The television medium can learn from its own history when mapping out its digital future.

There are lessons to be gleaned from the evolution of the relationship between the movie industry and the small screen. This becomes clear in a recap in The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present by Earle F. Marsh and Tim Brooks (a little escapist cottage reading).

The launch of network TV by NBC in 1947, serving four urban centers, was seen by the Hollywood studios as a fad that would be of little consequence to the movie industry, which was coming off a record box-office year. But by the 1950s, with CBS and ABC also up and running and network penetration stretching from coast to coast, TV took a huge bite out of movie attendance. The hurting studios did not want to provide this competitive new medium with its major asset – popular recent films.

So when it came to movies on TV, what viewers got were mostly B-grade chestnuts from the 1930s and worse, such as silent westerns with new soundtracks added.

Instead of capitalizing on the new opportunity that TV presented, the movie industry crapped out, and viewers far preferred series like I Love Lucy and The Milton Berle Show. For the film biz, it was an ‘if you can’t beat them, let them beat you some more’ attitude that did it no favors.

(This attitude is not so different from that of some TV broadcasters today. I’ve heard one top executive at a top caster confess that he doesn’t really believe in the future of mobile content. If that’s the view from the top, what outstanding innovation can we expect from his company?)

Of course, there were visionaries in TV’s nascent days, such as British producer Alexander Korda, who sold the broadcast rights for two dozen first-rate films to New York indie station WPIX in 1948. But otherwise there was an agreement among producers throughout the 1950s to deny the networks of movies made later than ’48.

The movie industry finally came to its senses, and in 1961 the eight-year-old feature comedy How to Marry a Millionaire aired on NBC. It had taken 14 years, but the war between the two industries was over. The studios had become the main producers of weekly TV series, and the broadcast of major movies was soon commonplace, leading to the birth of the immensely profitable made-for-TV-movie format. If the studios had been faster in embracing the new form, they could have embarked on these prosperous new directions sooner.

As it happened to the movie industry, TV audiences today are declining. The CRTC’s recent Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report reveals that last year, Canadians watched half an hour less TV than in 2005, while the percentage of households with high-speed Internet jumped to 60%, and 58% of Canucks used a cell phone to access the Net.

Broadcasters were slow out of the gate to put their programming online, but today CTV offers its domestic dramas and some U.S. fare on its broadband network, including the realities On the Lot and the canceled Pirate Master. Global’s selection is a bit scanter, with The Best Years and the imports The Singing Bee and 1 vs 100 available.

One reason for the slow rollout of U.S. material has been negotiating deals with the American rights holders, but breakthroughs have been made. On the home front, after ACTRA and the CFTPA settled their contract dispute over new media earlier this year, one would have hoped for an explosion of fresh online and mobile content, but it hasn’t yet come to pass.

So who, then, are our Kordas?

This issue’s Korda Award winner is Peter Raymont, producer of the forthcoming CBC drama series The Border. It is heartening to hear about the show’s robust multimedia approach, in the works with Stitch Media. Complementing the series’ 13 TV eps will be an online game – tied into clues on the show – which also asks for user-generated content in the form of mobile phone photographs. There are additional plans to stream an episode exclusively on the web.

It is a model that more producers and broadcasters should strive to emulate. They must realize that not only will multimedia impact their business going forward, but it will be their business. With the furious rate of technological change in the digital age, far more can happen in 14 years than back in the ’50s, and those who lag behind will be left in the dust.

I’m sorry to report that this is senior writer Marcus Robinson’s final issue as a full-time Playback staffer. Marcus, Playback’s resident cineaste, has no less than three exciting film projects in the works, and so will need to hole up at home to meet some daunting deadlines.

Marcus joined Playback two years ago, and has been a tremendous asset with his vast knowledge of film production and history. And although he won’t be in the office every day, he will remain in the pages of Playback, freelancing his big screen column as long as his schedule allows.

Best of luck, Marcus. Now who am I going to talk Preston Sturges and Powell & Pressburger with?