Showing posts with label Ownership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ownership. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Media Conglomerates
Massive multinational media companies who own:
Film Studios
TV Stations
Record Labels
Magazines
Newspapers
Books
Internet platforms
Independents
Some producers work outside of the major studies. Often British productions are made by smaller outfits like Warp Films, working with Film 4 or the BBC to try to secure extra funding and help with distribution. Often films made this way struggle to get more than £1 or £2 million budgets and consider a success to break even, with DVD after-sales included.
US independent film maker Orin Peli made ‘Paranormal Activity’ for just $15,000. But he needed Paramount, a US major studio to distribute his film who spent a fortune on marketing and distribution. In doing so he made over $190 milllion. This shows there are exceptions to the rule that big budget films always do best...
Synergy & Cross Media Convergence
An example of this:
Vivendi Universal make a film in Universal Studios.
It releases the film’s soundtrack on Polygram, one of its record labels.
The tracks can be bought online at MP3.com, one of its internet companies.
The film can be downloaded on Vivendi Telecom phones.
The film is then shown in its Odeon cinema chain.
See the benefits for Film4 in work with them?
Owning all of these assets makes it cheaper for the producer to make, distribute, market and exhibit the film, thus maximising profit, enabling the studio to keep making big budget films.
A win-win scenario for Hollywood Studios... but is it always for small production companies
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Seven Areas - Possible Points
1. The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice.
- Move to large media conglomerates makes it more difficult for a smaller company to gain a foothold
- Smaller companies often are bought out by bigger companies – the conglomerate has subsidiary companies to help market their product
- Emergence of horizontal integration – companies having interest in cross-media platforms
- Vertical integration and concentration of media ownership means that smaller productions cannot avoid conglomerates if they want consumption to occur.
- Smaller companies do not have vertical integration and so need to seek others means e.g. – independent companies, television companies, government bodies, co-production agreements
- American companies can create a conflict of interest with a British company – companies may need to use synergy – are any products truly “independent”?
- Lack of ownership/control over social media makes it difficult to control success of media products
- Move to more ‘cult’ products and niche market mean that those companies are having success
- Exhibition ownership means that film releases need to be negotiated with – certain times of the year make it difficult for certain scenes
2. The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing.
- Channel 4’s ownership of different media platform-based companies make it easier to produce, distribute and market films/productions.
- Issues with synergy and needing to get other companies involved
- The impact of increased media availability to consumers means that companies have to diversify their product (e.g. film4 channeling their production on Film4 on demand)
- The target audience’s own preferences of marketing channels and consumption channels
- Issue of piracy and ease of copying.
- Cross-media convergence makes it easier to start marketing earlier.
- Distribution now happens across many platforms and styles which means more potential viewers but also means more cost.
3. The technologies that have been produced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange.
- New technology increases the availability of the product on different platforms for greater ways of consumption
- Allow for essentially four releases of the same product (cinema, DVD, Blu-ray and streaming)
- In principle it is cheaper – more commercially available products and different consumption products makes the cost of making media products cheaper (e.g. warp films)
- In production there is a variety of products now to make filming easier and better quality – the influx of HD cameras make professional looking shots for a cheaper price and the SI-2K camera allows for more authentic filming on location instead of studio-based (film4 does social realism well), equally the availability of editing device such as the ipad and available software such as adobe premiere and final cut have made editing on the go far easier and made marketing more commercially available as “sneak peeks” can be released in advance.
- In distribution, the majority of films are made in digital which makes the distribution of many products far easier as a digital copy can be made instead of a reel – easier for global release, easier to encrypt the data.
- Conversion of digital screens
4. The significance of the proliferation of hardware and content for institutions and audiences.
- The improvements in technology have meant as less clear audience consumption rate – for every box office ticket counted, it is harder to see where the other copies are being consumed.
- The impact of having the same product available on several different platforms means easier consumption but less easier to judge the amount of viewers.
- Cinema still fronts the majority of new technology e.g. 3D films and markets itself as a ‘viewing experience’ rather than just watching a film. Equally independent cinema are finding other ways of showing media products such as opera, football and theatre.
