The future of DTV
Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Craig Birkmaier
Taste is key to both beer and broadcast.
The future of digital television is changing, along with the climate, the global economy and global politics. According to Douglas Adams, the author of “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,” 42 is the answer to “life, the universe and everything.” It has been 42 years since I graduated from Nova High School, where I was infected by this thing we call television.
Perhaps the most significant change I have witnessed in all of these years is the pervasive — some might even say perverse — influence that the mass media has had on our culture. When TV came onto the scene, localism had real meaning. We shopped mostly in local mom-and-pop stores, ate in one-of-a-kind restaurants and drank beer from nearby breweries in local pubs. Actually, beer provides an excellent example of the changes that have taken place in our culture, in large measure through the mass appeal of television.
Prior to the Civil War, beer production and consumption was a local affair. After the Civil War, the production of beer became one of America's largest growth industries. In 1915, there were 1345 breweries producing 59.9 million barrels of beer each year. (See “A Concise History of America's Brewing Industry” in “Web links.”) Then prohibition turned off the taps.
TV news stations increasingly involved with convergence
Thirty-eight percent of stations swap content with newspapers.
Click to enlarge
It took decades to rebuild the industry after prohibition. By 1945, as the war ended and television was set to burst upon the scene, there were 468 breweries producing 86.6 million barrels per year. Thanks to TV, this picture changed dramatically.
An article on BeerHistory.com describes the role that television played in the consolidation of the U.S. beer industry: “With National Prohibition still fresh in memory, brewers were initially wary of peddling their beers on the air … But early apprehension was soon overtaken by the realization that television offered beer makers something tremendously valuable and unique: the ability to target the beer drinker right at the barstool. The American tavern, after all, was the first home of television. In Chicago, for example, taverns accounted for half of all sales of television sets in 1947. Had any tavern keeper initially doubted the revolutionary importance of TV to his trade, he was surely converted after the 1947 World Series. Telecasts of the seven games between the Dodgers and the Yankees made for standing-room-only crowds in taverns throughout New York City.”
Bud-wei-ser
By 1980, there were only 101 breweries in the United States producing 188.4 million barrels of beer each year. Three companies — Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors — dominated the American beer scene, and their TV advertising wars became famous. Miller built a franchise on “Great Taste … Less Filling.” Coors became legendary thanks to the movie “Smokey and the Bandit.” And Budweiser turned TV ads into content that was, and still is, more entertaining than most of the programs that it sponsors. (Do people really watch the Super Bowl for the game?)
But these huge national brands did something perverse to beer; they eliminated the content. Highly drinkable, but flavorful lagers gave way to light beers; ales all but disappeared.
Meanwhile TV helped homogenize the rest of our culture. National fast food and restaurant chains largely displaced the mom-and-pop operations. The same thing happened to retailers and grocery stores. So much for the rich cultural difference that gave each state and city its unique character.
Then, something interesting started to happen to TV and beer. In the 1980s, cable began to compete with over-the-air broadcasters. The big three television networks became the big four, and Time Warner led the rush to niche content by creating a range of cable TV channels focused on special interests and demographic groups. Consumers voted for program choice, and those ugly outdoor TV antennas started to disappear.
In 1995, the Budweiser frogs Super Bowl commercial became one of the most popular beer ads in history. (See “Web links.”)
At the same time cable TV began to take over the distribution of TV content, the U.S. craft beer industry experienced a rebirth with the growth of Anchor Steam and the launch of Sierra Nevada and The Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams). A new generation of Americans discovered real beer, and the craft brewing industry began to grow.
Today, the craft beer segment is growing at an annual rate of 17 percent. The large breweries are barely growing at all. In 2007, there were 1420 craft breweries, 20 large noncraft breweries and 23 other noncraft breweries.
Miller and Coors merged and were then purchased by Canada's Molson, which was acquired by international conglomerate SAB. Recently, the stockholders of Anheuser-Busch approved the sale of the largest U.S. brewer to Belgium's In-Bev.
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