Television in the Kingdom of Sierra
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This page uses material from the Wikipedia page Television in the United States, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors). |
Television is one of the major mass media of the Kingdom of Sierra. As of 2021, over 94% of Sierran households own at least one television set, with a majority of these households owning more than one set. Peak ownership reached its all-time high in 1997 when 98% of all households owned at least one television set.
Sierran television networks are among the world's leading, largest, and most distributed networks, and programs produced specifically for Sierran audiences are frequently syndicated internationally. Sierran television has historically dominated English-language television, especially in Anglo-America, and has seen success among non-English audiences as well through international syndication. Due to a recent surge in the number and popularity of critically acclaimed television series during the 2000s and the 2010s to date, many critics have said that Sierran television is currently undergoing a modern renaissance in television.
Channels and networks
In Sierra, television is available via broadcast (also known as "over-the-air" or OTA) – the earliest method of receiving television programming, which merely requires an antenna and an equipped internal or external tuner capable of picking up channels that transmit on the two principal broadcast bands, very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF), to receive the signal – and four conventional types of multichannel subscription television: cable, unencrypted satellite ("free-to-air"), direct-broadcast satellite television and IPTV (internet protocol television). There are also competing video services on the World Wide Web, which have become an increasingly popular mode of television viewing since the late 2000s, particularly with younger audiences as an alternative or a supplement to the aforementioned traditional forms of viewing television content; the 2010s saw the development of several virtual MVPD services offering "skinny" tiers of channels originally developed for cable and satellite distribution at a reduced base price compared to providers using the more established pay television distribution methods.
Individual broadcast television stations in Sierra transmit on either VHF channels 2 through 13 or UHF channels 14 through 69. During the era of analog television, broadcast stations transmitted on a single universal channel; however due to the technical complexities of the present digital television standard, most stations now transmit physically on an RF channel (or "minor channel") that is mapped to a virtual channel (or "major channel"), which – with some exceptions – typically differs from their physical allocation and corresponds to the station's former analog channel. The UHF band originally spanned from channels 14 to 83; Channels 70 to 83 were cut for emergency and other telecommunications purposes in 1983.
As in other countries, television stations require a license to broadcast legally (which any prospective broadcaster can apply for through the RTC) and must comply with certain requirements (such as those involving programming of public affairs and educational interest, and regulations prohibiting the airing of indecent content) to retain it; the RTC's Board of Commissioners maintains oversight of the renewal of existing station licenses approaching their expiration, with individuals or groups who wish to oppose the granting of a renewal to a licensee based on any disagreement over rule compliance or any other issues inclined to contest it for consideration of revocation. Free-to-air and subscription television networks, however, are not required to file for a license to operate.
Over-the-air and free-to-air television do not necessitate any monthly payments, while cable, direct broadcast satellite (DBS), IPTV and virtual MVPD services require monthly payments that vary depending on the number of channels that a subscriber chooses to pay for in a particular package. Channels are usually sold in groups (known as "tiers"), rather than singularly (or on an a la carte basis). Most conventional subscription television services offer a limited basic (or "lifeline") tier, a minimum base package that includes only broadcast stations within the television market where the service is located, and public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable channels; in many smaller markets, this tier may offer stations from adjacent markets that act as default network affiliates for areas not served by a local affiliate of one or more of the major broadcast networks; however, since the digital television transition in the late 2000s, these have been replaced in some cases by digital subchannels that have agreed to provide a particular network's programming within the local market.
Elevated programming tiers commonly start with an expanded basic package, offering a selection of subscription channels intended for wide distribution (primarily those that launched between the 1970s and the 1990s); since the upspring of digital cable and satellite television during the mid- and late 1990s, additional channels with more limited distribution are offered as add-ons to the basic packages through separate tiers, which are commonly organized based on the programming format of the channels sold in the tier. A la carte subscription services in Sierra are primarily limited to pay television (more commonly known as "premium") channels that are offered as add-ons to any programming package that a customer of a multichannel video programming distributor (also known as a cable or satellite "system" or "provider") can subscribe to for an additional monthly fee.
Broadcast television
Sierra has, like much of Anglo-America, a "decentralized", market-oriented television system, particularly in regard to broadcast television. The nation has a national public television service known as the Royal Broadcasting Service (RBS). Local media markets have their own television stations, which may either be affiliated with or owned and operated by a television network. Stations may sign affiliation agreements with one of the national networks for the local rights to carry their programming; these contracts can last anywhere from one to ten years, although such agreements often last on average between four and six years. Except in very small markets with a limited number of commercial stations (generally, fewer than five), affiliation agreements are usually exclusive: for example, if a station is affiliated with SBC, it consequently would not air programs from MCN, Tokki or other conventional broadcast networks but may carry specialty services intended to be carried on digital television signals on one or more subchannels.
Arrangements in which television stations carried more than one network on its main signal (which often resulted in some network programs being not being cleared to air locally by the station, thereby limiting their national carriage and resulting in viewers having to rely on an out-of-market station receivable in their area that airs the locally pre-empted show through an affiliation with that same network to see it) were more common between the 1940s and the 1960s, although some arrangements continued as late as 2010. Today, programming from networks other than that with which the station maintains a primary affiliation are usually carried over digital subchannels, which increasingly since the mid-2000s, have allowed one of the major broadcast networks to expand their national coverage to markets where they would have previously either had to settle for a secondary affiliation with a full-power television station (which maintain transmitting power as high as 1,000 kilowatts and outputs a signal extending as far as 80 miles [130 km] from the transmitter site), or an exclusive or primary affiliation with a low-power station with more limited signal coverage (which maintain a reduced transmitting power not exceeding 100 kilowatts, with a more limited signal radius covering an area 30–60 miles [48–97 km] from the transmitter).
To ensure local presences in television broadcasting, federal law restricts the amount of network programming that local stations can run. Local stations supplement network programming with varying amounts of their own locally produced shows, which encompassed a broad content spectrum that included variety, talk, music and sports programming; the remainder of their schedules are filled with syndicated programs, or material produced independently and sold to individual stations in each local market. The federal government has imposed limits on how many stations an individual owner can hold. The earliest limits restricted owners from holding more than five stations across the entire country, and no more than one in any given market. As of 2017, these limits have been relaxed. Since 1999, an ownership group is now legally allowed to own up to two signals in a market (which can amount to many more actual channels through digital transmission).
The method of most commercial stations – those that rely, at least partly, on advertising for revenue – acquiring programs through distributors of syndicated content to fill time not allotted to network and/or local programming differs from other countries worldwide where networks handle the responsibility of programming first-run and syndicated programs, whereas their partner stations are only responsible for the programming of local content. The orthodox programming model is used in the Kingdom of Sierra by some smaller networks and multicast services, which are more cost-effective for their affiliate stations since they require little to no acquired or locally produced programming to fill airtime at the local level.