- People expect to have more of a relationship with their films across media platforms such as trailers, youtube extras, interviews etc – more must now be spent on marketing – Dyer’s star theory – audience want to know their actors
- Portable devices now means media consumption can happen anywhere to anyone – difficult to judge
- Consumers can do have more control of what, when and how they consume their media – which means producers have to work harder to gain audiences and consumption
- Production costs in film budgets are now smaller than distribution/marketing costs as content is prolific but the devices of viewing are just as prolific
- Films are now being made in different style for different genres and different audiences e.g. social realism vs fantastical special effects, realistic animation vs cgi vs hand-drawn animation – long tail theory
5. The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences.
- The availability of internet anywhere can now make the making , distribution and maketing of film immediately visible to the consuming audience – facebook, twitter, footage, youtube, trailers etc.
- Companies taking advantage of their other interests to exploit their other products (e.g. film4 and c4 tv shows/films cross pollination)
- The importance of online work (streaming, marketing, appeal to audience through email/social network)
- The ability of new technological device to perform multiple tasks which make the making of media products faster, more accessible and
- These devices also make it easier to update audiences on the progress of the film and generate more hyper and appeal.
6. The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically British) by international or global institutions
- A more diversified audience now means more diversified films – look at the different markets film4 goes for.
- British films often have difficulty in American markets due to content or approach
- Now more of a ‘global’ market
- Dominance of American companies means it is difficult to be independent – relying on independent cinemas to show their product restricts their product to the bigger, student-oriented cities e.g. London, Cambridge etc
- British companies often need synergy to market their product beyond a local audience
- Proliferation of different films for different consumers – long-tail theory – aiming wholly at a niche audience is often more beneficial for a smaller, British company.
- Britain shares language with America – makes it easier for cross pollination, equally Britain and India share cultural apsects
Certain times of the year for showing certain products
- Move to large media conglomerates makes it more difficult for a smaller company to gain a foothold
- Smaller companies often are bought out by bigger companies – the conglomerate has subsidiary companies to help market their product
- Emergence of horizontal integration – companies having interest in cross-media platforms
- Vertical integration and concentration of media ownership means that smaller productions cannot avoid conglomerates if they want consumption to occur.
- Smaller companies do not have vertical integration and so need to seek others means e.g. – independent companies, television companies, government bodies, co-production agreements
- American companies can create a conflict of interest with a British company – companies may need to use synergy – are any products truly “independent”?
- Lack of ownership/control over social media makes it difficult to control success of media products
- Move to more ‘cult’ products and niche market mean that those companies are having success
- Exhibition ownership means that film releases need to be negotiated with – certain times of the year make it difficult for certain scenes
2. The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing.
- Channel 4’s ownership of different media platform-based companies make it easier to produce, distribute and market films/productions.
- Issues with synergy and needing to get other companies involved
- The impact of increased media availability to consumers means that companies have to diversify their product (e.g. film4 channeling their production on Film4 on demand)
- The target audience’s own preferences of marketing channels and consumption channels
- Issue of piracy and ease of copying.
- Cross-media convergence makes it easier to start marketing earlier.
- Distribution now happens across many platforms and styles which means more potential viewers but also means more cost.
3. The technologies that have been produced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange.
- New technology increases the availability of the product on different platforms for greater ways of consumption
- Allow for essentially four releases of the same product (cinema, DVD, Blu-ray and streaming)
- In principle it is cheaper – more commercially available products and different consumption products makes the cost of making media products cheaper (e.g. warp films)
- In production there is a variety of products now to make filming easier and better quality – the influx of HD cameras make professional looking shots for a cheaper price and the SI-2K camera allows for more authentic filming on location instead of studio-based (film4 does social realism well), equally the availability of editing device such as the ipad and available software such as adobe premiere and final cut have made editing on the go far easier and made marketing more commercially available as “sneak peeks” can be released in advance.
- In distribution, the majority of films are made in digital which makes the distribution of many products far easier as a digital copy can be made instead of a reel – easier for global release, easier to encrypt the data.
- Conversion of digital screens
4. The significance of the proliferation of hardware and content for institutions and audiences.
- The improvements in technology have meant as less clear audience consumption rate – for every box office ticket counted, it is harder to see where the other copies are being consumed.
- The impact of having the same product available on several different platforms means easier consumption but less easier to judge the amount of viewers.
- Cinema still fronts the majority of new technology e.g. 3D films and markets itself as a ‘viewing experience’ rather than just watching a film. Equally independent cinema are finding other ways of showing media products such as opera, football and theatre.
