85th floor of the Empire State building in Manhattan. That signal would then be re-transmitted to the roughly 3,000 (yes, that’s all) television sets in the viewing area.
To put in even further perspective how impressive the viewership numbers of television were and how this would impact sports it should be noted that the 3,000 people watching the game on television was 7.5 times more than the 400 fans in atten...
... middle of paper ...
...o them such as ESPN, NBC Sportsnet and Fox Sports. As the advent of new technologies continues, it only begs us to continue to explore new facets of broadcasting these events. From on-screen displays in games such as the “Line of Scrimmage” and “First Down” lines in a football game, to the score, game clock, pitch counts and locations in a baseball game, sports television is a still ever evolving medium and now a source of as much information about the event as it is entertaining to watch the event and with this element of intrigue the viewership numbers continue to grow. From 3,000 to 10 million to a projected viewership of the 2014 Super Bowl broadcast at 115 million which makes for all the reasons to why all sports television broadcasts are now not just some of the most watched programs but also most profitable broadcasts in the history of the television business.
When NBC began airing the news over television, they borrowed labor and equipment from radio. Soon the theatrical newsreels were added into the news programs. In 1950 the most popular newsreels were remote on-the-spot coverage, newsreel film, still pictures, headline shows, and television newspapers (Page 89).
Later in 1953, the first educational television (ETV) station aired. Being just a kid at this time, educational shows did not fascinate me, but my mother made me watch them. Despite attempts to ignore what was being said, I learned more than I could imagine. Around 1956, the first motion pictures were produced in Hollywood and sent out around the country. I remember watching this exclusive event on the family television. My parents did not understand the thrill of movies coming out. I guess it was because they were too old fashioned. The television stations that we watch today became national cable stations in the 1970s. I remember 1975 as if it was yesterday. During this year the HBO station became the first national cable network. Back then, HBO watchers did not pay extra for the movies or shows they watched. Now if you want to watch a movie on HBO you pay extra on your cable bill, that is, if your cable company provides HBO. Another cable network that went national during the late 1970s was TBS. The TBS superstation was one of my favorite stations during that time. The shows broadcasted have gotten better and the movies have gotten more interesting. Television channel selections were rare during the 70s, but then the 80s came and with this decade came others.
In 1951 the first baseball games were televised in color, a double-header between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves, by WCBS-TV. Red Barber and Connie Desmond were the announcers. In June there were 13,000,000 television sets in the USA. In September of 1951 the first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast w...
Thomas, L. L., & Litman, B. R. (1991). Fox broadcasting company, why now? An economic study of the rise of the fourth broadcast `network.'. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 35(2), 139.
CBS Television Network is the Number one most watched network with more than two hundred stations providing viewers with some of the nation’s best entertainment, news and sports programming. Popular programs include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Everybody Loves Raymond, Survivor, the Late Show with David Letterman and 60 Minutes. Sports stations however, include the NFL and the NCAA Basketball Championship. Daytime drama The Young and The Restless leads a daytime pr...
Every February an event is televised in many different countries and watched by millions of people according to Greg Price in the article “How Many Countries Will Watch the Super Bowl?”. Some of these people would consider this show the greatest show on Earth and many companies would consider it the greatest night of television. This is not the circus it is a sporting event featuring two National Football League teams called the Super Bowl. According to Sociology of Sports Module” by Wadsworth this event is watched by people, who don’t normally even watch football, but parties are set up and this event can even become a family ritual (7). When this event is televised the major networks compete to be able to air it on their station. Companies compete and pay large amounts of money to commercial their products. The majority of viewers are average people with average incomes that are far separated from the cash flow of the Super Bowl.
Before analyzing the history of Rock n’ Roll television, the history of how watching television came to become a popular must come into question. To summarize briefly, the invention of television was in development since the 1870s, however the first demonstration of live transmitted images in motion was in 1925 lead by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird (Radio Shows Far Away Objects in Motion). The image was of Baird’s business partner Oliver Hutchinson (Television), showing a mere five frames per second, it was an impressive sight for the time. With perfection of the invention, electronic televisions had been developed by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin with the help of the RCA radio...
Baseball was first introduced into the American culture, by English immigrants in the early 18th century, and its popularity slow grew. It wasn’t until the Civil War the popularity of the game spread, and both Union and Confederate soldiers played baseball during lulls in the fighting. After Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, soldiers from both the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederate) and the Army of the Potomac (Union) played baseball. (Schackelford Jul 4, 2009) This was the beginning of the American people love of Baseball began. It was also the first mention of baseball being the national game. During the bloodiest war in our countries history Baseball was there to help the two sides heal. It was another fourteen years till 1879 when Football would be invented.
... until ABC had two hits during 2003, Designing Women and Lost. Because of the Internet, there were less people watching TV. The only channel that was increasing in views was ESPN.
...rial in the way that they do. There are many reasons why people use the media or different medium to view the same media. Those reasons are the uses and gratification model provided by McQuail, Blumler, and Brown. People want to get a fulfillment after watching a show or in this case a sports broadcast. They wanted to achieve something like making sure there team is doing well or all the players are healthy. In case of ESPN there are two ways to view this information. The viewer can either watch the broadcast and be entertained by the broadcasters and see the plays. Or the viewer can take the more direct route by going to www.msn.espn.go.com and getting the exact same information only with more detailed. Either way the viewer is accomplishing something it could be bonding with a child, conversing with co-workers, or just being aware of the sports world around them.
The findings of this study offer view on multiple sides involving opportunies and challenges for broadcast media companies and digital platform partners to exploit audience participation for the purposes of profit and the strategic expansion to multi-platform formats.
There are a lot of massive spectacles like the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA play-offs, the Olympic Games, College Football Games. Each of these sports activities takes in many millions of dollars from television revenues and dominates national sports news for days or weeks.
and decided to look into it. At this time television had already been invented by some inventors such as Paul Nipkow
Roxborough, Scott, and Benjamin Jones. "World Cup Finale Draws 700 Million Viewers." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 13 July 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Clancy, Kevin J., and David W. Lloyd. Uncover the Hidden Power of Television Programming: --and Get the Most from Your Advertising Budget. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999