The document discusses issues related to media ownership and the production and distribution of media texts in different media areas. It notes that the film industry has a competitive relationship between America and Britain, with Hollywood dominating the global market due to its ability to produce bigger, more successful films. The size of the domestic British film market makes it difficult for British films to achieve the same level of commercial success as Hollywood films without involvement from American studios. It also discusses strategies used in the distribution and promotion of the successful British film "Slumdog Millionaire", including social media sharing, quick release to DVD/Blu-Ray, viral marketing techniques, and deals with international distributors.

1. Discuss the issues raised by
Media Ownership in the
production and exchange of
media texts in your chosen
media area.
The Sarah’s ^__^

2. The Domination..
The media world is vastly competitive. The on-going competition
between America and Britain has concluded with America’s
Hollywood dominating completely. This suggests that Hollywood held
bigger and better films and the convergence behind
these were very successful.
The British film has always had a competitive and complex
relationship with Hollywood due to the arguments raised stating that
the size of domestic British cinema market is making it impossible for
the British film industry to produce films with the Hollywood-style
success in gross without actually involving Hollywood.

3. Social networking
Social networking encourages audiences to
watch the film then further share the
experience with each other and discuss
what makes it successful, this has become
a habit for movie audiences

4. Release to DVD
 Slum dog Millionaire arrives in DVD and Blu-ray only FIVE
weeks after the Academy Awards bonanza helped squeeze
another $40 million from the domestic box-office.. It leads
one to wonder if the temptation to exploit the Oscar hype was
as strong a reason to release Slumdog on video as the
desire to trump the pirates at their own game.

5. Viral Marketing
 Viral marketing influences people to engage in cinema, along
with talking to people worldwide on their views.
 A remixed viral trailer for the UK release of the Oscar-tipped
Danny Boyle film 'Slum dog Millionaire', using only images
and sounds from the film was produced by audio-visual
artists Addictive TV.
Addictive TV was approached by French film company Path
and filmmaker Boyle to create a mash-up video for 'Slum dog
Millionaire' after giving similar treatments to previous
blockbuster film releases such as 'Iron Man'.

6. …
Coulson sells film negative pickup rights to two distributors –
Warner International (for distribution rights in North America) and
Pathé International (a French company) for the rest of the world.
These deals accrued $13m which covered the budget and the
equity costs of the producers. Feb 2008 – Pathé sold international
distribution rights again to more partners at Berlin Film Festival
May 2008 – film promoted at Cannes BUT Warners closed their
specialty divisions – looked like they would cut their losses and
release the film straight to DVD in North America (but cinema
release would still have gone ahead in the UK and the rest of the
world because the distributor for those regions was Pathé).

7. …
 Warner allowed Couson and Ross to show Fox Searchlight the
film. This film distributed the earlier work of Boyle’s. and an
agreement was reached that left Warner’s with a stake but
allowed Fox Searchlight distribution rights for North America.
 Fox deal just in time for Toronto Film Festival – a major
international festival and one which is crucial for the success of
non-Hollywood studio films in North America. Fox had a history
of recent success with the American indie film Juno in 2007 and
this became a platform for its Oscar campaign. Slum dog won
audience award – a sign of how popular it would become.