Broadcasting Hollywood : the struggle over feature films on early TV

When Disney launched their streaming platform Disney+ in November 2019, the strength of the ser vice's content library, which includes properties from Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Pixar, Walt Disney Studios, Disney Channel, and National Geographic, and the optimistic projections of the platform's subscriber numbers resulted in Disney's stock closing at its highest price ever, at $152 a share. 1 The launch may have seemed to be an overnight success, but in fact, it was the culmination of de cades of attempts by the conglomerate to establish itself in the digital world. They first created their Disney Online unit in the summer of 1995, but while digital native companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook thrived and grew, many legacy media companies like Disney strug gled to adapt to the digital world. In 2010, Bob Iger, former CEO of Disney, who was largely responsible for seeing Disney+ to fruition, explained, "I have tried to keep two obvious philosophies. First, that our current business not get in the way of adopting new technologies, and second, that our business belongs on these new platforms." 2 The emergence and proliferation of digital technologies and the internet in the 1990s and the first de cade of the twenty-first century led to the theorization of these pro cesses as convergence, which, as defined by Henry Jenkins, describes the ways that content flows across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory be hav ior of media audiences. 3 This framework becomes particularly relevant when a new technology or medium emerges because the "old" media must find ways to engage with the new media. Oftentimes, as Disney experienced, that transition is not particularly smooth, and as Netflix acknowledged in a July 2016 press release, "disrupting a big market can be bumpy." 4 In the wake of the many successful media companies that strug gled or failed in the face of digital media, many observers asked why the legacy media industriesfilm and tele vi sion in particular-failed to take advantage of the potentials of digital media by not making more extensive, and timely, efforts to converge. It appeared as though the existing titans of media had their heads in the sand when it came to digital technologies, and when they fi nally stole a look, it was too late. i n d e x "Broadcasting Hollywood: The Struggle Over Feature Films on Early Television uses extensive archival research into the files of studios, networks, advertising agencies, unions and guilds, theatre associations, the FCC, and key legal cases to analyze the tensions and synergies between the film and television industries in the early years of television. This analysis of the case study of the struggle over Hollywood's feature films appearing on television in the 1940s and 1950s illustrates that the notion of an industry misunderstands the complex array of stakeholders who work in and profit from a media sector, and models a variegated examination of the history of media industries. Ultimately, it draws a parallel to the contemporary period and the introduction of digital media to highlight the fact that history repeats itself and can therefore play a key role in helping media industry scholars and practitioners to understand and navigate contemporary industrial phenomena"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Abbreviations 10 Introduction: Media Disruption and Convergence 14 1. Systems of Authority and Evaluation 31 2. Exhibition, Audiences, and Media Consumption 59 3. Contracts, Rights, Residuals, and Labor 83 4. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and the Intervention of the Courts 109 5. Antitrust, Market Dominance, and Emerging Media 134 6. Feature Films Make Their Way to Television 157 Conclusion: Disrupting a Big Market Can Be Bumpy 184 Acknowledgments 196 Abbreviations Used in Notes 198 Notes 200 Bibliography 236 Index 242 About the Author 250 Uses extensive archival research into the files of studios, networks, advertising agencies, unions and guilds, theatre associations, the FCC, and key legal cases to analyse the tensions and synergies between the film and television industries in the early years of television.