Predicting Audience Exposure to Television in Today's Media Environment: An Empirical Integration of Active-Audience and Structural Theories

Scholars have long advocated empirical integration of active-audience and structural theories to best explain audience exposure to television. This study incorporated both uses and gratifications and structural variables in an integrated model of audience exposure. Results indicated that seven statistically significant factors—ritualistic motivations, use of the Internet, audience availability, the cost of multi-channel service, age, instrumental motivations, and gender—combined to explain 30.3% of the variance in audience exposure to television. Findings suggest that no single theoretical construct explains the complexities that determine exposure to television. Future inquiry should continue to seek theoretical and empirical integration as a way to understand and explain media behavior.     

Concentration and Diversity in the Cable Television Industry Under Regulatory Uncertainty

This study investigates the relationship between the concentration of ownership among cable companies and diversity in the cable networks during a period of regulatory uncertainty—a period when the cable ownership rules were announced but did not have legal impact due to legal challenges from the industry. The results show that although cable ownership rules had not been legally in effect, they did pose potential threats to the industry and affected the cable television industry by decreasing the level of concentration among cable networks while increasing the level of concentration among cable system operators.     

Determinants of Cable System Product Diversification—An Investigation of the U.S. Cable Systems

This study examines cable system diversification into three nontraditional services: pay-per-view television, high-speed Internet access, and telephony. An econometrics model based on the Industrial Organization Model is used to explore the factors that have led to variation in diversification among cable systems. Specifically, this study examines how three sets of variables, namely, cable system characteristics, market structure, and market demographics, influenced cable system diversification. Multiple linear regression was performed to identify the determinants of cable system total degree of diversification, which is defined to be the number, from 0 to 3, of the three nontraditional services offered by a cable system. Regression results indicate that Multiple System Operator (MSO) ownership, the number of basic cable service subscribers, and the number of broadcast television stations receivable over the air all had a statistically significant positive relationship to cable system total degree of diversification, whereas the number high-speed Internet service providers in a cable franchise area had a statistically significant negative relationship to cable system's total degree of diversification.     

Market Competition and the Media Performance of Taiwan's Cable Television Industry

Using industrial organization as the theoretical framework, this study examines the relation between market competition and the media performance of Taiwan's cable television industry. The media performance of cable television systems is defined as the subscribers' satisfaction with program service, customer service, and community service. A telephone survey was conducted to collect data for the study. This study's findings in general support a positive relation between market competition and media performance, which accords with most previous studies.     

Book Review

Digital cable is a technological innovation featuring interactivity, which is still in its infancy. This study identifies a profile of early digital cable subscribers based on a telephone survey. The study results indicate that digital cable subscribers are more likely to watch television, subscribe to premium services, perceive their cable operator to be technologically progressive, and express greater satisfaction with current cable service compared to analog-only subscribers. It was also found that the more people watch television, have premium channels, and evaluate their cable operator as innovative toward technology, the sooner they can be expected to upgrade to new cable services. Implications for cable service structuring and marketing behaviors are also discussed.     

全媒体视阈下高校图书馆情报创新服务模式研究——以新疆医科大学为例

随着电信网、计算机网和有线电视网三大网络的融合,使信息传播的深度与广度得到了空前的发展,并改变了传统的信息传播方式,将人类社会送入了全媒体时代.文章在分析全媒体时代的基础上,结合图书馆自身的情报服务特点,深入挖掘可开展的情报服务及个性化定制服务,以期为图书馆的情报服务发展拓宽道路.     

Effects of Mergers and Competition on Consumer Benefits in the Multi-Channel Video Programming Industry in Korea

This article examines the welfare benefits of cable television (CATV) merger and acquisitions in the multi-channel video programming distribution (MVPD) market. In particular, it seeks to answer whether cable subscribers are better off in competitive markets than in concentrated markets. This article estimates the impact of mergers by examining Korea's regional market-share data for MVPD operators with a hierarchical-choice model. First, the estimation results show that the consumer value of the CATV platform, in terms of the category values in a nested logit model, was significantly lower in the concentrated markets than in the more competitive markets. Second, the study compares these findings with those in the literature about the U.S. market. The following question is prompted: Why is direct broadcast satellite competitive with CATV in the United States but not in Korea? This article points out that differences in regulatory policies, particularly as they relate to the treatment of vertically integrated networks, do have significant effects on the effective boundary of MVPD competition across platforms. To support this argument, this article provides details on the policies and market characteristics of the Korean MVPD industry.     

