Media Ownership and Funding

 Media Ownership

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)

In the UK the terms public service broadcasting(PSB) is referring to TV programmes that are broadcast for the public benefit (loco's news, art programs) instead of a commercial purpose e.g. advertising.

The communications regulator Ofcom requires that certain television and radio broadcasts are part of their services within the requirements. All of the BBC television and radio stations have public service remit including those that are broadcast digitally. The public service broadcasting is important as the "News coverage by different media organizations is presented
with varying perspectives and different values".
A public broadcaster is able to deliver programming and news coverage in a credible
and unbiased way for example, in a recent survey on public perception towards RTHK conducted by Chinese
University of Hong Kong, over 70% of the respondents had an overall good impression
of RTHK, with 65% of the respondents of the view that RTHK’s news and information
were credible. (Source:http://www.rthk.org.hk/special/psb/pdf/PSB_10QAs_LrtH.pdf)

 

Commercial Broadcasting

Commercial broadcast is broadcasting for television and radio programing that is owned privately by corporation media (opposite to state sponsorship), it's also known as private broadcasting.

Commercial broadcasting is a united first model of television and radio around 1920's, it's in contrast with public television models in Europe around 1930's.

The positive side of the Commercial Broadcasting is that it appeals to a wide range of audiences, broadcasting is availible to recieve by commonly used equipment and also free to watch as it's funded by advertisements.

(Source: http://www.acma.gov.au/Citizen/Consumer-info/Broadcasting-in-my-area/Lists-of-broadcasters/httpwwwacmagovauwebstandardpcpc90039)

However, there are also negative sides which are that "it regards the commercial broadcasting set-up as the inexorable result of a corporate capitalist political economy and culture"

(source:http://www.thebhc.org/publications/BEHprint/v021/p0171-p0181.pdf ) which means it's not balanced for both sides , it only shows opinion of one side.

 

Corporate and Private Ownership

Corporate company is a company that is not owned by the individual(s), it can be both a commercial or public service broadcasting e.g. BBC news. A Cooperate company has the right to enter into different contracts and also sue or be sued, unlike a private company.
A private company is a company that is owned by a group or individual(s), a private company does not trads it's shares or trads with other companies.

 (Here is a website list of thelargest of the private companies in the United Kingdom : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_private_companies_in_the_United_Kingdom)



 

Global Companies

Global companies are multinational corporations which register to more then one country or have operated in more then one country. It's a large operation which produces and sells well or they have services in certain countries which is similar to a multinational company.
One of the examples of global companies is Disney; the Disney channel broadcasts in 8 countries, within 5 magazine's advertisment. It also shows some of their stories in the theatre, such as the Lion King. Disney also has 720 stores worldwide.
Another example of this is WB (Warner Bros), in 2001 it was stated that Time Warner was one of the biggest media companies in the world, Warner Cable with over 13 million customers in the US.

(Source : http://a31.idata.over-blog.com/1/67/15/03/Divers/Media.jpg )
However, in term of both companies there is a difference between ''global companies'' and multinational companies''. Global companies have invested and present in many countries, they have marketed their products through the used of the same coordinated images/ brands in all markets, they have generally one corporate office that is responsible for global marketing with emphasis on volume,cost management and efficiency. Multinational companies have investments in other countries but don't have coordinated products offered in each country, ther is more focus on adapting their products and market in each individual loco's market.


(Source:http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Difference_between_a_global_and_a_multinational_
company#slide=8&article=Difference_between_a_global_and_a_multinational_company?)

Concentration of Ownership

Concentration of media ownership also is known as media consolidation and media convergence. It's a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organisations control increasing shares of the mass media. Comtemporary research shows increasing level of consolidation with many media industries already highly concentrated ( Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_concentration) and dominated by a very small number of films.
It is considered that the concentration of Media ownership is negative for the public as commercially driven organisations are dominating the industry. They are primarily focused on loyalties to sponsors e.g advertisements and government . One of the examples would be the repeated refusal of networks to air advertising from anti war advocates. So, the public suffers since they are not adequately informed of some crucial issues that may affect them" (source: http://www.slideshare.net/shubhamnag3/concentration-of-media-ownership-15621788)
 

Vertical and Horizontal Integration (owning Company/products in different sectors)

The definition of the vertical integration is when the company(parent company)  expands their business into different areas within the same production path. Vertical integration also can help the company reduce cost and improve it's own product(efficiency).
However in the media industry, this means when the company expands their business into any other media production company for the benefit of each other, for example ;
studio - Warner studio.
company - Warner distributions.
cinemas Warner village.
This could refer to the concentration of ownership, this means owning companies in different sectors to close the market for less competition for example Harry Potter, (one of the biggest movie franchises); Warner Bros has used vertical integration in order to maximise the potential earnings from productions.The Warner Bros's company took control of each part of the film including Production, Distribution, Marketing and Exhibition.
Another advantages of owning companies in different sectors is that other companies would not necessarily have the same advertising space in a specific magazine that you owned e.g. films from another company would not have much space or be as good as Warner Bros's products in the Times Magazine as it's owned by Warner Bros.
(source:http://ablmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/vertical-integration-in-warner-bros.html)
Horizontal integration is where the organisation is developed by buying up competitors in the same section of the market. It also expands their products into other areas of the same industry, this means the company can develop in particular areas of production or they can buy other companies that deal with these areas. One of the examples for this is when the music publisher buys other smaller music publishers.

