Ownership

Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)

Public service broadcasting is broadcasting that is concentrated on the public, this means that the benefit to the public is that there is no adverts and the programs broadcast are purely to entice the audience. An example of a PSB is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) since 1936 the BBC have been a PSB and they have made their revenue by a television license fee. The TV license in the UK has to be payed yearly and for a fee for a coloured TV is £145.50 and for a black and white TV it is £49. This is because the BBC don't sell advertising slots like other channels like ITV. In public service broadcasting you are selling to the audience, so  getting more people to watch will generate more money etc.
Whereas commercial broadcasters sell the audience to the advertisers.

Commercial Broadcasting

The main objective for commercial broadcasters is that it is for servicing the public, not for exploiting.
Commercial broadcasting is one that based on the purchase of advertising slots, an example of this is ITV, ITV sell the audience to the people who want to buy slots. The audience is the one to be sold as advertisers look for the best slots when certain people are watching and at what times they are watching, the most popular times are peak TV times 6pm to 9pm, so these will be the most expensive times after big events. Commercial broadcasters like Sky don't just charge for advertising, they charge for their service, this is called Paid programming, other TV providers now do this like BT, Virgin etc. Commercial broadcasters are normally privately owned. Some commercial broadcasters (ITV) believed that there was no need for them to broadcast children and religious tv but for them to be aloud to broadcast, Ofcom made them produce some religious and children tv.
 There are three types of ways to broadcast TV:
Terrestrial:                               Satellite:                          Cable:
BBC - Not commercial              Sky                                   Virgin
E4                                               Freesat
Channel 5
Freeview

Corporate Ownership

Corporate ownership is an ownership that is controlled by shareholders, more shares a shareholder has more control they have. The shareholders are controlled by a board of directors that make the decisions within the company. The shareholders are solely there for a profit, the idea is that they invest into a company, so they have a bigger capital, so they can produce more to make more money. A corporation can issue shares either privately or publicly. An example of a corporate ownership in TV is ITV. ITV are a public limited company meaning that you can buy shares in the company on the stock market.

Private Ownership

A private ownership is one which is not publicly traded and is not owned by the government. This normally means that only people who are close to the owners of the business can buy shares in the company. An example of an private ownership is Virgin.

Global Companies

In production there are many different companies, but we focus on the 'Big Six' these six are the biggest productions companies in the world, the amount of assets owned by the companies vary from $23 billion to $751 billion. Global companies are ones that operate around the world. The following six companies are the biggest six in terms of media production.

VIACOM:
Viacom have assets worth $22.8 billion (2011) and in the company they have some very popular channels for example : MTV, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage.
For the amount of channels and production companies owned, Viacom has a high rate of assets worth.

News Corporation: Assets : $56.6 Billion (2012)
News Corporation are very well known throughout the UK as in recent years they have been in the news themselves for phone hacking. News Corporation is owned by Rupert Murdoch and in his company he has some key assets that many people would like to have ownership of. For example : BSKYB, 20th Century Fox, The Sun, The Times, Fox channels.

Time Warner : Assets $68.3 Billion (2012)
Time Warner own Warner Bros which is a Global known company, Time warner own alot of magazines and Broadcasting companies. For example : CNN, Cartoon Network, Looney Tunes.

The Walt Disney Company: Assets $74.8 Billion (2012)
Most people will know Walt Disney as they provide many attractions for children and they produce alot of movies for children. Walt Disney own : ABC Channels, ESPN, Disney

Sony : Assets $151 Billion (2013)
Sony are known for many different things ranging from the PlayStation to Sony Pictures. Sony created the Blu-ray disc in 2006 which offered users another platform for their films. Some examples of the companies they own are : Sony Pictures, PlayStation, Blu-Ray.

General Electric: Assets $685.3 Billion (2012)
General Electric own Universal Pictures, which most people know about as they publish some of the the best films ever made. General Electric have a very high asset amount but if the assets amount was done on just media it would be Time Warner. General electric produce alot of electronics products and own oil companies so this is why the assets amount is high.

Vertical Integration

Vertical integration is when the same company is the Producer, the Distributor and the cinema owners. This is illegal as it is said to have 'too much control of a market'. The reason why media companies do this is because instead of paying the distributors to distribute the film and then they make money by selling it to the cinemas, the production company want all the money they can get, so they buy the distributors and then the cinemas. In the 90's the big media production companies did have vertical integration like Warner Bros, they have the production and the distribution rights and they had their own cinemas.

 

Horizontal Integration

Horizontal integration is when the same company buys another company in the same market, like News Corporation they had The Sun and then they bought The Times. Another example is in television, Sky could buy Virgin Media and then this would increase their overall share of that market.
'A situation when two firms in the same industry and at the same stage of production come together. This could be through the two businesses merging together or through one firm taking over another. For example two chocolate companies or two estate agents may decide to join together' (BBC Dragons Den)

Monopoly

A monopoly in a market is one which is in total control in that sector. Being a monopoly you can fix prices, and in this recent year people have been breaking these laws, as a monopoly you are the only supplier of that certain item. Monopolies have some advantages but also have many disadvantages, in broadcasting one of the main advantages of not having a monopoly is that you can compare your broadcast tot theirs, whereas if you are the only company making this product, you can't compare it to anybody. Effectively a monopoly is Vertical Integration + Horizontal Integration as you will control all the other companies.

Sources of funding for broadcast media companies

License fee - Tv license

Subscription - Sky, Virgin , BT

Pay Per View - Box office, Sporting Events

One off purchases - Dvd, Blu-Ray

Sponsorship - Coronation street - Cadburys

 Advertising - Commerical broadcasting/ adverts between programmes

Product placement - CSI - Apple computers

Private Capital - When a individual person invests their own money for a return for profits

Financial aid - National lottery

Development fund - Grants