THE CABLE NEWS CHANNELS' COMPETITION WITH THE NETWORKS
Introduction- the development of news from newspaper to radio to network television to the growth of Cable networks that cover news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and in detail.
Cable news networks as an anchor for cable TV
split into half-hour and lengthier programming
the September 11 momentum of viewership
Viewers' regard for cable versus network news
III. Conclusion- availability of news 24/7 of great importance to some, even while having to pay for cable programming
At one time, newspapers were the primary source of news. There were "Extra" editions on the streets as warranted. Then, along came the immediacy of radio, perhaps no more powerful than during the coverage of World War II, and the dramatic intonation of CBS' Edward R. Murrow: "This. . . is London". Television news coverage came along, but news was digested into what are called "sound bytes" short thirty-second or one-minute coverage of news items. The reason was the shorter attention span of the viewing audience. Then, came cable and the innovation of CNN, the Cable News Network, a 24-hour a day, seven-day a week coverage of news nationally, internationally, the financial markets, sports, gossip and fashion. CNN now has strong competition from Fox News Network, which has moved ahead in number of viewers, especially those of greatest value to advertisers, the 25-54 year old viewers. Fox has a daily average of "654,000 viewers (compared to CNN with) 595,000" (Poniewozik, 2002, p. 65).
There is half-hour programming of news, as well as detailed coverage on a separate cable channel for each of the cable networks. As the cable news networks expand, both with their points of view (CNN seemingly more left-of-center than Fox) the daily viewer totals of network news is diminishing which is causing some retrenchment in expenditures and news bureaus in order to hold down network expenses,...