Vertical and horizontal integration monopolise large cooperations, often attempting to monopolise markets through horizontal integration. Parent company consolidates several  small companies (diverse)  (sometimes even using different brands to create an illusion of market place competition).

Funding Types

The Licence Fee: Licence fee is a type of funding which you pay the BBC, anyone who owns a TV has to pay a license fee, (tv license usually included as a household). A licence fee will be based on the unit offered where the tv receiver is installed or used. It's £145.50 for colour and £49 for black and white.

The BBC used this income to pay off for it's radio, tv and online service.

 

More information for special case:

Subscription: This is an arrangment of receiving something regularly depending on contracts, you must pay off as it says on the contracts e.g Sky channel contracts is amonthly payment.

 

One-off payment to own product: Referring to media industry film and tv, this is when you use one payment to pay for the free view box, where you get a lot channels without having to pay a monthly payment.
 

Pay per View: (PPV) is a television service which an audience of this service can purchase to view private telecase material which belongs, is contracted or owned by the service. In other words it is that the audience is required to pay a fee to watch a specific program(this service are also avelible on skype).

Sponsorship: Sponsorship is when any production companies are putting their money towards other organizations to support them and in return the company gets to show their name which mean it's able to advertise itself. One of the examples of the media companies sponsoring other organisations is the Santander and beer brand Carling will join Sony on ITV channels for 2014 World Cup (football) (source :http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1296205/)

 

Advertising: Advertising is an activity which draws audiences attention to brand production(advertisment). This activity usually is shown between a film or programing's break inorder to get a specific audience from each channel interested in products e.g. toy advertising on kid channel.
 

Product Placement: This is when goods' manufacturers provide the service to gain an introduction by paying a specific program to feature them in it.

It's negative although audiences think that if the characters are using a product, the product will be good for them (some people are believing in the character as most of the techniques used are to plant the ideas in your head without you even realising). For example, The House of Card series is one of the worst recent offenders because
"The Emmy-winning political drama is littered with cameos from BlackBerry, Dell, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, and numerous other brands. In one scene Kevin Spacey's Machiavellian antihero Frank Underwood sits down in a friend's living room, picks up Sony's latest gaming device and remarks, "Is that a PS Vita? … I ought to get one of these for the car." (Source:http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jun/24/breaking-bad-tv-product-placement). This means the concentration of media and media products are not being produced for the correct purpose and instead are profit maximising rather than to deliver the original purpose of the Media products.

 

Private Capital: A private capital is when the private investor is investing in the specific company. Referring to the film and movies production industry, this is when a private investor invests in certain film or film company e.g. "Megan Ellison (super rich person), Ellison provided some financing for movies in 2008 and 2009. The first was Main Street starring Colin Firth".

 

Crowd-funding: This is when the new director (usually but not always) puts or provides their ideas of their film production to certain companies like Kickstarter; by going through the company's process they could get the money they needed inorder to be able to make their film production with a donation from the public. However if the company believes this film wouldn't be successful or the company thinks this wouldn't work for the amount of money the individual is asking for it can be turned down,(being refused to contribute the ideas on the website).

Kickstarter is the company that is supporting smaller independent media productions. It gives them a chance to compete with larger corporately funded media organisations.  One of the largest donations that was given was to LeVar Burton's to compelete a project called 'reading rainbow' campaign. The campaign attracted more than 105,000 backers. It is also Kickstarter's fifth most successful campaign ever, raising more than $5.4 million, five times the original goal of $1 million." The company are also based on the audiences which means this is a total opposite to commercial broadcasting where the opinions of audiences don't count.  (Source:http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/reading-rainbow-brings-in-5m-eclipses-record-for-most-kickstarter-backers/)

 

 

Development funds: Development funds is a none-goverment organization which helps film makers to get their ideas into production. One of the well known organisations for this is  BFI. BFI flms is the largest film fund in the UK which invests over 26 millions pounds of the lottery fund to support film developement, production and distribution in the UK. The budget will be increased to 30 million pounds in 2017.
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/supporting-uk-film/funding-filmmakers)