Branding Television

Television is not what it used to be. The expansion of competition combined with developments in new media technologies has altered the nature and production of television. In the emerging scholarship that attempts to account for these changes, branding is frequently highlighted as the key development within the television industry, yet there are no sustained book length accounts of the emergence of television branding or explorations of what it means to talk about #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;branding television#xE2;#xAC;". This study will: Explain how theories of branding can be applied to the specificities of television as a medium and as an industry. Examine how branding has been used in the UK and US television industries, and why branding emerges as a central industrial strategy over the 1980s and 1990s. Explore the impact of the adoption of branding strategies on television programme production and the relationship between producers and viewers Consider how a study of television branding might help account for the changes that have taken place in television as a medium and an industry in a period when some have argued that television itself may be under threat. In addition, Johnson considers the broader context of new digital media, including an examination of the extension of television on to new media such as the internet and mobile phones. This book will provide a clear, accessible exploration of the development of television branding in the US and UK and its impact on both industry and television texts.

Catherine Johnson lectures in Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research examines the Western television industries and the impact of industrial shifts on the cultural artefacts that they produce. She is the author of Telefantasy (2005) and co-editor of ITV Cultures (2005).