Major broadcast networks
The major Sierra broadcast television networks are RBS, SBC (an abbreviation for the Sierran Broadcasting Company, its legal name), Tokki, MCN (an abbreviation for the Media Corporation Network, its former legal name), 16ON, and and EBN (short for Eagle Broadcasting Network). The first three began as radio networks: RBS public radio and SBC and Tokki private radio; RBS operates two channels: RBS1 and RBS2, SBC has a long and famous relationship with Disney, while Tokki was founded to serve Sierra's large Asian population, and is noted for its news program Tokki Today. MCN, owned by Media Corporation, was started in the 1950s, becoming the fourth major broadcaster. 16ON and EBN are the youngest major broadcasters. 16ON is an offshoot of Tokki, known for its local news programming, and was launched in 1998. EBN is the latest, launching in 1999 as an offshoot of MCN, and is mainly known for its right-leaning news programming.
Weekday schedules on RBS, SBC, and Tokki affiliates tend to be similar, with programming choices sorted by dayparts (MCN, EBN and 16ON do not air network programming outside of prime time other than sports programming and, with the exception of EBN, children's programming). Typically, these begin with an early-morning national newscast (such as RBS's The Morning in Sierra Show), followed by a local morning news program; these are typically followed by a network morning program (such as Tokki Today), which usually mixes news, weather, lifestyle segments, interviews and music performances.
Network daytime schedules consist of talk shows, soap operas, and game shows (though most game shows are syndicated); local newscasts may air at midday timeslots. Syndicated talk shows are shown in the late afternoon, followed by additional local newscasts in the early evening time period. EBN, Tokki, SBC, and MCN offer network news programs each evening, generally airing at 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. in the Pacific Time Zone (5:30 or 6:00 p.m. in other areas), however these are sometimes subject to pre-emption on weekends and select holidays due to sports programming that overlaps into the time slot, either because the event is scheduled to occur later in the day or extends beyond the set time block.
Local newscasts or syndicated programs fill the "prime access" hour or half-hour (7:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Pacific Time Zones), and lead into the networks' prime time schedules, which are the day's most-watched three hours of television. The traditional prime time schedule runs from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. in the Pacific Time Zone, although this varies depending on the network and the day: the "Big Three" (RBS, SBC, and Tokki) program an additional hour (running from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Pacific, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. elsewhere) on Sunday evenings (many Spanish language broadcast networks also program this additional hour to begin their prime time lineups on all seven nights of the week); MCN, 16ON and EBN, in contrast, do not carry any programming during the 10:00/9:00 p.m. hour and leave that hour for their affiliates to provide programming of their own.
Typically, family-oriented comedy programs lead in the early part of prime time, though reality television programs and more adult-oriented scripted programs – both comedies and dramas – are not uncommon. Sunday and Thursday are the most watched nights on Sierran television, in contrast, Friday and Saturday are the least watched nights.
At the end of prime time, another local news program is broadcast, usually followed by late-night interview shows. Rather than sign off in the early pre-dawn hours of the morning (as was standard practice until the early 1970s in larger markets and until the mid-1980s in smaller ones), television stations now fill the time with syndicated programming, reruns of prime time television shows or late local newscasts (the latter becoming less common since the early 2000s), or 30-minute advertisements, known as infomercials, and overnight network news programs. On some stations, syndicated programming may fill timeslots where local newscasts would traditionally air, either due to the station not programming news in certain time periods or because it does not operate a news department; similarly, local news programs in the late evening hours may air during the final hour of prime time.
Saturday mornings usually feature network programming aimed at children (though some networks, most notably SBC, instead operate a digital sub-channel network to handle their children's programming), traditionally these mainly consist of animated cartoons and in some cases, live-action scripted series and even game shows targeted at the demographic. Sunday mornings include a form of public affairs program known as the Sunday morning talk shows (which maintain a "week-in-review" format that focuses primarily on political and socioeconomic issues, and if a particular program's format is more fluid in regards to topical content, other news stories of major interest). Both of these help fulfill stations' legal obligations, respectively to provide educational children's programs and public service programming. Sports and infomercials (and on some stations, syndicated feature film packages) can be found on weekend afternoons, followed again by the same type of prime-time shows aired during the week.
Other over-the-air commercial television
From 1956 to 1959, , the majority of English-language television stations that were not affiliated with the Big Three networks were "independent," airing only syndicated and some locally produced programming to fill their daily schedules. Many independent stations still exist in the Kingdom of Sierra, usually historically broadcasting on the UHF band; however the number of them had decreased (especially within individual markets) after 1998 due to the formation of newer broadcast networks that were created to compete against the four established competitors.
However, in December 1959, the Media Corporation Network was launched as a challenge to the Big Three networks, with five independent stations that Media Corporation purchased as its cornerstone charter outlets, along with many independents owned by other companies. Thanks largely to the success of shows like Mark's Place, Special Agent, and Bug Hunt, as well as the network's acquisition of rights to show games from the Sierran American Football League's Royal Football Conference arm in December 1993, MCN has established itself as a major player in broadcast television. However, Fox differs from the three older networks in that it does not air daily morning and nightly news programs or have network-run weeknight late night schedules (though late night shows do air on Saturday nights, and beforehand, the network made previous failed attempts at late night programming on Monday through Friday evenings between 1986 and 1993). Its nightly prime-time schedule runs only two hours long on Monday through Saturdays and three hours on Sundays (something the network intentionally did to sidestep RTC regulations for television networks in effect at MCN's launch), and some of its major market affiliates used to broadcast on UHF before the digital transition (several affiliates though broadcast on VHF pre-transition, primarily as a result of affiliation deals with former longtime Big Three affiliates owned by station groups Wild West TV and SDH Broadcasting that it signed after acquiring the SAFL rights).
Many of its affiliates in mid-size and small markets outsource news production to Big Three affiliates rather produce their own newscasts, and its Porciúncula flagship does not include the network's name within their callsign (it instead uses the callsign KPCY, KMCN is instead used for the Honolulu Station). MCN's only scheduled news program is Media News Sunday, which it airs on Sunday mornings; special news coverage on the network comes from the staff of its sister cable network Media News (which launched in September 1995, around the same time as its affiliate video service Media VideoNews), though not every affiliate carries breaking news bulletins from MCN News outside of prime time royal addresses, and national and international events of utmost urgency. Most of MCN's affiliates now have local newscasts (only a small number of affiliates, mainly based in larger markets, carried news programming prior to the early-1990s), often scheduled during the final hour of prime time – an hour earlier than newscasts seen on major network stations – at which time they compete with network dramas, rather than other local newscasts (although some news-producing MCN stations also carry newscasts in the traditional late news time period), and for one to three additional hours in the morning that overlap with morning news programs on RBS, SBC and Tokki.
