Deck 8: Television, Cable, and Specialization Invisual Culture

Question 1

In the landmark Midwest Video case, the U.S.Supreme Court ruled that the cable industry was a form of electronic publishing with the same First Amendment rights as print and broadcast.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

As a result of the number of cable offerings, the four major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox)no longer attract a majority of the viewing audience, as ABC, CBS, and NBC did in the 1960s and 1970s.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Grey's Anatomy and CSI are both examples of chapter shows.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In TV syndication, a barter deal involves exchanging a show for a percent of ad revenue.

Question 5

An hour-long television newsmagazine show such as Dateline NBC and 60 Minutes costs about twice as much to produce as a typical hour-long drama.

Question 6

Only a few TV series from the 1950s have survived, and that is because they were originally shot on film.

Question 7

Many of the program conventions in television actually came from radio.

Question 8

The major television networks-CBS, ABC, Fox, and NBC-own most of their affiliated stations.

Question 9

The quiz-show scandals of the late 1950s resulted from quiz shows' frequently accepting incorrect answers from contestants and then covering up the mistakes.

Question 10

Public television was created by Congress to serve viewers whose needs were ignored by commercial TV.

Question 11

Most television shows live or die by advertising.

Question 12

Must-carry rules require cable operators to assign channels to and carry all local TV broadcasts on their systems.

Question 13

Concerned that cable television would undermine broadcast television, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)enacted rules limiting cable's early growth.

Question 14

A share gauges the percent of homes tuned to a program compared with those actually using their sets at the time of the sample.

Question 15

All syndicated programming consists of off-network reruns.

Question 16

DBS (direct broadcast satellite)television services in the United States were first developed in the 1940s, but did not become widely used until the 1970s.

Question 17

Film studios are becoming less important to independent TV producers because worldwide syndication has reaped such high profits.

Question 18

An Idaho teenager named Philo T.Farnsworth is credited with transmitting the first TV picture electronically.

Question 19

DVR technology allows advertisers to get more specific information about what viewers watch.

Question 20

The development of cable and satellite TV has helped fragment the audience.

Question 21

Sketch comedy is a direct descendant of

A)Vaudeville
B)Kinescope
C)Situation comedy
D)No option is correct

Question 22

In TV history, the "network era" refers to which time period?

A)Late 1950s to late 1970s
B)1950s
C)1930s and 1940s
D)1980s and 1990s

Question 23

In its early days, television drama drew on ____________ for many of its ideas, sets, actors, and directors.

A)The movies
B)Radio
C)New York theater
D)The music industry

Question 24

Which of the following was not one of Sylvester "Pat" Weaver's strategies for forcing advertisers to relinquish some of their power over television programming?

A)The introduction of magazine shows like the Today show
B)The development of television specials, such as TV versions of Peter Pan
C)The development of shorter ads to be sold to individual sponsors, known as spot ads
D)Decreasing the length of TV programs, allowing for fewer advertisements to go to any one sponsor

Question 25

The practice of recording shows and watching them later when it is more convenient is called

A)Fin-syn
B)Viewer's choice
C)Time shifting
D)Stripping

Question 26

Below-the-line costs for a TV program include the

A)Writer
B)Camera crew
C)Actors
D)Director

Question 27

Anthologies did not last long on network TV because

A)Advertisers did not like them
B)Anthologies were expensive to produce
C)Working- and middle-class people found them unappealing
D)All options are correct

Question 28

Some FCC and consumer groups maintain that cable operators

A)Are common carriers because they control their content
B)Are electronic publishers because they are like phone companies
C)Are common carries because they do not monitor content
D)Should have no regulations because of the First Amendment
E)No option is correct

Question 29

Which development was a consequence of the quiz-show scandal?

A)The patent pool was declared a monopoly and dismantled
B)The networks could not keep control over programming, and the sponsors became the sole authority
C)Quiz-show hosts were no longer allowed to have stock in the company
D)It undermined Americans' belief in TV's democratic promise

Question 30

CNN emerged as a serious competitor to CBS, NBC, and ABC with its coverage of the 1996 presidential election.

Question 31

In a television situation comedy

A)Character development is emphasized over plot twists
B)Characters change dramatically over the course of the series
C)Characters are under a great deal of stress
D)Characters solve a problem in each episode

Question 32

Cable television's dominant premium channel is

A)HBO
B)A&E
C)CNN
D)QVC
E)TBS

Question 33

The FCC began assigning TV station licenses in the 1940s

A)To raise money for the war effort
B)To avoid signal interference among stations
C)To allow nonprofit groups to have access to TV
D)To ensure that elections were covered fairly

Question 34

The development of satellites in the 1970s allowed cable to

A)Carry more channels
B)Provide clearer pictures
C)Expand beyond small communities
D)All options are correct

Question 35

Which of the following was not a factor in the decline of network control of television?

A)Disney's purchase of ABC
B)Fin-syn rules
C)The Prime-Time Access Rule
D)The rise of home video

Question 36

Fringe is the time

A)After the network's late-night talk shows
B)Immediately before prime time
C)When adult-content programs are scheduled
D)No option is correct

Question 37

The first TV picture tube, which converted light rays into electric signals, was called

A)Static-free FM
B)The iconosope
C)The scanning disk jockey
D)HDTV

Question 38

What is the most important ramification of the Telecommunications Act of 1996?

A)It forbade telephone, radio, and TV industries from competing directly with one another
B)It ended a media monopoly by splitting up regional phone companies, long-distance carriers, and cable operators into distinct industries
C)It allowed regional phone companies, long-distance carriers, and cable operators to enter and compete in one another's markets
D)It mandated that all cable companies install fiber-optic cable by June 2004
E)It forced digital satellite services to carry programming from local stations

Question 39

The FCC's must-carry rules

A)Required cable operators to carry local TV broadcasts
B)Established technical standards for cable broadcasts, regulating the signals carried by cable systems
C)Blocked cable systems from bringing distant television stations into cities with local stations
D)All options are correct

Question 40

Who transmitted the first electronic TV picture?

A)Vladimir Zworykin
B)Thomas Edison
C)Philo Farnsworth
D)John Grierson
E)No option is correct

Question 41

Which term best describes the financial arrangement that most TV producers and movie studios enter into to make prime-time TV shows?

A)Insane
B)Above-the-line costs
C)Deficit financing
D)Economy of scale Fill in the Blank

Question 42

The Closer is an example of a(n)

A)Anthology drama
B)Dramedy
C)Domestic comedy
D)Chapter show
E)Spectacular

Question 43

Which of the following are examples of basic cable channels?

A)Local broadcast channels
B)PBS channels
C)Nonbroadcast access channels
D)Superstations
E)All options are correct

Question 44

The talk show Oprah is an example of

A)Off-network syndication
B)First-run syndication
C)An evergreen
D)An O & O
E)Hybrid syndication

Question 45

A television station not affiliated with any network is called a(n)

A)Independent station
B)Syndicate
C)PBS station
D)O & O