This document discusses different types of media ownership including private, public, multinational, independent, conglomerate, horizontal integration, and vertical integration. Private ownership relies on advertising funding and targets specific audiences. Public service like the BBC is funded by license fees to provide universal content. Multinational companies own assets across countries. Independents receive limited funding while conglomerates have more resources. Horizontal integration shares risks across companies while vertical integration relies solely on itself.

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Explaining the structure
and ownership of the
media sector
Task 1 Understand the structure and
ownership of the media sector. P1, M1, D1

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Types of ownership: private ownership
Private ownership is when a company is owned by a
private individual or organisation.The funding is
provided by advertising and there is an element of
creativeness about the content they create because
it is channel/audience specific.
For an example. XFM is a private owned company,
owned by Global Radio that plays music suited to
the indie audience.The funding is generated by
adverts that play between songs.

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Types of ownership: private
ownership
Benefits of private ownership
-Owned by one company/individual
-Content is aimed at a specific group of people
Negatives of private ownership
-Rely on advertising to fund
-Under pressure to deliver content that the audience likes or the company will
disband
-Typically less money than public ownership
-Doesn’t cater for all audiences

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Types of ownership: public service
Public service is used by companies such as the
BBC where everyone pays a TV license to fund the
company to create and deliver content.There are no
adverts because this is all funded by the public, and
there is something for everyone.The BBC has
multiple channels on terrestrial TV, multiple radio
stations across the UK and overseas in different
languages too.

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Types of ownership: private
ownership
Benefits of public service
-Something for everyone as we all fund it
-For the company it is sustainable as we all are
made to pay a TV license
Negatives of a public service
-No creative control because it has to please
everyone

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Types of ownership: multinational
When a company is owned in more than one country, with
headquarters in multiple countries rather than just one.
This is seen as a type of growth, by investing assets in another
part of the world to boost their name and promote their
products.

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 For each one look at benefits and weakness
 Benefits
Investing in another country to boost name for long term
development of the name in that country/continent.
 Weakness
Will take a long time to break even with investments usually
being in the millions, recuperating all that money back may
take a long time and is only useful for conglomerates with a
sustainable and powerful brand. E.g. Disney

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Types of ownership: independent
Independent film studios are studios that are not
owned by a rich individual or company and it is
funded by such funds as the lottery fund and
channel 4

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Benefits of an independent
-More original ideas an content as they have to
compete with conglomerates.
Negatives of an independent
-Not much resources in terms of budget
-Hard to distribute because popular cinema chains
only feature large hollywood blockbuster movies

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Types of ownership: conglomerate
A conglomerate is a collective group of companies
that are owned by either one rich individual or a
company.

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Benefits of a conglomerate
-More money and more resources
-Can buy the rights to popular and famous stories (story
rights)
Negatives of a conglomerate
-Less original ideas
-Audience can be perceived as sheep as they still watch
content that does not have as much thought or care than the
independent

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Types of ownership:
Horizontal Integration
Horizontal integration is when a product is dependant on 2 or
more companies to keep the ball rolling and make the
product work.
An Example of a product developed by the use of Horizontal
integration is the X Factor. Owned by Sony, SyCo and ITV.

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Benefits of Horizontal Integration
-Use as many companies as you like
-Share the risks
-For the consumer better because it works out cheaper as there is competition
Negatives of Horizontal integration
-Control is shared between the companies
-Profits are shared
-Companies rely on each other

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Types of ownership:
Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is when a company only depends on itself
and doesn’t need any other sister companies helping it to
develop or create a product
An example of a company who work with this integration is
Apple

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Benefits of Vertical Integration
-No other companies used so only has to depend on itself
-Complete creative control over the final product because its just the one
company
-All profits are kept within that one company and not shared
Negatives of Vertical Integration
-They have to share 100% of the risks and downfalls associated with products
developed by them
-It is a negative for the consumer when there are no other rivals and the prices
of the product inevitably increase or stay at a high price

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Cross Media Divergence
Cross Media divergence is having one main
product have that product spread across all
different medias and merchandise. For example the
movie Frozen by Disney was originally a movie,
which then had a soundtrack release. A theme at
Disneyland resorts in Paris and Orlando for it. It had
Princess fancy dress clothes released along with
branded T-Shirts and other generic merchandise
(All Patented by Disney)

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Synergy
Synergy is a simultaneous release of different products
to boost a main product. An example of this process is
the creation of a film. For when it is released on DVD, a
CD soundtrack will also be released on the same day.
This is to cover the two largest media sectors on the
same day to create a buzz about the main product (In this
case film) and helps sell it more to the public as it has
maximum exposure on the same day.
Conglomerates have the capacity to do this a lot, mainly
ones such as Sony who own different large media
sectors. Such as Films, Music and Games