Developing Technologies in the TV and Film Industries

Television has come very far over time since the first TV was invented. Gradually TV has developed further and there are all sorts of different TV's and TV features now. The first major improvement to TV was being able to watch it in colour but since then there have been many step's up such as 3D television, satellite televison, cable television, interactive television, high definition television, streaming media and internet television/on-demand viewing, digitial recorders and pay per view.

3DTV is watching television in 3 dimensions so certain things look like they're coming out of the screen and it's made to look more realistic for the viewers. It is done by a scene being filmed with two cameras, one focusing on an image for the left eye, the other for the right, then they are merged together and it looks like a blurry image but when it is watched through 3D glasses, it creates a 3D image. Alternatively, you can have the light source split the images directionally into the viewer's eyes, this means the viewer doesn't require glasses. I think 3DTV is good because it does enhance the viewing experience and makes you feel more involved, but I find that having to wear glasses throughout the film quite annoying and sometimes it can hurt your eyes. I also don't find it majorly different to just watching a film on a cinema screen because there's not always a lot of the film that uses 3D and comes out of the screen.

Satellite TV is television received through a satellite dish, things like Sky and Virgin are both forms of satellite TV which must be paid for and a satellite dish must be attached to your house in order to receive signal from the corresponding satellite in space. It's done to offer a wider range of programmes from all over the world to viewers and offer them channels that would be hard to get otherwise. I think satellite TV is very good because you get access to so many more channels than you would normally be able to and it's nice and easy to get and usually quite cheap. It's also improving nowadays and gives you the ability to do things such as pause and rewind live TV and the ability to record your favourite programmes. The only flaw is interferences due to weather and things like that, but they're quite uncommon.

Interactive TV is a feature that allows viewers to interact with the television whilst watching it. It can allow viewers to do things such as respond to a competition, vote for the favourite act on a talent show, access internet based servicesm, view things that aren't on standard channels and more. The red button is a service on some channels where some content can be accessed by pressing the red button on your remote. I think this is good because it gets the audience more involved with certain programmes and it's one thing about TV that could be developed further and a lot more could come of this.

High Definition TV (HDTV) is video that is of a much resolution and looks much better than standard definition. HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times more than SD. Early HDTV broadcasting used analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcast using video compression. I think HDTV looks good particularly on large TV's but sometimes it doesn't look that much better than SD and the price for HDTV isn't always worth the difference. It also causes some TV companies to make their standard definition channels of worse quality to make people want to pay for the HD channels.

Cable TV is a way of receiving television through radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers on the house. FM radio programming, high-speed internet, telephony, and similar non-television services can also be accessed through cable TV. The major difference is the change of radio frequency signals used and optical connections to the subscriber property. I think cable TV is good but is quite outdated in some countries because of things like Satellite TV, it is good for getting less interferences however and is also useful in countries where satellite signal is difficult to get.

Analogue Television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal. All broadcast television systems preceding digital transmission of digital television (DTV) were systems utilizing analog signals. Analog television may be wireless or can require copper wire used by cable converters.


Digital Televison is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV. Many countries have replacing broadcast analog television with digital television to allow other uses of the television radio spectrum.

Streaming Media and Internet Television/on-demand viewing. Streaming media is watching videos on an internet website that are provided by someone else who is streaming it on a website, things such as live football matches that are not on TV are usually streamed or live events. It could also mean the person streaming is recording footage and streaming it as it's being recorded. Internet Television/on-demand viewing is showing TV programmes online on a website and offers a wide range of programmes that have already been aired on TV. There are official on demand websites such as 4oD, BBC iPlayer and ITV player and also unofficial on demand websites which don't show content specific to certain channels. I think this is very good because if you've missed a programme, you can just watch it again in an internet browser and usually the programmes are available for a long time and of course if for some reason you can't watch something that's live, you can just stream it even if it's not as good as watching the actual thing on TV. It can sometimes lag or run slightly slow but it is still a very good way of showing TV content.

Digital Recorders are similar to VCR's in the way that you can record what's on TV, but it has been made much easier by things such as the Sky + box where you can easily record live programmes and save them on your box to watch at any time as opposed to having to fast forward through your video to find what you're looking for. You can also use it record an entire series simply by selecting one episode and setting it to record the series. Also it can be used to pause and rewind live TV and record specific parts of programmes. I think digital recorders are incredibly good because you can record what you want  and watch it at any point and it's easy to find and much more efficient than VCR recorders. The only flaws are how much space you have, usually they provide you with a good amount of space but it depends how much you want to record.

Pay Per View is a TV service which allows viewers to buy certain events to watch via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it instead of viewers being able to see it whenever they like like video on demand. Sky Box Office is an example of this, viewers can purchase films to watch when they're on, films that are too new to be shown on Sky Movies but are no longer in the cinema, also sporting events such as boxing matches are usually purchase only events. I think this is good because a lot of people will want to see things like big sporting events and will be prepared to pay for them, but with things like movies some people may not want to pay to watch it for a one off, but it is still quite an effective way of making money.

