commentary

Now that we’re three seasons into “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black,” it appears that binge viewing has had its “moment.” When both of these series premiered on Netflix, what truly set them apart, aside from their nervy brilliance, was their presentation: You could watch as many hours as you wanted. But the reality is with a Netflix series, there is no shared experience, which, let’s face it, is one of the great pleasures of watching television. When we get to the climax of the story, we want to talk about it the day after. It’s a kind of celebration.

After avoiding the subject for much of its lifetime, television has begun featuring stories that include rape. And many people are not happy about it. Whether we like it or not, brutal and precisely detailed violence is being used to explore the human condition on television. Demanding an exemption for rape turns rape into something other than a violent crime and undermines all the work activists have done for years.

How did a man so fastidious screw up so magnificently? We give thanks for Brian Williams’ fall — not because we have anything against the broadcaster, but because from his disgrace can be distilled a medicine that, when taken as directed, will prevent others from a place in perdition.

Veteran TV journalist Mark Effron spells out the characteristics news directors should be looking for when adding to their anchor desks.  Some of these attributes date back to Walter Cronkite, but others are as new as the latest social media app.

With their fancy radars and camera-toting daredevil storm chasers, it’s easy to dismiss local stations’ weather coverage as nothing more than a ratings ploy — especially if you’ve never lived in the middle of the country, where treacherous storms can explode out of nowhere. But TV  meteorologists in tornado alley are more than just entertainment. They save lives.

The rise of social media has accelerated it to the point where it cannot be ignored. In fact, we’re at the place where it’s safe to say that for traditional media companies, online distribution is referral-driven. Broadcasters’ online strategies and tactics, therefore, need to be centered on this reality.

Well, they probably are. Journalists who complain about sources’ off-the-record insistence often evoke the same tact when they’re on the other side of the equation. They may know the news game, he writes, but it’s time to be as forthright and forthcoming as what they espouse for in others.

Daytime soaps once ruled the mainstream networks, but they have been replaced by the far cheaper marketplace of opinion, quizzes and judgment as handed down in very brown courtrooms. For over 12 hours, from the opening bell of the morning shows to the showbiz gossip shows after the evening news, this wonderland of banter, bitching and shiny bazaar is populated by sunny smiles and Botoxed brows as rich, cosseted presenters vie to reassure they are just like the moms and stay-at-homes watching them.

The word “porn” is about to become a lot more prevalent in the titles of TV shows. How do I know this? Because I have seen this before: A handful of shows begin turning up that have a word in common, and before you know it, there’s an avalanche of them.

Stacia L. Brown: “I never think about which TV networks or anchors I trust to break news to me in times of crisis, until I’ve been parked in front of the television for hours, scared to move or to break eye contact with the screen. I don’t realize it’s the anchor’s soothing voice or the on-the-ground reporter’s empathetic interviewing style that’s tethering me to their coverage, until I feel my heart rate steadying. So it didn’t immediately occur to me that I was favoring local news [stations], rather than cable ones, in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death and Baltimore’s ongoing response to it.”

Sean Cunningham, CEO of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau: “TV content fuels the growth engine of American business. It delivers the scale and immediacy that big brands can’t build without. Getting a clear picture on all TV viewing is critical to advertisers. The obstacle is a measurement industry that hasn’t evolved with viewers’ content commitment. Until we have an industry-accepted, single-source measurement for viewing across all platforms, there won’t be complete transparency in video, and the full range of connections won’t be usable for marketers.”

Ken Doctor: “Gannett CEO Gracia Martore and her investor relations people have been busy priming the sales pump of their new broadcast-digital company for several months. Now they’ve got a name of sorts to put on the new company — after its divestiture of its financially woeful publishing division — that’s among the top three in regional broadcasters, with a strong digital classifieds portfolio.”

Brian Nichols: “I’ve gone from two very different ends of the spectrum with Comcast over the last couple weeks, but one thing has remained consistent and that’s my belief that the acquisition of Time Warner Cable doesn’t really matter anymore. In essence, there’s just no need to spend the money and resources fighting regulators and lawyers on the deal; Comcast is better by itself.”

