Through out this entry i will be discussing the different structures and ownerships within the media sector. Media is constantly growing and changing and i want to find out why.
Advertising
Without advertising media would most likely fail, with the lack of knowledge about new media industries e.g games, music, films the companies creating these would loose out on profit and could cause themselves to go bust from not selling due to lack of advertising. In the UK alone the advertising industry makes around £6.2 billion annually. The UK is the third biggest advertising sector in the world after the USA and Japan.The advertising sector is one of the most diverse sectors that make up the creative industry. There are around 13'000 companies that make up the advertisement side which employ almost 250'000 people in the UK.Their are three main job roles within advertisement in media, these roles consist of Production content, production technical and admin and support roles. The difference between content and technical production roles is that the content role is mainly creating the advertisements being the director as such, along with this it also consists of account and advertising executive, commissioner and producer. Technical, is the mechanical side of everything, camera, sound, lighting, SFX, printer, engineer and so on.
some of the most well known advertising companies in the UK consist of Mizuno, Marshall Amps, Inchape and more.
Animation
In 1600 BC the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II built a temple for the goddess Isis, In the temple built up of 110 columns with painted figures of the goddess on each column that progressively changed position to horsemen or charioteer riding past which created the illusion that the images were moving. Ever since then animation has evolved from pictures that gradually change, to stop motion and now the animation of today with things such as Disney pixar movies.(shrek, tangled, brave)The animation industry in the UK stretches across many of the sectors in the creative media industries. You will find animation on television, in films, adverts, websites and computer or video games. Because the animation sector is increasing everyday it involves a lot of people to help work of every project. Animation companies currently employ around 4,700 people in the UK, nearly two fifths of these employed are freelance or on short term contracts, with almost 20% Sole Traders, or self-employed.
some animation companies in the UKthat have made well known animation such as Aardman animation, Bolex Brothers, Blue-Zoo, Fine arts films and pixar.
Film
The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of film making, for example film production companies, film studios, cinematography. Film making was first seen in 1867 when William Lincoln patented the oddly named Zoopraxiscope, also known as the “wheel of life”, a machine that let individuals view moving images through a small opening. From then on film making progressed further and further until we got to the high definition of film making that we see in the present day.
The UK's film industry can be broken down into four sectors, production, facilities, distribution and exhibition. It has a total workforce of around 27,800 people. with mainly 62% that are in exhibition, a third 34% in production and the remaining 4% in distribution. Depending on sub-sectors 91% of film production crew are freelancers and just 9% are employees, where all that work in cinema exhibition and film distribution are employees.
some of the public's favorite films were created within film companies such as dream works, 20th century fox, Metro Goldwyn-mayer animation.
Interactive Media
Interactive media started in 1980 with such things as Vontech, bearscript, Video work shop and early authoring. Later it began to progress onto things that we know of these days like apple in 1982 as well as CAI formats and computer video tapes.The interactive media sector is said to employ around 34,300 people, represents approximately 7% of the total of the Creative Industries workforce.
It is extremely reliant on freelancers and contractors, these are estimated to make up for around one fifth 21% of the workforce.
some of the companies that make up the interactive media sector consist of related product, supported layers and network related services such as 3, AIME, Com and tel, and daisy communications.Radio
Television
Television was not invented by a single inventor, instead many people worked together inventing different things seperatly that eventually lead to the creation of television. The first production that lead towards the invention of the television was in 1884 when Paul nipkow developed a rotating disc that transmits pictures over wire called the Nipkow disc, later the transparent rods that transmits images for television, Later Charles Jenkins inventor a mechanical television system called radio vision, he claimed to have made the earliest form of television using silhouettes in 1923. Gradually each year someone invented something new that eventually lead to the creation of changeable television in 1948, this lead on to invent color television, cable TV, remote controls, children s programming, plasma and most recently Web TV which came around in 1996.Television is still one of the most popular forms of entertainment and information, the average viewer still watching twenty hours or more per week. But the rapid growth of the internet and interactive media is competing strongly for audiences and revenues. Independant Television has increased alot since richard branson introduced Virgin media to the world. At the start of satellite TV Sky was the only company you could get satalite TV channel from. today there are many different one such as Virgin media, BT, Freeview, Tevo, Talk Talk.
Television is now a world wide thing with different companies all over the globe within the UK there are such companies such as Virgin Media, Kingston communications, wightfibre, and small world media.
