Read the passages below and choose the best answer from the four options marked A, B, C or D.  

           Most of us tend to think of production when we think of mass media industries. After all, it is the output of this production – the papers we read, the cable TV shows we watch – that grab our attention, make us happy or angry, interested or bored. Moreover, most public discussion about mass communication tends to be about production. The latest gossip about that actor will be in what film, the angry comments a mayor makes about the violence on local TV news, the newest CDs by an up-and-coming group – these are the kinds of topics that focus our attention on the making of content, not its distribution or exhibition.

           Media executives know, however, that production is only one step in the arduous and risky process of getting a mass media idea to an audience. Distribution is the delivery of the produced material to the point where it will be shown to its intended audience. The activity takes place out of public view. We have already mentioned the NBC acts as a distributor when it disseminates television programming via satellite to TV stations. When Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. delivers its Philadelphia Inquirer to city newsstands, when Twentieth – Century – Fox moves its Musicland stores, they are involved in distribution to exhibitions.

In this passage, “arduous” means________.