Developing Technologies in the TV and Film Industries

3DTV Current developments

3D TV is the newest in the ongoing range of television improvisiation techniques. Basically a 3D television is a tv that uses special technology to create a 3 dimentional aspect right in front of the audience, more often than not this is with the use of special 3D glasses. There are a number of ways to create a 3D image, the way it is done by the television companies involves displaying two images to each eye for example by using specially designed polarization  or anaglyphic glasses in order to see each image in seperate eyes which creates the illusion of 3 dimentional images to the viewer.

See the link for a video explanation

Satellite

Satellite TV is a method of receiving Television channels by using a communications satellite transmitting to an outdoor satellite dish. This is then run through the building and played to the TV through a reciver that comes as a set top box or a satellite tuner. The main problem with satellite tv is that the quality of the transmittion can be disrupted by weather and other issues a lot easier than reciving methods like cable.  

Cable

Cable TV is a method of transmitting television programs using Radio Frequency signals (RF signals). Televisions recive the signals through special cables or even digital light pulses involving special technology hence the name cable. The main difference between cable and other methods is the change of radio frequency signals used. This method can prove better than mehtods such as satellite because the cables are underground and therefore less likeley to recive any disturbance. 

Analogue & Digital

Analouge Television
analogue television is basically the analogue transmission involving broadcasting  analouge audio & video signals. Analogue is now far outdated by digital television (DTV), however at its time it was the main source of television. Basically analogue takes a television picture inlcuding sound and animation and encodes it then transmits it as an analogue signal.

Digital Television (DTV)
Digital Television is another transmission of audio and video this time however it is done by using digital signals. Many places in the world have now changed their tv setup to digital with no analogue signals. A main reason for the change is because the quality of digital is better than analogue.

interactive

Interactive TV is basically a way of watching what you want when you want to watch it instead of waiting for a program you want to watch comes on tv. For example sky has something called sky active which is basically the companys name for skys interactive features such as games, shopping and more all on the TV.

High definition 

High definition TV (HDTV) is just video that has a lot higher resolution to the resolution of regular TV (standard definition) The first high definition TV broadcasts used analogue signals but now however High definition is broadcast via digital signals using video compression. HDTV has roughly one to two million pixels per frame This impressive ratio is around 5 times that of the standard definition.

film-based

CGI

Computer generated imagery (CGI) is a method of using computer graphics in films, games, Tv and other aspects of the media. CGI is a very advanced method capable of creating 3D computer graphics that look very realistic. The technology is so advanced that recent updates have allowed people to create certain professional grade films & games from their home computers. An example of CGI would be for example Toy Story; everything in toy story was computer animated including the characters. The part that can take a long time is when the film has to render it allegedly took toy story around 6 hours to render 1 frame and there are roughly 25 frames per second.

internet

Internet TV, often mixed up with web TV (Short episodes/clips made only for online viewing) is basically just a way of watching television on the internet anytime. It was created as a catch up method in case people missed an episode of an ongoing series; however now it is more advanced and often used for watching tv via a computer. Common examples of this are websites like 4oD, BBC iplayer, Itv player and others. I think that Internet TV is a very good idea because it allows people to watch what they want, when they want using technology that almost everybody has access to.

streaming content

streaming media is when a user streams TV or radio usually via the internet. An example of doing this is when

on-demand viewing,

digital recorders,

pay per view

Regulation of the media sector

Regulatory and professional bodies:

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC),

British Video Association,

Film Distributors Association,

Video Standards Council (VSC),

Television, Radio and Telecommunications Office for Communication (Ofcom),

Trading Standards Central,

Trading Standards Nets,

Press Complaints Commission (PCC),

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA),

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF),

The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA),

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA),

Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA),

The International Visual Communication Association (IVCA),

Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C),

British Web Design and Marketing Association,

British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA)

Regulatory issues:

ownership, monopoly, access, consumer choice, freedom of information, censorship, taste and decency

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC),  is a non-government organisation, funded by the film industry and controlls classification of films within the United Kingdom.

British Video Association

The British Video Association is a home entertainment organisation created in 1980. It is the trade body that represents the interests of publishers and rights owners of video entertainment.

Film Distributors Association

The Film Distributors' Association (FDA) is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK - the companies that release films for UK  cinema audiences.

Video standards council

The VSC was created in 1989 to settle concerns involving the video industry. The VSC is a non profit making company and its main job is to create and imply a code of practice designed to give the video industry high standards by also ensuring pre recorded videos,dvd's and games are provided for the public in a responsible way.

Ofcom
Ofcom (The Office of communications) is the authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications in the united kingdom. Ofcom is a part of a wide range of industries covering all types of processes. Such as TV, Radio and internet. The purpose of ofcom is to, in the interest of the public, promote competition and protect them from any inappropriate material. A few of the main fields of ofcom’s work are licensing, research, codes and policies, complaints, competition and protect the radio from abuse.

