Word: cbs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (CBS, Dec. 12, 9 p.m. EST). This literate fantasy series about a sensitive monster living beneath the streets of New York City was scuttled by low ratings. But it is back with a twist: the eponymous beauty, played by Linda Hamilton, is kidnaped and killed. Anyone got a new title...
What's going on here? In almost any other industry, CNN's coups would be viewed as nothing short of piracy. But television is a business built on tenuous alliances. While the three major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- have long been the dominant U.S. television programmers, they own only 20 stations. The other 620 that carry network programming are known as affiliates. These stations have traditionally served as supplementary news sources for the networks, but only loyalty and a common stake in competing against the other networks have prevented the affiliates from gathering and selling their stories elsewhere...
Like newspapers that subscribe to the Associated Press and other wire services, hundreds of stations are also expanding their reach, and often cutting costs, by subscribing to video news services, swapping coverage with other broadcasters, or making deals to get their stories on cable stations. WWL, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans, has its own all-news cable channel. Half a dozen video news services offer prepackaged stories to fill out local newscasts. One of the largest services is Conus, a news cooperative with 100 U.S. member stations. Other leading entries include Group W Newsfeed, a division of Westinghouse...
...stories provided by its partners via satellite, and distributes the stories to other station partners for their use. Broadcasters believe local viewers who catch their news teams on cable may be more likely to tune in the station if they like what they see. Says Peter Herford, a former CBS News executive who directs the Benton Broadcast Fellowships at the University of Chicago: "All of these factors are pulling apart the traditional relationship between the networks and their affiliates...
...stations become increasingly aggressive, the networks are trying to reshape their own news products to offer affiliates something more than the day's headlines. All three networks, for example, run long special features during the regular evening newscasts and are experimenting with new concepts, such as 48 Hours on CBS and ABC's Primetime Live. Some news thinkers go so far as to wonder whether the network evening newscasts have a future. Says Andrew Stern, who teaches broadcast journalism at the University of California, Berkeley: "At some point you have to ask, What do the local stations need the networks...