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.

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.