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Question about TV and how the business was/is organized in the U.S.

posted 7 years ago by 123all4me (186)
2 replies | jump to latest

Hi folks,
here in Germany, TV was broadcast by state-run companies for several decades, from the first programs during the 1930s (for a very limited number of viewers, obviously ;-) until the early 1980s. Only then the first TV companies owned by private persons or societies were established. Now I would like to know - was it the same in the U.S. ? Or was there private ownership only, from the early days on? I could also imagine that it all began with some stations run by the federal government and later on, the "market" was "opened" to commercial use.
To further explain what I mean: In Germany, in almost every "Land" except the smallest among them (a "Land" or more exactly a "Bundes-Land", written without the hyphen is a territory similar to a State which is part of the U.S., or a province of Canada) there exists a company which is not run exclusively by "Land" officials but is subsidized with lots of money by the Land and, in consequence, to a large extent influenced by politicians of the "land" and/or our Central Government at Berlin. I wonder whether there are (or have been, in the past) similar companies in the various States of the U.S., e.g. something like "Oregon TV" under the direct influence of Oregon politicians, "New York State TV" run by politicians from New York state, and so on. But I've never heard of anything like that, so if they ever existed, then it must have been a long time ago.
Just curious :-)
Of course the really "Big Ones", like NBC, CNN and the like are HEAVILY government-influenced; but PRO FORMA they have statutes like "private commercial enterprises", haven't they?
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)

[–] DuesExBiological (99) 7 years ago

American Television for the most part was started by independent broadcast media companies who were originally in the music and radio business. CBS, ABC, and NBC were all Radio-based media companies that relied on commercial advertising to broadcast music, radio shows, and news.

[–] 123all4me (186) 7 years ago

Hello DuesExBiological,
thank you very much for your interesting reply!
At the moment I have two or three other (more or less) silly questions of mine, still unanswered for some days now... I really wonder whether anyone might take the time to respond to these, too...
When I checked back, day by day, and nothing came in - well, I thought, this is really "booorrrinng".
I should explain that strange spelling... You know Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, don't you? I love them both, they are so funny! In one of these comicbooks there was a panel showing Calvin, all alone, standing in the backyard of the house; no other kids around; and so he just didn't know how to spend the rest of the day. Imagine him yelling just that single word (it was lettered in extra-fat!) all over the place; with his shoulders raised, his hands in the pockets of his trousers, and a very annoyed look on his face. And in a lower voice, he added something like, "Why can't something unexpected happen, right now? Somthing exciting, unheard of?" At that point his mom called him to the kitchen and announced that today there was no scrambled eggs in the meal BUT something "much healthier": Broccoli. Whereupon Calvin thought something like, "Well that's the kind of SURPRISE which I did NOT want to happen!" ('cause he obviously hates vegetables!) ...Just hilarious :-)
LOL!
Again, thank you very much!
Greetings from Germany :-)
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)