Ownership

How Is Ownership Funded In The Television and Film Industries?





Public Service

When TV was first setup the General Director of the BBC presented his opinion on how broadcasts should be seen. His words began the basis of public service broadcasting that we use to this day. He highlighted key elements that he wanted broadcasting to do as a goal/aim.

• Educate, inform and entertain
• Lead public taste and not to pander to it.
• Be a cultural, moral and educative force
• Preserve a moral tone, avoiding the vulgar and hurtful
• Remain free from commerical and government pressures

He said other points that he wanted the television broadcasting to be but these are the main points. He then went on to explain his views that became  the PSB (Public Service Broadcast) which was setup to ensure that the public cannot be exploited and should educate, inform and entertain and should not be commericalized. The BBC however doesn't use commercials to fund their station through adverts instead they use the TV licence fee which is a set fee a months to have television legally even if you do not want the BBC channel.

The BBC was purely radio until 1936 but due to the war it was put to the back until 1939 from there on out the BBC became the first television channel but faced a lot of trouble from the war. In 1953 television grew massively when the queens coronation was around the corner. Many rushed to buy television sets. In 1955 ITV got created going against the PSB by using commercials as a source of funding unlike BBC whom get funding from the government.

 

Commercial Broadcasting

Commercial broadcasting is when a station/channel like the ITV is funding by selling advertisement slots to other company's, the price varies on the time or what show comes before and after of the advert. They're sell their audiences to make money to fund the channel they usually have subscription based or pay per view. Some examples of some commercial broadcasting stations are ITV, Sky and Channel 4. But because of the PSB laws when the BBC was set up there are laws set in that require these channels to have a certain amount of content of education etc regulating them.

ITV's Background

In 1954 a television act was put in place that allowed commercial television in the UK. ITV began broadcasting in 1955 on channel 3 around the London area. ITV started as regional television they had names such as Granada, Carlton, Anglia and had to show a certain number of hours of educational programmes and childrens programmes but this did not bring in a lot of audiencethis went well but ITV wanted to merge the two to make one channel covering everywhere, So in February 2nd 2004 they merged them all together to make ITV as we know it today in doing this they were to become one of the leading broadcasters in Europe. Before they merged however they had to make money to keep the channel alive. When is became legal to have commercial television channels they sold advertising space regionally. They would have the same programmes but when the adverts came on the adverts would change depending on your location. But because the ITV was funding by commercially they set strict rules that they had to follow. They needed to have a certain number of factual programmes and a certain number of news broadcasts etc, these days they are not followed as strictly but still need to be followed.

Channel 4 Background

Channel 4 began in 1982 and was a commercial broadcaster but was regulated by the PSB. The channel was funded by a subscription service and needed ITV because they would sell airtime in return. It was known to be innovative having programmes to go away from the mainstream broadcasters. Channel 4 was known for wacky programmes and going outside the box. Keeping to their reputation they later launched E4. Channel 4 had a lot of requirements by the governments they had to target the minority audiences that BBC etc had not covered before. But because there programmes where so wacky and different that trying to sell advertising space was hard because of the target audiences where so different on each programme.

Corporate Ownership and Private Ownership

A corporate ownership is when a company or corporation owns a sector that is owned by the government and is seperate from its owners making it an seperate object. However a private ownership is when they are not owned by the government and are self funded. A good example of a corporate ownership is the BBC and a good examples of private ownership is companies that are independently funded owned by an individual.

Global Companies 

The media world is ran by six main companies. Global companies are companies that own lots of smaller companies such as Time Warner, they currently own around 50 plus smaller companies such as Warner Bros, CNN and New Line Cinema. In the media industry all the companies are practically owned by seven massive companies which can be argued as unfair and it is having owning all the landscape for no competition. The top six companies are VIACOM, News Corporation, Time Warner, Walt Disney, Sony and General Electric.

1. VIACOM

Viacom has a total asset of $22.96 billion dollars and own companies such as MTV,Nick Jr and Comedy Central

2. NEWS Corporation

The news corporation have a total asset of $54.384 billion dollars and own companies such as 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Studios and Fox Interactive Media.

3. TIME WARNER

Time Warner has a total assest of $66.524 billion dollars and owns companies such as HBO, Cinemax and CNN

4. WALT DISNEY

Walt Disney has a total assest of $69.206 billion dollars and owns such companies like Pixar, Disney Music Group and Marvel Entertainment

5. SONY

Sony has a total asset of $137.7 billion dollars and owns such companies as Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics

6. GENERAL ELECTRIC

General Electric has a total asset of $751.216 billion dollars and own such companies as NBC, Bravo and Syfy. General Electric however are not souly an media organisation.

Concentration Of Ownership

Concentration of ownership  is when a massive company such as Warner Bros concentrate on buying smaller companies and owning them to concentrate the landscape in an attempt to make your brand the biggest and richest. A few companies end up owning the everything.

Vertical Integration

Vertical integration is the term used when you make companies to save you money essentially, a good example for understanding is the film industry, when you make a film you have three stages, you have production, distribution and exhibition now If you own a production company and distribution company and a exhibition company. You don't just save money you also make all the money they you didn't before, Time Warner is an example of this. Time Warner have a production,distribution and exhibition companies. However there is law against making your own version of everything you can destory the industry but companies still do it can get away with one months worth of profit before the government notice.

Horizontal Intergration

Horizontal intergration is when you buyout the competition to increase your profits and therefore lower the prices and steal shares. This links in with the concentration of ownership that I mentioned earlier. In doing this you attempt to control the landscape.

Monopoly

an monopoly is when a large company such as Time Warner own so much that they cover most sectors of the media world if not all of them they own theses to the point of controlling the product lines or be the leader in that sector.

Sources Of Funding For UK Industries

• Licence fee - A set fee that everyone in the UK that owns a television has to pay.
• One off payments - Where you  purchase a dvd or cd in stores or online
• Subscriptions - Sky TV has a subscription process in which you pay monthly to have a channel/channels
• Pay per view - Wrestlemania is an wrestling event that you pay to watch and it is an one to time payment to watch a select programme
• Advertising - Adverts inbetween programmes or TV spots to advertise your product to gain exposure
• Sponsership - Programmes can be sponsered by other companies and gain funded they tend to be tailored to the target audience
• Product Placement - Television programmes and films can get funding by products and in return they place there products in their shows an example is Aston Martain in the James Bond films
• Private Capital - Private captital is when an individual invests into a project an example is Megan Ellison, she is a co-founder of Oracle. She started with one million and made billions out of it
• Finacal Aid - British Film institude is an example, The BFI funds short films and films by taking money out of the lottery
• Crowd Funding - Crowd funding or kickstarters is a way in getting the community over the internet or in person to fund your project when funds cannot be obtained