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An analytical model for managing on-air ad inventory in broadcast television is presented. The ad inventory in this industry is priced based on rating points or the number of viewers that watch a commercial. The rating points during a broadcast year are sold through two distinct processes: the upfront market which occurs before the broadcast season, and the scatter market which occurs during the broadcast season. A firm needs to allocate its total rating points inventory to these two markets before knowing either the performance rating of its shows or the scatter market price, both of which are random. Broadcast networks offer ratings (performance) guarantees on the inventory that is sold on the upfront market while such guarantees are seldom offered in the scatter market. An optimization model is proposed that allows the networks to manage their rating points inventory. The model explicitly incorporates the performance uncertainty of the television shows as well as the revenue uncertainty of the scatter market. We derive conditions for feasibility of the problem and characterize the optimal amount of rating points for the season during the upfront market. Our model explains the current practice of selling around 60-80% of the total rating points for the season during the upfront market and analyzes other common strategies used by broadcast companies. In addition to providing key managerial insights, this work introduces quantitative methodologies to television networks planning their upfront market activities. Keywords: Broadcast television, uncertainty, services management, 1. Introduction This work, motivated by the experiences of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), presents an analytical model for managing on-air ad inventory in broadcast television. The practice in the [...]

The manner in which television reality shows such as 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition', 'I Want a Famous Face' and 'The Swan' represent and encourage American consumer culture is analyzed. Such shows create an illusion that transformation of one's 'self' and life is possible through outward aid of capital alone.

The controversy surrounding the censorship of the drama-documentary 'The War Game' in 1965 is explored, drawing extensively upon primary source material held by the BBC Written Archives Center and the National Archives. The decision not to broadcast 'The War Game', far from being a conspiracy to keep the truth of nuclear warfare from the British public, was instead the result of a range of institutional and cultural factors that caused the BBC to act as it did.

Often a hoax is defined as a deception by which an amusing or mischievous untruth comes to be believed. Willing hoaxes, like the unwilling ones appear to be free of time, place and medium of communication, instead they seem to be fused with human condition and large audience seem to recognize, accept and enjoy the hoaxing.

KUSA-TV Denver's 9News receives the 2004 year's Best Of Photojournalism Station of the Year honors, the 10th time they have finished on top since 1977. KUSA-TV has built a winning tradition that is ingrained in the station's culture and it has many award winning photographers working for it.

Television has clearly become the leading medium in the context of sports. Like the radio, this medium allows live reporting, but because it transmits not only sound but also live [...]

It's been relegated to the shadows since the media spotlight moved on. But whether the United States follows through on its commitment to rebuild the long-suffering nation has lasting ramifications [...]

'This is truly amazing,' said Dan Rather, staring at a youthful version of himself reading brief news items into the camera. Rather was sitting in his cozy, windowless office just [...]

Abstract Changing industry practices and forms of production organization are the medium and result of co-evolutionary processes of change. The disruptive event of transforming the German TV industry into a [...]

The author examines filmmakers attempts to represent New Zealand's national identity. Topics include minorities, television programs, and funding.

The television broadcasting industry in Japan has grown substantially from around only two channels in the late 1980s to over 200 satellite channels. Viewers have access to more channels through communications satellites, satellite dishes and other broadcasting hardware. Marketing campaigns by competing networks show 912,000 subscribers for SKY PerfecTV in Oct 1998, 193,000 viewers for DirecTV for the same period and 2.4 million customers for WOWOW, which was among the first television services in Japan.

It can be argued that there are few links between the model of flexible specialization and developments in the UK television industry, even though it is widely believed that vertically disintegrated, flexibly specialized types of organization are the best approach to dealing with growing competition and product diversity in this industry. Indeed, broadcasting companies may have responded to changing market conditions by rebuilding traditional vertically integrated structures of production and service provision. The flexible specialization argument exaggerates the advantages of small company organization.

Network-television-scheduling problems were formed as integer programs under three distinct competitive environments, namely myopic, Nash competitive and cooperative. It was established that there are considerable gains to maximization and that those gains are not greatly reduced by competition. A regression was developed to predict show-part ratings for each of the likely days and time slots.