Three new networks launched in the 1990s: within four months of each other, in December 1998, 16ON (owned by Tokki Media Holdings), and in March 1999, EBN (Owned by Eagle Inc, a division of Media Corporation) were launched primarily to compete against MCN, targeting the same younger demographic (teenagers and young adults 12 to 34) that network had built its success upon during the 80's and 90's. In September 1999, Alpha Group (now Alpha Communications) launched Alpha Television to counterprogram the four larger networks as well as 16ON and EBN, with a focus on family-oriented original and acquired programming.
16ON broadcasts ten hours a week of programming in prime time, all airing only on Monday through Fridays (the network maintained a three-hour evening lineup on Sundays from 2006 to 2009, when that time was turned over to its affiliates), and five hours on Saturday mornings (its children's program block may bleed into the afternoon hours on weekends on a few stations due to other locally scheduled programs). 16ON is the only major network that operates a national programming service feed for smaller markets, 16ON Cable Services, which, as a cost-effective method that reduces programming responsibilities on prospective affiliate stations, fills airtime not occupied by 16ON network programming with syndicated programs and infomercials; 16ON Cable Services is distributed via digital subchannel and cable-only affiliates, making it also one of the only networks that has local affiliates that do not broadcast over-the-air.
EBN maintains a similar broadcasting schedule to 16ON: ten hours a week of programming in prime time on Monday through Fridays, with zero programming on weekends. EBN does not include a children's programming block, with individual station instead airing syndicated and locally produced content of their own.
Alpha broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week (though only eighteen hours of its schedule each day consist of entertainment programming, with infomercials and religious programming making up the remainder of the schedule), making the Alpha network the largest English-language commercial television network to be totally responsible for its affiliates' programming. Alpha differs from other commercial networks in that the majority of its stations are owned-and-operated by its parent company with very few affiliates, and it is distributed exclusively via cable and satellite in markets where the network does not have a local station; Alpha was the last of the seven conventional English language commercial broadcast networks to expand into distribution via digital multicasting, having relied entirely on cable and satellite distribution in markets where it otherwise could not maintain a primary affiliation until 2014, when it began accepting subchannel-only affiliates
Digital multicast services
With the digital television transition, which was completed in two phases in February and June 2009, the use of digital multicasting has given breed to various networks created for distribution on these multiplexed feeds of new and existing stations. However, for the most part, very few of these networks have been able to gain a national reach on parity with many of the conventional commercial and non-commercial networks, in part due to the fact that many stations transmit high definition programming on their main feed in 1080i, which requires a bitrate less compartmentalized for allowing more than one multicast feed (which are generally transmitted in standard definition) without risking diminished picture quality; some alternately transmit their main feed in 720p, which favors multiplexing of more than two subchannels at a time (ATSC 3.0, which began development around the time of the 2009 transition with RTC consideration to replace the current ATSC 1.0 as the technological standard for digital television expected to occur in 2016, uses improved compression technology able to fit additional subchannels on a single programming stream as well as allowing for the transmission of high definition content in the 4K resolution format).
Classics Network was among the first networks to be produced specifically for the digital television market; Hollywood Broadcasting created the network in 2005, originally relying mostly on public domain series before expanding to a broader library of licensed reruns. Both Classics Network and its most prominent rival, Malibu Communications owned Golden Television popularized the format for multicasting that relies on archived programming. Home Theater Network (co-owned by Warner Bros and Helle), uses a similar format, focusing on older as well as some relatively recent feature films; it helped to spawn similar movie-oriented broadcast networks such as Sierran Film Television.
In smaller cities and rural areas, the major broadcast networks may also rely on digital subchannels to be seen in these areas, as the market may not be populous enough to support a financially independent station for each network. As such RTC regulations govern cable providers must provide basic service at a reasonable cost. (Since advent of digital television equipment, the cost is responsibility of the consumer.)
Broadcast television in languages other than English
Several Spanish language broadcast (as well as cable) networks exist, which are the most common form of non-English television broadcasts. These networks are not as widely distributed over-the-air as their English counterparts, available mostly in markets with sizeable Latino and Hispanic populations; several of these over-the-air networks are alternatively fed directly to cable, satellite and IPTV providers in markets without either the availability or the demand for a locally based owned-and-operated or affiliate station.
The largest of these networks, Buena Vista Network (formerly Buena TV until 1996), launched in 1982 as a merger of three Spanish language independent stations: KBWN in Porciúncula, KMEX in Tijuana, and KESP in San Diego. Buena Vista Network is the dominant Spanish language network in the Kingdom, with its ratings having risen to levels where it has beaten at least one of its English language competitors since the late 1990s. BVN features programming content from a variety of distributors, though today, most of it comes from corporate parent Disney, and sister network SBC.
Cable and satellite television
While pay television systems existed as early as the late 1940s, until the early 1970s, cable television only served to distribute distant over-the-air television stations to rural areas not served by stations that are based locally. This role was reflected in the original meaning of the CATV acronym, "community antenna TV". In that decade, national networks that exclusively transmitted via cable and maintained their own individual programming formats began to launch, while cable system franchises began operating in major cities with over-the-air television stations. By the mid-1970s, some form of cable television was available in almost every market that already had over-the-air television service. Today, most Sierran households receive cable television, and cable networks collectively have greater viewership than broadcast networks, even though individual programs on most of the major commercial broadcast networks often have relatively higher viewership than those seen on cable channels.
The oldest-existing cable-originated television channel as well as the first successful premium cable (or "pay-cable") service is Home Cinema (HCM), which was also the first television network intended for cable distribution on a regional or national basis. HCM launched on November 8, 1972, with a mix of movies, sports, and comedy and music specials. For its first three years of operation, it used microwave technology to transmit its programming. On September 30, 1975 HCM became the first television network to use communications satellites to transmit its programming.
The first basic cable network was Porciúncula, Gold Coast independent station KHJ-TV (channel 9), which was uplinked to satellite on December 17, 1976, months after the station owner reached an agreement to set up a cable network via satellite transmission. The decision to distribute the station which subsequently had its call sign changed to KPGC (Porciúncula, Gold Coast), via satellite enabled it to be received nationwide, especially in markets that did not have a local independent station or did not receive an out-of-market independent. This move pioneered the superstation concept, which precipitated other independent stations to uplink their signals to satellite for redistribution by cable systems outside the station's primary coverage area.
