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Ilikepurple

(801 posts)

34. I don't think any of the broadcast news divisions were profitable in the 50s and 60s

Reply to Kaleva (Reply #31)

Mon May 25, 2026, 06:00 PM

Monday

I’m not a broadcast tv historian, but I believe broadcast news was initiated both as a service to attract viewers to other programming on their channel and a way to satisfy the “public interest, convenience, and necessity” requirement first laid out in Communications Act of 1934. They didn’t need them to be profitable if it allowed their affiliates to keep their broadcasting licenses and attracted viewers to their daytime and prime time lineups. Either way, the news served a function that went beyond protecting its corporate owners’ other holdings or that of its major stockholders. I believe national news content profitability was a secondary concern before the expansion of news programming in the 70s.

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