Btec Tv and Film Portfolio

The BBC is a worldwide broadcaster and broadcasts to over 200 countries in the world, which means that is over 247 million households, CNN only broadcasts to 200 millions, which makes the BBC the largest news channel in the world. The radio stations they have as well have very long wavelengths and some broadcast in over 33 different languages. Outside the United Kingdom the BBC broadcasts commercially funded channels such as BBC America, BBC Canada, and BBC World News. One viewer said ‘I feel the BBC is very informative and always gets straight to the point weather it’s the news or an episode of The Eggheads.’

Newcoporation is a media conglomerate that operates worldwide. Its major shareholder and managing director is Rupert Murdoch. Within Newscoporation, Murdoch has ownership into MySpace, 20th Century Fox, STAR, FOX Television Stations, National Geographic BSkyB. All the things listed before are all to do with television and are broadcasted on air, Murdoch also has shares in to newspapers and magazines including, the, which is a very political magazine. Murdoch owns many newspaper which are all over the world, he owns 21 newspapers in Australasia including an Australian Version of the Sunday Times, Murdoch owns six newspapers in the UK including the broadsheet newspaper The Times. He also owns two international newspapers and The United States newspaper The NY Post that discusses Sports, Celebrities and political events. Recently though readers have been moaning that the Newspaper ‘has been playing with the political truth for years, but now they no longer can distinquish between journalism and fiction’. As if all these weren’t enough to own and control in 1990 Newscorp joined with the famous book publishers Harper&Collins to form ‘Harper&CollinsPublishers’, this operates in the UK, Australia, USA and Canada. With such a blooming Empire, Rupert Murdoch is now worth over £30billion.

Vertical integration is a style of management control; vertically integrated companies are united through a hierachy with a common owner, each member of each hierachy will create a product to satisfy a common need. This also means vertical intergration is when one firm is interested in and engaging in different aspects of production, e.g. growing raw materials. There are three types of vertical intergration, each one been very diffferent:

Backward Vertical Integration: This means a company may create subsidiaries in order to produce some of the inputs they need. For example, the Ford Company in the 1920’s created factories to produce the car parts they desired, this therefore making the product better quality.

Forward Vertical Integration: This means when a company will again create subsidiaries but this time to market or distributes products they have made, for example a movie studio create a chain of Cinemas.

Balanced vertical integration: The company sets up subsidiaries that both supply them with inputs and distribute their outputs.

Horizontal Integration is very different to vertical integration. First of all horizontal is much more popular the vertical integration.Horizontal integration occurs when a firm in the same industry and in the same stage of production is being taken-over or merged with another firm which is in the same industry and in the same stage of production as of with the merged firm. Eg: A car manufacturer merging with another car manufacturer. In this case both the companies are in the same stage of production and also in the same industry. An example of this would be AOL Time warner as AOL which is a huge interent server joined wth The Warner Coperation which is a huge media buisness which consists of Warner Bros.co and DC Comics. Rupert Murdoch runs his in a horizonally integrated way and this is why is companies are so successful as when two or more companies combine they become stronger and richer.

Globalisiation is when businesses chose to set-up or expand into other countries, Companies that operate in several countries are called multinational corporations (MNCs) or transnational corporations (TNCs). Many businesses and companies, which chose to globalise, are from economically developed countries such as the US and the UK. The reasons businesses do this is they can find cheap labour and find accesses to markets where goods can be sold. Media and globalisation are said to be very closely linked because we have to use the media in order for globalization to have an affect, even if this is listening to Latin American music or watching a Bollywood film created in India. An example of someone creating globalization of some sort would be Simon Fuller, who created Pop Idol, his ideas were later sold on as US Idol, American Idol, and even Australia Idol and all proved to be very successful.

Marshall Mchulan was the man who created this ‘global village’. This is was he called the global shift from printed media, e.g. books to electronic media, which would involve radios and televisions. He described the global village in one interview in 1960 as ‘The global village meant the media was rapidly integrating the planet so events in one part of the world could be experienced from other parts in real-time, which is what human experience was like when we lived in small villages. He thought that the even though the media was improving it would be positive in some ways as it would enhance human communications but was worried that manipulative advertising would be created, this may be why later he wrote a book on how women were used to advertise certain products.

Oligopoly is when a firm is owned and controlled by a small amount of companies. An example of an oligopoly firm are all of the gas firm as only around two firms control the majority of the gas companies. An example of a media firm running in this way is Disney and AOL Time warner.

Monopoly is similar because is can raise prices or restrict production just like oligopoly. Monopoly is a company, which owns nearly all of the market of a certain product or service. By definition, monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition - which often results in high prices and inferior products. Bill Gates is a great example of this as he is prepared to crush or put out of business anyone who tries to dominate digital entertainment. Bill Gates has weakened many businesses one including Burst.com in which Gates attempted to close down and not get a ‘foothold in the market’ of a video streaming website.