Publishing
Publishing is made up of a group of industries such as books, directories and mailing lists, journals, magazines,business media and newspapers. people have been publishing for thousands of years, the first known way of publishing was by neanderthals with there drawings on cave walls. moving onto the egyptians with the hieroglyphics, and eventually to present day with many different kinds of publishing. http://floatlearning.com/2012/03/a-brief-history-of-publishing/
The publishing industry emplys aroung 195'000 people, it represents approximately 36% of the creative media work force. more than 51'000 people employed work in newspaper sectors, 50'500 in journals and magazines, 33'000 in the book industry and nearly 12'000 in other services for information activities.
a few companies that are in the publishing sector include, The Sun, The Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, Heat, Any Fact/fictional books.
Game
In 1952 a man called A.S Douglas wrote a PhD degree on human computer interractions, who created the first graphial computer game which was a version of tic-tac-toe or naughts and crosses. In 1958 William Higinbotham created the first video game called "tennis for two" from then on different people kept creating different games, getting involved in powerful companies and evolving graphics to make present day games like GTA5 and Elder scrolls.
The games industry comprises around 485 businesses the majority are game developers. Around 35 companies in the industry will be games support companies. The businesses in the gaming industry employ a total of 7'000 people within the UK.
Some companies within the Gaming industry consist of EA GAMES, Bethesda, activision and many more.
Photography
White lights was first discovered in 1664 but Isaac Newtons, since then people began to discover that with white light is composed of different colours, that it can be darkened when exposed to lights and gradually discovering many of the things modern cameras have built into them. The first advertisement with a photograph taken was in 1843 which was shown in Philadelphia. Photo imaging keeps progressing into something better every year the latest cameras are now fitted with high definition lenses, Digital images, storage devices and much more. The are used in every media industry and plays a very vital role within media.
The photo imaging industry consists of extremely highly skilled and qualified people compared to the entire UK population. 46% of people employed in this industry have a degree with 42% of those having an undergraduate degree or diploma in media related subjects. This work force tends to be older than the audio visual industries with an average age of 42. It has a low proportion of people for minority ethnic groups compared to local populations. Photography does not only consist of paid photographers it also involved digital graphic designers
Some companies that are involved in photo imaging are, AOP, BAPLA,Magnum, RPS and many more.Different sources of income for creative sectors
Each creative sector has similarities and differences for earning income for there business'. Film, radio and television have very similar sources of income which usually comes from Advertisments,Partners, sponsers, tax, investments and franchises.Aswell as the similar sources, Television alone has Investments, Subscriptions such as Sky+, Television Licence, Product placement, and Companies like ITV. Product placement is a huge source of income within media. Any TV show or film that is about to show footage of product placement displays a small white p with a black ring around it somewhere on the start up page. Film also has different means of income to help fund and make money from multi million films. The selling of the films them selves make up quite abit of the income but buying rentals or DVDs and paying to see the film in the cinema arnt the only ways film make money they can also gain money from the recently popular film subscriptions like Lovefilm and netflix, downloads, merchandise, box offices and more. Film and TV arnt the only sectors in media, radio and game are also extremly popular and they also have there own ways of gaining sources of income. Radio has been going down hill recently due to interactive media becoming more popular but they are still going on strong due to there funds from competitions, Listeners phoning in and wanting to talk.Podcasts are relitivly new to radio but again create income through there subscriptions, apps from Apple and android and ITunes. The game industry is no different to the rest, they also depend on advertisments, sponsership, partners, and franchises, but not alone like film they also earn income through merchandise and downloads the very popular steam website used for downloading and buying computer games and again the actual selling of the product in game shops, Supermarkers and Online stores such as Amazon and EBay.
The difference between public and private ownership.
