Ownership of the television and film industry

Ownership


Public service broadcasting

Some media companies are owned by national, regional or local government and their primary goal is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing. The reason why it is called public service is because it is funded by the public through the licence fee and it is there to serve the public’s interest. Their main job is to inform, educate and entertain which is for the benefit of the audience. 

Private companies can choose their shareholders. Private companies don’t need to meet the strict exchange commission requirements that public companies have to, like having to give a certain percentage of their income to the government. Companies such as Disney are under the private sector because they serve to make commission on a global scale off their target audience. 


Commercial companies are funded by commercials and they follow normal accepted business practices and operate in order to make a profit. “They are not financial institutions and their requirements are: capital, labour and material resources.”-(Google)


Corporate companies are a group of people authorized to act as a single entity. This type of company is separate and distinct from its owners, they include most of the rights and responsibilities that an individual would possess such as the rights to enter into contracts, loans, suing, hiring and paying taxes.


Independent companies are companies that work on their own, they can make decisions on their own and the government does not influence them. They are different to other companies because they are owned simply by the owner, this means that all the money the company makes is its own profit instead of sharing it with other participating companies. However, due to being independent, they might find it difficult to survive against larger companies because at the end of the day the larger companies will be more known.


Global companies are companies that operate in more than one country. They also can be a company that operates in one country but trades around the world. The main advantage of this type of company is that its audience is larger than other type of companies because they target multiple countries. An example of a global company would be "20th century fox" and Paramount pictures.


Vertical interrogation are companies that create a product from start to finish including creating, designing and distributing the product. Think of it that the vertical part refers to a straight line going upwards symbolising your products life cycle. If a company is under vertical interrogation then they will produce a product, conduct marketing and distribution without the help of any other company or organisation.

Horizontal interrogation are companies that pass on their product to other companies or organisations that produce it for them. Think of it that the horizontal part refers to passing to each other. The production company also expands into other areas of one industry. This means that the company can develop in a particular area of production or they can buy out another company that deals with these areas. For the TV and film industry, it means that they can produce products of a higher quality which for the audience, gives them an all round better experience.

Monopoly is where a company owns the majority of the market of a particular product/ service. In terms of the TV and Film industry, Disney would take place at number one for owning the majority of the media.

Conglomerate is an organisation that owns a number of different media companies that belong to the media industry. An example of this would 21st century Fox due to them owning channels such as Fox and "The Walking Dead".




Funding

License fee

What is a license in the TV and film industry?

A television license is an official record of payment required and legal permission to install or use  television equipment to watch or record programmes as they are being shown on TV. Example of a purchasing a TV license would be purchasing from BBC on demand or ITV catch up.




Subscription

Subscription is when you pay in advance to receive something. In terms of the television and film industry, subscribing to a service would enable a variety of channels or films that are accessible to only those who purchase the subscription. For example, subscribing to Netflix means that you pay monthly. As a result, you have access to a large range of films that are updated regularly. An example of  subscribing to a television platform would be SKY, you can subscribe to sky and have the ability to access hundreds of channels.




Pay per view

A television service in which viewers are required to pay a fee in order to watch a specific programme. The programme that you will pay to watch will not be available anywhere else giving it a unique selling point. The reason for paying a fee gives off the impression that the channel is exclusive. An example of this would be the boxing which is released via television, this can be linked to subscription because if you purchase a monthly or yearly subscription with sky, you have the ability to purchase pay per view within the subscription to watch live boxing. 



Sponsorship

Sponsoring a show allows you to place a series of short credit sequences around a programme, which feature your logo and message. Your sponsorship package can vary to suit your needs, single programmes or events, a themed package and varying lengths of sponsorship are all available. Technically speaking sponsoring a programme gives you access to advertise within the programme. For example, TalkTalk are embedded within the X factor due them having a sponsorship. 



Advertising

This is when advertising is conveyed through a programme or film. For example, in the film "Elysium" which was released in 2013, the rocket that transported the richest of people was the brand of Bugatti. This indicates that because the richest people in the film owned a Bugatti it is the best quality brand. Even though it is just a film, viewers will still watch and link between reality and fiction, if the producers use the Bugatti for the richest character then it suggests that it is used by the richest people in real life.





Product placement

Product placement is when a product is placed directly into the line of film. It is a form of advertising for the company whose product is placed within the set, it can be extremely effective because it demonstrates to the viewer that if the people on TV use the product then they should to. For example, in the TV series "Goggle box" they sit and watch TV with a box of quality street. This implies that the product is suitable for families getting together and watching programmes.





Private capital

Private Capital is a broad label applied to any private investment fund that invests in the equity or debt securities of privately held companies, real estate and other real assets. ... Private Capital is a dynamic investment practice in which more than money is invested. (google) 

Furthermore, receiving funds from a private organisation means a channel can abide more freely then if they used a public investor. 




Financial aid

Financial aid is when an organisation offers funding for the completion of educational goals. The resources and services that financial aid TV provides is video orientated. The video resources helps students receive visual learning packages.




Development funds

Development funds is where an organisation offers funding to develop pre-production, production and post production for feature films. This can be extremely beneficial to a wanna-be producer because it gives them the chance to have a budget that they only dream about. Furthermore, it gives them the chance to produce high quality films.