The second basic cable network, the first to operate as a cable-originated outlet and the first such network to be uplinked via satellite from launch was the Driggs Family Network, launched in April 1977 by Mormon entrepreneur William King Driggs. Originally founded an an outlet for Mormon entertainment, it refocused towards secular family-oriented programming, carrying a mix of reruns of classic television series and feature films alongside its religious programming.
Unlike broadcast networks, most cable networks air the same programming nationwide. Top cable networks include Royal Sierra Network (which maintains a general entertainment format), MCN Sports and Homerun (which focus on sports programming), Tokki Music TV (which focuses on music videos), Media News, Tokki 24, and National News Network, (which are dedicated news channels with some opinion and other feature-driven programming), Disney Channel, Multiplex and Animation Station, (which focus on children's programming; Disney Channel and Animation Station are also available on digital subchannels), Old Time Theatre (which focuses on older theatrical feature films), World View and Animal Kingdom (which focus on documentary programs), SFC (which focuses on a mix of feature films and original series), Cho Tokki and Hyper Media (also general entertainment networks, with some focus on drama), White Dwarf and Crystal Ball (which focuses on science fiction and fantasy programming, respectably), and Jewel (which targets at a female audience, with a mix of television films, and original and acquired comedy, reality and drama series).
Premium channels – cable networks that subscribers have to pay an additional fee to their provider to receive – began launching in the 1970s and initially grew in popularity as it allowed subscribers to watch movies without time or content editing common with over-the-air television broadcasts of theatrically released feature films and without interruptions by advertising. While HCM continues to feature theatrical films and specials, the service eventually became one of the first cable channels to successfully venture into original programming; by the late 1990s, HBO began to be known for groundbreaking first-run series that were edgier and more risque in content than those allowed to air on broadcast networks. Other pay-extra networks launched in the years subsequent to HBO's launch including Lights Camera Action, which launched on 1976, with a similar format. Although attempts at such services date back to the 1950s, pay-per-view services began launching in the mid-1980s, allowing subscribers to purchase movies and events on a one-time-only basis via telephone; with the advent of digital cable, interactive technologies allowed pay-per-view selections to be purchased by remote.
In addition to sports networks that are distributed to a national audience, two other types of sports-oriented television networks exist. Regional sports networks are cable outlets designed to cover a limited geographic region and metropolitan area, which carry events from local professional and collegiate sports teams, as well as team-related programs, news and magazine programs. Out-of-market sports packages, meanwhile, are composed of individual multichannel packages broadcasting events from an individual sport that are carried by regional sports networks, and national and local broadcasters that hold rights to individual teams or sports leagues; the out-of-market sports package is the most expensive form of a la carte television service, ranging in price from $50 to $75 per month.
Transmission and technology
The national cable television network became possible in the mid-1970s with the launch of domestic communications satellites that could economically broadcast television programs to cable operators anywhere in the Kingdom. Until then, cable networks like HCM had been limited to regional coverage through distribution over expensive terrestrial microwave links leased from the telephone companies. Satellites were generally used only for international (i.e., transoceanic) communications; their antennas covered an entire hemisphere, producing weak signals that required large, expensive receiving antennas. The first domestic communications satellite, ComSat 1, was launched in 1975. By concentrating its signal on Sierra with a directional antenna, ComSat 1 could transmit to TVRO ("television receive-only") dishes only a few meters in diameter, well within the means of local cable television operators. HCM became the first cable network to transmit programming via satellite in September 1975.
Cable system operators now receive programming by satellite, terrestrial optical fiber (a method used primarily to relay local stations based within metropolitan areas to the franchise, and acts as a backup for the system operator if a broadcast station's over-the-air signal is affected by a power outage or other technical malfunction involving the main transmitter), off the air (a method used to relay broadcast stations to cable franchises in outlying areas and satellite providers), and from in-house sources and relay it to subscribers' homes. Usually, local governments award a monopoly to provide cable television service in a given area. By law, cable systems must include local broadcast stations in their offerings to customers.
Enterprising individuals soon found they could install their own satellite dishes and eavesdrop on the feeds to the cable operators. The signals were transmitted as unscrambled analog FM feeds that did not require advanced or expensive technology. Since these same satellites were also used internally by the television networks, they could also watch programs not intended for public broadcast such as affiliate feeds without commercials and/or intended for another time zone; raw footage from remote news teams; advance transmissions of upcoming programs; and live news and talk shows during breaks when those on camera might not realize that anyone outside the network could hear them.
Encrypting was introduced to prevent people from receiving pay content for free, and nearly every pay channel was encrypted by the mid-to-late 1980s. Satellite television also began a digital transition, well before over-the-air broadcasting did the same, to increase satellite capacity and/or reduce the size of the receiving antennas; this also made it more difficult for individuals to intercept these signals. Eventually, the industry began to cater to individuals who wanted to continue to receive satellite television (and were willing to pay for it) in two ways: by authorizing the descrambling of the original satellite feeds to the cable television operators, and with new direct broadcast satellite television services using their own satellites. These latter services, which began operating in the mid-1990s, offer programming similar to cable television.
Galaxy Satellite and ConnectTV are the major DBS providers in the country, with 7 million and 5 million customers respectively as of July 2021. Meanwhile, Clarity Communications with 10 million customers, Nelson Cable with 8 million, and Albright Cable with 7 million.
Although most networks make viewers pay a fee to receive their programming, some networks broadcast using unencrypted feeds. After broadcast television switched to a digital infrastructure, new channels became available on unencrypted satellites to bring more free television to Sierrans; some of these are available as a digital subchannel to local broadcasters, this reason may be for the expensive costs of the DVB-S equipment.
Some cable providers use interactive features built into set-top boxes leased to their subscribers to distribute video on demand services within their internal networks. Many providers of subscription television services – both networks and system operators – also have TV Everywhere services, which usually mix the video on demand model with live streaming capabilities (allowing viewers to watch broadcasts from over-the-air networks and stations, and cable channels in near real-time), but require password and username authentication through participating pay television providers.
Internet services
Streaming television is similar to a cable subscription model, but instead of the set-top box receiving information via a dedicated wire, video is transmitted over the public Internet or private internet protocol-based network to a set-top box or in some cases directly to an enabled television.
OTT, or Over-the-top content bypasses multiple system operators entirely, and allows viewing of programs hosted by independent providers. Internet television, also known as web television, began in the 1990s and has become popular in the 2000s onward, resulting in a trend of cord-cutting – the canceling of cable subscriptions in favor of online content that consumers supplement with either over-the-air broadcasts, DVD rentals or a combination of all three viewing methods.
