Funding

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are where one company advertises something, in exchange for the other company to do the same. Some companies will have to pay the other company, for example talk talk to x factor, as x factor is seen by millions of people. Through x factor displaying talk talk before each of their shows, it raises the brand awareness of talk talk which has lead to good sales growth. Tristia Clarke, commercial director at TalkTalk Group, said “The deal is about two things. It is about driving ongoing growth. But it is also about retention as much as acquisition. X Factor is such a brand in its own right that this is a full year annual sponsorship." This case has proved to be successful as talk talk revealed that for 3 months of the company being shown, they had 42,000 new customers. The link below displays a video of one of their recent advertisements shown every time before Xfactor.

 

 

 

 

 

Pay-Per-View

Pay-Per-View is simply in the name. It is a system used by some broadcasters where the members of the public can pay for what they want to watch. This is usually used for films available to buy on virgin media for example, or one off sport events. Pay-Per-View can be highly lucrative for some high profile events, it also means that people pay only for what they want. Obviously if this service was just on its own, it wouldn’t be that successful, this is why it is usually a link to a subscription, so people are therefore paying on top of their subscription price.

 

Advertising

This is the key and most common way in which media broadcasters make their money. Commercial television and the radio have been funded by adverts since the start of ITV in 1955. The adverts produced by various company’s advertising their product or what they specialise in, fund the media broadcasters to play their adverts. Broadcasters make immense amounts of revenue through the funding from advertisements.

 

Subscription

It is optional for the members of the public to get a subscription with a variety of broadcasting services. This done on either a payment or a periodical fee. Viewers subscribe either directly with the broadcaster, or the services are included as part of a package included in Sky subscriptions etc. This is handy for the broadcasting services as they can see who their target audience are to their services so they could therefore target their programming more specifically to their audience.

License Fee

Everyone who lives in the UK and owns a TV are entitled to pay a license fee. The money paid, goes towards the BBC’s  broadcastings of TV, radio, and online services. The annual cost has previously risen every year ever so slightly by a couple of pounds, however the government have decided to freeze the cost of the licence fee of £145.50 from 2010, up until 2016. The chart below displays how the money paid by the members of the public is split.

 

Ownership Patterns

Public service broadcasting have taken up a huge share of the media market in Britain. For example the BBC. The BBC has a legal obligation to inform, to educate and to make sure that all sections of society are catered for. The power of media owners is also restricted by the government or state. For example, in some societies, owners are not allowed to own too many different types of media. A lot of countries also have cross ownership rules which prevents people from owning more than one type of media. Television, newspapers and radio in Britain require legal controls and rules are imposed by the Press Council and Ofcom.

Commercial broadcasting systems usually need to meet minimum standards to receive a license or operating concession. These conditions vary however they usually relate to matters such as provision for education, local language or culture, news and information, political or other access opportunities and minority needs.

The image below is a good demonstration of the process of how the media has become owned by a variety of corporations. I will briefly sum up what it is about in text as well.

6 major media corporations are responsible for 90 % of what we read, watch and listen to. The companies who own this are Disney, Viacom, GE, Newscorp, CBS and Time Warner.

By 1983 50 companies owned 90% of American media companies. The six companies consolidated that market share from 2011.
They control 70% of cable broadcasting. The other 30% is from 3,762 infinitely smaller companies.
In 2001.AOL spent 124 Billion to buy Time Warner.

Job Roles

In the TV and film industry, there are different types of job roles such as the Producer, Line producer, Director, Editor, Camera operator, cinematographer  and finance officer

The producer is the group leader, who tend to work freelance. They develop the particular project from initial ideas to make sure that the script is finalized and they also arrange the financing and manage the production team. The producer coordinates in the film making process to ensure that everyone is involved and the project is working on schedule and on their budget. An example of a TV and film producer is Jerry Bruckheimer who produced the tv series skins and King Arthur. His responsibility is to oversee and ensure that a production is produced on time and on budget, he is also responsible for raising finance, hiring crew members including the director and making sure everything from pre-production, to production and post-production is running smoothly and on schedule. A producer needs to have the ability to meet all their deadlines and be committed to their job. He also needs to be responsible including time management and personal responsibilities & have the ability to work under pressure and to motivate the production team. They control the production budget and have a good communication with all their employees.

 

Line producers are hired based on their experience in the industry. They are responsible for the development of the project. They supervise the film’s budget, and are responsible for hiring crew members and organise the production schedule. They’re responsible for managing and coordinating the production. 

The directors are in control when it comes to making creative decisions. Danny Boyle is an example of a director in the TV and film industry, he directs the film 28 days later and the TV series inspector morse. The role of a director is to create the storyboard, writing script and making crucial decisions during pre-production. This could mean selecting the right location for the film for example. Spike Lee’s job as a director is to manage the technical side such as the cameras, sounds, lighting and design.

The finance officer is in charge of undertaking the entire accounts function, including managing the entire budget for the production and also managing the pay roll for the workers.

The cinematographer leads the camera operators in photographing the production to maintain continuity in lighting, style and composition, however they don’t operate the camera.

The role of an editor is to assemble all the recorded raw material into a finished product which is suitable for broadcasting. The raw material includes camera footage, sound effects, dialogue, special effects and graphics. This is a key role in the post production process so the editors work determines on the success of the final production. The editor may work in a team and close to the director.

Camera operators follow the instructions set by the director and director of photography. This includes shot composition and development. The seamless ease with which the camera moves is key to the narrative flow of production.

Working Patterns

The TV and film industries require a lot of different job roles and working patterns such as Shift work, fixed term, Freelance, office hours, irregular patterns, piece work, voluntary work and hourly rate.


The TV and film industries require a lot of different job roles and working patterns such as Shift work, fixed term, Freelance, office hours, irregular patterns, piece work, voluntary work and hourly rate. Shift work involves working for a number of hours at a particular time of the day to ensure that a job is covered for at least 24 hours. This can be working from early morning until afternoon, or late afternoon till late evening or throughout the night (Irregular patterns).

 
A fixed term employment has a start and finish date to it and it finishes automatically when a task is completed. It does not involve a contract with a student or trainee on a work-experience, apprenticeship or an agency. However it does involve having an employment contract with a company covering for a maternity leave for up to 6 months.

 
Freelance workers are self-employed and are hired to work for different companies on a particular assignment so they are not employed by any employers. This involves hiring themselves out to various employers for a particular job or project. The majority of workers are freelance workers and they also tend to be men due to them being muscular and flexible and have the energy to work from one company to the other. Freelance workers have no fixed income or benefits, they also don't work for long periods of time and they have to be flexible and can make lots of contacts out of freelance work.

Office hours is when you work for a company or an organization from 1 – 5. It is normally people who work for a TV company that work office hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voluntary work is an unpaid job, it is common for media graduates to start out and get some experience in the industry. In the end, in might result to being offered a job in the organization or company.
Hourly rate workers are simply workers that get paid by the number of hours that they work.