Word: cbs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...CBS -- the three companies that have virtually defined American television since the days of Uncle Miltie, Maverick and Playhouse 90 -- may not be dying, but they are sick and fighting for survival. Eating away at their audience is a panoply of new video choices: cable channels, independent stations, videocassette recorders, even an upstart "fourth network." The three networks' combined share of the audience shrank to a low of 70% last season, and the decline shows no signs of leveling off. New technologies like home satellite dishes and fiber-optic cable could eventually pose even greater threats. "We've been outplayed...
...networks get themselves into such a mess? To a great extent, they are victims of a changing TV universe. "The networks are not doing anything wrong," says Ted Turner, the veteran network basher who tried to take over CBS three years ago. "It's like AM radio. They weren't doing anything wrong either, but FM radio was better." Years of colossal audiences and soaring ad revenues, however, bred complacency. "The networks closed their eyes to reality," says Ralph Baruch, former president of Viacom International and now a senior fellow at the Gannett Center for Media Studies. "They didn...
...Syndicated programming -- shows distributed directly to stations rather than through the networks -- has spurted in popularity, both on independent stations and network affiliates. Many of the latter are shoving aside network fare for syndicated shows (on which they can sell more advertising time). The ABC and CBS stations in New York City, for example, have shifted their networks' evening newscasts from 7 p.m. to the less watched 6:30 time period to make room for syndicated game shows...
Such results have had an inevitable impact on the networks' bottom lines. Profits have plummeted at all but NBC. Each of the three networks has been taken over by a new corporate owner -- ABC by Capital Cities Communications, NBC by General Electric, and CBS by Loews chairman Laurence Tisch -- that has instituted severe cost-cutting measures. Some 3,500 people , from technicians to network censors, have been laid off at the Big Three in the past two years. Although some further postelection cuts are anticipated at CBS News and NBC News, the bulk of the reducing is probably over...
...cable, such as a documentary series on the Cold War, The Eagle and the Bear, done in collaboration with A&E. NBC is launching a 24-hour business-news channel for cable early next year, and has formed a home-video partnership with Columbia Pictures. Only Tisch at CBS has held back from such diversification. Since taking over the network in 1986, he has sold off CBS's record and publishing divisions, leaving the company with a hoard of cash and inviting rumors that he plans to sell the network. Tisch denies it; he has instead gone shopping for more...