Income, ownership and regulations

Income, ownership and regulations

I have been given a job role as a researcher in which I have been commanded to produce a research report, in this report I will be putting my main focus into funding and ownership. One of my main objectives for this report is to learn and understand how the TV and Film industries are structured. Overall in this assignment I will explore funding and ownership within a TV and film industry.

Structure within a film and television industry means a way in which the media industries are gathered together to create different companies in the media, also to control or be in charge of individual sectors of media. This includes Conglomerate companies, independent companies, private companies, subsidiaries companies, commercial ownership and public service broadcasting companies.

Ownership in the film and television industry is when a group or an individual who controls and owns property of a media organisation an example of a company owned by a group or individual is a private company or a public service broadcaster. Funding’s is how an organisation or a company receives money, for example they could obtain funding’s from advertising, subscriptions, pay per view and television licence fee.

Public service broadcasting companies such as the BBC are owned by the government and receive payments to fund the channel from the television licence fee. The BBC which also stands for British Broadcasting Corporation receives payments from the public in which they pay a fee for their TV licence which comes to a total cost of £145.50.  Subscriptions is also a way for television companies to obtain money as the viewer can decide to pay weekly, monthly or yearly to get access to the content. TV channels can also receive payments from advertisers, as whenever an advert is advertised on a channel the advertising organisation or company pays for their advert to be presented. Channel 4 and ITV are great examples of channels in which are funded by their adverts and are both known as commercial ownership. Pay per view is also another way in which companies earn funding as this allows the viewer to access a programme to their television with every monthly payment. 

 Vertical integration is when a company creates a product from beginning to end which includes creating, exhibition and design of the finished product. A great example of vertical integration is Viacom and Disney as both of these companies create the product without any assistant from other organisations to dispute or produce the product. A few of Disney products are Bambi, Cinderella, Mickey Mouse and many more. Well as Viacom’s created TV series such as SpongeBob and fairly odd parents on their own.

 Horizontal integration are companies that involves handing their product to different companies for the other company to create it for them. This can include designing, creating/making, and distrusting the product, an example of horizontal integration was the film Titanic as the film ran out of budget and needed support from other companies to be fully developed. For example the Walt Disney company bought other production companies such as Lucas films  in order to make bigger sales with the latest Star wars franchise. 

Media conglomerate is when a large company contains multiple media interests and also has control of many subsidiary businesses within the media industry. A great example of a media conglomerate would be a company such as Disney, Warner Bros, BBC, Universal, ITV and Newscorp. All of these companies are known as conglomerate companies that has more than two media interests as well as they all own small companies that are in the media industry.

Media subsidiary is when a minor company is controlled/owned by a bigger company, for example the Disney Company has many media subsidiaries such as Walt Disney animation studio, Walt Disney pictures, Marvel entertainment, Pixar Animation studios, ABC broadcasting television, The muppets studio, Radio Disney, Channel Disney, 14 Disney theme parks and resorts, Walt Disney India and many more.

An independent company is when a company is all run by itself, this means the company is not controlled/owned by any conglomerates businesses. These media businesses do not usually last in the media industry as these companies are usually bought by conglomerate companies as the independent companies usually end up going out of business since the conglomerated companies has total control of the market.  This means the independent company becomes a subsidiary company for the conglomerate company. A great example of this situation was an independent business called “So television”, this company was running low on profits and was nearly running out of business until it was bought by ITV for around £17m plus any profits. Private businesses are made up of a small amount of shareholders or a non-governmental organisation. For example Aardman is known as a private television and film animation business. But companies such as Disney, Universal, Warner bros and Newscorp all stick to a certain budget as they do not receive any type of funding from TV licences, commercials or subscriptions.

Pay per view is a way for viewers to add extra programs in which they don’t already own to their television which they can then watch the programme on providing g they have paid the monthly fee. A great example of pay per view is “Now TV”, this is owned by Sky and is a pay as you go TV service. In this case product placement is a vital aspect to the TV and film industry as this brings awareness to the public since it’s a way in which you could advertise a business or product to be publicly known.

