Public and Private ownership

TV has become one of the most influential forms of popular media with a number of 98% of households in the UK having a TV and to then half of them will have two TV's.

TV is split into two ownership's, Public and Private Ownership.

The Public ownership is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which is funded by the government with is known as the TV Licence. As the BBC is government run they have to cater to the Public wants and interests. For example the Public are able to complain and give feedback and BBC will take in the feedback and make changes. Also if a certain show does not receive many viewers the show will be cancelled and will not air anymore. Because BBC is paid for buy the public there isn't any advertisements there for no breaks in between the programme you are viewing.

The advantage of Public ownerships is that as the BBC is run on the basis of what the public wants its shows are designed around them therefor you will get a wide variety of different shows to suit different people therefor you will get a huge mass amount of audiences tuning in to watch different shows that are targeted at them. The disadvantage is that more people are willing to subscribe to companies such as 'Virgin Media' and 'Sky' and would prefer to pay them money rather than pay for a TV license that only funds one Channel as the BBC. This may mean that the TV License has a good chance of being scrapped.

Private ownership is funded simply by advertising. Therefore Private ownership's is more able satisfying the company shareholders rather than the public’s interest. Private ownership defiantly had more varied channel choices. You find with private that certain channels are only aimed at one type of audience for example MTV is only aimed at an audience between the ages of 16 - 24 therefor the advertisements on these channels would be different from the adverts on a Discovery Channel. BBC however is targeted at all types of audiences so the shows viewed on this channel will be more varied and have different target audiences for every show.

The big advantage of Private ownership is that as its run purely on advertising funds there are many companies desperate to advertise their products on TV as its now own of the most influential sources of Media today. This means that the more popular the shows and the channels the more money it will cost to advertise during these times and that means the more money the Channel will get to fund more shows. The disadvantage to private ownership is that as BBC is public owner before creating a new show they spend a lot of money on research to find out exactly what would be popular before even funding a show. However a private channel for example 'MTV' if they liked a show they could fund out without the input of the public and could be a total flop.

Sources of Income

As the private ownership in TV isn't supported and funded by the TV license they have to have other ways to fund themselves. However there is many ways they get there income.

Advertising

Advertising is probably one of the biggest sources of income for Media. On channels that allow advertise products and companies will then pay money to advertise between shows. However different things are advertised on different channels between different shows it’s all about who the product is advertised to mostly. It costs more to advertise on after about 9 because this is prime time telly and tests have shown that more people are watching TV at this time. Also popular shows that pull in the most ratings will receive a bigger fee of the advertises as it is going to have more people watching.

For example when Simon Cowell was looking to advertise his new hit show X Factor USA he wanted to make sure many people watched his advertisement. During this time the American Super bowl was going to air and would managed to get 100 million viewers. Simon Cowell then paid 2.85 million dollars just for one advert in the break of the super bowl.

Product Placement

Product Placement is a type of advertising. It’s when a certain product is placed in say, TV Shows, Films or music videos. The owner of that product then pays to advertise there shows.

The very first product placement in the UK was on 28th of February 2011 on ITV's show 'This Morning'. It was this day that Ofcom then began to allow product Placement to begin.

The deal was between ITV and Nescafe. Nescafe paid £100,000 for a three month contract of displaying a Dolce Gusto machine that was placed in the kitchen area in the studio.

People have expressed that maybe product placement has been taken to far. Many dedicated James Bond fans complained about the product placement in the film 'Skyfall'. During a scene in the film it showed James Bond drinking a bottle of 'Heineken' beer instead of his signature drink Vodka Martinis. Fans accused the Bond franchise of 'selling out' by changing a characters trademark in order to suit the highest bidder. 

Competitions

Most shows hold competitions to gain more money. People then apply by texting or ringing in the Phone lines which then costs the applicant money to apply.

For example X Factor always holds competitions throughout the series.

Also with Shows like 'X Factor' and 'I’m a Celebrity' the public are able to ring up the show and vote for who they want to stay or leave. To do this the public ring a certain phone line that costs the public a fee each time they vote.

Film

· With Films there are many ways that they get their funding;

· First is the Box Office of people paying Money to go view the film in the Cinema.

· When the film is then released on DVD people with then pay to buy this product.

· Also merchandising for the film releasing Calendars, Posters, toys and other things.

· Renting the DVD from the Rental shops.

DVD

After a film has been released in the Cinemas a couple of months later the film is then release on DVD. Releasing films on DVD's can earn and gain alot of money however over the years it has been shown that more people are illegally downloading films and buying pirate copies therefore the Film companies have been missing out on money.