Trading Standards Central

The trading standards central

Ethical and Legal constraints within the media sector

Ethical




Legal

content, interpretation and application of laws relating to media, eg Broadcasting Act 1990 (and later amendments), Official Secrets Act 1989, Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments), Films Act 1985, Video Recordings Act 1984, Race Relations Act 1976 (and later amendments), Human Rights Act 1998, Licensing Act 2003 (and later amendments); privacy law; copyright and intellectual property law; libel law 

The Broadcasting act 1990

The Broadcasting act 1990 is a law of the British Parliament to reform the entire structure of british broadcasting. Effects of this law were that the television or radio companies rather than the regulators became the broadcasters. An example of a breach of this law would be if

Official Secrets Act 1989

The Official secrets act 1989 is a law that was passed to prevent people from disclosing information that could be dangerous for the wrong people to know. Basically the rule states that it is illegal to share information related to national security. An examble of breching this law would for instance be if someone recived some secret information from important people and they told anyone else the official secrets law would be breached.

Obscene Publications Act 1959

The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is a law that prevents any obscene material being published where anyone who doesnt want to find it might. This particular law allows a margin for what can be considered artistic. For example if channel 5 showed an xxx rated film at 5:00pm the law would be breached.

Films Act 1985

the Films Act 1985 relates to any laws involving film finance and also defining british films

Video Recordings Act 1984

the Video Recordings Act 1984 law states that all videos that are available have to be classified by the BBFC first

Race Relations Act 1976

The Race Relations Act 1976 was established to prevent racial descrimination on the basis of race, colour, nationality, ethnicity and national origins. This disallows any descriminiation when it comes to employment and such.

Human Rights Act 1998

The Human Rights Act 1998

Code of practice

basically a code of practice is a set of guidelines and rules to be followed by members of some organization or workplace etc; This is not normally enforced by law.

 

TV Funding

TV Funding

Licence Fee

The main way that the BBC gets its funding is from the licence fee however Commercial broadcasters, i.e. mainly the BBC are the only broadcasters that receive any of this funding. The licence fee is £145.50 per year which is the equivalent of £12.13 per month The BBC used its income from the licence fee to pay for its TV, Radio and online services. About £7.96 per household goes on T.V meaning roughly £2.351 million overall, £2.11 per household goes on radio roughly £604 million overall. Finally online receives around £0.66 per household meaning £199 million altogether. The remaining £1.40 per household, roughly £406 million is spent on things such as investment in new technology, running costs and the collection of the licence fee.  

Syndication

Another way of TV funding that, this time all the channels use, is Syndication. Syndication is the process of when a TV channel for example BBC make a successful program that other broadcasters then want to show in their countries the TV network will then sell the rights to show episodes to the other countries. An example of this would be how BBC created top gear and now it is shown in around 37 countries.

Advertising

Advertising is an extremely important way for almost all broadcasters to make money; the only broadcasters that don’t advertise are commercial broadcasters who get the substitute money from the licence fee instead.  Advertising can consist of lots of things from 5 minute ad breaks to programs being sponsored. The way that the Broadcaster generates funding from this works like this: When a channel is watched more the price that a product or company will pay to advertise will be. If there is a certain program that is watched the most for example coronation street then the price for advertising at that particular time slot would be more expensive that at 5 in the morning.

Competitions

On most popular programs, usually game shows, Television broadcasters often give the audience at home a chance to join in. They ask an extremely simple question for people to then ring in at the usual price of around £1 per phone call, the Broadcaster usually makes the question so easy so that as many people as they can get ring in. An example of this is on ‘the X factor’ when they ask questions such as what country has the capital Paris? The Broadcaster would make a lot of money even after giving out the prize because so many people phone in because they know the answer.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are a very easy way for the broadcaster to make money, the best example of this is Sky with channels like sky sports and Disney. This is when the Broadcaster makes the viewer pay an annual fee to watch their channels.  With sky the customer pays one fixed fee for the box itself and then a certain price every month/year. The price depends on the ammount of channels that the customer has chosen.

Merchandising

If a TV broadcaster, Commercial or public, creates a hit program they can then use the programs popularity to make more money in merchandising, for example the most obvious products  would be a dvd set or a T shirt. However the things sold can be anything such as posters, lunch boxes etc... One particular example of this is the inbetweeners who have lots of merchandise including T-shirts, posters, car stickers to car designs.

Film Financing

Film Financing

There are four main ways of film financing, these include: Tax schemes, Government grants, Debt finance and Equality finance. Tax schemes involve certain governments that have introduced a way of generating enhanced tax deductions from film makers or owners of films. They have created ways where the tax deductions are basically sold to wealthy people with large tax liabilities. They pay the producer a certain amount of money to receive the tax deductions. This person will usually become the owner of the film or rights related to the film, however the producer will continue as the real owner of any rights such as exploiting the film. This particular method of funding is changing however due to governments noticing that it is an inefficient way of supporting the film industry as certain films with very little creation are rising purely to obtain tax deductions. Therefore as of 2007 the UK government decided on something called ‘The Producers Tax Credit’ which basically creates a cash subsidy from the treasury to the film producer.