The business of television
Over-the-air (OTA) commercial stations and networks generate the vast majority of their revenue from advertisements. According to a 2001 survey, broadcast stations allocated 16 to 21 minutes of programming time per hour to commercials. Most cable networks also generate income from advertisements, although most basic cable networks also receive subscription fees, which are the other main source of revenue for the cable operators. However, premium cable networks do not air commercials; instead, cable television subscribers must pay an extra fee to receive this type of pay television service.
Networks traditionally allocate a portion of commercial time during their programs (usually totaling between five and 6½ minutes per hour, depending on the length of the program being aired, sometimes less during sporting events) to their local affiliates, which allow the local stations to generate revenue. In the same manner, in addition to subscription fees, cable television providers generate some of their revenue by selling local commercial time (usually allocating around four minutes per hour) for each advertiser-supported cable network it carries. However, while much of this time is sold to local and national advertisers, portions of the allocated commercial time are reserved by network affiliates and cable providers for in-house advertising (cable providers use some of this time to carry commercials for their services, which may also include business solutions, residential telephone and broadband internet services; network affiliates, as do other commercial broadcast stations, use this reserved time to carry promotions for their programming or station imaging).
Cable companies are required by the 1992 Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act to negotiate for retransmission consent, usually paying broadcasters for the right to carry their signals. This provision, over time, has resulted in problems between pay television providers and companies that own subscription television services as well as those own and/or operate over-the-air television stations, as disagreements over terms in retransmission contracts sometimes arise during negotiations to renew and (occasionally) strike new agreements to carry certain channels. The carriage disputes that occur because of these differences typically result in broadcast stations or cable channels being pulled for a protracted period of time, often due to carriage fee increases that a provider may consider to be too expensive (since retransmission consent fees are a form of subscriber fee, any increase in fees that a provider carries will be passed on to the subscriber, which providers are hesitant to do out of concern that it may result in subscriber defections due to the resulting rate increases for program packages).
Programming
Sierran has had very successful programs that have inspired television networks across the world to develop shows of similar types. Some of these shows are still on the air and some have maintained decent runs in syndication. Conversely, many programs produced for K.S. television are also routinely syndicated to broadcasters in other countries, and a number of popular Sierran programs have been based on shows that originated in other countries, especially the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Astoria.
News
The major networks (besides MCN, EBN, and 16ON) all offer a morning news program, with Tokki's Tokki Today, SBC's SBC At Breakfast, and RBS's RBS News Morning as standard bearers, as well as an early-evening newscast anchored by the de facto face of the network's news division. Successful news magazines have included Hour Update, Vision and Deadline in prime time, and Press Stories, Federal Look and Weekly Flashback on Sunday mornings.
Local news programming airs on many television stations, with individual markets supporting as few as two or as many as eight television news operations, depending on the number of available viewers that live in the market. Most stations originally aired locally produced newscasts only in evening time periods (usually at 6:00 and 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. local time) until the 1970s or as late as the mid-1980s on some stations. During that period, stations began local news programs in the midday and 5:00 p.m. time slots, while morning newscasts began to become common during the 1980s (first on weekdays, with weekend morning newscasts launching in many cities beginning in the early 1990s).
Cable news channels traditionally carry blocks of more generalized news coverage during the morning and afternoon hours; programs focusing on politics (that are similar in format to the Sunday morning talk shows) and documentaries typically air on these channels during prime time and late night, with general news coverage during that time usually limited to occasional coverage of breaking news events.
Game shows
The game show has been one of the longest-running formats in Sierran television history; game shows have aired regularly since the Sierran National TV Quiz began regular broadcasts in 1941.
Game shows have typically followed one of several formats, some of which overlap. Quiz shows tend to be more serious in demeanor and are based on trivia, with their appeal drawn from the intelligence of the contestant and the often high prize payouts; they often air in prime time or fringe time were a major fad in the 1950s before a wide-ranging scandal exposed most of the quiz shows of the era as either rigged or outright fabricated and triggered major reforms. The fallout from the scandal led to stricter limits on game show prizes that lasted for the rest of the 20th century. High-stakes quiz shows made a comeback in the late 1990s, particularly with the Sierran adaptation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and and an uptick in interest in the long-running answer-and-question quiz Jeopardy!
Panel games featured a panel of celebrities or news personalities interacting with a contestant. Mark Goodman was particularly well known for his panel games, which ranged from more erudite interview programs such as What's My Line? to comedy-driven shows such as the Match Game. Audience participation games, while having had a place in Sierran television since the beginning with early examples including Truth or Dare, gained popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s with Let's Make a Deal (hosted and co-produced by Monty Hall) and the 1972 revival of Daily Challenge; they changed the nature of game shows in that their atmosphere was more raucous than most panel games and quiz shows.
Game shows have historically been associated with daytime television in Sierra. Quiz shows have typically aired in prime time, but SBC increased its output of non-quiz games in prime time beginning in the mid-2010s with its "Fun & Games" format, to substantial success.
Soap operas
The soap opera genre experienced a gradual decline beginning in the 1980s due to the continued migration of women into the workplace, culminating in six soaps being canceled by SBC, MCN and Tokki between 2003 and 2011. Soap operas have also become common in prime time, which differ from their daytime counterparts as they use the traditional weekly format and maintain a visual style traditional of other nighttime network series (particularly, nighttime soaps are recorded on film in a single-camera setup, whereas daytime soaps are shot on multiple cameras that record the program on videotape).
Comedies and dramas
Comedy programming on Sierran television has been more noted for situation comedies (sitcoms). One of the earliest Sierran comedy-variety television series was The Nathan Champan Show during the 1940s. Comedy continued to evolve with the rise of sitcoms and the spread of comedic content in news, drama, and gameshows. Fool's Maiden was a popular 1950s sitcom, topping television charts during the peak of its runtime before and during Great War II. Since that time, sitcoms such as Styxie Club, Where's the Family?, The Butler, My House & Rules, The Newport Boys, Sisters of L Street, and Dumb Justice have each been the highest annual rated Sierran television series in the Kingdom of Sierra for at least one season.
In the last 30 years, comedic adult animation has grown significantly.
Dramatic series have taken many forms over the years, including soap operas, fantasy drama, historical drama, legal drama, domestic drama, and teen drama. Popular drama television series throughout the years in Sierra include Sons & Daughters, The Happy Die Young, The Heart Grows Fonder, Emergency Room, The Constable, Riverside PD, and Lester.
Dramedy, a term for a television series that mixes elements of comedy and drama, have seen its popularity grown among viewers.
Television series featuring fantasy and science fiction are also popular with Sierran viewers, since these programs take elements of comedy, drama, adventure, or a combination of all of the above. Notable fantasy and science fiction TV series include First Contact, Codename: Skyfallen, Celestia Chronicles, Space World, Snrith Gulch, Merveilles des Morte, and Peculiar Occurrences.