An examples of public owner ship is the BBC. The BBC is a television company that is made for the public, funded by the public and you have to fund it by law. The way the BBC gains there money to fund the company is through the television licence. Anyone who wishes to watch TV wether it is on your laptop a portable decided, DVD's or anything at all you need to pay for a TV licence. For a full year of coloured television it costs the household £145.50 if you wish you only view black and white programmes it only costs £49. Some people are entitled to have a reduced fee of there television licence payment wether it is for coloured or black and white footage, this is if you are 74+ years of age, living in a care home or residents home and if you are registered as blind. If you decided to not pay for your television licence by law you can be prosecuted and fined up to £1000 if you live in gurnsey the fine tends to be £500-£2000 depending on the length of not owning a licence. Some people have found ways around not owning a TV licence as if you only watch catch up TV (ITVPlayer/4oD/BBCIplayer) then you do not NEED to own a licence but anything other than that (anything streamed live) you need a licence.A private ownership is the complete oposite where income in public is shared out between multiple companies what ever income you make is yours and yours alone. If you have people working for you of course you need to by law pay them there wage but what ever is left over after pay what you need to is yours and that is how private ownership is so powerful, there money. When you open up a privatly owned business your main purpose is to make income. The biggest examples of people who have privatly owned business' are Ruper Murdoch and Richard Branson. These two men started out small, Murdoch started out with one news paper which became popular made him more money so he bought more and more, after newspapers he started buying into Television companies and Interactive media till eventually he owned most of the UK's media sources. Richard Branson again like Murdoch started out with a small investment of a company called Virgin Media. This began with Television company when that became popular he increased his company and bought many different sectors, Virgin airways, Virgin boradband, and virgin mobile. http://www.virginmedia.com/
What is conglomerate?
"Conglomerate- a group of diverse companies under common ownership and
run as a single organization" - http://quizlet.com/dictionary/media-conglomeration/
Globalisation- The Process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange.
Merger- This occurs when two companies combine into a single entity. for example TFM radio and Metro radio.
Takeover- This occurs when one company acquires control of another company.
Vertical Intergration- When a company expand its business into areas that are at different points of the same production path.
Horizontal Integration- When a company expands its business into different products that are similar to current lines.
The merger between TFM and Metro radio happened in April of 2013. These two radio companies are owned by north east radio and both station play for a similar audience. The company decided that it was costing far to much money to run two station 1 based in Teesside and one based in Newcastle so they decided to merge the two together. unfortunately most employees at the TFM station were made redundant including the presenters Wayne Tunnicliffe and Amy McConnell. there are still two journalist in the Teesside area that report any news to the Newcastle station which is now presented by Metro radio presenters Steve Furnell and Karen Wright. In the long run this merger seems to of been for good causes with the listeners from both stations joined together to create a larger audience number.
Comglomerate mergers can happen over various purposes. Including extending companies and product range one examples of a conglomerate merger is the merger between Walt Disney and the American braodcasting company. (http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/01/business/media-business-merger-walt-disney-acquire-abc-19-billion-deal-build-giant-for.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
The worlds largest conglomerate companies are those such as Walt Disney, CBS and Comcast.
Walt Disney which has a revenue of $42 billion and profits over $5.5 million shares with other big companies such as ABC, Walt Disney pictures, Pixar, and ESPN. with these shares this means that what ever profit is made within the company have to be shared amongst all who have been apart. Disney bought ownership over Marvel comics which put the company head to head against Time Warner in the battle of super heros. The avengers in 2012 grossed over $1 billion in box office. Aswell as this successful share Disney also have a 50% stake in the A&E Networks.
The CBS company came around after leaving Viacom in 2006 to create there own company. CBS mainly control network television and radio broadcasting with the most watched network under their name. The corporation has been able to generate over $14 billion in revenue and $1.3 in profit. They own 50% stake in the CW network which is shared with Time Warner. Aswell as owning this stake CBS also have full ownership over CBS radio, and Simon & Schuster (publishers), They also own there own sports network.
Comcast is the 'top dog' when it comes to media conflomerate as of 2013. it is the only company to reach over $6 billion in profit with nearly 50% more revenue than competitor Walt Disney. in 2012 they earned $62.5 billion. The company received the biggest boost in rising to No1 by taking over NBC Universal in 2010. This gave them a significant advantage over Disney who still have not increased there own cable news network ABC to a level it can compete with comcasts MSNBC.
Like Time Warner Comcast is another competitor of Disney with there movie and theme park with Universal Studios. Comcast will add significant assets to the NBC sports division when it begins broadcasting Barclays Premier League matches live in august which they have secured with a three year $240 million offer.
Rupert Murdoch is a man that has a lot of power within the media industry. Starting out owning one newspaper company in Austrailia which was passed down to him from his father. Over the years Murdoch has gained more and more power inside of the media industry. In 2012 the News of the world newspaper was found to be hacking into peoples phones in order to uncover information that no body else could recive. when a missing girls phone was hacked and messages were deleted from the voice mail people decided enough was enough, the paper was put down and the people envolved were charged.
