The Distribution and Economics of Post-Network U.S. Television

• In Event: Where and How is Television Being Revolutionized?

Abstract

In the last decade, discourse about television in the US has shifted tremendously. Where the calls of the “end” or “death” of television issued forth from seemingly all quarters in the first years of the twenty-first century, by 2010, screen technology and internet video distribution revealed not death, but resurrection. My comments reflect on how new technologies and distribution systems continue to challenge long-observed industrial norms in US television, the incompatibility of old business models and new technology/distribution, and the regulatory issues that are increasingly relevant to understanding the present and imagining the future of US television.

Amanda D. Lotz is associate professor and associate chair of undergraduate studies in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan. She is author or co-author of five books and several articles and chapters about television and media industries, including the recent revised, second edition of The Television Will Be Revolutionized.

Author

• Amanda D. Lotz, U of Michigan