Antin begins by speaking about the history of television in the United States. He explains that the entire technical system of broadcasting television was designed by the radio networks (who essentially were appointed as a monopoly on the medium by the government) to bring themselves the largest profit. The system of broadcasting was regulated in a manner that ensured nobody except the radio companies could afford to transmit television, while many people could afford to receive it.
Antin further explains that this precedent set in early television ingrained into the public the idea that transmitting television was a professional art not to be taken lightly (due to the expensiveness of equipment), thus discouraging them from participating in interactive video. However, this seems to be the former way of things; I am unsure of how dated this article is, but things are definitely not the same now with technology such as YouTube and iPhones.
Next Antin reveals how live TV brought about the advent of video. As impressive as live broadcasting was, events films were unpredictable and—out of desire for smoother broadcasts—producers began recording well-prepared live events and then replaying them on TV, thus creating video. This is interesting because here were real-life events being treated like a movie, where all errors are removed and the illusion of smoothness is presented. What is even more fascinating, however, is when Antin says that the public actually enjoyed the unpredictability of live TV over pre-recorded, because the mistakes or surprised that occurred were more reflective of real life.
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