It is dangerous that the media is controlled by one person or a small group of people, Rupert Murdoch has a huge slice in the media so this means he has lots of power and respect. Unfortunately if is just a minority controlling a majority, there will be usually a lot of conflict as only one side of opinions would be taken into account.

Task Two [P1 M1 D1] Case Study.

Sky

Sky is a multimillion company, which earns around £743 million pounds a year. It is a subscription server and for a basic Sky package costs £17 a month. But for a more developed pack which may include sports channels and music channels is can cost up to around £40. Around 21 million viewers in 8.9 million households enjoy an unprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment and sports channels and interactive services on Sky digital.

‘Because we know people are busier than ever, we’ve created Sky^{+’.sky plus was created to fit around the customer, it is a video recorder which can hold up to 40 hours of recording. The good thing is you don’t actually need a video recorder, it is built into the Sky Box. You can set the Sky Box to record a full series for you, and then you can watch it in your own leisure.}

Many companies now a days will try and persuade you to subscribe to their services. An example of a subscription service is Sky Tv. You pay a set amount every month to get certain channels. An example of a music service going this is, Napster, where you pay £9.99 a month to download as many songs as you like. With the Sky subscription service you can choose as many channel as you want to watch, for example it will cost you, if you already have a Sky+ box which will cost £99, £47 a month to get all the channels Sky has. The channels include all children channels, movie, sport, knowledge programmes, music pack and a variety pack which has a selection of all different channels including new ones like: Watch.

Sky also offer broadband and phone services as well but you can only get these if you are an existing Sky TV customer. It would cost you £10 a month on top of your TV subscription fee for unlimited usage and a free wireless router. However, if you did choose just the broadband, as you were a new customer and did not want Sky TV it would cost £25 a month. If you were interested in Sky Talk, is again only available to existing Sky TV customers so it will cost you £10 a month on top of the Sky TV service. The talk service gives you unlimited or free time call and you only pay for the line rental. The table below offers additional features you can get when subscribing to Sky Talk.

Task three - Funding [P1 M1 D1]

When buying a television now it is always equipped with at least five analogue channel. These five channels are BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five. The BBC is a Public Service broadcaster, so it does not make any profit. It also broadcasts in over 200 countries and over 33 different language so it will appeal to wide audience. ITV, Channel 4 and Channel five are all commercial broadcasters so they use adverts in order to make money.

Freeview Television is the easy and free way to enjoy digital channels. There is no subscription fee or a contract. All you need to do is buy a digital top box and that is it. Once you have the top box you are entitled to 48 digital channels which consist of BBC Three, E4, Nuts TV, Uktv History and Dave. The channels listed above are all created for entertainment purposes, it also has channels to inform: BBC Parliament and SkyNews and also channels to educates which include CITV for children and even an NHS Direct channel. A good arial coverage is needed to get freeveiw. Freeview is an organisation created in 2002 by DTV Services Ltd, a company owned and run by its five shareholders - BBC, BSkyB, Channel 4, ITV and Arqiva. As all the shareholders are very important and powerful , one of the shareholders including media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, we can see why Freeview has been such a success.

Satellite television is growing and more and more people have it. Over 85% of the UK population own a satellite television. Satellite television is television delivered by the means of communications satellite, as compared to conventional terrestrial television and cable television which is broadcast by ground cables. In many areas of the world, satellite television services supplement older terrestrial signals, providing a wider range of channels and services, including subscription-only services. It is very popular although normally to receive satellite television you must purchase a receptor such as Sky dish and digibox, Freesat, Virgin Media etc. Digital television is very popular now and it is has been agreed that by 2012 Europe and Ireland will cease analogue terrestrial TV transmissions.

Audiences interact with television much different now. Audiences can build up relationships with the televisions. Programmes like the X Factor allow us to control television so we can choose the outcome of a program. This makes the audience feel valued and needed. There are many other channels which need to audience for them to operate properly, e.g. shopping channels. If people do not ring up and order things the programmes would not be able to function as they would be selling nothing, also as people phone in this gives the presenters of shows of this content to talk about things. Music channels also have a lot of communication with the audience, programmes such as the red button chart mean the viewers get to chose which songs are played, by people voting for song it also allows the programme to understand which songs are popular and which songs aren’t. On MTV on a few programmes you can actually text in to get your message up on screen. This is a good way of keeping the viewers hooked as it makes them want to wait and see their message.