Film Based: CGI (computer generated imagery) is used in some films and is basically computer animation, some films are made entirely of CGI and contain a world and all characters made by CGI, films such as Shrek, Toy Story and Avatar. For example, in Toy Story, Buzz and Woody are both made from CGI and animated and everything else in that film is made from CGI. It can be used in films with humans though, an actor acts out all the movements of the character and then the CGI is added in afterwards. It all used mainly to create scenes that would otherwise be impossible to make, or just to make a film look better and can also be cheaper to make films if they're made entirely out of CGI. I think CGI is good because it makes some scenes that would be impossible, possible and I think it does enhance the viewing experience because they quality is better and in general it just looks better. I think some films have relied too much on the CGI used and not put enough effort into the actual story however, but films like Toy Story and Shrek are an example of films that have used good CGI and a good story. Overall it's more positive than it is negative.

Overall you can see that TV has changed and improved a lot over the years and there are so many different types now. I don't see much more that they could do with TV but they've got plenty so far so I think there will be more in the future.

Regulation of the Media Sector

Regulatory and professional bodies:

British Video Association is a video home entertainment organisation established in 1980 and it provides people with information about all things TV and film based. Things such as what films are coming out in the near future, what DVD's are being released, TV programmes being aired and reviews and ratings on their films/programmes. They also allow you to rent DVD's off their website.

Film Distributors Association is a website which gives a guide to uk film distribution, marketing and cinema releases.

Video Standards Council (VSC) is a non-profit making body set up to develop and oversee a code of practice designed to promote high standards within the video industry.

Trading Standards Institute is the professional association which represents trading standards professionals in the UK and overseas.

Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is a website which deals with complaints, framed within the terms of the Editors' Code of Practice, about the content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites, including editorial audio-visual material) and the conduct of journalists.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media.

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) is the global community for mobile content and commerce. It is the leading trade organisation for companies wishing to monetize their goods, services and digital products via the mobile connected device.

The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA) is the trade association representing the UK's games industry

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is an independent charity supporting, developing and promoting the art forms of the moving image in the UK.

Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) is the trade body for commercial radio companies in the United Kingdom. (Now known as the Radio Academy).

The International Visual Communication Association (IVCA) is a professional body which represents its members to Government and other stakeholding bodies and to promote effective business and public service communications of the highest ethical and professional standards.

Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where member organizations, full-time staff, and the public work together to develop web standards.

British Web Design and Marketing Association is a website/company who design websites for their customers.

British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA) is an industry body representing the digital industry in the United Kingdom, BIMA is a membership organisation primarily made up of digital agencies.

Regulatory issues:

Ownership - Regulatory bodies have rules that stop the "big companies" from owning everything in the media and becoming too big. I think this is good because it stops the large media companies from owning everything and becoming too powerful and spreading their influence through every area of the media, corruption in the media could be a result of some companies being too big and this prevents that from happening

Monopoly - Because unregulated monopolies seek to maximize profits, output is restricted so that price is set higher than what everyone can afford
Consumer Choice - Ofcom say that BBC (which is payed for by the British community) have to have channels and radio stations that cater for everyone's needs within the UK, e.g. sports channels/stations have to be there for sports fans, also the UK has to have stations/channels for the foreign residents of the UK who pay the license fee. I think this is fair because we have to pay the license fee just to watch TV and it's not fair if you pay the license fee but there's nothing on the BBC channels/stations that interests you.

Freedom of Information - Freedom of information legislation comprises laws that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions

Censorship - Censorship says what can't be seen on the internet and other types of media and is used to prevent secret and maybe harmful information from being released to the public. Censorship is different in all countries.

Taste and Decency - The Code states that marketing communications should not cause serious or widespread offence and identifies particular areas as requiring special sensitivity. It also states that marketing communications will be judged on where and when they appeared, who they were likely to be seen by, the product being advertised and the prevailing standards of decency. The Code acknowledges that marcoms might be distasteful without necessarily causing serious or widespread offence.

Ryan Giggs Sex Scandal: An example of breaking the privacy law

Last year there was news that Manchester United star Ryan Giggs had an affair with former Big Brother housemate Imogen Thomas. Giggs took out a super injunction in court which means that it would be against the law to mention him as the man who had the affair. However Ryan Giggs was being mentioned all over Twitter as the man who had the affair and there was nothing the court could do and eventually the name had been broadcast and everyone across the country knew. This was breaking the privacy law because personal facts about an individual had been published by broadcasters. No one had been punished for the breaking of the privacy law in the end because the name had been revealed by over 75,000 people on Twitter and it would be impossible to punish them all so it was left unpunished, however Ryan Giggs did demand that his lawyers sue the people on Twitter who revealed his name. Also, you could argue that the story is in the public interest because Ryan Giggs is a celebrity and has been for years, and as a result is sacrificing his privacy; this would mean that the privacy law is not broken by this. Also it could be breaking the human rights act and the right to personal privacy because his private life has been exposed, but once again because he is a celebrity, it is expected that he may not have much privacy.