Dale Blasingame argues that TV newsrooms need to stop using Facebook as a platform for video teases of their stories, Rather, they should post a Facebook-specific video version of the story, along with some excised sound or a more personal recap from the reporter.

NAB CEO Gordon Smith: “A glimpse of the NAB Show floor demonstrates the unmatched resiliency of broadcasting. Even with a dizzying array of programming options now available to consumers, local radio and TV stations remain the preeminent platform for distributing content most valued by Americans. More than 240 million Americans listen to local radio each week, while 90 of the weekly top TV shows are on broadcast TV. And broadcasters are not resting on their laurels.”

This paradigm shift is the scalpel with which mass media — broadcasting, newspapers, and the institution of journalism — is administering its own death by a thousand cuts. Our very future depends on how we respond, so let’s begin at the beginning and ask ourselves, what problem does media solve? The answer is communications between humans. Media companies of all stripes must continue their efforts to find profit and relevancy in what is by now an evolved space.

TV viewing is changing, and so is TV advertising. Those changes will have a big impact on media buyers during this year’s upfront. Ratings for the broadcast networks have been on the decline for quite some time, but it’s become clear that people are not watching less video. Helen Giles, director of national broadcast and video integration at Lowe Campbell Ewald, talks about the shifting TV landscape, why TV advertising has hit a recent slowdown and whether there are any “must-have” broadcast shows left.

Karen Kaplan, chairman-CEO of Hill Holliday: “To say that the TV industry is undergoing a massive shift is a ridiculous understatement. The battle for eyeballs — and advertising dollars — is a drama worthy of Game of Thrones. The powerful, entrenched dynasties of TV’s past are fighting desperately to keep what was theirs. ‘You win or you die’ is just one of the great recurring catchphrases from the show. In honor of the season premiere, here are three other Game of Thrones truisms that apply to the changing TV landscape.”

The exit of Mad Men and reach of American Odyssey illustrate how high the bar has been set for TV in the past decade-plus. But with more shows to choose from, we’ve grown inured to programs that are just pretty good instead of golden.

During the final two months of last year’s election, television viewers in the tri-state Philadelphia area were barraged during news broadcasts with four times as much political advertising as actual news about the campaign. While Philly is a very distinctive place, there’s no reason to think this is a local phenomenon, an aberration. Experts say there’s little doubt the situation is the same throughout the country, and will be so in 2016, particularly in battleground states.

Plenty, says a top executive of One Media, one of the companies vying to become the national standard for next-generation digital TV. Broadcasters will finally be able to serve the enormous and growing population that watches programming on portable and mobile devices, bolstering its ad-supported business model. It will also open up new opportunities in targeted advertising and data distribution. Moving to the next-gen standard in conjunction with the repack of the TV band following the incentive auction must become part of our national policy.

If you are thinking about dropping your cable/satellite subscription — and really, who isn’t? — one of the necessary exercises is to figure out what network shows you will lose easy access to, and, significantly, how many of them you can get via subscription online video on demand outlets.

NBC’s decision to bring in a former NBC News chief, Andrew Lack, to stabilize a division that seems rudderless at the moment would appear to be a good one — at least on the surface.

Magna Global’s Stefanie Morales: “Last week Nielsen announced key rollout dates for its previously stated measurement enhancements. Judging by the quotes we’ve seen in the press, some of our colleagues are concerned with using modeling for demographic estimates. Here is why we support it.”

Robert Kenny, director of public affairs for TVfreedom.org: “The ability of local broadcast TV stations to serve our nation’s local communities rests on the existence of viable revenue streams that Congress has traditionally made available to promote local television service. Compromising the ability of local TV stations to compete for such revenue streams would create a regulatory imbalance that would threaten the unique benefits of localism and ultimately jeopardize the future of local broadcast TV.”

Walt Mossberg: “It’s no secret that the media industry has been high on the list of businesses that have been disrupted by the Internet and are struggling to find a new footing. For a few years, things appeared to be settling down a bit, as the music, written word, and video businesses seemed to be on promising digital paths. Those tentative paths to digital stability, though, are either faltering, or at least coming under serious question.”

