Ownership and Funding

Ownership & Funding

Ownership Concepts

Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)

PSB or Public Service Broadcasting in the UK refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely for commercial interests. The communications regulator Ofcom requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfill certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast. All of the BBC's television and radio stations have a public service remit, including those that broadcast digitally. 

Commercial Broadcasting

Commercial broadcasting (otherwise known as private broadcasting) is the opposite. Its the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States' first model of radio (and later television) during the 1920's 

Corporate or Private Ownership

A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned neither by non-governmental organizations nor by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market.

Global Companies

A global company is technically defined by a company that operates in two or more countries around the world. Typically though a global company will operate in multiple countries across continental borders. They are also known as multinational corporations or 'MNC's'. Some example of global companies would be Time Warner, Starbucks, Sky, Microsoft etc.

Vertical Integration

Vertical integration describes when a company begins to buy and control sectors above and below which ever market it operates in. For example, instead of a company investing in a film crew to create a film that will be eventually be sold to cinemas and then consumers, when a company vertically integrates instead of investing in a film, the company will hire its own film crew and have its own chain of cinemas so it can directly sell its product to the consumers without any middle sectors taking out profit and value.

Horizontal Integration

Horizontal integration is quite the opposite. Horizontal integration is when a company purchases/absorbs/or merges with another company in its sector. The reason a company will do this is to eliminate all the other competition doing exactly same thing and narrow the market so its only them left in the field.

Funding Types

The Licence Fee

The TV licence fee is a tax collected by the BBC and is primarily used to fund the radio, television and online services of the BBC itself. This type of tax is known as a hypothecated tax. This was originally set up to prevent television becoming commercialized and being 'for the people'.

Subscription

Subscription services are when you pay X amount a month/every six months/a year in order to receive constant on demand television. An example of this would be Sky.

One-off Payment

An example of when you would pay a one off payment to own the product would be a if you was to purchase a free-view box. No sign up or subscriptions required, just buy, plug in and watch forever.

Pay-Per-View

Pay-per-view is typically used in one off sporting events such as boxing. However events being televised such as festivals and concerts are also subject to being pay-per-view. It basically means your paying for one view (one televised stream).

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is when another company or third party backs and invests in the channel/program is order to promote its name. You could say its a form of advertisement.

Advertisement

Advertisements are when a company purchases a slot of time on a television channel in order to reach a wider audience and promote themseleves. The more popular the show on at the time means more viewers, more viewers means the advertisement will reach a larger audience which means the channel can charge more & more money for their advertisement slots, and this is how & why TV shows are made.

Product Placement

Product placement can be considered another form of advertising. It is when a product is placed within a TV show/film. Usually the TV/Film production company will be paid money for this as it is technically a form of advertisement. However if they do not have permission to have the product shown in their media then they may have to be the ones who pay money.

Private Capital

In finance, private capital is a type of equity and one of the asset classes consisting of equity securities and debt in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange. A private equity investment will generally be made by a private equity firm, a venture capital firm or an angel investor.

Crowd-funding

Crowd funding is a way to source money to kick-start a project/production when it is lacking funding or on a short budget. The most commonly used site today is Kickstarter.org. On kick-starter a creator will post their project on the site an often offer rewards or bonuses for any contributions made. For a example for a BETA video came contribution rewards can range anything from a game soundtrack to being flown out to another country all expenses paid meeting with the game developers

Development Funds

Development funds are used in an indirect sales channel where funds are made available by a manufacturer or brand to help affiliates/distributors sell its products and create local awareness about the national brand.