Ethical and Legal Constraints within the Media Sector

Legal:

Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of British parliament which tells broadcasters what they can and can't broadcast in the UK, on television and on the radio. For example, if BBC showed a program with lots of swearing before 9PM, that would be a breach of the broadcasting act 1990. I think this is a good law because it stops some broadcasters from broadcasting things that are innapropriate and could be seen by the wrong audience.

Official Secrets Act 1989 is a law that states that it is illegal to disclose information regarding national security. For example, if a journalist released information about the location of Prince William, this would be a breach of the Official Secrets Act. I think this is a good law because it prevents journalists releasing information about some very important which could maybe be seen by someone who could track them down.

Obscene Publications Act 1959 is a bunch of laws relating to obscene material being published on TV. For example, if BBC showed a pornographic movie, this would be a breach of the obscene publications act 1959. I think this is a good law because it stops things innapropriate material being scene on TV when anyone could see it including younger people.

Films Act 1985 is a law concering film finance and defining British films. It basically decide whether or not a film is "British" and has the right to be funded by the British government. I think it is a good law because it stops foreign films being made and funded by British government and gives us more British films.

Video Recordings Act 1984 are laws stating that all videos that are sold or available for rental must be classified by the BBFC. For example if a DVD was sold that had no age rating on it, this would be breaking the video recordings act. This is a good law because it stops people from buying un rated DVD's and seeing content they didn't expect to see within the film.

Race Relations Act 1976 is a law to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. Items that are covered include discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and natural origins in the fields of employment, the provision of good and services, education and public functions. For example if a company wanted to hire somebody for a certain job but would only hire a certain race, this would be a breach of the race relations act. I think this is good because it makes companies more diverse and prevents some managers from being racist. The only problem is that it could cause some people to be racist because someone not from England took a job they may have applied for.

Human Rights Act 1998 are rights that are to believed to belong justifiably to every person. For example, if soembody told a group of 5 or 6 people that they could only stand in groups of 3, this would be a breach of the human rights act. This is a good law because it lets people know what they do and don't have rights to do and these rights can be used if someone is trying to tell you to do something you don't have to do.

Licensing Act 2003 is an act that states that pub owners need a specific license in order to broadcast football, play music and other forms of entertainment. For example, if a pub owner showed a football match streamed from a website that was or wasn't being shown on Sky Sports/ITV/BBC then that would be a breach of the Licensing Act. This is a good law because it stops Sky Sports/BBC etc from losing money. I do think it should be legal to stream football in pubs though if the game is not being broadcast on TV.

Privacy law prevents journalists from publicising private facts about individuals, unless it can be proved that knowing the fact is in the public interest. For example, a journalist publishing a story about something private that's happened in somebody's life would be a breach of the privacy law. This is good because it stops people's private lives from being invaded and stops people all across the country discussing something that may or may not be true about a person when they didn't want people to know.

Copyright protects written, theatrical, musical and artistic works as well as film, book layouts, sound recordings and broadcasts. Copyright is an automatic right that you don't have to apply for. For example, if someone wrote a song and showed it somebody, then the person they showed it to released the song and claimed it as their own, this would be a breach of copyright. This is a good law because it stops other people from stealing things you've created and claiming it as their own and getting credit for something you did. This is probably the most effective law of them all.

Intellectual property law refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic work and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce. IP results from the expression of an idea. So IP might be a brand, an invention, a design, a song or another intellectual creation. IP can be owned, bought and sold. For example, if a person thought of an invention in their head and shared their idea with someone else, if that someone else created that invention and sold it with the permission of the other person, that would be breaching the intellectual property law. This is a good law because if you come up with a brilliant idea and someone steals it and makes the idea a reality, they would get in trouble for breaking the intellectual property law and it stops your credit from being stolen.

Libel law is writing or recording something false and damaging about someone and is a form of defamation. For example, if a journalist published a false story about how somebody had child pornography on their computer, this would be a breach of the libel law. This is a good law because it stops false and negative information about people being spread around the country and stops people from having a negative opinion on a person for it.

BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is an organisation which classifies all films, TV programmes, video games and adverts in the UK, it gives it an age rating, the main age ratings given are U (suitable for anyone), 12A (can only be seen if the viewer is 12 or over or accompanied by an adult), 12 (can only be seen if viewer is 12 or over), 15 (can only be seen if viewer is 15 or over), 18 (can only be seen if viewer is 18 or over) and restricted 18 (can only be seen in licensed cinemas and sold at licensed retailers at sex shops, only if viewer is 18 or over). If something is released and has not been classified by the BBFC, it is a breach of the video recordings act. I think this is good because it stops anyone from being able to see any film they want when they're may be content unsuitable for them in that film. The only problem is that usually people who are too young for a certain film are sometimes allowed in and the DVD can still be watched if bought by someone old enough to buy it.

