The BIG 3, to the DEAD 3...The Rise and Fall of Networks

I've been mulling over what I wanted my first blog to be about. I wanted to stick to what I'm good at while still being thought provoking, so here it goes...

The era of the big 3 networks (NBC, ABC, and CBS) is gone. I've thought for a while now that networks were dead but yesterday it became OFFICIAL. NBC's ratings, in particular, are abysmal. NBC Nightly News was the highest rated show in the prime time lineup beating the likes of tried and true programming like Law & Order and cheap reality knock-offs like Howie Do It.

Prime time network programming is confined to comedy shows, reality or crime. THATS IT! How many original, creative, thought provoking, risk taking shows do we see on TV each night? Very few I venture.

It's hard to believe that there once was an era where all of this was different. It was the era of the Classic Network System from 1965 to 1975...(following the quiz show scandal of the 1950's) It was a fat and happy time for networks! They reaped the benefits of vertical integration, full control, and an advertising win fall.

The classic network era was touted as a period where corporate influence went hand and hand with public service. Networks were tightly regulated by the FCC who embarked on an aggressive campaign to reform the American media landscape by encouraging more diverse, highbrow, educational, and public service oriented programming.

So the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION IS...When and how did such a prosperous period hit the crapper....THE ANSWER...The moment the FCC "deregulated" the networks.

PICTURE THE PERIOD (1965-1975.) Social strife, the rise of feminism and liberalism, a counter-cultural rebellion of sorts. Certainly a period of governmental and corporate distrust.

Over the past 40 years, deregulatory policy changes like the Cable Communications Act of 1984 and the Telecommunication Act of 1996 the have DEVASTATED the media landscape. We saw POSITIVE effects of media REGULATION in the late 1940’s film industry when in 1948, studios were stripped of theater ownership to stop vertical integration. This resulted in more independent films. At around this same time we saw the radio industry become much more fluid, with locally owned and produced content. Early TV was shaped by the FCC Blue book. It pressured TV for a balance between commercial and sustaining programming while including more public affairs programming.

Now let me say it was very hard for me to come to this opinion. As an ideological conservative I typically believe that governmental regulation is a BAD thing. Less government is better government. However, not in the case of media. The media is INCAPABLE of policing itself and it's practices. It is both a business and a public service and needs to be held accountable to standards of public service programming.

We in the media industry are again in a period of great transition. We are the pioneers of a global media transformation. The era of the citizen journalist and the I-Reporter is HERE. All we can do is sit back, buckle up, and get ready for the rise to power of social networking, up to the second updates, live Internet streaming, a surge in entertainment news, and an empire of Internet bloggers (like me I guess.) God help us, and God help the journalists. Nobody likes change, but the times they are changing…and in the end; we just have to hope we get a diverse system of media that serves the public interest.