7.1 Structure and Ownership of the Media Sector
The Media Industry is growing
more and more everyday. There are so many different sections from the media
sector, such as Film, T.V., Games and Radio. There’s also Print and Internet
based media as well as advertising. There are many numerous sectors and
companies spanning different aspects of the industry. I will
be mainly focusing on T.V. with an overview insight into the 3 remaining
sectors.
TELEVISION:
Television is the one of the
major sectors in media, It employs roundly towards 56000 workers which can span
from runners towards administrators to directors. Except more people tend to be
freelance jumping from project to project rather than be stuck to one studio or
production company unless you are working as something specialized such as
editing. It main focus is to produce high quality programs to be broadcast on
channels in their selected country. That country then has different ways of
transmitting the programs by different methods including: analog, digital,
satellite, cable (fiber optic) and Internet television. In Britain we have such
services as sky, virgin and BT. Also Freeview and Freesat. Sky as an overview
is a satellite based television broadcaster that is one of the most used
television provider in the UK. It has services as sky + (a service that lets
you record your programs) and is in main competition with virgin media which
has a more open based company which has a more open range of services.
Including the new tv box, which lets you record 4 programs at once.
Television then has it basic
channels in the UK which are called terrestrial channels; BBC, ITV, Channel 4
and Channel 5 are all the ones people mostly know about but people tend to
forget about: S4C and UTV. These companies are also called Public
Service Broadcasters, with a range of obligations set out in their licences,
and in the case of the BBC in its Charter.
Now the BBC is the most known TV channel
in the UK but what else is there about the BBC.
The BBC: the largest
organisation in the world. It was founded and first organized in 1922 by a
group of radio executives and John Reith became the general manager of an
organization. Then in 1936 the BBC’s broadcasting system was started as an
experimental service in the London area and by 1938 there were over 11,000
receivers in use. During that time most of the programmes aired were usually
live and ranged from game shows to children’s programmes. Today the BBC has
grown and become an larger organisation. The company now has 9 television
channels; BBC one, two, three, four. The cbbc and cbeebies channels for kids
and a BBC HD channel plus BBC news and BBC parliament. There is
the BBC online website for users and they have recently developed and
released iplayer, a piece of software which lets users view
programmes that have aired or that are currently airing live on
the BBC website. All of these channels and services are all paid through
the money that the taxpayer pays. Through your tv licence you pay your
contribution to the BBC and help fund top shows such as Eastenders,
Doctor who, top gear and many more. Although you may get to contribute you
do not have any say on what your money goes towards to, the budgeting
controller of the bbc and the head of the bbc decides. Mark Thompson the
general director of the bbc has the overall decision on what gets commissioned
and what gets decommissioned.
Also the BBC trust represents
the public and the licence fee payers. They govern the BBC’s managers to do
their jobs right, they also appoint the BBC’s top executive, the
Director-General. Their website states “We make sure the BBC has the
right standards and that its programmes live up to those standards”. The
trust sends service licences to each of the sectors of the BBC including their
channels. They also issue a company charter and agreement to the BBC.
BBC has its main competition
from ITV, both of these terrestrial channels both commission various things to
gain viewers for ratings and so the programmes can be recommissioned. Such as
the news and their soaps Eastenders and Coronation Street and Emmerdale
which all three gain many millions of viewers each. They then have their
entertainment shows The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, both usually being
shown usually on the same time for the battle for viewers. They also do
special dates in the years which are either bought solely to that channel or to
both with different coverage; recently Kate and Prince Williams wedding and
things like the rugby world cup which has been bought by ITV.
Finlay Sci Fi and Fantasy has recently become viewer battle’s,
BBC commissioned Doctor Who and Merlin and the now finished Robin Hood
while ITV has only had the successful Primeval and the cancelled Demons.
BBC three is the channel that
replaced BBC choice in February 2003, its main target audience is 16 – 34 year
olds and it broadcast’s things from comedy to reruns of soaps from bbc one. It
has some of its own original television shows for example being human; a ghost,
a vampire and a werewolf try to live like humans and live in a house in Bristol
and has 3 series shown on the bbc.
It also first broadcasted
Torchwood a spinoff of the popular bbc one show ‘Doctor Who’ they gained an
impressive 2.4 million viewers, it was later switched to bbc two and then on
bbc one.
Their main competitors in the
digital channels include ITV 2, E4, Dave and Sky. E4 mainly broadcasts
American shows as does sky and ITV 2 usually like BBC three have a mix of
overseas and British programmes being shown. Popular shows on the
channel include Family guy, Gavin & Stacey and Two Pints of Larger and
A Packet of Crisps.
