Cinema and television are (21) thought of as being distinct, whether as industrial practices or as viewing experiences. In fact, the two have been quite closely interwoven,ever since television first emerged as a possible (22) to the cinema on anindustrial scale. This was particularly true in the United States, where a crossover between radio and cinema interests began in the 1920s, (23) to television with the start of commercial broadcasting in 1939. In European countries, where broadcasting was(24) state monopolies, they remained separate for longer, but since the 1950s,there has been a growing convergence at all levels. By the 1980s, with the advent of largescreen television, on the one hand, and home video, on the other, all the (25)had become blurred. Before television, in the United States, broadcasting developed as a system of privately owned, commercial stations, tied together by two great networks and (26)regulated by the federal government. The Hollywood Studios were the first to (27)an alternative programming structure, which would have supported broadcasting from box-office profits. Paramount and MGM (28) to initiate their own film-based radio networks in the late 1920s, using film talent under contract to provide entertainment with publicity value in promoting films. However, a combination of exhibitors’objections,together with an inability to obtain necessary connecting land lines, blocked these efforts.In (29) , the studios turned to station ownership and the advertising agencies and sponsors who produced the bulk of radio programming in the 1930s and 1940s.Hollywood stars and properties figured large in radio’s golden age. Paramount purchased an interest in CBS in 1928, which it was forced to (30) under financial pressure in 1932.