Ofcom (Office of Communications) is a television based corporation, their main responsibilities are to take complaints from the public about harmful/offensive material on TV and launch investigations into it and then take action if found guilty. For example, if there is swearing on a program on BBC1 before 9PM (Watershed) then viewers have a right to complain to Ofcom and if they find that there was swearing, they can take action. Ofcom are good because they keep it so broadcasters only broadcast what they're allowed to and there is no innapropriate content on TV, and if there is, Ofcom deal with it effectively.

Code of Practice is a set of rules explaining how people should behave in their profession. For example, someone working in a shop would have a certain dress code and a certain way to deal with costumers, e.g. they would not be allowed to shout at customers.This is good because it gives people a code to follow in order to make that industry look professional and keeps people from doing things the company wouldn't approve of.

Press Code of Practice:  All members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest professional standards. The Code, which includes this preamble and the public interest exceptions below, sets the benchmark for those ethical standards, protecting both the rights of the individual and the public's right to know.

Media Representation is how certain types of people are represented in different TV shows/films. E.g. Black people, gay people, chinese people etc. For example, black people are usually represented in films as being very athletic and fast runners, even though not all are, however muslims are represented as being terrorists, even though not all muslims are terrorists, the media makes people think that. It can also mean they way places are represented e.g. Liverpool is represented as a place with lots of crime and robberies, even though maybe it's not as bad as the media make it out to be.

Film Financing

20th Century Fox and other film companies are funded for their films by things such as government grants and tax schemes. Government grants is where government programs are made especially for the funding of films provided certain conditions are met, the UK Film Council provides funding for films being in the UK as long as certain conditions are met. US States such as New York, Oklahoma and New Mexico, will provide a subsidy provided all or part of a film is filmed in that state, for example; Die Hard 3 takes place in New York so the government may give them funding because it is such a popular film and could promote New York to viewers. Governments are willing to provide these subsidies because it will attract creative individuals to their territory and maybe influence them to work there and it can advertise that place internationally. Government subsidies are pure grants and the government expect no financial return. Another way of financing films is debt finance and there are a few types of debt finance, one of which is pre-sales. Pre-sales is when the film company get a script and cast together and if the script is good and the cast has a few big stars in it then companies will want to buy the rights to the film and to distribute it in different countries before it is produced. An example could be Toy Story 3 which was expected to get a massive amount of viewers because of how popular the previous two films were and how popular the franchise has become. This is done because then they will receive some of the profits the film makes if it successful. Debt finance can also mean television pre-sales which is selling the rights to broadcast the film on TV after the film has been made, sometimes it’s possible to be sold in advance so the money can be used on the film.

Another method of film financing is British Tax Shelters which means selling the same copyright again to a British company and a further $10 million could be raised, but UK law insists that part of the film is shot in Britain and that the production employs some British actors and crew, this could help attract creative film makers/producers to Britain and could lead to the creation of some good British films in the future. The final method of film financing is tax schemes which are basically schemes which are created to sell the enhanced tax deductions to rich people with large tax liabilities. In 2007 the United Kingdom government introduced the Producer's Tax Credit which results in a direct cash subsidy from the treasury to the film producer. These are the four most common methods for film financing and are probably all used by big film companies like 20th Century Fox.

There are a few other methods of film funding used by film companies that are not so common. One of these is product placement which means basically advertising a product within a film and getting paid by the company for advertising the product, a big example of this is the James Bond films and Aston Martin cars. James Bond is always seen driving an Aston Martin in the films and it advertises the car and makes it look good. Aston Martin pay the film companies to advertise their cars within the films. Another example is something like Coca Cola, a character in a film could be seen drinking Coke and promoting in by saying it’s tasty or something like that, Coca Cola would pay the film company to advertise Coke within the films. Another method is private equity finance, this is where producers pitch their film idea to a private investor and if they like the script, cast, locations etc and think it will make a lot of money, they will provide the funding for the film but the investors get a certain amount of the profits. It’s a lot like Dragons Den and the investors can make a good profit if the film is successful. Boston Financial Trust is an example of a company who make investments into film production. Companies like that have to be careful with investments though in case they invest in a film that is not successful and they do not receive more money than they spent.