BBC three also takes full
advantage of the online community available, in many of their programmes they
use things such as Facebook, twitter and blogs on the BBC three website.
Most of their programmes are some of the highest viewed iplayer hits. They state that BBC three are never
afraid to try something new this could be seen to be their mission to the public
and themselves. The future holds more things for the channel,
The Olympics next year helps
the BBC use this channel by getting extra hours for the channel to extend in
the daytime for coverage of the Olympics with an additional £4.5 million being
provided. There are two new comedies to be shown; Pram face: ‘BBC Three
comedy series, set in Edinburgh, about two young teenagers who are having a
baby together’ and a comedy pilot ‘The Bright Side’: ‘New sitcom pilot written
by Robert Evans, described as ‘a female version of The Inbetweeners‘. The comedy focuses around three 16
year-olds. Leigh Ann is a quirky teenager who is not the coolest girl in
school. Her best friends are both Clare and nerdy Nousheen’. A fourth series of
Being human will be shown early 2012, In recent news the show Doctor Who Confidential
has been cancelled and will not be shown again.
BBC three’s viewing figure on
the Barb website, usually on a daily basis is over 4000 views and over 17000
views a week in September of this year. That is 30% of the total views
broadcasted over every TV channel. Their competitor E4 only finished with 11000
views a week but ITV 2 finished with over 23000 views. Now By far the
largest part of the industry is comprised of around 1500 independent
production companies (often referred to as the ‘indies’). They make many
of the best-known programmes on television – programmes like the X Factor, Big
Brother and Life on Mars. The biggest companies (the so-called super-indies)
have turnovers of between £100-200m per year and employ thousands of people in
the course of a year. But the typical independent production company is much
smaller than this. Some even only work on one project before the company
decides not to work again for various reasons.
Tiger Aspect is one of the most successful production
companies in the UK; Peter Bennet-Jones formed it in 1988. He had notably in
the past had relations with Rowan Atkinson during his past. Also during 1986
where he had set up his own talent agency “PBJ Management” and 1 year late he
and Atkinson and Robin Driscol wanted to launch a new program based on Rowan’s
best-loved character Mr. Bean. This was the main reason why the company was
founded. Mr. Bean became not just a national success but an international
success as well, during 1990 Tiger Aspect had one the largest selling British
television programs on the foreign market being broadcasted over 80
countries which later spawned a hit movie ‘BEAN The Ultimate Disaster Movie’.
The company also produced the British film ‘Billy Elliot’ which claims the
number two spot in international box office sales among all British-produced
films.
The company can be split into three sections Tiger
Productions, Tiger Pictures and Tigress Productions. Tiger pictures is the
dedicated movie production team and Tigress productions unit is a producer of
nature, wildlife, scientific, and adventure documentaries, including the hit
celebrity vehicle In the Wild and the Africa series. The Company has a
reputation of creating and founding original ideas; this is their mission and
values. They have a high production value to make high quality programs such as
‘Vicar of Dibley’, ‘Robin Hood’ and other programs spanning different
genres and a whole variety of channels. BBC and ITV have both had great success
with their programs. It also has had some international success; in 2005,
for example, the company’s projects included production partnerships with NBC
Universal, MTV, and Disney Playhouse. Altogether the company generates
revenues of more than £59 Million.
Its competitors include: InvestinMedia PLC; Endemol UK PLC;
Avesco PLC; Complete Communications Corporation Ltd.; RDF Media Ltd.;
Entertainment Rights PLC; Aardman Animations PLC; Medal Entertainment and Media
PLC; Ascent Media Group Ltd.
Key Dates include;
1986: Peter Bennett-Jones founds the talent agency PBJ
Management.
1988: Bennett-Jones forms Tiger Productions, in part as a
production vehicle for programming featuring Rowan Atkinson, leading to the
highly successful Mr. Bean series.
1991: The Tigress Productions wildlife and scientific documentary
production joint venture is formed.
1993: Tiger Productions merges with Aspect Film &
Television, forming Tiger Aspect Productions with Bennett-Jones as chairman.
1997: The Company co-produces the first feature film based on
the Mr. Bean character.
1999: The Company forms the Tiger Pictures subsidiary to
produce new films.
2000: The Company releases the international hit film Billy
Elliot.
2002:
The Company creates an animated series based on the Mr. Bean character and
dedicated animation division.
2005: The Company forms a wildlife documentary production
joint venture with Sky One.
