This section presents statistics on the various communications media: telephone, computers, Internet, telegraph, radio, television, newspapers, and periodicals andthe usage, finances, and operations of the Postal Service. Expenditure data for advertising in the media are also included.

Communication media-The U.S. Census Bureau’sAnnual Survey of Communication Services(ASCS) covers all employer firms with one or more establishments that are primarily engaged in providing point-to-point communication services, whether by wire or radio, and whether intended to be received aurally or visually. This includes telephone communications, including cellular and other radiotelephone services; telegraph and other message communications, such as electronic mail services, facsimile transmission services, telex services, etc.; radio and television broadcasting stations and networks; cable and other pay television services; and other communication services, such as radar station operations, satellite earth stations, satellite or missile tracking stations, etc. The report presents statistics that are summarized by kind-of-business classification based on the 1987 edition of theStandard Industrial Classification Manual. See text, Section 17, Business.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), established in 1934, regulates wire and radio communications. Only the largest carriers and holding companies file annual or monthly financial reports. The FCC has jurisdiction over interstate and foreign communication services but not over intrastate or local services. The gross operating revenues of the telephone carriers reporting annually to the FCC, however, are estimated to cover about 90 percent of the revenues of all U.S. telephonecompanies.Data are not comparable with Census Bureau AnnualSurvey of CommunicationServices because of coverage (ASCS includes all domestic long-distance telephone companies, all local exchange carriers, and all cellular telephone companies) and different accounting practices for those telephone companies which report to theFCC.

Reports filed by the broadcasting industry cover all radio and television stations operating in the United States. The private radio services represent the largest and most diverse group of licensees regulated by the FCC. These services provide voice, data communications, point-to-point, and point-to-multipoint radio communications for fixed and mobile communicators. Major users of these services are small businesses, the aviation industry, the maritime trades, the land transportation industry, manufacturing industry, state and local public safety and governmental authorities, emergency medical service providers, amateur radio operators, and personal radio operations (CB and the General Mobile Radio Service). The FCC also licenses entities as private and common carriers. Private and common carriers provide fixed and land mobile communicationsservice on a for-profit basis. Principal sources of wire, radio, and television data are the FCC’s Annual Report and its annualStatistics of Communications Common Carriers.

Statistics on publishing are available from the Census Bureau, as well as from various private agencies. The censuses of manufactures (conducted by the Census Bureau every 5 years, through 1992, for the years ending in "2" and "7") provide statistics on newspapers, periodicals, books, and pamphlets. Beginning 1997, these data are collected in the information sector of the economic census. See Section 32. Editor & Publisher Co., New York, NY, presents annual data on the number and circulation of daily and Sunday newspapers in its International Year Book. Monthly data on new books and new editions appear in Publishers Weekly, issued by R. R. Bowker Company, New York. (See Table 928 for annual data.)

Advertising-Data on advertising expenditures are compiled primarily by McCann- Erickson, Inc., which compiles certain of the data shown (see Table 937). Monthly index figures of advertising in certain media are also published periodically by McCann-Erickson in Advertising Age.

The Broadcast Advertisers Reports distinguishes between spot and local advertising primarily on the basis of the type of advertiser to whom the time is sold, rather than how and by whom it is sold. In general, time purchased on behalf of retail or service establishments in the market is considered local, even though the establishments may be part of a national or regional chain. That is, spot advertising promotes a product, while local advertising promotes a given establishment. Network advertising, mutually exclusive of spot and local, is broadcast through the network system.

Postal Service-The Postal Service provides mail processing and delivery services within the United States. The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 created the Postal Service, effective July 1971, as an independent establishment of the Federal Executive Branch.

Revenue and cost analysis describes the Postal Service’s system of attributing revenues and costs to classes of mail and service. This system draws primarily upon probability sampling techniques to develop estimates of revenues, volumes, and weights, as well as costs by class of mail and special service. The costs attributed to classes of mail and special services are primarily incremental costs which vary in response to changes in volume; they account for roughly 60 percent of the total costs of the Postal Service. The balance represents "institutional costs." Statistics on revenues, volume of mail, anddistribution  of expenditures are presented in the Postal Service’s annual report,Cost and RevenueAnalysis, and itsAnnual Report of the Postmaster General and its annual ComprehensiveStatement on Postal Operations.

Statistical reliability-For a discussion of statistical collection and estimation, sampling procedures, and measures of statistical reliability applicable to Census Bureau data, see Appendix III.