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation or 20th Century Fox as it’s known, is a film production company based in America and is among the largest and most successful in the world. The company was founded May 31 1935 when Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century merged together and created 20th Century Fox. Some of their most famous films include: Avatar, Star Wars, Garfield, X-Men, Die Hard, Alien, Speed, Revenge of the Nerds, Planet of the Apes, Home Alone, Predator, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more films and some famous TV shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. Some of the most famous actors to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. Their most commercially successful production partners in later years have been 1492 Pictures, Lucasfilm, Lightstorm Entertainment, Davis Entertainment, Walden Media, Regency Enterprises, Blue Sky Studios, Troublemaker Studios, Marvel Studios and many more.

The Fox Film Corporation (one of the two film companies who merged to make 20th Century Fox) was formed in 1915 by the theatre chain pioneer William Fox who formed Fox Film Corporation by merging two companies he had established in 1913: Greater New York Film Rental, a distribution firm, which was part of the Independents; and Fox (or Box, depending on the source) Office Attractions Company, a production company, this is called vertical integration and was one of the first times that it had been done. Fox Film Corporation then merged with Twentieth Century Pictures which was a Hollywood motion picture production company and was created in 1933 by Joseph Shneck, Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Brothers, William Goetz from Fox Films and Raymond Griffith. In 1935, Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures agreed to a merger and Spyros Skouras who at the time was manager of Fox- West Coast, helped in the merger and eventually became president of the new company. Although it was much smaller than Fox at the time, Twentieth Century was the senior partner in the merger, at first, it was expected that the new company would be called Fox-Twentieth Century however an agreement was made on the name “Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation”, and they began trading on May 31 1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985.

20th Century Fox for many years was a privately held company meaning they were owned by non-governmental organizations or share holders and all their trading was done privately. Then in 1985, the two owners at the time, Marc Rich and Marvin Davis, fled the USA after evading $100 million in U.S. income taxes and as a result sold their halves of the company to Rupert Murdoch’s multi-media conglomerate News Corporation, there was a six month gap between Rich and Davis selling their halves of Fox to News Corp meaning for those six months, News Corp only owned half of the company but now fully own it. To run the studio, Murdoch hired Barry Diller from Paramount. Diller brought a plan with him which Paramount's board had refused, it was a studio-backed, fourth television network that was financed by advertising. It is believed that 20th Century Fox was actually founded in 1915 and although the company itself revealed the found date to be May 31 1935, most historians agree it was 1915. The first film produced by 20th Century Fox would be “Regeneration” if the company were formed in 1915. Regeneration is a silent film from 1915 and one of the few films from that era that were not lost. If they were founded in 1935, their first film would have been Dante’s Inferno. As a result of Fox being a subsidiary of News Corporation, on numerous occasions, 20th Century Fox’s sister company Fox Broadcasting Company has received criticism and their news channel Fox News has been accused of media bias on many occasions. 20th Century Fox film company has never really been criticised though, it’s been said that its future may be in doubt however due to the recent News Corporation phone hacking scandal but it is supposedly much better off than News Corp’s other holdings. 20th Century Fox has a few other sister companies which are mainly TV based including: 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century Fox TV Studios, Fox Broadcasting Studios and others of which are all owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation

I think 20th Century Fox are a very good film company and have produced some films of really good quality over the years, they’ve become successful enough to get some major actors to play in their films and raised a lot of money through these films. They are one of the best film companies in the world and have made some of my favourite films in the past.

TV Funding

TV companies are all different and all get their funding money from many different ways. For example BBC is funded mainly by the license fee which is a fee that must be paid in order to own a television; license fee is £145.50 for colour and £49.00 for black and white. This gives the BBC millions of pounds every year for them to spend. However because they are funded by the license fee, this means that the BBC are a public service broadcaster, this means that they must produce original programs as well as show programs from other channels, they are not allowed to advertise on any BBC channels, radio stations or websites in any way and they cannot show any media bias whatsoever. BBC is also funded by syndication which means selling BBC original programs such as Top Gear and My Family to other channels worldwide. As well as this, they are funded by competitions which sometimes appear after or during certain programs such as Newsround where people can phone or text in with an answer to a question in an attempt to win a prize advertised, phoning or texting in will cost money all of which goes to BBC’s funding. Merchandising is another way in which the BBC are funded, selling merchandise based on some of their shows, e.g. a t-shirt with a character from a program such as Tracy Beaker on it. The money spent on items like these will go to the BBC.

Commercial channels such as ITV and Channel 5 are funded mainly by advertisements during the breaks of their programs, companies will give money to ITV/Channel 5 to advertise their product on the channels so more people will be aware of the product and what it does etc. ITV and Channel 5 do not get any of the license fee. Likewise to BBC, ITV also raise money from syndication, competitions and merchandising. Competitions are used on major ITV shows such as X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent to attract more people to phone/text in with their answers in order to make ITV more money, X Factor based merchandise can also help raise money for ITV. Also programs like X Factor can raise massive amounts of money from viewers phoning in to vote their favourite contestants, X Factor is such a popular show that they raise millions from votes especially as it comes closer to the final. Also with events like the X Factor final, World Cup games, and Champions League finals, because there will be so many more viewers than normal, companies must pay extra money to have their products advertised because so many more people will see them, this gives channels like ITV and 5 even more money on top of the current methods of funding. Channel 4 is a unique channel because it is partially a public service broadcaster like the BBC, but also partially commercial like ITV and Channel 5. It receives some of the license fee but not nearly as much as the BBC because it can be funded by advertisements which is another major form of TV funding. As well as the license fee and advertisements, channel 4 is funded by syndications, competitions and merchandising.