FILM:
The film industry is a large industry on a larger scale
towards Television. In the UK alone they employed around 27,800 people in 2008.
The major business centres in the world are in the US, India, Hong Kong and
Nigeria. The industry is usually funded through privately owned companies such
as Sony and Warner Brothers; these companies have earned their money from the
turnover of films they have invested in the past. However other people find
different ways of funding their films rather then pitch their idea to gain a
budget from a Big company which is usually the common way to gain
funding. The Market Leaders are the Distributors of film; Warner Brothers
are the top-grossing distributor to date. With Total Gross revenue from 1995 to
2011 of $27,147,331,454 and with an average gross of $54,078,350. Its
main contender is Walt Disney Pictures who is only $1 billion behind Warners.
This sector can be broken down into so many different
departments and other sectors but really the three main parts are; Production,
Distribution and Exhibition. These three are the most common parts of the
industry but they’re others including Development, Facilities and Export.
Production in the simplest terms is the creative process of
actually making the film. This division has a wide variety of departments and
producers and directors spanning everywhere in the world. Mainly when creating
films Production companies are used to create the motion picture, the nature of
the industry means production companies are often set up for a specific
production and then close down when production is complete but before this
department can get to work Development has to actually find and finance the film
idea. For the UK this normally happens but in the US Production Companies have
several parts of their company working on several different projects every
year. For American Production Companies it is much easier to gain money. After
production comes postproduction that edits the film and then comes distribution,
which is unheard of by many people, it is the ‘piggy in the middle’ of the
three main sectors. Distribution focuses on who to actually sell the film to,
this includes making a license agreement with the film’s studio and then
deciding on how many copies of the film to make. Distribution then shows the
film to buyers representing the theatre/exhibition. The buyers then lease the
film to be shown in that theatre to gain money from the tickets and from the
theatres facilities e.g. popcorn. At the end of the lease the theatre pays the
money back to the film industry, which then pays each sector.
RADIO:
During this time defining the Radio industry is very hard
since the range of platforms for distribution of audio
content is increasing, and media and telecommunications
are converging across the board. Employers range in size from the BBC
and larger commercial radio groups to not-for-profit community radio stations
run mainly by volunteers. Basically this means that while companies like the
BBC who focuses on a whole range of services, there are Radio Company’s that
focus primarily with radio. Radio Organizations have to be licensed under
regulation of Of-com. There are also four types of radio: Satellite, Internet,
Low Powered Radio Stations and Digital Radio.
Then Radio can be split into two standard groups, commercial
and non-commercial. Commercial stations have adverts just like television,
advertisers pay to advertise based on listener ratings also called revenues.
Non-Commercial/educational/public earn from personal subscriptions and from the
institutions they represent. The Industry employs over 22000
people in a wide range of occupations. Companies who own radio
stations grew dramatically since the Telecommunications Act of 1996. By 2000
consolidation had changed the face of the industry considerably. At the moment
the leading radio station owners include:
- Clear Channel Communications, Inc..
– $8.4 billion 2002
- Cumulus Media, Inc.. – $252.6 million
2002
- Citadel Broadcasting Corp. – $323.5
million 2001
- Infinity Broadcasting Corp. – $3.7
billion 2001
- Cox Radio, Inc. – $420.6 million
2002.
GAME:
The Gaming industry is in a large global market, $47 Billion
to be exact. The industry began with a small game called ‘Tennis for Two’ which
was developed and created during the 1950’s. This was only a basic game where a
ball would be hit from side to side in 2D graphics, Now in the 21st century we
have even more improvements on gaming; 3D graphics, High quality images and
even hands free gaming. The largest and oldest gaming company is Nintendo but
Sony has been one of its main competitors to date including having the largest
selling revenue. Microsoft is also the youngest company to date with two
consoles to date. Video game sales for Microsoft and Sony only cover 10%
revenue of the company’s total revenue. The main sales are the main consoles
that the games are played on. With the consoles costing £150 and onwards. From
2000 through 2007 Sony’s video game business combined profit was only $920
million.
Then there are video game developers; the actual creators of
the video game itself. EA is one of that company’s, possibly the most well
known company; they have created games for all different platforms and all
different genres of games. They also create games that are specifically made
for online gaming (Internet based, playing/competing with players around the
globe) and for mobile phones. The EA label spans several different labels
including; A Games, EA Sports, EA Play, and EA Interactive. EA sports for
example is the most well known sports game developer, creating games such
as FIFA Football, Madden NFL, Fight Night, NBA Live, NCAA
Football, Cricket, NCAA March Madness and Tiger Woods PGA Tour.
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