Media Ownership and Funding

Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)
An example of a public service broadcaster is the BBC. Lord Reith said that it's about "public service not public exploitation" in the way that the audience isn't sold to advertisements. The BBC is not funded via the government either, but is a system that tries to educate and inform its audience whilst requiring a license fee. Other channels such as ITV have PSB Regulations but are commercial broadcasters, such as ITV; they are required to broadcast at least an hour of religious television each work. OFCOM sets these requirements.

Commercial Broadcasting
This type of broadcasting exists to make a profit, by selling their audience to advertisements- such as Channel 4 and ITV, which are primarily funded from the revenue of advertisements. Other broadcasters such as Sky make additional money by selling their audience to subscriptions.
 


Corporate and Private Ownership
Corporate ownership is often listed as a public economy in that "it involves the creation a legal identity separate from those of its owners." - meaning that it is listed as a public company. An example of a corporate owned company is Microsoft.
Whereas private ownership is set out as a company that is own by an individual and an example of this is Dell.

Global Companies

An example of a global company is News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch. This corporation owns numerous amounts of smaller companies such as Foxtel and The Daily Telegraph- one of which is based in the Cayman Islands as it's a low tax rate location- an advantage of this is that it's easy and simple to exploit tax differences alongside advertising products to a wider demographic. Nonetheless, it can take years for a company to be able to make a profit, no matter the tax returns or exploitations.






Concentration of Ownership
Roughly 6 companies own around 90% of the world media, creating a monopolisation of all companies. These companies are; Vivendi Universal, Time Warner, The Walt Disney Co., Bertelsmann, Viacom and News Corporation. Positives of such companies is that it cuts out much competition and so begins to monopolise the trade. It also makes it a lot easier to create a synergy across organisations. This is where, for example, The Sun will include a competition to win a ticket to a movie premier of a 20th Century Fox film, resulting in Murdoch gaining all publicity and profit. It's also known as a cross platform.

Vertical Integration
This is where one company or corporation owns things in different sectors. For the production of a film, for example, to make the most profit, a company will own the production stage (studio), the distribution sector (different companies to sell this product) alongside the exhibition (cinemas). A perfect example of this being put into practice is the Warner Bros- they now own the Harry Potter Studios for production, Time Warner for the distribution, and also exhibition centres.

Horizontal Integration / Monopolisation
Much like vertical integration, horizontal allows a company to own multiple parts in an industry. However, in this case they are opted to by out rival companies within the same sector, more than the following processes. An example of this is Disney buying out Pixar and Marvel studios, allowing them to increase market shares.

The License Fee
This creates a balance between propaganda and exploiting the audience, and is a method that the BBC use to save becoming a victim of the other two ways of making a profit. It's around £145.50 a year and allows us as an audience to legally watch the television in our homes, and use online services.

Subscription

This is another method that corporations, such as News Corporation, use to make money. It causes the audience to pay a set fee every month to allow them to watch certain channels and additional extras, such as Sky. Most include offers to add packages and deals to a subscription, such as adding sports or movies- however these come with an additional fee.


One-off Payment to Own Product
Examples of this is a free view box, and purchasing a film on DVD or blu-ray. The consumer only has to pay that set price on the one occasion, the day of purchase, and no additional charges are added. 


Pay Per View
This is where a consumer has to pay each time they wish to view a certain television program or other form of media and a good example of this is wrestling. It illuminates the hassle of having to return rented items, and competitive prices are often available as well as TV Series deals. 










Sponsorship
This is where mediums are funded by other corporations- which allows other business and corporations to advertise and enlarge their audience. Coronation Street and X-Factor-funded by Talk-Talk- are examples of this, where the corporation is at the start and ending of every advertisement. For more than 20 years of it's lifetime, from 1961 to 1989, went out twice a week and attracted, often, more than 20 million viewers. "Such huge viewing figures, week after week, brought ITV the advertising revenue and financial stability that underwrote its less popular "quality" programmes."

Advertising
ITV uses this to sell its audience to advertisements - it's a secretive and clever way of making a profit, as consumers don't understand or realise that they are being bought via this method. Depending on the amount of viewers and spending power of the audience, it's a lot more costly to have airtime for the advertisement of a product. For example, advertising slots for when X-Factor is being aired is a lot more expensive than advertising when Dickinson's Real Deal is being aired.



Product Placement
This is where a product is placed in a text. Certain companies place their products in films, for example, promotional values and as a substitute for sponsoring a film. 'James Bond', for example, will always be wearing an omega watch and driving an expensive car, as they are who sponsored and advertised the film franchise.





Private Capital
This is where an independent company or individual raises the funding for a production themselves. This can be borrowing from friends or using your own wages and disposable income. Rodriguez's' debut film, El Mariachi, is a perfect example of how this can pay off and really create someones career for them. Rodriguez sold his body to a month long stay at a medical research facility earning him the $7,000 that he used for the production of the film. However the distribution rights were bought out as a result of executives at Columbia Pictures becoming so fond of the production- this then made Rodriguez's writing and director career and reputation for what it is.

Crowd-Funding
Kickstarter is a prime example of this type of funding. It allows up and coming producers to develop their ideas and portfolio and if people like their ideas, they can pledge money towards the production of such mediums. "Kickstarter is a platform and a resource." Funding such as this allows new producers and creators to develop and even improve their ideas, as well as building up their portfolio with small yet creative and amazing ideas. 44% of productions that have been advertised on Kickstarter have received 100% funding. An example of where this has worked remarkably well is for Benjamin Pommeraud and Guillaume Colboc- the producers of Demain La Veille (Waiting For Yesterday)- who launched a public internet donation which gave them a total of £13, 579 in just a month allowing them to fully produce the film.















Development Funds
This is financial aid given to some countries for certain film productions. An example of this is when the lottery give out a small amount of money to the BFI to enable them to fund projects created by up and coming producers- this type of funding is not able to fully fund the production costs however, just assist with the funding. The BFI "welcome applications from new and established film makers...can be made at any time, and you can expect a response from us within six to eight weeks." If one was to apply for a fully funded application, then it would be expected that they get rejected automatically, as no matter the cost of the production it will never be fully funded via the BFI. 

Other types of funding are also available through bank loans and private investors.