The TV in
the history of media is equality important as the invention of Lumière brothers
film, because if it is well known TV was created as an alternative media, which
sought to compete with the seventh art. On the one hand, the film covered
social dimensions of who consumed, go to the cinema was not only a cultural
act, it was the art of communication and expression, of course without
discrediting another medias such as radio which was in its heydays as
well. While TV, in its arrival, competed
with film through the immediacy of its images, that was not a big producer
contents, in terms of Budget execution and others, this media gave viewers the
opportunity of enjoining audiovisual contents from the comfort of their houses.
However, taking into account the minimum wage of the epoch, in the United
States, the accessibility by then was difficult. We go from the idea that the
rise of television was at the beginning of the 50's, although it must be clear
that television for this Anglo-Saxon country came in the 30's, but here in the
50's, its operation and technological development was more advanced.
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289 USD was
the value of a 17-inch TV in 1954, but how much was the minimum wage of a
person in that year? According to the United States Department of Labor, the
minimum hour was paid to 0.75 USD, making an average of the hours a person was
able to work in a week (48) could have an income of 36 USD, which in a month
four weeks corresponds to 144 USD. Without much analysis, access to this new
technology was a luxury that could only be upper class Americans. This obeys a
simple logic of supply and demand, where demand (buyers TV’s) is not much and
where bidders (suppliers / companies / producers) are very few. It means,
prices are high because of these two variables, however the development of new
technologies, such as color television in the 60's, allowed access of TV to
black and white for some, and the acquisition of color TVs to those ones who
their purchasing power were permitted.
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By 1960's
the purchasing power of people had changed, and by that I mean the wages that
were handled for that moment, then the minimum hour was paid to 1 USD and
during the decade of the 60s this figure was rising, so to do the same
calculation, according to the hours and the final monthly salary, a person
earning about 160 USD or more, although the total amount was not even enough to
buy a TV with solvency, the possibility of having one was much more considerate.
The acquisition of TV sets remain so at least until the popularity of this had
gone up and became a necessary good, this would occur in the 70's where the
salary of a person on average earned $ 336, but could not access the latest
technology, the devaluation of previous TVs and steady growth of the market
would allow it even more for the rest of
the population.
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Price
stabilization came for American families, who generated a large magnitudes
television culture. As television sales growth likewise the content transmitted
by this gradually improved. Two examples of this are Doctor Who that for every
one of its episodes initially spent about 2000 pounds, that is today in dollar
equivalent to 50000 USD which is not much when it is compared with productions
nowadays, the other case is The Outer Limits, who spent 120000 USD per episode
in production, this quantity at this time are around 930000 USD. The amounts
reflected when producing content for television were high for the year
unfolded, however contrasting prices 40 years ago with the last 5 years, the
variations are enormous. Today a normal series production, not Game of Thrones,
may be 3000000 USD.
The question
to all this is if the television window is still profitable, ie, hundreds of
productions were made for distribution on television taking into account the
fact that families had two TVs on average, but with the success of other
platforms such as Internet or VOD profitability of a series created exclusively
for television are not worth investing their budget. That's why the TV content
are becoming obsolete, however television as screen and receiver will continue
until the day another devices give the comfort of watching on large screens the
content which people like.
References:
http://www.tvhistory.tv/tv-prices.htm
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls056710448/
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
https://www.dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/chart1
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