Reality television
Reality television has long existed in Sierra, both played for laughs and as drama. A new variant—competition series—emerged during the 1990s, placing ordinary people in unusual circumstances or in talent contests such as singing competitions, generally eliminating at least one participant per week, exploded in popularity at the turn of the new millennium. Popular shows during the early 2000s included the series King of the Island, The Next Superstar, Matchmaker's Game, and Housemates. Beginning in the 2010s, reality television shows began to shift towards soap opera-style formats centered around the lives of a cast and ensemble, such as Porcy Divas and Dukes of Orange.
Talk shows
The most successful talk show has been The Tonight Show. Tonight ushered in a multi-decade period of dominance by one network – MCN – in Sierran late-night programming and paved the way for many similar programs combining comedy and celebrity interviews. Despite initial failed attempts during the late 1980s by Tokki as well as the success of The Rex Banner Show in syndication during its first five-year run beginning in 1989, the late-night talk show genre would not become a more competitive field until the 1990s, when CBS gained a major foothold in the field with the Late Night Show; competition in the genre increased even further as cable networks entered into the genre in the 2000s and 2010s with the rise of parody news show Newscast under host Wyatt Hall.
Children's programming
Children's television programs are also quite popular. Early ventures into children's television in the 1950s aired on weekdays with shows such as Western Tales, and the Mickey Mouse Club. However children's programing had experienced its greatest success on Saturday mornings and Weekday afternoons from the late 1960s. Programs shown during these time periods mainly consisted of animated programming including classic cartoons (such as Looney Tunes), reruns of prime time animated sitcoms, foreign acquisitions, animated adaptations of films and television series, and original programs. They remain moderately popular on Saturday mornings, but are virtually extinct on weekdays, which tend to be dominated by cable networks such as Multiplex, Disney Channel (also avaliable as a didigtal subchannel on most SBC affiliates), and Animation Station.
Some locally produced children's programs – which often mix cartoons, special guests and audience-participation games – also became popular in the local markets where they were broadcast; these included franchised shows like Brasco's Pre-School, which often feature different hosts and character's, but use the same formats.
Animation
Instructional television
Adult instructional television, other than a few niche programs (such as the agriculture-themed AG!0!), as typically been the province of noncommercial television. RBS stations, in particular, often aired local instructional shows outside of prime time, some of which were syndicated to other stations, such as Paint With Friends, and Real Estate Secrets. In the form of expository bible readings, instructional television is a staple of religious broadcasting. A common form of instructional television, both noncommercially (such as Master Chef with Jeanne Cousteau or Martin Yan's Yan Can Cook) and commercially (such as The Science of Cooking and Hawaiian Delights), is the cooking show, in which the host demonstrates various recipes that home viewers can prepare themselves.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling had been aired on local television during its earliest days and began to be aired in national television during the 1950s. It underwent a resurgence in the 1980s as Ricardo Fortuny's Golden Wrestling League and Robert Chung's Hollywood Wrestling Federation each built rivalling national wrestling empires. During the Sunday Night Wars, of the 1990s, GWL and HWF maintained a heated televised rivalry. The boom eventually collapsed by the turn of the millennium, and GWL and HWF merged into the modern Sierran Federal Wrestling (SWF).
Sports
The broadcasting of sports events is a major component of the Sierran commercial television industry. Sports tend to draw a large, wealthy audience that can command large sums of revenue from advertising and subscription fees.
In the early days of television, sports quickly became a fixture of North American broadcast television. Boxing was carried on almost every television station and network since the beginnings. The sport earned a negative reputation after several scandals; by 1964, boxing was off national television. The rise of pay-per-view and premium channels led to most of the highest-profile matches returning to the airwaves via subscription television. While it still maintains a limited (and rising, thanks to the efforts of Premier Boxing Champions) presence on broadcast television, boxing has declined in popularity since the 1990s with mixed martial arts, a more broad-based combat sport, rising to take its place.
Imported programming
While the majority of programs broadcast on Sierran television are produced domestically, some programs carried in syndication, on public television or on cable are imported from other countries – most commonly, from the primarily English-speaking countries of Anglo-America and the United Kingdom. RBS, in particular, is commonly known for its broadcasts of BBC sitcoms (such as Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances and Are You Being Served?), which typically air on its member stations on weekend evenings, RBS was also responsible for bringing the hit period drama Downton Abbey to the U.S. and for initially popularizing the long-running science-fiction series Doctor Who in the Kingdom.
The life cycle of K.S. television shows
Television production companies either commission teleplays for television pilots or buy spec scripts. Some of these scripts are turned into pilots for proposed television programs. The production company markets those they consider commercially viable to television networks – or television distributors for first-run syndication. A few things that a television network takes under consideration in deciding to order a show is if the show itself is compatible with the network's target audience, the cost of production, and if the show is well liked among network executives, and in many cases, test audiences.
Networks sometimes preemptively purchase pilots to prevent other networks from controlling them – and the purchase of a pilot is no guarantee that the network will order additional episodes. In other cases, the network may be forced to commission the pilot to avoid shouldering monetary penalties if it is not produced. The producers hire a director and other crew members (in some cases, using staff employed with an existing series) to work on the pilot; in some cases, if the pilot's concept was pitched by producers that would not write for the proposed show before a script is drafted, writers may also be assigned to pen the script and would be given credit as the series' creator(s). Pilots that do get "picked up" get either a full or partial-season order (starting with an initial order of between seven and 13 episodes, which may be extended if the program's viewership is strong during the early run of episodes); the show goes into production, usually establishing itself with permanent sets. Writers, additional directors and some full-time crew members are hired, and work begins – usually during the late spring and summer before the fall season-series premieres (shows can also serve as a midseason replacement, meaning they are ordered specifically to fill holes in a network schedule created by the failure and cancellation of shows that premiered in the fall). Unscripted series have a different stage of development, as the program is generally pitched only as a concept, often without a pilot being ordered or already produced.
The standard broadcast television season in the Kingdom of Sierra consists of 22 episodes (which are typically broadcast over a period of nine months from September to May, depending on the date on which the program begins its season), although prior to the 1970s, a single season of a weekly television program consisted of as many as 40 episodes, with few breaks in the show's airing schedule. Sitcoms may have 24 or more; animated programs may have more (or fewer) episodes (some are broken up into two 11-minute shorts, often with separate self-contained storylines, that are folded into a single half-hour episode); cable networks with original programming seem to have settled on about 10 to 13 episodes per season, much in line with British television programming, though there are exceptions (particularly with cable networks specializing in children's programming, which use the network television model of total per-season episode counts, but spread out the episodes over a single calendar year).
