Author:
Lotz, Amanda D., 1974- author.
ImprintCambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2018]
Descriptionxviii, 256 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Note:Part One: Cable Transforms Television, 1996-2010 -- 1. Transformation, Then Revolution -- 2. Cable? -- 3. A Death Spiral? -- 4. 300 Channels, Why Is Nothing On? -- 5. Cable's Image Problem -- 6. The Long Road to Original Cable Series -- 7. Cable's First Antihero -- 8. OZ Locks Up Cable's New Strategy -- 9. Seeds of Transformation -- 10. The Death of Television! It's a Golden Age of Television! -- 11. The Shield: Not Your Father's Cop Show -- 12. Monk: Just Distinct Enough -- 13. Cable's Rising Tide Doesn't Lift All Channels -- 14. Cable Gets Real -- 15. Mad Men Brings AMC Prestige but Loses Money -- 16. The Walking Dead Redefines Cable Success and Strategy -- 17. Cable Goes Global -- 18. Watching Cable Before the Internet -- 19. Distinction Fails -- Major developments of the transformation: 1996-2016 -- Part Two: The Internet Revolutionizes Television, 2010-2016 -- 20. Seeds of the Revolution -- 21. Netflix: Diabolical Menace or Happy Accident? -- 22. Over the Top of What? -- 23. TV Whenever, Wherever -- 24. Cable under Pressure -- 25. Game of Thrones Introduces the Global Blockbuster -- 26. TV Goes Indie? -- 27. The End of the Early Days -- 28. Portals: The Beginning of the Middle Days -- 29. The Unbundling Continues -- 30. Signs of Failure -- 31. A Vision of the Future -- Conclusion: All We Need to Know About the Future of Television.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:"Cable television channels were once the backwater of American television, programming recent and not-so-recent movies and reruns of network shows. Then came La Femme Nikita, OZ, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead. And then, just as prestige cable became a category, came House of Cards and Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, and other Internet distributors of television content. What happened? In We Now Disrupt This Broadcast, Amanda Lotz chronicles the collision of new technologies, changing business strategies, and innovative storytelling that produced an era termed peak TV. Lotz explains that changes in the business of television expanded the creative possibilities of television. She describes the costly infrastructure rebuilding undertaken by cable service providers in the late 1990s and the struggles of cable channels to produce (and pay for) original, scripted programming in order to stand out from the competition. These new programs defied television conventions and made viewers adjust their expectations of what television could be. Le Femme Nikita offered cable's first antihero, Mad Men cost more than advertisers paid, The Walking Dead became the first mass cable hit, and Game of Thrones was the first global television blockbuster. Internet streaming didn't kill cable, Lotz tells us. Rather, it revolutionized how we watch television. Cable and network television quickly established their own streaming portals. Meanwhile, cable service providers had quietly transformed themselves into Internet providers, able to profit from both prestige cable and streaming services. Far from being dead, television continues to transform." --Publisher's description.