TV companies such as Sky and Virgin that people subscribe to, earn their money mainly from customer subscriptions. If people want to watch the channels that these companies are showing then they must pay a certain price, and for extra channels like Sky Sports and Sky Movies, even more money must be paid and because the premier league is broadcast only on Sky Sports, it massively increases the amount of subscribers because the premier league is so popular. Sky Sports also broadcasts other major sporting events and most recently has acquired shared rights to broadcast Formula 1, shared with BBC who are the current broadcasters. Typically Sky Sports subscribers cancel their subscriptions at the end of May when the football season finishes and renew it in August when it restarts, but the Formula 1 world championship has races through this period so it may stop so many people cancelling their subscriptions. Sky/Virgin also raise money from syndications, selling original programs such as Dream Team to other channels for them to broadcast. Advertising is also used to raise money for Sky/Virgin as well as the usual methods; competitions and merchandising.

I think the license fee is a good idea because the UK needs a public service broadcaster and the BBC is a very good one so it’s fair enough that the community have to pay for it, but I don’t think a fee should have to be paid just to own a TV, I think you should have the option to not pay the license fee but have no access to BBC channels but be able to watch other channels not operated by BBC. I also think the license fee is a bit too expensive and should be reduced.

Sky

"British Sky Broadcasting Group plc” or Sky as it is commonly known, is a TV broadcasting company and is the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the UK. On top of being a TV broadcasting company, Sky also have a lot more services to offer to the UK including: broadband, telephone services, radio stations, Xbox 360 compatibility and can be used to record programs and films if the owner purchases Sky Plus. There are other sky services that you can acquire if you pay extra money such as Sky Movies, Sky Sports, Sky Plus, Sky HD, Kids Channels and other channels broadcasted by Sky that can’t be seen on Freeview. Sky has a lot of its own channels such as Sky1, 2 and 3, Sky Atlantic, Sky News, Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, 4 and News as well as a wide range of Sky Movies channels and Challenge. As well as their own channels they broadcast many other major channels like BBC 1, 2, 3 and other BBC channels, ITV 1, 2, 3 and 4, Channel 4, E4, Comedy Central, Dave, ESPN, Living and many others.

Sky was formed in November 1990 when Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merged due to financial struggle for both TV companies. The Astra 2A satellite was launched at a new orbital position allowing British Sky Broadcasting to broadcast a lot more channels and radio stations, this is when British Sky Broadcasting become known simply as Sky or Sky Digital. Since then Sky has only improved with the addition of more channels as well as Sky Plus which allows viewers to pause, rewind and fast forward Live TV as well as allowing them to record TV programs and watch them at a later date. Also Sky HD was released which allows you to watch programs in HD quality as well as having all the Sky Plus features. Since then Sky have even released “Sky 3D” and have created several channels which broadcast programs in 3D. Sky Sports has also massively developed since its inception after Sky paid over £300 million for the rights to broadcast Premier League games and it has been the main broadcaster of the Premier League since its inception in 1992. Since then Sky had acquired the rights to broadcast from other English football competitions such as English League Cup matches (shared with BBC), UEFA Champions League matches (shared with ITV) and some games from the lower English leagues. As well as this they have acquired the rights to broadcast some football matches from other leagues in other countries including Scotland, Spain, Germany and Italy. On top of the many football games broadcasted by Sky Sports, they also broadcast some major sporting events in other sports such as Tennis, Rugby and Golf and recently they have purchased the rights to broadcast Formula 1 games in the next season, shared with BBC. Sky Movies is another series of channels owned by Sky which are there to broadcast movies that have been released for about a year or more. There are over 10 Sky Movies channels each of which has a particular genre of movies to broadcast, for example Sky Action will broadcast action films and Sky Horror will broadcast horror films. Although to acquire Sky Sports and/or Sky Movies, an additional fee must be paid on top of what the customers pays per month.