An integrated model of parental mediation: the effect of family communication on children's perception of television reality and negative viewing effects

This study proposed and tested an integrated model of parental mediation involving family communication, parental mediation styles, children's perceptions of televised realities and the actual world, and perceptions of the negative effects of television viewing. A total of 348 Korean adolescents participated in a nationwide survey. The findings demonstrated that parental, instructive mediation, in combination with open family communication, increased not only children's perceived disparity between televised realities and the actual world, but also children's perceptions of the potentially negative effects of television. Restrictive parental mediation styles were also found to mediate the role of open family communication on children's perception of negative effects of television. In contrast, co-viewing mediation was not found to directly affect either the children's perceived reality or their perception of negative effects of television viewing.     

The Many Sides of QUBE: Interactive Television and Innovation in Electronic Media, 1977–1983

QUBE was an interactive cable television system that attracted significant attention when it launched in 1977. The service has been deemed a commercial failure, though many of its ideas foreshadowed current television practices. There is however no detailed study of QUBE, and previous scholarship provides limited information. Using Moran’s concept of an “evolution-revolution,” this study analyzes the content offerings of QUBE to reveal how they were similar, and how they differed, from prior practice. This historical inquiry fills a gap in the historical record, while also exploring the complex nature of innovation in the world of electronic media.     

FROM FEAR OF TELEVISION TO FEAR FOR TELEVISION

New media technologies are often met with political and public ambivalence, as they are perceived to threaten established activities, values and institutions, as well as bring progress and improve political, cultural and social life. Taking the Norwegian history of television as an empirical case study, this article relates to an international research agenda focusing on the cultural political debates in the early phases of broadcast media. The article is structured according to five key conjunctures where significant new media and technologies were introduced with corresponding political debates: the introduction of television (1940s–1950s), of colour television (1960s–1970s), of satellite, cable and commercial television (1980s), of digital distribution (1990s–2000s) and the expansion of television to new platforms (2000s). The article addresses the key arguments and dividing lines in these political debates, as well as the change in the perception of television when the medium is no longer new, but has become an integrated part of people's everyday life.     

Public television in 1976: A projection of station operation and costs

Periodically, technology develops what is touted as a new medium which makes all others obsolete. Television was going to erase radio, tape was going to do away with disc recordings, and quadrasonic sound will do away with stereo which in turn replaced monaural recording methods. Getting the most attention on these lines now is cable television and the competing methods of home video recording—cartridges, cassettes, videodiscs etc. In the following article, Mr. Christians, a Ph.D. candidate in communications at the University of Illinois, suggests that the so‐called home video “revolution” is really nothing of the kind—but rather more of the same content and controlling interests merely wrapped in different garb.     

Television coverage of the 1995 legislative election in Taiwan: Rise of cable television as a force for balance in media coverage

This research examines how television reported the campaign, parties, and candidates during the 1995 Legislative Election in Taiwan. Results of this study showed that state‐owned broadcast television stations were far more likely than privately owned cable television channels to give greater coverage to the ruling party and its candidates, to use ruling party officials as news sources, and to offer more news coverage favorable to the ruling party than to other parties. We conclude that cable television has become a force for balance in coverage, diluting a pervasive pro‐government party bias. The rise of cable television from virtual “outlaw” status to government‐licensed status appears to have responded to a more liberal society and made a contribution to the development of democracy, as have the expanded elections themselves.     

The TV News Scheduling Game: When the Face of the Newscaster Matters

From the late 1920s, all radio broadcasting in the United Kingdom was undertaken by a public sector broadcaster—the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Television was also the exclusive preserve of the BBC until the mid-1950s, when advertiser-supported commercial stations came into existence. This form of competition for audiences, but not for finance, between two broadcasting sectors—called by some a 'comfortable duopoly'—persisted until the late 1980s when the government permitted competitive entry by cable and satellite operators, introduced competition for advertising revenue between terrestrial stations, and placed commercial television broadcasting on a more competitive footing by introducing tendering for franchises. As these changes have occurred, the BBC has maintained its traditional system of regulation and has continued to operate under a Royal Charter. Although the expiry of the current Charter at the end of 1996 has provoked a debate about the role of the BBC, the government has stated its intention to renew the Charter for another 10 years. It seems likely that, until the year 2002 at least, the current system of regulating and financing public Service broadcasting in the United Kingdom will remain intact. However, the proliferation of channels represents a threat to the BBC's audience base. There may also be difficulties in combining within the same organization a public service mission and highly commercial activities, undertaken in a very competitive world market.     