Television is a well-known form of media and it can be watched in many types of ways. There are many websites set up to watch television, these are usually created so if you miss a program on a channel on television you can catch u by watching it on the internet. Channel 4 and BBC are great example of this. The BBC has a system called BBC iPlayer which means you can watch any channels you might have missed within the last seven days. You can watch and catch up with all over the nine BBC channels online. Channel 4 is slightly more developed. Similar to the BBC’s iPlayer it is a free service, but on the Channel 4 website you can watch clips from the last twenty five years! Aswell as been able to watch television on the internet you can also purchase previous sets of series which are available on the same websites which you can watch television.

There used to be a huge, mass audience around the nineteen sixty’s. The audience then could only watch the channels, which were available, and there would only usually be one television so this meant family’s would spend more time watching television together. Now there are more audiences to satisfy the uses and gratification theory is more important as well. The diversion theory is very important as there are more audiences to entertain and diversion is more important as the channels need to keep the audiences hooked so they will not choose different method of watching television or watch something else. The surveillance theory is very important as well as there are many other way to find out about the news including other types of media like the internet and newspaper. The gratification theory is still as relevant as it was fifty years because it still focuses on four main aspects of the audience.

As the audience is segmented, which shows the viewers are progressing and different audiences are increasing. This is useful for advertisers as certain programmes or channels can advertise certain things and they will be recognised for this. For example Sky Sports advertise Nike wear and it makes sense as they are a Sports channel. This is positive that all channels which have a certain niche can advertise things which relate to it, how ever the negative effect of this is, in reality these small niche channels will only reach so far so their limits are stretched. Also if there are so many small niche audiences, this means advertising companies have to do more advertising which will cost more, whereas if there was just one mass audience the advertising would be more compact.

As the audience is segmented, which shows the viewers are progressing and different audiences are increasing. This is useful for advertisers as certain programmes or channels can advertise certain things and they will be recognised for this. For example Sky Sports advertise Nike wear and it makes sense as they are a Sports channel. This is positive that all channels which have a certain niche can advertise things which relate to it, how ever the negative effect of this is, in reality these small niche channels will only reach so far so their limits are stretched. Also if there are so many small niche audiences, this means advertising companies have to do more advertising which will cost more, whereas if there was just one mass audience the advertising would be more compact.

Subscription

Other subscription companies include Virgin, BT, and HBO. Similarly to Sky, Virgin, BT and HBO all offer broadband and phone services as well as television options. HBO is an American subscription service it is slightly different though as it goes with the cable or satellite provider you are already with and it tells you weather HBO is compatible with it and what services from HBO you will be able to get.

When regarding all subscription services, they are available to subscribe to though the internet. For example, when subscribing to Sky you can do it over the internet and it doesn’t take long. All it take is to chose which package you would like (also if you would the Sky broadband and phone options as well), fill in a form of personal information, payment methods and then the final stage to definitely confirm you would like to subscribe to Sky. Subscribing online has its benefits as well as you can get £50 worth of M&S vouchers. When subscribing BT services it will cost £42.49 for the first three months for phone, broadband and television services. After three months the payment goes up to £55.49. BT’s services are meant to:

‘Great for everyone at home – get a BT phone line with unlimited UK calls at evenings and weekends, high-speed wireless broadband for multiple users, unlimited downloads and all of BT Vision's great entertainment on demand.’

With all subscription services there are options to ‘Pay Per View’ so the customer can buy a one of program. An example of this might be a Sky Box office movie which only ever cost £3.75, nothing more, nothing less. Also people may choose to buy certain boxing matches, e.g. a Ricky Hatton fight. Also for children , parent may want to purchase WWE Wrestle mania which will cost a one of payment of £14.95. Pay per view is very popular as many sports games are only available on pay per view. Baseball, basketball, ice hockey and football are all very popular in the states. An example of purchasing 80 games of baseball in America it would cost $199.

Many television programmes, which are on television all, have different sponsors. An example of this is the television soap, Hollyoaks and their sponsor is Wrigley’s extra chewing gum. This is understandable as the audience will be young and most likely trying to impress people, bad breath doesn’t do this, so this is how the chewing gum comes into affect. Foxy Bingo sponsors the chat show ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show’. The show is aired in the morning so there will not a lot of young viewers watching, the audience probably consists of elderly people, and elderly people enjoy bingo so this sponsor is very important. Many businesses chose to associate themselves with certain programs because they relate to the audience and what the show about. The hit us show ‘Friends’ is sponsored by Appletizer which is a non- alcoholic drink so the younger audience can relate to the sponsor and also the drink is associated with socializing as the sponsor quotes ‘Enjoy Appletizer with Friends’. This means enjoy the drink while watching Friends, but also with your friends.

