C1 Understanding the creative media industry structure

Industry Sectors

TV Production company

This company contributes to the media sector by planning and producing television shows for people to watch they then sell the rights to the show to television channels such as ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc. They own their own studios and are responsible for producing the graphics, editing/post production, production and pre production. 

The example above Endemol produces shows such as, Big Brother for Channel 5, Deal or No Deal  for Channel 4 and Total Wipeout  for the BBC.

Radio Production company

a Radio production company is responsible for creating and producing radio shows to be broadcast on different radio stations they are in charge of the pre production, production and post production of the shows .

the example above Just Radio produces one off  shows such as Musical Deletions on BBC Radio 4 which is scheduled to be broadcast on the 30th march 2013.

Advertising Company

Advertising companies produce marketing and advertising for companies by producing adverts to go on  TV commercial breaks. They are responsible for producing the branding and the marketing campaign for companies along with selling it to be shown in advertising spaces in things like magazines, websites and TV Commercial breaks. 

The company Fitch in the example above has produced Branding for the Launch of the former Virgin (Now Marussia) Formula 1 team  they produced the logo colour palette, typography and graphic devices for the team in co-ordination  with the teams in house advertising team. They have also done work for McLaren Automotive Division of the McLaren Group and in the past worked on the communications for the BAR Honda Formula 1 Team (now Mercedes AMG)

Magazine publisher

Magazine publishers produce magazines by planning them, designing graphics for them and then printing them.

Dennis the example above produces magazines such as Auto Express, MacUser, PC Pro and Health and Fitness. 

Ownership

Public service broadcaster 

A public service broadcaster is a company that has a duty to be unbiased and it has to produces programs for the general public not just a specific group of people, they are funded not by adverts but by the public with a TV license. this means that any programming is to meet the demands of the public not shareholders this is because they are meant to serve the public

An example is the BBC who are the only public service broadcaster in britain they are funded by the public through the TV license which is a yearly fee that people pay

Conglomerate

A Conglomerate is a company made up of many different companies an example is ITV plc which is made up of many different companies such as, Carlton, Granada TV, Tyne Tees, Anglia Television and yorkshire television. these are just a few of the companies that ITV is made of as it consists of many companies.

Multi national

a multinational company is a company that has a worldwide presence an a example is Sky which broadcasts around the world with BskyB in the UK, Sky Italia in Italy and Sky Deutschland in Germany. These broadcast channels such as the Sky Sports channels which broadcasts sports such as football and Formula 1 (Uk and Germany) in countries where they have the rights to these sports.

Horizontal and Vertical Integration

Vertical integration is how much of a specific media sector a company controls for example the BBC has a tall vertical integration as it has the resources to produce a TV show from pre production all the way to post production and broadcasting. This is because they employ all the writers, producers and directors required to produce a show along with all the camera equipment and studios and also any editors and special effects artists required for any post production work they then also own all the equipment and broadcasting licenses required to broadcast the shows they produce.
In contrast to the BBC ILM also known as Industrial Light and Magic who work in the film sector have a very short vertical integration as they focus specifically on producing the special effects and post production work on films. This means that in order to gain revenue they must rely on film studios needing a company to produce there special effects and post production work. This is because ILM does not have the resources required to produce a full film as they only have the resources to do special effects and post production work meaning they have a short vertical integration.


Horizontal integration is where a company spans a wide range of media sectors such as, TV, Film, Web, Print, news, radio and Post production. an example of a company that does this is the BBC which produces and broadcasts TV shows such as Dr who on BBC 1. It also produces and broadcasts radio shows for their many radio stations such as Radio 1 and 2. I also produces web content through its website and its iplayer catch up service which were produced in house. In contrast to this you have companies such as Paramount Pictures which is a film studio who only focus on the film sector of the media industry which means the don't have a wide horizontal integration.