- People expect to have more of a relationship with their films across media platforms such as trailers, youtube extras, interviews etc – more must now be spent on marketing – Dyer’s star theory – audience want to know their actors
- Portable devices now means media consumption can happen anywhere to anyone – difficult to judge
- Consumers can do have more control of what, when and how they consume their media – which means producers have to work harder to gain audiences and consumption
- Production costs in film budgets are now smaller than distribution/marketing costs as content is prolific but the devices of viewing are just as prolific
- Films are now being made in different style for different genres and different audiences e.g. social realism vs fantastical special effects, realistic animation vs cgi vs hand-drawn animation – long tail theory
5. The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences.
- The availability of internet anywhere can now make the making , distribution and maketing of film immediately visible to the consuming audience – facebook, twitter, footage, youtube, trailers etc.
- Companies taking advantage of their other interests to exploit their other products (e.g. film4 and c4 tv shows/films cross pollination)
- The importance of online work (streaming, marketing, appeal to audience through email/social network)
- The ability of new technological device to perform multiple tasks which make the making of media products faster, more accessible and
- These devices also make it easier to update audiences on the progress of the film and generate more hyper and appeal.
6. The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically British) by international or global institutions
- A more diversified audience now means more diversified films – look at the different markets film4 goes for.
- British films often have difficulty in American markets due to content or approach
- Now more of a ‘global’ market
- Dominance of American companies means it is difficult to be independent – relying on independent cinemas to show their product restricts their product to the bigger, student-oriented cities e.g. London, Cambridge etc
- British companies often need synergy to market their product beyond a local audience
- Proliferation of different films for different consumers – long-tail theory – aiming wholly at a niche audience is often more beneficial for a smaller, British company.
- Britain shares language with America – makes it easier for cross pollination, equally Britain and India share cultural apsects
Certain times of the year for showing certain products
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
How companies get around ownership
In the British Film Industry companies get around ownership in several ways.
1) By using synergy. Many companies such as film4 will look to work with the large conglomerate for distributing their product. However this means surrendering some of the right and sharing the profits.
Example case study - Slumdog Millionaire with Fox Searchlight.
2) By using synergy with a smaller company. Several British companies are using many Europe/British-based companies and companies that have specialist interest.
Example Case Study - Four Lion with Optimum Releasing and Slumdog in the UK with Pathe
3) By allowing themselves to be bought out. Several British companies allow others to take them over in order to gain more support and securityfor their products.
Examples from case study - Optimum Releasing joining Studio Canal who are part of Vivendi SA and Working Title Films who are now owned by NBCUniversal
4) By using a smaller, independent companies to work with. With the current upward trend toward convergent technology and digital screens, many British Producers are turning to smaller distribution companies to work with.
Examples from Case Study - Inbetweeners moive with Entertainment Films (a UK-Based distributor) and Four Lions with Drafthouse Films - an independent USA distributor.
5) By using the law - If a production company to ensure it is linked with a distributor through pre-sales and will protect it's product with rights and laws such as the copyright act. This protects its product.
1) By using synergy. Many companies such as film4 will look to work with the large conglomerate for distributing their product. However this means surrendering some of the right and sharing the profits.
Example case study - Slumdog Millionaire with Fox Searchlight.
2) By using synergy with a smaller company. Several British companies are using many Europe/British-based companies and companies that have specialist interest.
Example Case Study - Four Lion with Optimum Releasing and Slumdog in the UK with Pathe
3) By allowing themselves to be bought out. Several British companies allow others to take them over in order to gain more support and securityfor their products.
Examples from case study - Optimum Releasing joining Studio Canal who are part of Vivendi SA and Working Title Films who are now owned by NBCUniversal
4) By using a smaller, independent companies to work with. With the current upward trend toward convergent technology and digital screens, many British Producers are turning to smaller distribution companies to work with.
Examples from Case Study - Inbetweeners moive with Entertainment Films (a UK-Based distributor) and Four Lions with Drafthouse Films - an independent USA distributor.
5) By using the law - If a production company to ensure it is linked with a distributor through pre-sales and will protect it's product with rights and laws such as the copyright act. This protects its product.
Ownership and what it is
Ownership is where media industries progressively control a share of mass media market.
This is dominated by significant small number of conglomerates
Ownership is important as very often the greater amount of ownership you have over a product the greater your profits, rights, and control.
In films this is difficult as the film-making process often involves multiple rights.
This naturally makes is difficult for smaller companies to gain full ownership of the product, particularly with 80% of the distribution market dominated by larger conglomerates such as Fox.
Smaller companies are now starting to find ways of getting around o overcoming ownership issues.
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