The ratings battle

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Mr Akiyama's space mission was paid for by the Tokyo Broadcasting System at a cost of more than $12 million in an effort to gain audiences from rival networks.

Another problem is sleeping habits. The Germans eat dinner and go to bed earlier, so the French are starting on their first aperitif when the Arte channel is into prime time.

At present adverts run for two and a half minutes in the centre breaks, with a maximum of seven and a half minutes in peak time between 6 pm and 11 рт, when most of the advertising revenue is generated.

John Suchet has spent three years hosting ITN's lunchtime slot and is very popular with viewers.

The perfume was marketed with a blitz of TV commercials.

...the important American news programmes, with commercial breaks about every five minutes.

Last week, the Army released the second of two national television spots, an effort to ensure that its battle for American hearts and minds would translate into improved recruitment figures.

Television's top soaps are battling it out in the vital Christmas ratings war.

Marcus Plantin has landed the job of leading ITV's £500 million ratings battle with the BBC.

7 Decline and fall of the networks. Read this book view from The Economist and answer the questions.

THREE BLIND MICE by Ken Auletta

For years ABC, CBS and NBC have been the most powerful institutions in the American media, perhaps in all of American life.

But in 1985-6, with their profits falling as viewers turn increasingly to the smorgasbord of choice offered by cable television and VCRs, the networks were taken over by Wall Street dealmakers who thought they could be run more efficiently. The clash of cultures was as dramatic as any in business history. Mr Auletta was allowed to witness all this from a rare angle and he produces some stunning reporting.

He recounts how Mr Tisch craftily took over CBS without its board noticing; and of his, and the other owners' draconian attacks on spending. So frugal is the 'evil dwarf as he is nicknamed by his colleagues that he tells the head of CBS's record company, which has just made a $160 million profit, that he cannot have a bagel at the Beverly Hills Hotel because it costs too much. With its descriptions of such lunacy, its huge cast of characters and its vivid portraits of the egomania of some in the television industry, Mr Auletta's tale has strong hints of Balzac and Dickens.

It is a story told in numbers that reveal the long, slow, inexorable death-march of the networks: the networks' declining audience share, from 92 per cent in 1976 to 75 per cent in 1984 to 60 per cent today; their profits falling from $800 million in 1984 to (probably) zero this year; the number of channels quadrupling since the mid-1970s; VCRs in 70 per cent of all homes. Mr Tisch and his peers may not like television, and may not even watch it; but to number-crunchers such as themselves the data are pretty plain.

1 Does a smorgasbord restaurant give you a lot of choice?

2 What does VCR stand for? a) variable channel receiver, or b) video cassette recorder

3 A clash is a conflict. Which two cultures is there a clash between?

4 Is stunning reporting impressive?

5 If you do something craftily, you do it in a clever way, perhaps without people n _ _ _ _ ing

6 Is a draconian attack a) a strong one, or b) a weak one?

7 'Evil dwarf.' A dwarf is a very short person. Is someone's nickname their real name?

8 Do frugal people spend a lot of money?

9 Lunacy is mad behaviour. What example of lunacy does Auletta give?

10 If something is inexorable, will it continue?

11 Which three networks is Auletta talking about in his book?

12 If a figure quadruples, does it get a) twice as big, b) four times as big, c) six times as big?

13 Are Tisch's peers a) other TV bosses, b) his employees, c) members of the British House of Lords?

14 What do number-crunchers do?

15 The data are plain to them. Are the figures a) clear, b) unclear?

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