Ownership in the Media Sectors

Public Ownership

Public ownership means that a company is vested in the state, rather than being a private or independent business. The most notable example of this type of ownership is probably the BBC. The BBC has been a publicly owned company since 1922.

The BBC, being a publicly owned company, gets its funding (in its entirety) from a fixed licence fee, which every householder who wishes to watch TV must purchase. This license fee costs £145.50 for a full colour TV and £49 for a black and white license. This charge will be discounted if you are registered blind or live in a care home. The only people exempt for the fee is those aged 74 and older. This license fee is only for those wishing to watch live TV, which means catch up is fine.

The BBC being publicly funded has its advantages:

• Quality content consistently
• Constant source of funding 
• No advertising
• Non-bias, meaning all news and politics reporting is not skewed in any way.

On the other hand, of course:

• The fee must be paid even if no one in the household watches the BBC
• Makes it harder for other channels to compete (due to having to find funding constantly)
• Some argue the fee is too high, especially when catch up TV and Netflix are available.

Private and Independent Ownership

Private ownership is, unsurprisingly, the exact opposite of public ownership. Companies who operate under this type of ownership rely solely on advertising, sponsorship and product placement.
An advantage of private ownership is that it gives companies who need to advertise products a huge audience to use. This is made even better by the possibility of targeted advertising; for example a spot cream will be advertised during the "Hollyoaks" advert break because the audience is largely teen.
A disadvantage is that unlike the BBC, many privately owned networks simply cannot afford to do extensive market research. This often results in a higher percentage of failed programmes.

Conglomerate and Cross Ownership:

Conglomerate ownership is when two or more companies that are generally within the same industry are joined together, usually being owned by a small number of "Parent companies". Parent companies are larger companies which then own the smaller, joined ones. An example of this is "The big six", six companies which practically own all of the media sector in America. The big six are listed below, alongside their sister companies and the amount of revenue they produce.

Source: Wikipedia

An advantage of this type of ownership is that their is a constant source of funding and idea sharing, as many great companies are brought together. The downside is that it is then possible for a few companies to control an entire industry, which can cause bias problems and higher barriers of entry for smaller companies. 

Mergers and Takeovers

A merger is simply when two companies merge together for both companies best interests. A takeover however, is when one larger, usually more successful company takes over another. Much like conglomerate ownership this often means better ideas and a better financial situation, but may result in "bullying" by companies.

 

Television

Television is the second largest industry in the UK, employing a comfortable 55,800 people. TV is one of, if not the, most popular source of entertainment for people in the UK. Of course, in the UK we have the world famous BBC, unique in that it is a public service, but we also have an extensive plethora of other channels now, with the addition of subscription services such as Sky and Virgin, who offer a pay monthly service.

The TV industry is ever changing and ever expanding; the idea of a "series" is becoming increasingly popular, with shows like "Breaking Bad" taking the world by storm and making millions on merchandise alone. Also, companies like Netflix and Now TV are muscling in on the game.

Netflix now has a catalogue of their own series', such as "Orange is the New Black", which has won several awards and is recognised as one of the most popular series' around currently. It is this tough competition that is threatening TV companies across the world.

Jobs in this sector include:

• Directors
• Actors
• Camera 
• Lighting
• Sound
• Cinematographer
• Producer
• Editor 

Channel 4 is a British TV channel added in 1982 in order to make a fourth option available, along side BBC, BBC Two and the only commercial broadcasting company at the time, ITV. Channel $ is publicly owned, but commercially funded, unlike the BBC.

Film

Film is also a relatively large sector within the media family. With 27,800 people employed in the UK, the film industry ranks fifth within the various media sectors in terms or employment size. The film industry globally is huge, meaning that successful production companies and actors are amongst the most financially and commercially successful people in the world. With the UK seemingly lagging behind in terms of commercial success, we do, however, have a lot to offer in the independent film industry.

Jobs in this industry include:

• Producer
• Director
• Actor
• Storyboard/conceptual artist
• locations manager
• Script writer
• cinematographer

Cowboy Films is one such independent film company making waves in the worldwide industry. Cowboy Films is UK based and run by a man by the name of Charles Steel. Cowboy Films' most recent credits include Kevin Macdonald’s feature documentary "Marley" and Channel Four's largely successful "Top Boy". 