Sierran soap operas air in the afternoon, five days a week, without any significant break in taping and airing schedules throughout the year. This means that these serials air approximately 260 episodes a year, making their cast and crew members the busiest in show business. These shows are rarely, if ever, repeated (unless the network chooses not to air a new episode on certain major holidays), making it difficult for viewers to "catch up" when they miss an episode, though the television networks' adoption of online streaming during the late 2000s has made it easier for viewers to watch recent episodes of a particular soap.
Networks use profits from commercials that run during the show to pay the production company, which in turn pays the cast and crew, and keeps a share of the profits for itself (networks sometimes act as both production companies and distributors). As advertising rates are based on the size of the audience, measuring the number of people watching a network is very important. This measurement is known as a show or network's ratings. Sweeps months (which occur in November, February, May, and to a lesser extent July) are important landmarks in the television season – ratings earned during these periods determine advertising rates until the next sweeps period, therefore shows often have their most exciting plot developments happen during sweeps.
Shows that are successful with audiences and advertisers receive authorization from the network to continue production, until the plotline ends (only for scripted shows) or if the contract expires. Those that are not successful are often quickly told to discontinue production by the network, known as "cancellation".
In Sierran animation, seasons and a series' longevity are more variable. Generally, animated television series, especially Western-style cartoons, can range between one to four seasons. Series which are predominantly episodic, rather than chronologically narrative-driven, tend to be renewed on the basis of commercial success and viewership. Series that are more narrative-driven may be renewed on the basis of commercial success and viewership, as well as whether or not the story, whether original or an adaptation, has been completed, as determined by either the showrunners or the television network. Some particularly successful media franchise cartoons may last longer, with the longest-running animated series Year 3000, lasting 30 seasons from 1990 to 2020. The episode count and length of each season may vary depending on the executive decisions of the series' respective television network. Sierran animation utilizing Eastern-style anime follow a different season schedule, based on the scheduling used in Japan. Instead, the calendar year is divided into four seasons or cours, each season lasting three months. The majority of anime lasts only one cour or season, with 12 to 13 episodes. Some anime series may have the double the amount, with 22 to 24 episodes. Certain genres of anime such as shonen or anime adapted from other works such as ongoing manga series may have more than 2 seasons. Cartoons which follow anime scheduling are usually known as cartoon miniseries, while anime which follow cartoon scheduling as seasonal anime, even if such series has distinct "seasons" in the Western sense.
Regulation
Broadcast television is regulated by the Royal Television Commission. The RTC awards and oversees the renewal of licenses to local stations, which stipulate stations' commitments to educational and public-interest programming. During the early years of commercial television, the FCC permitted a single company to own a maximum of five television stations nationwide (later raised to seven stations in 1984 and then to twelve in 1992), although until the 1960s, very few companies outside of the major broadcast networks owned multiple stations. Since a change to its media ownership regulations in 1999 that counted television station ownership maximums by a national market percentage rather than by the number of stations that could be allowed in their portfolio, RTC rules mandate that the total number of television stations owned by any company can only reach a maximum of 39% of all markets in the Kingdom.
Many commercial stations are now owned-and-operated or controlled through outsourcing agreements by group owners (either independent companies or network-owned subsidiary groups), with a relatively limited number of companies that remain which own stations in five or fewer markets. Outsourcing agreements (known by multiple terms, mainly local marketing agreements [LMA], shared services agreements [SSA] or joint sales agreements [JSA], albeit with little differentiation in their structure) have allowed some broadcasting companies to operate stations that they could otherwise not legally own outright due to in-market ownership regulations.
The RTC also previously barred companies from owning more than one television station within a single market, unless it operated as a satellite station (a full-power station that relays programming from its parent station to areas within the market that are not adequately covered if at all by the main signal) or a low-power station (either one that maintains its own programming or operates as a translator); however, it eventually allowed operators of public television stations to sign-on or acquire a second station that did not repeat the parent's signal (some of which were originally licensed as commercial outlets). In August 1997, the RTC legalized the common ownership of two commercial stations, known as duopolies, if one of them is not among the market's four highest-rated, and if there are at least eight companies that each own full-power stations within the market. This lead to the creation of both 16ON and EBN.
The RTC also prohibits the airing of "indecent" material over-the-air between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 pm. Broadcast stations can legally air almost anything they want late at night – and cable networks at all hours. However, nudity and graphic profanity are rare on Sierran television. Though the RTC gives them leeway to air programs containing "indecent" material within its designated watershed period, broadcasters are hesitant to do this, concerned that airing such material would alienate advertisers and encourage the federal government to strengthen regulation of television content. Premium cable networks are exceptions, and often air very racy programming at night, though premium channels often air program content with strong to graphic profanity, violence and nudity in some cases during the daytime hours. Such content is common on pay television services, as they are not subjected to FCC regulations and pressure from advertisers, and often require a subscription to view them. Some networks are devoted exclusively to "adult" content, specifically pornographic material, and therefore viewers may find scenes of simulated or graphic sexual intercourse and nudity on such channels.
Cable television is largely, but not entirely, unregulated. Cable providers must include local over-the-air stations in their offerings on each system (stations can opt to gain carriage by seeking a must-carry option) and give them low channel numbers, unless the stations decide to demand compensation of any sort (through retransmission consent). The systems cannot carry broadcast network affiliates from other parts of the country, however cable systems can carry stations from nearby markets if there are no local stations affiliated with one of the major networks.
Cable systems can also air satellite-relayed broadcast stations originating from other areas of North America, known as superstations, which for the most part are often aired in rural areas; all superstations are currently barred from major network affiliation in the Kingdom of Sierra.
The RTC has virtually no jurisdiction over the content of programming exclusively broadcast on cable. As a result, anyone is free to create any number of channels or any sort of programming whatsoever without consulting the FCC. The only restrictions are on the ability to secure carriage on cable or satellite (or, failing that, by streaming on Internet television) and securing the rights to programming. Because of this lack of restriction, channel drift (the shift of a channel's programming format away from that which it originally maintained) is much more common in the Sierra than in other countries.
Because the Sierra had relatively weak copyright terms until 1976, a large body of older television series have lapsed into the public domain and are thus free to redistribute in any form.
History of Sierran television
Television debuted in the Kingdom of Sierra on July 19, 1928, with the launch of KSR-TV, though the first television to launch in Anglo-America was WNYG in the United Commonwealth. These early television programs operated using low-bandwidth (and low-fidelity) mechanical television processes. Full-time broadcasts began in the early 1930s, particularly in Porciúncula; these were almost exclusively studio-based shows, among them the anthology series TV Library, piano lessons and primitive variety shows. These shows and broadcasts ended in 1933, in part because of limits on the technology and economic limits caused by the Great Depression.