News Corporation currently owns 39.1% of Sky. News Corp also fully owns Sky Italia, about 78% of New Zealand's SKY Network Television Limited and b.net of Croatia and Montenegro. News Corporation founder and owner Rupert Murdoch was Sky’s non-executive chairman but stepped in 2007 and was replaced by his son James. On 15 June 2010, BSkyB announced that it had rejected an offer from News Corporation to take full control of the company. News Corp had offered 700p per share for the remaining 60.9% of shares that it did not own. BSkyB said that it would only consider offers of at least 800p per share. In July 2011, News Corporation withdrew its bid to take full control of BSkyB following the News of the World phone hacking scandal. The takeover was an essential part of News Corporation's business strategy, it would have made possible integration with other entities such as Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia and overall would have been brilliant for News Corp. British Sky Broadcasting is a “public limited company” which means they are a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions.

Overall I think that Sky are a brilliant TV company who charge reasonable prices for their services and their services are of a very good quality, they broadcast loads of channels and programs from all over the world and provide endless hours of entertainment. I think it’s unfair for Sky to take criticism because of things that their part-owners News Corporation have done.

Structure and Ownership of the Media Sector: EMAP

EMAP Limited is a British multi-media company who specialise in the production of business-to-business magazines and the organisation of business events and conferences.. EMAP stands for East Midland Allied Press. EMAP was founded in 1947 after an existing newspaper company was passed over to the owner’s son “Richard Pattinson Winfrey”. The company was formed by the merger of the Northamptonshire Printing and Publishing Co., the Peterborough Advertiser Co., the West Norfolk and King's Lynn Newspaper Co. and commercial printing sections at Rushden, King's Lynn and Bury St. Edmunds.

EMAP is owned by Guardian Media Group and Apax who acquired EMAP after EMAP sold some of their assets to Bauer for a large of money, the remainder of the company was taken over by the companies. EMAP are a multi-media and multi-national media company because their media brands span many areas of the media and they are multi-national because they operate in areas outside of their main area (UK). Some of EMAP’s subsidiaries include AME Info FZ-LLC, Cap Motor Research Limited, De Havilland Information Services Limited, Glenigan Limited, Groundsure Limited, International Advertising Festival Limited, Planet Retail Limited, Torcello Publishing Limited, Trade Promotion Services Limited, Worth Global Style Network Limited, WGSN Inc and some of their own EMAP-based subsidiaries. EMAP used to have its own radio station where they owned several other radio stations but it eventually became Bauer Radio and was owned by Bauer Media. EMAP has 20 magazines in its business-to-business portfolio including: Architects' Journal, Architectural Review, Broadcast, Construction News, Drapers, Health Service Journal, Local Government Chronicle, Nursing Times, Retail Week, Recycling & Waste Management and Screen International. Some of the events they organize include: Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Drapers Fashion Summit, Retail Week Conference, World Retail Congress, World Architecture Festival, Media Festival, Supply Chain Summit, Broadcast Conference, HSJ Conference, LGC Conference, RAC Conference and a few more.

EMAP is a privately owned company which means it has shareholders with limited liability and its shares are not on offer to the general public like they would be if it was a public company. As their shares aren’t available to the public they have to generate money from other sources. It is very common for small companies like EMAP to be privately held because they wouldn’t generate much money from shares because they’re not very large companies and aren’t as popular as some of the public companies out there.

EMAP are only quite small in comparison to some media companies and their target audience is a lot less vast than that of some of the large conglomerates such as News Corporation and Disney. As a result of this they do not have a massive influence in the media but instead in their own section of the media (business magazines and business events). Their magazines can have an influence on their audiences, for example Broadcast magazine is aimed at people who work in TV and radio industry and EMAP and their owners are the ones who decide what goes in these magazines so what they put in may influence the readers. A small company is unlikely to include media bias in their works but it is always a possibility and it is unknown as to whether EMAP’s magazines are biased or not. They have no real involvement in TV except possibly for advertisements for their events or magazines, other than this they have no involvement in TV so do not spread their influence in to the TV side of the media. EMAP do not own a lot of assets in different areas of the media and are not recognized worldwide like some of the large conglomerates so that also limits their influence because may think their opinions don’t mean anything because not that many people will know of them.

In 2006, EMAP was criticised by Ofcom for its “lack of control” over Kiss FM and as a result brought its radio division under the control of consumer media head Paul Keenan. Keenan was already the overseer of EMAP's magazines, television, events and international activities, but radio stations such as Magic and Kerrang had until then been in a separate division under managing director Dee Ford. EMAP Radio was heavily criticized and given a record £175,000 fine by Ofcom in June 2006 after a number of listener complaints about 'The Bam Bam Breakfast Show' on London's Kiss FM. The complaints were made about the use of foul language at breakfast and on a prank telephone call, which was broadcast without the victim's consent. Ofcom described the prank as "the most serious case of unwarranted infringement of privacy it had heard". This says that even the smaller companies who don’t have a particularly big influence in the media can be heavily criticized just for making a simple mistake and shows you how seriously people take cases like that. Of course at some point after this, EMAP’s radio division (EMAP Radio) was sold to Bauer Media Group and became Bauer Radio.

