In 1980, CNN at had made its appearance as the first 24-hour a day news network. While the idea of a 24 hours a day network seems normal today as many news networks provide this service, it was not like this back then. Before 1980, America had been dominated by 3 major news networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, whom all had daily 30 minutes broadcasts where they would relay national news. While this way of informing the news, seemed too inefficient, and short, It was how the new was told 30+ years ago. Initially, other networks we able to keep CNN out of business because CNN was perceived as such a foreign idea, it had eventually become one of the largest new networks in America. From a miniscule 2 million viewers in 1980 to an unsurpassed 160 million household views today, those who have watched this news network know of their amazing climb to success.
Originally started by Ted Turner, a cheerful businessman born in Atlanta who was known as the "Mouth of the South". Turner had come into a fortune when his father committed suicide away leaving him with a successful billboard company. Turner used this billboard company to fund many of his future purchases while expanding it at the same time. Turner eventually made enough money to buy a failing Atlanta TV station that had only broadcasted old movie and reruns. Turner had used this TV station as the basis of a concept that was nonexistent in America till he had coined it, a "superstation", where we would try to broadcast his network across the country. Many of turner peers had told him that making a station that could broadcast 24 hours a day, could not be done and that it was a waste of time. But after 4 years of development, and finding the right staff that could be the face of the network, Turner has created CNN, anchored by Dave Walker and Lois Hart.
As a 24-hour network was a very foreign idea, CNN was considered the laughing stock of the new network for a very long time. Many people had even referred to CNN as the "Chicken Noodle Network" because they saw this network as a foolish idea. However Turner had not given up and invested more and more money into the network expanding its influence slowly across the world After a couple of years, CNN was able to gather enough money to buy out their main competitor, the Satellite new Channel, thus eliminating their main competition.
Some of the various advertisements competing companies used to slander CNN.
What stood CNN from the other competitors was the fact that they were able to cover live events around the world as they happened, and because of running 24/7, they often beat other new networks to stories before they had the chance to broadcast. Spurred on by the increasing amount of usage by the television, CNN's audience grew more and more, and they were eventually able to take over Time Warner, and America Online, thus making what had originally grown up as a ridiculed network, into one of the biggest titans of the news in America. Even today CNN continues to stretch the boundaries of television reporting, as they continue to expand their services to get news from even the most remote parts of the world, a feat that could not be achieved decades ago.
I found you post very interesting. Specifically, before the idea of the 24 hour network, news was only one for 30 mins. I think is cool to see how it went from that, to today where you can find the news almost anywhere at anytime.
ReplyDeleteThis post was really interesting and I like how detailed it was. Did CNN's success and 24 hour network inspire other stations to also broadcast for 24 hours?
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about the history of our newscasting services but this was pretty refreshing. I'm surprised that other news outlets could get all of their data out in such a short amount of time though. Did they talk about all world events in under 30 minutes? I also wonder how outlets such as CNN influenced other outlets because of their 24 hour broadcasting. I am also surprised that CNN could continuously have enough news to report on for such a long amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to find that a network that is considered to have such a liberal base comes from the south. I also think it goes to show that media and information are become much more important in our lives because instead of having just 30 minutes of news a day we have a constant 24 hour feed of information.
ReplyDeleteCNN is something that we watch or hear about as a regular thing this post helped me understand the origins and the successes of this program. I am intrigued by the idea of 24 hour networking.
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