Pete Johnson

@itstv

Studying media industries, finance, & US television history. Visiting Assistant Professor @ NYU Gallatin Self-hating Yankees fan. anti Kalshitification of culture

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir itstv.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Pete Johnson@itstv· Jul 13

In our analysis, we use broader conceptions of consumer welfare, public interest, and competition by folding in humanistic and democratic objectives like media access, the preservation of community cultural spaces, the diversity of stories and storytellers, and more.

Pete Johnson@itstv· Jun 2

screenshot of nyt text reading: There are, of course, other criticisms that can be leveled at A.I. slop: its contribution to reduced attention spans, a lack of human connection, an increasingly fuzzy border between advertising and entertainment, the eternal return of Tung Tung Tung Sahur. But, when I brought these things up with Khaves and his team, I heard a kind of social critique echoed back to me. Slop, they said, is the art of democracy. Khaves kept mentioning that “a guy in his parents’ basement” could now influence a large part of the culture. Kim added: “A 15-year-old can directly compete with the biggest ad agency in New York. And it’s kind of beautiful.”

Pete Johnson@itstv· Feb 27

However, very quickly, tv insiders realized they could benefit from PE and LBOs even if it crippled their companies, despite the framing of insider (TV) vs. outsider (finance) in the trades. This acceptance, paired with deregulation, led to an explosion of LBOs and station sales in the late 80s. 4/

This image is a line graph titled "Station Sales (1970-1992)," which tracks the volume and value of television station transactions in the United States over a 22-year period. A peak is visualized in 1987.

Pete Johnson@itstv· Feb 27

At first, broadcast/tv execs were genuinely confused about what an LBO was. Private equity and this financial model was still fairly new, but there was a spat of LBOs in 1983. 2/

Pete Johnson@itstv· Feb 27

A good time to note that the first leveraged buyouts in media industries were of station groups and cable operators in the mid-80s. Where Mr Zaz got his start. Here, a 1985 cartoon in Broadcasting: a baffled tv exec asks his accountant what an LBO is... 1/

A black-and-white business cartoon by Jack Schmidt for Broadcasting magazine. A man in a suit, holding a newspaper, stands outside an office doorway labeled "ACCOUNTING." Inside, an older man wearing a visor sits at a high, old-fashioned wooden desk with a single lamp hanging above it. The man in the suit asks, "What the hell's a leveraged buyout?"

Pete Johnson@itstv· Feb 12

considering there's no backend, it's sort of an unbelievable piece of information that Fifth Season *lost* money on Severance deadline.com/2026/02/appl...

highlighted text from a deadline article: "Fifth Season reportedly lost money on Severance in the first two seasons, especially in Season 2. According to sources, the company indeed would’ve been in the red had Severance been canceled after two seasons. Since the series is continuing, Fifth Season is expected to turn a profit from collecting producing fees going forward (along with selling the rights to Apple)."

Pete Johnson@itstv· Feb 6

I argue the rise of 70s indies was driven as much by macroeconomic factors, inertia, and studio retrenchment as by FCC policy. By the late 80s, the deficit financing model reinforced studio dominance despite the rules. We need to look past policy myths to the material history of financing (2/3)

An area chart titled "Figure 4. Percentage of primetime programs by supplier type (1970–90)", showing percentage of prime-time schedule slots on the Y-axis and years from 1970 to 1990 on the X-axis. The chart is broken down into three categories: Independent (Blue), Studio (Red), and Studio Co-Production (Yellow). It shows how studio production decreased in the late 1970s, but resurged in the late 1980s.

Pete Johnson@itstv· Feb 6

Is the return of Fin-Syn a "silver bullet" for Hollywood? My new article in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television offers a revisionist history of the "Golden Age" of independent TV, challenging the "industrial common sense" of our contemporary moment. (1/3)

A stacked bar chart titled "Figure 1. Primetime commissioned programs by supplier type (1970–80)", showing the percentage breakdown of programs from 1970 to 1980 among categories: Independent Producer, Studio, Independent Studio Co-Production, Network Co-Production, and Network. It demonstrates how in the first few years of the 1970s, independent production actually remained quite low to studio production in television.

Pete Johnson@itstv· Sep 27

Sleepy Hollow, NY: Andrew Carnegie’s grave sits directly across from Samuel Gompers’ (American Federation of Labor founder) in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Both relatively modest compared to Rockefeller’s mausoleum at the top of the hill!

Pete Johnson@itstv· May 20

The only section of my dissertation I am willing to share publicly: #Dunkin

Pete Johnson@itstv· Apr 19

Next season on #TheStudio

Pete Johnson@itstv· Mar 29

Monthly breakdown of top four activities (hours per month) of an ABD on the job market:

Pete Johnson@itstv· Nov 15

Finally got a chance to share my diss research on TV financing and indep producers with the UT RTF department yesterday. It was really energizing. Looking forward to sharing these findings and how this might reshape how we understand risk in cultural prod. Just need to write the darn thing.

Pete Johnson@itstv· Oct 23

A first edition Entertainment Industry Economics — is this anything?