Overall I think EMAP are a good media company, as good as any company of their size, and they used to be an even better company before they sold their radio division. Also being a small company means no big influences in the media like the large conglomerates have which means very little bias which is better for the public because they’re not being made to believe what a company wants them to believe. Also them being a smaller company means they don’t own a massive amount of assets in different areas of the media which makes it easier for the smaller companies to acquire assets and become more successful.

Structure and Ownership of the Media Sector: Time Warner

Time Warner is one of the world’s largest multi-media, multi-national, conglomerates and was formed when Time Inc and Warner Bros merged. Formerly AOL Time Warner before AOL was made a separate independent company by the government in December 2009. Some of its subsidiaries include: New Line Cinema, Time Inc, HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, Warner Bros, Cartoon Network, Boomerang and many more.

Jeffrey L. Bewkes is the chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc. There are also six senior vice presidents with functional titles: Paul T. Cappucio, General Counsel, Patricia Fili-Krushel, Administration, Gary L. Ginsberg, Corporate Marketing and Communications, John K. Martin, Chief Financial Officer, Carol A. Melton, Global Public Policy and Olaf Olafsson. Senior executives among their subsidiaries include: Bill Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Home Box Office, Ann S. Moore, Chairman and CEO of Time Inc, John Huey, Editor-In-Chief of Time Inc, Philip I. Kent, Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, Barry Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Alan F. Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Time Warner is a public company so it offers its stocks/shares etc for sale to the general public. The advantages of Time Warner being a public company include: being able to raise funds and capital goods through selling its securities. Disadvantages include having to submit an annual Form 10-K giving information about the company’s performance; privately owned company’s do not have to do this and do not feel under as much pressure as public companies may feel.

In the year 2000, Time Warner was purchased by AOL for 164 billion US dollars and the two merged to become AOL Time Warner, due to market capitalization of AOL, they owned 55% of the new company (AOL Time Warner) whereas Time Warner’s shareholders owned only 45%. Before AOL merged with Time Warner, Time Warner could acquire internet-based subsidiaries on top of the TV and cinema-based subsidiaries they already had, the government didn’t think it was fair for Time Warner to be internet-based as well and forced AOL and Time Warner to split. Time Warner split from AOL on December 9, 2009.

 

Time Warner is a multi-media company because they have assets in TV, film, video games, online, radio and print as opposed to specialising in just one section of the media. The advantages of this is that they can appeal to different kinds of people and a larger audience, some people may not have the TV packages with Time Warner’s channels but may enjoy reading magazines and using the internet so they can still purchase Time Warner products and see what they have to offer. Time Warner are also a multi-national media company and delivers content such as their programmes, their magazines and their films to countries all over the world rather than just the one country of which they were founded. The advantages are similar to the advantages of being a multi-media company, delivering their content to lots of different countries will help them reach out to a wider, larger audience and in some countries, there may not be much entertainment on TV so it could persuade them to pay for TV channels owned by Time Warner because it’s the best entertainment the country can get, this would massively increase business for Time Warner.

Time Warner is among the 4 largest media conglomerates in the world and as a result has massive power and influence in the media. For example, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is another of the world’s largest media companies and they own America’s Fox channels including Fox news which is one of the most popular news broadcasting channels in the US. It has been said that News Corporation give Fox news presenters a specific way in which to present the news and tell them what to say to voice the biased opinions of News Corporation and anyone who presents the news differently would most likely be fired. Videos to back up media bias on Fox news have been released but it has been denied. News Corporation is such a powerful company that they can influence the public believe what they want them to believe. Time Warner are the owners of CNN channels in the US including CNN news which is another massive news broadcasting channel in America and though it hasn’t been proven that CNN news is a biased news channel, there have been many accusations of media bias surrounding CNN. One example of this is when CNN were accused of “casting a negative light” on Republican candidates, four in ten stories (41%) were clearly negative, just 14% were positive and 46% were neutral. Although these allegations haven’t been proven, it shows you that because Time Warner are such a huge company, that they can tell CNN news reporters what to say to make the audience believe what Time Warner want them to believe. Also because they own some massive companies like HBO, New Line Cinema and Cartoon Network, people are more likely to believe what Time Warner want them to believe. It’s not been proven that this is the case with Time Warner, but it’s difficult to know what to believe when the news can be influenced by these successful media companies, news companies should not be allowed to be biased and influence the millions of people who watch these news channels. Also Time Warner own a large amount of children’s channels including Boomerang, Cartoon Network and Pogo, once again it hasn’t been proven but they could use this to influence the children who watch these channels to believing what they want them to believe.

Overall I think that large media conglomerates like Time Warner do have a huge influence on the public because they own so many assets that are recognized worldwide and I think Time Warner’s CNN News probably does have media bias to influence the public to believing what they want them to believe. I think it’s not very fair that these companies have so much power because they buy so many assets and it doesn’t give other media companies a chance to become successful.