The Economics of French Cable Systems as Reflected in Media Policy

The French media are protected by a wide range of legislative and regulatory measures. The intricacies of French media policy--determined by objectives often not imminent to media--are reflected in the development of the French cable systems. Planned as a secondary utilization market for film and television productions increasing the demand for new French works, the development of French cable systems has been ailing economically for a long time. This study sets out to analyze the driving forces of media policy as to cable systems and their economic effects, leading to a long-term evaluation of the efficiency of French cable policy.     

Feeling Connected via Television Viewing: Exploring the Scale and Its Correlates

Contextualized in television program viewing, the current study seeks to develop a new scale that captures individuals' feelings of being connected to others via media consumption. Literature on general human motivation and media consumption motivation sheds light on social relatedness in television experiences. Data suggest a three-factor structure of the focal concept of feeling connected via television viewing (FCTV): (1) a perception of shared viewing among one's immediate social circle and anticipation of subsequent communication as aided by television programs, (2) a sense of global community enhanced by shared television experiences, and (3) communication with distant unknown others. A stronger sense of FCTV predicts a greater tendency for an individual to watch a program when it is first released, and to watch it together with one's friends, as well as a higher level of general involvement with television. Further, we differentiate the focal concept of feeling connected to other television viewers via television viewing from the related concept of parasocial interaction with television characters. Relative to parasocial interaction, FCTV better predicts collective viewing and first-run viewing.     

浅谈有线数字电视的网络维护问题

随着广播电视技术的发展,有线电视逐步从模拟向数字平移,现有的HFC网络担负着模拟和数字电视信号共同传输的任务,大多采用多级光纤链路级联和树型电缆分配的环一星一树型网络拓扑结构,所有信号都由前端通过光纤和同轴电缆向下传输,这种模式的网络结构复杂,可靠性不高,维护困难,如何保证数字电视高质量、不间断地传输,对有线电视整体向数字化平稳过渡具有十分重要的意义。本文就有线数字电视网络维护中需注意的问题做简单的分析。     

Programming Strategies of U.S.-Originated Cable Networks in Asian Markets: Descriptive Study Based on the Product Standardization and Adaptation Theory

Abstract

This multiple-case study explored television programming products offered by U.S.-originated cable networks—namely, Music Television, Cartoon Network, Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, and Discovery Channel—in such Asian markets as Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan and attempted to identify factors that shape their programming strategies. On the basis of theoretical foundations concerning product standardization and adaptation in international marketing research, this study found that various external and intrafirm factors, ranging from host country's cultural and environmental characteristics to network's business orientation, are relevant to the decision on programming products by global television networks.     

现代科学信息交流的体系与服务模式

介绍经典科学信息交流体系的几种Ⅰ型模式,提出科学信息交流体系的Ⅱ型模式。论述Ⅱ型模式的5种形式(私人交流、公共域或公共机构仓库、商业性左线出版、非商业性在线出版和作者付费开放出版),认为由于Ⅱ型模式业已形成,传统“纸”链文摘与索引服务模式(即Ⅰ型服务模式)已基本上被取代。     

Vertical Integration and Market Foreclosure in the Korean Cable Television Industry: An Empirical Study

This study investigated vertical foreclosure effects in the Korean cable television market. While it focuses mainly on vertical foreclosure, the study also examined reciprocal carriage between large vertically integrated cable operators. From the analysis of cross-sectional data regarding cable operators' carriage information in Korea, two conclusions were derived. First, vertically integrated cable operators tend to carry their affiliated channels and were less likely to carry their rivals' channels. Second, the data suggest that large vertically integrated cable operators were engaged in reciprocal carriage.     

Communities of Cornhuskers: The Generation of Place Through Sports Fans' Rituals

This article explores communication at University of Nebraska Cornhusker football “watch parties”—public gatherings where fans watch the football team's game on television—at seven locations across the United States. This study concludes that the decoration of the watch-party site, the attire worn by fans attending the watch parties, and collective activities of relating and connecting that occur during the watch parties constitute a unique type of performance ritual. Specifically, this article analyzes how the watch-party rituals spin a web of communal connections in which fans at each site connect with one another, with fans at other sites, and with the state of Nebraska to form what is called an “intermediate place”—a place that is symbolically rooted in a specific geographic location and simultaneously manifest in other physical locations.