Assignment 1: Task 1 - Film Industry Structure and Ownership Research

The Big Six:

1. Disney: Disney owns: Touchstone, Miramax, Pixar Animation Studios, Buena Vista International, Marvel, Lucasfilm. Worldwide. Founded October 16 1923. Owns many radios, TV Channels.
2. General Electric (GE)/Vivendi: Owns: Universal, Working Title. Biggest music producer in the world, worked with Katy Perry. Online. Universal Theme Park and Universal Studios, receive large amount of revenue. Money from rides promotes films. Jaws, ET. Working Title: Comedy films. Notting Hill, Hot Fuzz.
3. Viacom: Owns: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Paramount Classics, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, Paramount Home Entertainment. Created in December 2005 as a spin-off of CBS. 5th largest broadcasting cable company. 7 Million subscribers. Short for Video, Audio communication.
4. Time Warner: Owns: Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, AOL, CNN, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, Warner Bros. International Cinemas, Time Magazine, DC Comics, NME, In Style Magazine. Harry Potter, Looney Toons, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit. Proposed a merge with Comcast, Buys up many small things to build itself up. Jeff Bukes: Chairman, Chief Executive.
5. CBS: Owns no distinct film companies, however, you may recognise CBS as distributers for CSI and Everybody Loves Raymond.
6. News Corp: Owns: Fox Searchlight Pictures, 20th Century Fox Entertainment, Fox Music, Various other Fox branches across the World including: The Sun, The Times, The New York Post, 7.5% of ITV, 39.1% of SKY Rupert Murdock started in the Newspaper industry and bought more then went into TV.

CBS

CBS stands for Columbia Broadcasting System
Broadcast, radio and television network
National broadcaster (Broadcasts everywhere in America)
Slogan: "America's Most Watched Network"
Headquarters: CBS Building- New York City
Current Owner CBS Corporation
Leslie Moonves (Chairman of CBS)
Launch date: 1927
Motto: "Only CBS"
Former Names: United Independent Broadcasters (1927)
Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (1927–1928)
Columbia Broadcasting System (1928–1995 in official usage)



Media Ownership:
Whereby less and less companies/media giants own more and more of the market share of the media. Where companies grow through mergers or buying smaller or struggling companies out, they effectively create an oligopoly in the media industry.


The good side of Media Ownership is that if a certain film wants to use a song from someone in the same company then the film company would be able to use this song without having to pay the person who sang this song. For example if Universal wanted a Katy Perry song they could used it if they were both part of Universal or General Electric. Another good example is Time Warner owning DC Comics which gives them the rights to make a film without needing permission. Also if a film is bad then a newspaper or magazine from the same company can make the film sound good and make people watch the movie giving the company more money.


The bad side of Media Ownership is if a newspaper does something bad then other newspapers could go down with the newspaper just as bad because they are both linked together which could have a huge money drop for these companies. An example of this is News of the World, when it had problems these may have affected the company that owns it and the other newspapers that the same company owned. Another bad thing is that The other companies could lose the money that they need to get people to trust them again.


Conglomerates:
Giant companies owning others (through mergers or purchases) in a wide range of industries and maintaining a commercial edge in doing so. A corporation that is made up of a number of different, seemingly unrelated businesses. In a conglomerate, one company owns a controlling stake in a number of smaller companies, which conduct business separately. Each of a conglomerate's subsidiary businesses runs independently of the other business divisions, but the subsidiaries' management reports to senior management at the parent company.


The Old Hollywood Big 5 & The Studio Era:
The old big 5 of Hollywood was

1. Fox Film Corporation.
2. Loew's/ MGM
3. Paramount Pictures
4. RKO Radio Pictures
5. Warner Bros.

These 5 companies were also involved in the studio era. The studio era was when there was a studio system that involved the distribution of films by the big 5, these films were distributed by creating advertisements for the films.


Vertical and Horizontal Integration:
Vertical integration is when a company owns it's own supply chain when the supply chain is several different companies. These companies are able to get resources and other things from the other company without having to worry about buying these resources as they already own the companies. Horizontal integration is when a company is allowed to share it's resources with another company that may be different or similar but as long as it is on the same level as the other company.


An example of Vertical and Horizontal Integration





Distribution:
One of the most important parts of the film industry. It concerns the film's entry and life in the marketplace. In US usually operates under vertical integration. In UK more focus on marketing and holding onto the film as a product in home markets.

Traditional Distribution Departments:
Film Sales: This is the role of booking films into cinemas.
Print Department: This is the role of making copies of the film of the cinema. Nowadays these are on hard drives.
Marketing: Are responsible for launching a film.

Traditional Distribution Methods:
One of the main distribution methods that is no longer commonly used is film reel. This is where all the images for the film are placed on a strip and then reeled around a film reel. This is then transported to the cinemas via a truck or if it is for another country it may be flown over. Nowadays films are distributed, usually, through having the film as a downloadable file to be sent to film companies so that it can be shown.

The Box Office:
Distributer works out a budget to consider how much money will be spent on distributing a film based on the following:

• Box Office Figures of US release.
• Estimated Rentals.
• Audience Research.
• Cast & Crew Of Film
• Certification.
• Distributer's Experience.
• Timing of UK Release.
• Number of Film Prints to Exhibitor.

Unique Selling Point:
Unique selling point is a benefit of using a product that is different from the competing brands and gives its buyers a reason to prefer it over other brands. Unique Selling Point is often an important component for promoting a theme around which an advertising campaign is built.
Marketing:
Divided into 3 areas:

• Advertising: (Above the line cost)
• Publicity: (Below The Line Costs)
  Promotions: (Below the line costs)

Convergence:
Media technologies coming together (i.e. using a mobile phone as a still camera, a video camera, a device to watch films/media on, an MP3 player, a sound recorder, access to the internet... etc.)
Technological convergence refers to the process where new technology is moving towards single platforms delivering multiple media outputs that can be used to reach audiences, for example, a PS3′s primary function is video gaming but you can download and watch movies from Lovefilm.com on it and also watch catch up TV and music videos.

Synergy:
This is the promotion and selling of a product within various areas of a media conglomerates. For example films, video games and soundtracks.
Synergy basically means working together to achieve an objective that couldn’t be achieved independently. Cross-media convergence can help with synergy if companies are wise enough to take advantage of the links that they have forged. Disney is an obvious example of a synergistic company from the top down from Film Studio to Kids’ TV Channel (where it further plays and promotes its films) to the Disney Store (in the street and online) where your kids can pester you to buy all the merchandise and DVDs/CDs they’ve seen on the TV/Web or in the cinema.





http://mediachs.edublogs.org/the-importance-of-cross-media-convergence-and-synergy-in-production-distribution-and-marketing/
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conglomerate.asp