Case Study

A) NBCUniversal Media LLC are a Media conglomerate that is owned by General Electric and US Cable TV provider Comcast. Comcast aim to purchase General Electrics share in NBCUniversal by the end of March 2013. NBCUniversal is made up of many different companies including, Universal Pictures, NBC News, Working Title Films and the NBCUniversal Television group.

B) It works in the TV, News, Web and Film Media sectors.
IT works in these sectors though the various companies that it is made up of. For film it produces films Through Universal Studios Who do pre production, Production and post production, It also owns Illumination Entertainment and Working title films who deal with production of films, the more well known of the two production companies is working title films which has produced films such as, Senna, United 93, Green Zone and Paul. it distributes films though Universal Pictures and United International Pictures which is a joint venture between Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures. It also has its own Home entertainment distribution company called Universal Studios Home entertainment who distribute DVD, Blu-Ray Video Games for NBCUniversal content.
For TV it can broadcast programs though it TV channels such as yFy (which broadcasts Science Fiction Shows) and G4 (Which broadcasts shows on technology, gadgets and gaming such as Attack Of The Show, X-Play and TechTV Vault.), NBCNews (News updates), NBCSports (who broadcasts sporting events live such as the PGA Tour, Formula 1 and 13 of the 19 IndyCar Series races for this year.) and NBC (which broadcasts shows such as The Voice (US Version), The Tonight show with Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live.).

C) This means that NBCUniversal through the companies that it is made up of, spans a range of media sectors giving it a wide horizontal integration it also has a high vertical integration for its film and tv businesses, For example for film it can control everything from pre production it can control everything from pre production to distribution to theatres and then home distribution through, DVDs, Blurays and downloads. and for its tv business it controls everything from pre to post production and then the broadcast as well. Although for some of its sports content it does not control the whole process of the production and broadcasting as for their Formula 1 coverage they get the footage from the world video feed which is produced by the Formula 1 management who have a director choosing which sections of current action in a race to show, the only thing NBCUniversal will add are commentators and any pre or post race content they wish to add as all the onscreen graphics and video content of the race is controlled by FOM.

D) The company has produced many successful products in the many sectors it is involved in the film sector it has produced films such as Senna, Paul, Jaws, Back to The Future and Ted. These are just a few of the films that they have produced as they have produced many successful films. In TV it has produced successful products such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which in the US is a popular TV chat show and they also produce the US version of The Office which is a popular comedy TV show.

E) Its competitors are companies such as Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. These compete with universal pictures as they produce and Distribute Films. In TV its competitors to MSNBC and NBC news are ABC News and CBS News who produce TV news channels and shows in the USA, for working title films their competitors are production companies such as Studio Canal in producing films. there competition in home entertainment distribution is 20th century fox home distribution who distribute DVDs and Blu rays.

F) NBCUniversal has a wide audience because it produces a wide range of programming for people on TV from technology shows on G4 to sports on NBCSports and news on NBCNews. Then it also covers a wide  audience with films like motor sports fans with Senna and younger audiences with films such as Ted.

G) For sports coverage their competitors for events like IndyCar with split coverage have an impact on the production of the commentaries and pre and post event programming. In the case of IndyCar they share the coverage with ABC and they must produce a show that is of a high quality that fulfills the audiences needs as when the contract for the new season is signed it will determine the amount of race that they are given to show in the contract for the next year. For films the customers are very important to the way they produce the films as they have to produce films that audiences will watch although they do have to make sure that they make films that will be better than the films that their competitors make this means they need to make quality films which will be successful.

H) Recently due to the increase in 3D films NBCUniversals film buissnesses have had to make changes in order to be able to produce quality 3D films as this can help generate more revenue. For its tv buissnesses it has had to switch to high definition equipment to help it to pro
duce High definition entertainment for people watching tv this is because there is a growing demand for high definition Television programming in the future this may also mean a switch to producing 2K or 4K programming as this seems like it could be the next big technology shift in Television viewing technology. 3D programming could also be a big Television technology shift but at the moment as some consumers see 3D television as a gimmick used to sell more TVs as they don't feel it adds much to the TV viewing experience.