CBS is a network; NBC is a network; but is YES?
Here's a nerdy media question that has bugged me since I took this assignment and which I'm sure DuMont Burger can help with . . . since he's named after a defunct TV network:
Isn't the meaning of the term "TV network" an aggregation of affiliates across the nation that are united under the umbrella of a "network?"
In other words, how can the YES "Network" be a network? Same goes for SNY or the NFL "Network" or any other single entity channel. Aren't these "channels" or "stations" and not "networks?"
ESPN is another example, although maybe they now are a "network" in the sense that they have multiple channels.
I always try to avoid using the term "network" for anything other than a broadcast TV network or, for example, the Yankees radio network, which has affiliates and thus fits the definition.
Can you help on this DuMont? I assume no one but you and I cares. Maybe John Philips does. I don't know.
(And another thing . . . the only time I use the term "on the air" is for a broadcast TV or radio station, not a cable channel, which is not transmitted over the air.)
(Bonus kudos for first reader to identify the guy in the picture.)
OK, I'll stop now.
E-mail
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
Comments (4)
The term network of course goes back to radio, where stations across the country pleaged their allegiance to NBC or CBS or Mutual, and in return were "networked" via good old American Telephone and Telegraph lines. Same system for TV, with souped up lines for video, also provided by AT&T.
In the early 1980's, wide satellite distibution of television came about.
So did the expansion of cable television with a unique set of programming options.
Cable tv programmers are also "networks" and they have "affiliates" who are linked, like traditional television and radio networks, by various satellite, microwave and landline transmission services.
Except in cable's case the "affiliates" are the cable systems themselves ... say NBC has one affiliate in Albany, NY: WNYT-13, but ESPN or YES or TNT or SNY has many affiliates in the Albany, NY market - the cable and satellite providers.
NBC has about 215 or so affiliates coast-to-coast. ESPN has thousands.
There ends "affiliate relations 101" for today.
The person in the picture is of course the founder of CBS, William S. Paley, who lived in Manhasset for a long time.
FYI I authored the post above, just didn't sign it.
Thank you DuMont! Henceforth I will call cable TV channels "networks" without feeling guilty about it!
And of course you're right about Paley.
Did Paley have a Newsday paper route?