How Is Ownership Funded In The Television And Film Idustries?

 

 

How Is Ownership Funded In The Television And Film Idustries?

 

 

Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)

PSB is broadcasting which should benefit the public than just entertain which is what commercial broadcasting does. The UK looked at America and did not agree with the way TV was dominated with comerical broadcasting. Due to this the we used the rule to Educate, Inform and entertain, this was one of John Reiths views.

 

In 1925 John Reith was the first Director General of the BBC, John Reith is known for his views on broadcasting. He presented a statement to the government committee which included his 'memo' about broadcasting and too this day his views formed the basis of PSB.

 

Some of John Reiths 'memo':

• Educate, inform and entertain
• Lead public taste, not pander to it
• Act as a cultural, moral and edcative
•  Remain free from commercial and goverment pressures
• Bring the nation together 'as one man', by ensuring universal access

The BBC was the first to launch radio and tv. The BBC started its first daily radio in London, in October 1922. Not long after the release people from arround the nation were able to listen to radio. A few years down the line in November 1936 the BBC were the first to provide a high definition television service, Which provided programs which are expected today such as Drama, Sport, Outside Broadcasts and cartoons.

Because the BBC are (PSB) they have to make there money to keep the company going without using avertisements, they do this by charging a licence fee, this fee is a yearly sum of arround £140 however as the time has changed so has the price, back when the licence was first announced it would of only cost 2 shillings.

Commercial Broadcasting

Commercial Broadcasting has a different relationship with their audience, unlike PSB they sell their audience to make money, tv stations like ITV sell advertising slots to other companies in which they get to advertise in between programs and promote their product. Unlike PSB which is to benefit the public, Commercial Broadcasting is like a business and do not think about benefiting the public but just how to make money.

Corporate Ownership

In corporate ownership the business is independent from the people who established it, which means share holders control it rather than the person who made the business. For example News Corporation is a Corporate Ownership.

Private Ownership

A Private Ownership is a Ownership which is not owned by the government, for example stations such as ITV, Sky and Channel 5 are privately owned however BBC and Channel 4 are not.

Global Companies

These are companies which own other companies operating around the world. Increasingly media production is concentrated into the hands of a very few big multi national corporations. this is called concentration of ownership. just six companies own the majority of the worlds media. They are as follows

Viacom owns companies such as Comedy Gold, Nicktoons, Xfire and MTV. Their total assets are $22.96 Billion.

News Corporation owns companies such as 20th Century Fox, Sky Network, The New York Post, The Sunday Times and Universal HD. Their total assets are $54.384 Billion.

Time Warner owns companies such as Cartoon Network, Loony Tunes and BMX Business News. Their assets are $66.524 Billion.

The Walt Disney Company owns companies such as The Biography Channel, The History Channel and Lifetime Movie Network. Their total assets are $69.206 Billion.

Sony owns companies such as TriStar Pictures, Columbia Pictures and FEARnet. Their total assets are $137.3 Billion.

General Electric owns companies such as NBC Entertainment, CNBC, GE Energy and Rogue. Their total assets are $751.216 Billion.

All these are the Big Six and control the majority of the worlds media.



Vertical Integration

Vertical Integration is were a company owns more than one of the following

• Production Process (making the film)
• Distribution Process (advertising the film)
• Expedition Process (showing the film in cinemas)

If  a company owns all three they will not loose out on profit and tracking whats happening in each stage is easier to do.

Horizontal Integration

Horizontal Integration is were a company buys out other competitors, for example if Warner Brothers got the chance to buy 20th Century Fox they would probably do it because it would limit their competitors and increase the scale of their production. Generally speaking there is a limit to how  much of a market any one company can own - to stop monopolies (see below).

Monopoly

Monopoly is very similar to what I have explained in Horizontal Integration, however it is when a company owns everything across the board meaning they have no competitors and they can choose the price in which to sell things and don't have to worry about competition.


Sources For Funding



The Licence Fee: The yearly fee in which people pay to own a television, this fee funds the BBC.

Subscription: Some TV or online services require a subscription to watch the media provided, Netflix is a good example of this.

One-off Payment to Own Product: This is simply a purchase of a DVD/CD or even digital copies which are down loadable on different devices, a good example is itunes which sells digital copies of music and films.

Pay Per View: A good example of this is SKY, Sky have movies on demand and also big sports events which you can make a one of payment to watch them.  

Sponsorship: Some programs are sponsored by a brand of some sort, for example Celebrity Juice is sponsored by Oasis.

Advertising: Some channels such as ITV gets their main income from selling advertising space, this space is between programs which allows other companies to show there product to the audience.

Product Placement: This is were a product is placed within the show or film, for example in some TV shows or films a product may be placed in scenes such as a apple laptop. The company pays for their product to be shown for the reason it is getting promoted.

Private Capital: This funding is given to the production by an individual such as Megan Ellison, Megan Ellison is the daughter of a billionaire, Megan has helped fund a few films and started out in the film business in 2006 when she contacted Katherine Brooks.

Crowd-Funding: Is were the community can donate money to fund the production of a game or film etc, kickstart is well known for doing this.    

Development Funds: When something have been developed and made money, they money from that product can be used to fund another production.