Subscriptions is another way for the public to view specific programmes however in this case they get to view certain channels which comes with a fee, in return the customer will be able to access the channel on their television box set for specific amount of time. For example if a customer has a deal with BT and would like to switch to SKY they would have to wait until their contract with BT has expired as they have already paid by subscribing to BT. In this situation the customer cannot be refunded to subscribe to Sky as BT has already credited them for their services.

Product placement is a form of advertising a company/brand/product, this is done by the organisation paying money to a television or film industry in order to display their product in a film or show. The more money in which the organisation pays for product placement the long it will be featured in the television show or film. In order to get full use out of the advertisement it’s important that the characters in the film/show interact with the product and have a good reaction to it as if a favourite character likes the product so will the fans.

Channels such as ITV and Channel 4 mostly gain their funding’s from advertising. This is because businesses will pay broadcasting channels such as ITV to display their adverts during the breaks featuring their products. Each advert is usually 2-5 minutes. For example 02 has funded Channel 4 to advertise the 02 newest sim card deals in-between the advert breaks in order to attract their target audience to help sell their goods.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is a way to show you support an event or person or company by purchasing their goods and services or by paying to watch an event on TV, companies that sponsor television production like News corporation or 20^th century fox receive a form of advertising of the sponsors product, this advertisement could feature the product logo or item unique to the company in the film or have an advert on their television channel stating that they sponsor a show, or it could be the other way around for example if a film sponsored Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola would advertise the film on their packaging or to show that Coco-Cola sponsors that film.

Sponsorship is a way of advertising in the media industry, this is where a business pays money in order to be associated to a specific event. Most businesses like to sponsor charitable events and sports events.

An example of this would be avenges being sponsored by Coco-Cola and an advert for coke sponsoring marvel during a super bowl commercial.      

Television Licence fee

Television licence fee is a bill that people pay the government for owning a television in exchange the television offers a wide range of channels, online content and radio that also comes with developing new techniques in order to get the entertainment to you, the licence costs about £12.30 a month this money. An example of ownership would be the television licence as the television licence is used to pay for the BBC well as other television shows like ITV that are private owned get funding from the adverts to be broadcasted.

We have to pay a TV licence fee to own a TV as well as to fund the BBC. The BBC needs the television fee to keep the program running well as other TV broadcasters get their funding from advertisement on television, this is because ITV has the most popular shows that people like to watch which then attract a wider range of audiences and advertising company’s pay ITV to advertise their product.

You will also now need to pay a licence fee to watch the BBC on website devices as lately the amount of people watch their television shows from their phone or computer as they are always out and don’t have time to go home and watch TV or they find using mobile phones and computers more cheaper and efficient than owning a television.

Monopoly- monopoly means the possession of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service.

Oligopoly- Oligopoly means a state of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers or sellers.

A monopoly and oligopoly are alike as they both have a large majority of market shares except an oligopoly has two or more firms that are powerful and most controlling/dominant in the market, on the other hand monopoly only has one fire that has nearly full control of the market sector, and monopolies are known as a vital situation of capitalism however rules are regulated to stop the free market system from being miss used in any way, laws were placed so that consumers were protected and this also stopped firms from preforming evil practices. On the other side oligopoly is a minority group of companies that has a big majority of market shares, there is no specific limit of companies in an oligopoly however the amount should be small enough for a single company to influence the others, an example of an oligopoly is a company like Cineworld, Odeon and Vue cinemas who dominate most of UK market so much that independent company’s cant compete that dominates the film industry well as an example of a monopoly is News corps that own 20^th century fox and the sun newspaper, how this can be dangerous as they can influence how people think. 

Non-broadcasting commercial activity involves...

programme sales, the BBC world wide sells popular programs to other broadcasters over seas for example  the David Attenborough life show which has been bought world wide by other broadcasters. 

publishing- For example the company can also make money by selling their ideas to magazines to be sold to the public and this can also help publicity for the main product.

Spin-off - For example this is when the company can sell its idea to a game creator who turns the original idea into a video game, for example Marvel sold the spiderman idea which was then turned into a video game.
Merchandising is basically selling products that are branded and have correlation to the film for example the harry potter merchandise sell the wands from the film.
And finally franchising is when the company sells their brand to be used by other to sell their own product under the brand.