Working Title Productions is another UK production company, based in London. Rather than being independent, it is owned by Universal Studios, which means a lot more funding than smaller independents such as Cowboy Films. 

Many production companies seek investment from producers/independent investors to have the money to produce a film, but the actual income is dependent upon box office takings and film/DVD sales.

Games

Games is the second smallest industry out of the nine sectors in the UK, with around 10,000 people being employed across the whole country. In terms of video game consumption, the UK is third largest in the world, and the largest in Europe, which begs the question "why so few developers?".

Games design is a reasonably new sector in comparison with industries such as publishing and radio. Of the 10,000 people employed, there are:

• Designers
• Graphic artists
• Conceptual artists
• Story writers
• Actors 
• Testers 
• Audio producers

Lionhead studios is a successful video game manufacturer based in the UK. They are the studio behind the popular "Fable" game series. Founded in 1996 Lionhead are now part of Microsoft game studios, although still only employs fewer than 100 people.

Sources of income in this industry are mostly through game sales, meaning that it is extremely difficult to be successful in this sector.

Radio

Radio is a reasonably large industry in the UK, employing around 22,000 people. Radio is a very popular form of entertainment and has been for many decades. In the UK alone, there are around 600 licensed radio stations. This can range from popular national stations such as BBC Radio 1 and Capital FM to small local stations such as Yorkshire Coast Radio and BBC Tees. Many universities also offer student radio as a form of entertainment and training.

Within the Radio industry, there are many jobs, including:

• Broadcasting assistants 
• Presenter/host
• Marketing manager
• Public relations manager
• Producer
• Broadcast journalist 

According to mediauk.com, the BBC dominates the top four listened-to radio stations in the UK, with BBC Radio 2 being ranked number one, at at total average audience of 15,500,000 listeners.
Of course, being a BBC station means that Radio 2 gathers income from licence fees, unlike much smaller independent companies.

One such company is Hallam FM in Sheffield. This station was founded in 1974 and gains income mostly from advertising.      

Animation

Animation is the smallest of all the nine media sectors in the UK. The entire industry employs only 4,200 people. Many think of cartoons on television or in film when they hear animation and although this is a large part of the industry, this is not what the sector is limited to. Many animators worldwide work on things such as moving graphics for websites, or small adverts for companies to be displayed on TV or on the internet.

Jobs in this sector include:

• Artists
• Directors
• IT consultants
• CG modellers
• Digital painters
• Compositors 

Perhaps the most well known and largest example of a UK (and arguably worldwide) company in the animation field is Aardman. This is the company behind the popular Wallace and Grommit" series, as well as "Creature Comforts" and a huge catalogue of short animations, many of which have won awards. Their website also states that as well as many of the animations we know and love, they offer services in advertising and App development.

 

There is no shortage of UK animation companies, however most of these are small, independent companies which employ very few people. One of these is Studio AKA, which is independent but also successful, having produced BAFTA and Academy Award nominated animations. 

Income in this industry can span from producing advertisements for companies to producing films and cartoons that make money from box office revenue. 

Photo Imaging 

In this field, there are around 44,000 people employed in the UK. As with many of the media sectors, photo imaging covers a wide range of jobs and areas. 

Being a photographer is not the only job within this sector. Now, many people are employed to retouch old photographs and use software such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe illustrator to improve the quality of existing photographs and alter them in an array of different ways. Of course, being a photographer can be an independent business, with many people being self employed under this title and being hired to do events such as wedding photography and concert photography.

Metro is a reasonably large and well established photo imaging company based in London. They have been around, as a business, for 33 years. They are not only involved with photography, but also provide printing services and expertise. They claim to be industry leaders in the UK.

On their website, managing director Ben Richardson says:

"The strength of the Metro brand and what it stands for is very important to me; we are known for quality, service and innovation. However, we couldn't have achieved this without giving everyone at Metro the opportunity to develop themselves and each other both professionally and creatively. Metro may be my baby, but everyone who works here is its uncle or auntie."  

An example of another photo imaging company, also in the UK is Igma Imaging. They have this to say about their company:

"We understand that essentially all technology is the same, but it is how it is used that makes any company different. With a growing reputation as a graphics solution provider, we work with many names both big and small to provide innovative results for graphic display. For the world’s largest coffee retailer we provide just in time solutions for their rolling expansion programme which requires consistant, reliable supply both in quality and timing."