Product Placement is illegal in Britain but very common in the US. Product placement means the point at which a film becomes an advertisement. The filmmakers agree to place a company's product or logo visibly within shots. In a trailer for the films ‘Josie and the Pussycats’, the producers managed to fit in over 28 examples of product placement including: Kodak, Coke, Star-bucks, Crispy creams and McDonalds. Also in the 1982 film, E.T, E.T was shown eating his favourite sweet; Reeces Pieces, which made sales of the sweet sky rocket and more people bought and ate them after the film was released. This is an example of product placement influencing the audience and helping the sponsors earn money. Product placement makes a program look good as it appears up to date and in with the trend, it is also useful for the sponsors and advertisers as I gets them recognised to certain genres of films and also earn them money when the product placement has a positive affect. Product placement is also said to be “A truly cost effective form of Celebrity Endorsement”, which means it can enhance a the impact a celebrity has on the audience. Also a product has more impact if a celebrity admits to owning a product. For example in a magazine interview and the celebrity is asked what foundation do you use? The foundation the celebrity uses will therefore have more success as it will make the reader feel they can get the looks if they use the same product.

The rules of product place are however, as prompted by Ofcom:

Companies can pay money to broadcasters to have their brand or products associated with a programme. This is called sponsorship.

Companies are not permitted to pay broadcasters to have their brand or products included in a programme. This is called product placement.

Task four - Ownership and Control [P1 M1 D1]

The term “Public Service Broadcasting " (PSB) refers to broadcasting intended for the public benefit rather than for purely commercial concerns. All of the BBC's television and radio stations have a public service remit, even those that only broadcast digitally. Then the first commercially broadcasted program was aired, ITV. Commercially broadcasted means it is broadcasting for profit. And the use of adverts in-between programs means this is how it makes it money. So the difference between PSB and commercial broadcasting, it that commercially broadcasting is intended to make profit.

Community radio stations are often stations run by volunteers and non- dj professionals. Community radio is a type of radio service that caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting material that is popular to a local audience but is overlooked by more powerful broadcast groups. In order for community stations to be aired OFCOM has the right to decide weather they can be. OFCOM do the same things when it comes to television programmes. In Austraila The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia help independent radio and television stations they ‘provide leadership, advocacy and support for our members to actively provide independent broadcasting services and to build and strengthen local communities’ The CBBA help the stations to audio production, audience research, program and music distribution, database development and much more.

Now-a-days many companies, channels and radios are trying to be more independent and this includes Football clubs as well. There is a channel focused entirely on women’s football. It is called ‘Women's Football WSS Live News’, it is a very flexible as the channel can be viewed on the internet, via mobile phones and even on television. As well as the program been free to download and access the website also offers information about how to create your own channel and website. The channel about women’s football was originally set up in 2002 to improve the flow of news about women’s football and it has been successful as now millions of people want to access the channel. In 2001, football clubs claimed back their rights so they can watch their own matches on there channels. Chelsea first aired their match against Middlesbrough and used a Big Brother Presenter to increase hits. Manchester united then caught on and aired their own channel MUTV but their matches would be aired a day after. MUTV has not been very successful as a fan wrote on a review ‘Having to actually pay to watch somebodies amateurish home videos.’ ITV still show highlights on an evening but are not allowed to show the match again. Sky has the rights of over 100 matches but 40 of these are pay-per-view.

In the Television industry there are many types of jobs. All of these jobs fall into two categories: creative and non-creative. To show these jobs i have put them into brain storms.

Below is the brainstorm for creative jobs.

Below is my brainstorm for non-creative job roles.

There are many types of working patterns in the media industry. here are a few examples of the different types you may come across:

Shift-work: shift-work is a practice designed to make use of the whole 24 hours in a day. The term shift work includes both long-term night shifts and work schedules in which employees change or rotate shifts. an example of this may be a camera man as they must film the movie at all time of the day.

Fixed term: fixed term employment means a contact will only last a certain amount of time and finish at a specific date. an example of this may be a caterer for a film set as there role will end when the film ends.

Office hours: Office hours typically means working the hours from around 8am to 5pm from monday to friday. This type of shift pattern may occur more on the non-creative side of the media industry e.g. Accountants amy work the these shifts.

Freelance: Some one who works as a freelancer will work independently and find their own work. When they find work they will usually only be on temporary contracts rather than permanent.

Irregular pattern: Someone who works irregular patterns may be someone who is specialized in a certain area so therefore only needed for certain things. An example of this is a costume designed who designs costumes for a period drama, this manes they will only be needed for period dramas.

(I got these sources from a colleague at school)

For task six we had to write a report on a chosen job within the media industry. I chose to be a Stills Photographer which is a creative job.

Insert here.