With DVDs also comes Rental. Although its not as popular as it used to be you are still able to rent DVDs. There also sites online that you pay money to monthly and you are able to watch TV Shows and Movies. These site such as 'Netflixs' and 'Love Film' are very popular as people are using the internet more and more.

The top selling DVD's of 2012 are;

1. 'The Hunger Games' sold 7,434,058 copies and which was $123,471,615.
2. 'Brave' sold 5,892,322 copies with a price of $98,773,131.
3. 'The Twilight Sage: Breaking Dawn Part 1, sold 5,492,021 which got them 
    $99,396,571.

Merchandise

As well as the DVD merchandise will also be sold to help promote the Movie. For an extremely popular movie merchandise will sell extremely well. For example 'The Twilight Sage' has a huge amount of products on sale for example;

• Posters
• T-Shirts
• Bags
• Jewelry
• Dolls
• Calenders

And many many more. All this will belong to 'Summit Entertainment' the film that has the rights to 'The Twilight Saga'. It has been added up that with just the merchandising along it has brought in over $395,000,000.

Box Office

Box Office is a place where tickets will be sold to the public for admission. In this case it would be when people pay money in Cinemas to see the new latest film releases.

Records are kept to determin's the popularity of each movie. However the Box Office is taken in different time spans. For example records are held for;

• Daily Records (Film that made the most in 1 day.)
• Weekend Records (Films that made the most in 1 weekend.)
• Overall Record ( Overall Box Office the movie takes in.)

Worldwide James Cameron's movie 'Avatar' took in a massive amount of $2,782,275,172 overall whilst in the Cinemas.

Worldwide 'Harry Potter the Deathly Hallows Part 2' took in $483,189,427 on the opening weekend.

Again 'Harry Potter the Deathly Hallows Part 2' took the record taking in $91,071,119 in one single day.

Also when it comes to Cinemas there is also another way for funding. Even before you have paid for a movie and are ready to watch it you are then forced to witness 15 minutes worth of adverts. Companies will pay more to adverts before a film that is popular.

Sponsorship's

When a company Sponsors something it’s when one company is advertised before the show and its their main advertiser. When you think of a certain show you instantly know who sponsors it because it’s a huge part of the advertising for the show. A good example of sponsorship is 'X Factor' when I think of this show i know instantly that the brand 'Talk Talk' advertise it.

If you are a company wanting to advertise yourself you would want to sponsor a show that is found to be popular with the public. 'X Factor' is one of the most watch talent shows on UK television so sponsoring this show means you are going to be viewed by a huge audience. 'Talk Talk' have arranged a three year deal with 'X Factor' that has been told to cost over £20 million.

Downloads

The internet has really taken off and people are choosing to do thing through the internet more. For example watch movies listen to songs and now to Download. Instead of going out and buy and album you can now go online and buy a whole album and even just buying one song in particular.

The site 'ITunes' is one of the most popular site that enables you to download music. It also enables you to see what the most popular single/album is in almost every country. You are also able to download Movies right onto your phone for s certain price. 'ITunes' is popular because it is cheaper to buy them online as when buying from a shop the price is more to cover the price of the packaging of the Album.

Franchising or Format

When a show is created it will have a certain format. The format is the overall idea and concept that makes up the show. You can find common formats in game shows that would include contestants. When creating a show idea you could then sell on that show idea to other countries and that show will then be known as a Franchise. 

A really good example of Franchising is 'Britain's Got Talent.' This is a talent show where auditions are held for the public to perform there talents. Eventually the contests are narrowed down and the favorites are voted to win by the public in live shows. The winner is then given money and a chance to perfom at the 'Royal Variety Show'. The whole idea of a 'Got Talent' is a British television format that was conceived and is owned by Simon Cowells TV Company 'SYCO'. It then moved to USA and 'Americas got Talent' started. This was the first series of the format to air as the British version was postponed. As both shows became popular Simon Cowell then sold the format on and there is now 39 spin-offs in 39 countries. These are then known as franchises. 

Other franchises have known to be popular for example, 'Weakest Link', 'Idol', 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' and 'Dancing with the stars' but the format 'Got Talent' is on of the biggest international franchises.

TV Subscriptions

TV subscriptions are Cable companies that you subscribe to and pay a fee every month to view certain channels that you wouldn't get on free view. Companies such as 'Sky' and 'Virgin' offer TV packages to persuade the public to subscribe to them. The shows you would usually find on these packages are 'MTV', 'FX' 'Comedy Central' and many more. Subscription TV has become extremely popular in the UK having most homes subscribed to a company.

Since Subscription TV has come about Networks are making more shows purposely so that it will influence the viewers to subscribe  These show usually contain violence, profanity and nudity therefor before each show they have to notify the audience of the shows rating. You can find a good example of this on the show 'Geordie Shore' which is from the channel 'MTV'.