News of Tom Rothman’s promotion to head the film division at Sony Pictures Entertainment puts to rest questions about a broader studio restructuring in the wake of Amy Pascal’s exit as co-chair of SPE. It’s no secret that the TV wing has at times felt overlooked in the organization. Even as Sony Pictures TV churns out reliable profits, the public perception of the media company is largely defined by how well it’s doing at the global box office.

Sunday night’s Oscars seemed particularly fertile for speech-making. Among the topics that came up and scored high on social media were: Patricia Arquette’s plea for gender income equality, “Imitation Game” screenwriter Graham Moore’s words of encouragement for gay teens who are contemplating suicide, Common and John Legend’s remarks about civil rights, and Julianne Moore’s comments on Alzheimer’s awareness.

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt: “Ever since the Internet exploded into our lives like the big bang, Republicans and Democrats have sometimes disagreed about the role of government with respect to this new global medium. Partisan conflict flared this month when FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed a “net-neutrality” rule favored by President Obama. The disagreement goes well beyond the matter of the rule itself. At issue is the meaning of independence for New Deal and progressive-era regulatory agencies such as the FCC.”

After years of warning of spectrum armageddon, Verizon’s again making it clear that the entire spectrum crisis was contrived nonsense. After nabbing another $10.4 billion at the recent AWS-3 auction, Verizon CTO Tony Melone this week stated that despite years of claiming spectrum poverty, Verizon never really felt pressured to buy such a huge swath of spectrum.

Adam Buckman: “If you’re asking yourself why CBS is remaking a series as well-remembered as The Odd Couple, then here’s an answer. The old one is really old, and it’s not likely that it is as “well-remembered” today by vast numbers of younger viewers as older ones, despite its long afterlife in rerun syndication (which continues to this day, by the way).”

The limited series on NBC effectively raises a number of questions and asks us to examine each point of view — none of which are cut and dried, says Adam Buckman. “While the appropriateness of disciplining kids by slapping or spanking is a topic that is well worth discussing, the players in this drama were so unlikable that I cannot stomach spending another hour with them.”

If there were a life report card, I would be marked down as TV Tardy. I can’t seem to catch up to anything. And every day I fall farther behind. I have the domesticated middle-aged person’s equivalent of dating anxiety: Whom to commit to when there are so many options out there? Thanks a lot, Golden Age of TV. You’ve made me feel out-of-touch, anxious, lazy and disloyal.

In restaurants, airports, office lobbies, they wait for us: televisions, big or small, one or many, playing CNN or The Bachelorette, luring our eyes and in some cases droning into our ears. Indeed, TVs are so omnipresent that — I’m told — many people hardly notice them. I am not so lucky. I find them equal parts seductive and annoying, and based on extensive anecdotal evidence, I know I’m not alone.

It was interesting while it lasted, but the 2016 election is now officially “bought.” The purchasers are the Koch brothers, and the price, a cool $889 million. The news that the network organized by David and Charles Koch plans to spend roughly $900 million in the 2016 cycle has freaked out Democrats, outraged so-called campaign-finance reformers and inspired hand-wringing about the future of Earth.

Now that broadcasters are a couple of weeks into 2015, they can officially start looking forward to 2016 and the return of big-time political money. And when that year gets […]

The longtime debate over televising the Supreme Court, which pits principles of judicial decorum versus those of democratic access, has always focused on cameras as they are defined by network TV — and not the next generation of camera technology represented by YouTube and the internet. What’s the difference? For one thing, distributing Supreme Court arguments over YouTube is even more democratic than using TV. There’s no chance that one or two network will use their camera access to serve up choice soundbites that could sensationalize or misrepresent the overall arguments at stake (which is a favorite argument among camera opponents).

Two former directors of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty say that Miami-based Radio and Television Martí, established in 1984 by the U.S. government as a “surrogate” broadcaster to provide information about developments in Cuba and the world otherwise denied to Cubans, will become more important as diplomatic relations with Cuba are restored and cultural, educational and economic ties with the U.S. expand.