On May 25, 1939, RCS, in association with SBC, introduced the first, regularly scheduled, 441-line electronic television service in the Kingdom over Porciúncula's K2XGC (today's KSBC-TV) from a transmitter atop Mount Wilson as well as placing RCS television receivers on sale in the province of Gold Coast. Television receivers were also sold by Continental Electric, Radiologist Laboratories, and other manufacturers during his period. SBC rival Tokki established their own electronic television station in Porciúncula at the time, K2XKS (KTBS-TV). Although television sets were available for sale during this period (1939–1941), sales were slow, primarily due to a lack of compelling programming, limited broadcast schedules and the high price of the sets. In 1941, The North-american Television Systems Committee (NTSC) standardized on a 525-line system, and authorized the official start of advertising-based, commercial television. This would provide the basis for television across the country through the end of the century.
After a flood of television license applications, the RTC froze the application process for new applicants in 1948, due to concerns over station interference. There were barely more than 100 stations operating at the end of the freeze as of 1952, concentrated in many (but not all) major cities. After four years of deliberation, the RTC ended the license freeze. It reorganized the UHF band for television, then began handing out broadcasting licenses on both the UHF and VHF bands, with the highest concentration of license grants and station sign-ons occurring between 1953 and 1956. Many successful VHF stations launched. By comparison, UHF television reception at this time required either purchasing a more expensive television with a UHF tuner in it – as UHF tuners were not mandated by law in sets – or buying a conversion kit that added the band to VHF televisions. Both of these prevented consumer adoption of UHF in the mid-1950s, and most UHF channels which went to air during this time period did not survive.
A brief dispute over the system to use for color broadcasts occurred at this time, but was soon settled. Half of all K.S. households had television sets by 1955, though color was a premium feature for many years (most households able to purchase television sets could only afford black-and-white models, and few programs were broadcast in color until the mid-1960s).
Many of the earliest television programs were modified versions of well-established radio shows. Barn dances and opries were regular staples of early television, as were the first variety shows. Reruns of film shorts were also staples of early television and to a certain extent remain popular today, well after those film shorts mostly stopped being produced in the 1960s. The 1950s saw the first flowering of the genres that would distinguish television from movies and radio: talk shows and sitcoms. Although sitcoms were a radio fixture since the late 1930s (many 1940s radio sitcoms jumped directly to television), television allowed far greater use of physical comedy, an advantage that early television sitcoms used to its full potential.
Other popular genres in early television were westerns, police procedurals, suspense thrillers and soap operas, all of which were adapted from the radio medium. Anthology and wheel series thrived in the so-called "Golden Age of Television," but eventually faded in popularity by the 1970s. The big band remote, for the most part, did not survive (a victim of the concurrent start of the rock era). Game shows were also a major part of the early part of television, aided by massive prizes unheard of in the radio era; however, the pressure to keep the programs entertaining led to the quiz show scandals, in which it was revealed many of the popular high-stakes games were rigged or outright scripted. The Saturday morning cartoons, animated productions made specifically for television (and, accordingly, with much tighter budgets and more limited animation), also debuted in the late 1950s.
Broadcast television stations in Sierra were primarily transmitted on the VHF band (channels 2–13) through the mid-1960s. It was not until the All-Channel Receiver Act of 1964 that UHF broadcasting became a feasible medium.
The quality of Sierran television underwent a marked decline in the late 1950s and early 1960s as anthology series disappeared from the network schedules in favor of an oversaturation of westerns, rural and fantasy sitcoms, cheaply animated cartoons and often-violent action-adventure series.
Stations across the country also produced their own local programs. Usually carried live, they ranged from simple advertisements to game shows and children's shows that often featured clowns and other offbeat characters.
Subscription television networks emerged in the late 1970s, first as over-the-air encrypted enterprises such as OnAir and EncrypTV. Subscription television largely migrated to cable television through the early 1980s, as providers began to offer dedicated channels alongside local and out-of-market broadcast stations and cable service gradually expanded to more metropolitan areas. Analog television receive-only had a brief uptick in popularity during the mid-1980s, but never achieved competitive parity with cable providers of the time. Direct-broadcast satellite television experienced its breakout in the mid-1990s, with the emergence of digital (DSS) transmission; it has been growing in significance since then – spurring the emergence of multinational conglomerates. As the number of outlets for potential new television channels increased, this also introduced the threat of audience fracturing, in that it would become more difficult to attain a critical mass of viewers in this highly competitive market.
Infomercials were legalized in 1984, approximately the same time that cable television became widespread. Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, stations began airing infomercials – as well as news and entertainment programs – throughout the night instead of signing off; infomercials also began to overtake other less-watched dayparts (such as weekends and during the daytime), which forced series that would otherwise be syndicated onto cable networks or off the air entirely. Cable networks have also begun selling infomercial space, usually in multiple-hour blocks in the early morning hours, while some dedicated channels devoted to infomercials have also launched since the early 1990s. Infomercials have earned a reputation as a medium for advertising scams and products of dubious quality, although by the same token, they have proven to be a successful method of selling products.
In the late 1990s, the Kingdom of Sierra began to deploy digital television, transitioning it into being the standard transmission method for over-the-air broadcasts. The major broadcast networks began transitioning to recording their programs in high definition (HD); prime time programs were the first to convert to the format, with daytime shows eventually being converted to HD beginning in the mid-2000s; the upgrade to full high-definition network schedules, at least among the conventional English language broadcast networks, was fully completed by September 2014 when the last standard-definition programs upgraded to HD.
The late 1990s also saw the invention of digital video recorders. While the ability to record a television program for home viewing was possible with the earlier VCRs, that medium was a bulky mechanical tape medium that was far less convenient than the all-digital technology that DVRs use (DVD recorders also began to be sold around this time, though this is also less convenient than the DVR technology since DVD discs are somewhat more fragile than videotapes, although both mediums allow to some extent for longer-term viewing than most DVRs). DVR technology allowed wide-scale time shifting of programming, which had a negative impact on programming in time slots outside of prime time by allowing viewers to watch their favorite programs on demand. It also put pressure on advertisers, since DVRs make it relatively easy to skip over commercials.
During the 2000s, the major development in Sierran television programming was the growth of reality television, which proved to be an inexpensive and entertaining alternative to scripted prime time programming. The process of nonlinear video editing and digital recording allowed for much easier and less expensive editing of mass amounts of video, making reality television more viable than it had been in previous decades. All four major broadcast networks carry at least one long-running reality franchise in their lineup at any given time of the year.
See also
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