Government grants again involve certain governments that are running programs, this time to subsidise the cost of creating films. For example in the UK, The UK film Council allows funding to be given to film producers as long as they meet certain criteria such as places like new York will allow funding providing all the filming takes place within that state. The reason for governments being so willing to give out funding like this is because they think that it will inspire lots of creative people to visit their area and therefore promote the country at the same time as creating employment.

Pre sales are basically, based on the script and the cast of the proposed film the amount of money given can differ. For example if someone cast a film with Brad Pitt as an actor people would be guaranteed to watch it purely for that reason, in which case lots of money can be given in advance for production because they know that it will be a watched film.

Product placement is a great way of raising money for filming mainly because it is so easy. If a film is to include a product such as a can of coke and promote the use, with the product labels permission lots of money can be made in the process as a form of advertising. The amount of money paid depends on the popularity of the film. A good example of product placement is in the very famous James Bond films, the film companies have a good deal with various car companies such as Austin Martin where both the film and the car company will benefit.

Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public service broadcaster. It first started on the 2^nd November 1982. Channel 4 mostly funds itself however it is publicly owned overall; originally a subsidiary company of the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority), the channel is now owned and controlled by the channel four television corporation, established in 1990. With the conversion to digital in Wales, channel 4 then became a UK-wide broadcaster for the first time. The purpose of channel 4’s creation was to be a fourth television service to the UK as well as the BBC and the only existing commercial broadcaster at the time ITV.

Before channel 4 and S4C (Channel 4 Wales) The broadcasting act of 1980 began the process of adding a fourth terrestrial television service alongside BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. This sparked the birth of Channel 4 which began scheduled transmissions on the 2^nd November 1982.

After control of the station passed from the Channel Four Television Company to the Channel Four Television Corporation in 1993

Universal

Universal Pictures

Universal pictures, (however sometimes known as Universal studios) headquartered in California. Is a subsidiary company of NBC Universal. Also the company is one of the six major movie studios along with Warner bros pictures, Paramount pictures, Walt Disney, Columbia pictures and 20^th century fox.

Universal studios was founded by a man named Carl Laemmle in 1912 and now remains as one of the oldest American movie studios still in production. On the 11^th may 2004 the main stake of the company was sold to General electric, parent of NBC what came because of this was a media super-conglomerate that renamed itself NBC Universal meanwhile Universal Studios Inc continued as a subsidiary company.

As well as owning a huge film library it also owns many TV shows through the subsidiary company: NBC Universal Television Distribution. Universal studios is the second longest running Hollywood studio second only to Viacom’s Paramount Pictures by one month.

The birth of the company was sparked in 1905 when, on a buying trip to Chicago Carl Laemmle discovered the popularity and potential of the movie theater chain: Nickelodeon. In only a short time of his arrival to the trip he gave up the original reason to visit and chased the idea of buying the first of many Nickelodeons

In 1911 Laemmle began the Yankee film company which quickly evolved into the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). He later broke with Edison’s custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits. This started the star system. This was basically the start of actors becoming famous.

On the 8^th of June 1912 Laemmle merged IMP with eight smaller companies to create the Universal Film Manufacturing Company of which Laemmle was the president along with a partnership that included Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, and Pat Powers however all were soon to be bought by Laemmle. The company was incorporated as Universal Company inc. In 1925.

In 1915 Laemmle opened the world’s biggest motion picture production facility: Universal City studios. Studio management became the third asset of Universal's areas, with the studio incorporated as a subsidiary organization. Unlike most, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists and subsequently Universal became the biggest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade.

Irving Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by Thalberg's cogent observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief, Thalberg was making Universal's product that bit better. However Louis B. Mayer led him away with promise of better money without his guidance Universal became a second-tier studio, and would remain so for several decades.

Media Ownership

Introduction

For this assignment I will be choosing 2 media conglomerates and researching all about the company and its structure and ownership.

Time Warner

Time Warner is one of the world’s largest media companies, located at the Time Warner centre in New York City. Time Warner used to be two separate companies known as, Warner communications Inc and Time Inc. After merging together they now make the current Time Warner that operates in film, television and publishing.

In 1972 Kinney National Company went into the entertainment industry and renamed itself Warner Communications Inc. During the 1970’s and 80’s it ran the two companies: Warner bros. pictures and Warner music group.

In 1976 Warner Communications purchased Atari for around $2-12 million. At the time period of 1976 to 1984 where it owned Atari it produced up to a third of Warner’s annual income.

On March 4^th 1989 the merge of Time Inc and Warner Communications was announced which eventually completed the following year.

In the year 2000 AOL purchased Time Warner for $164 billion. This created the company AOL Time Warner. Who later de merged after a period of great loss when the company reportedly lost $99 billion in 2002 – the biggest loss ever reported by a company at the timeThe total value of AOL stock subsequently went from $226 billion to about $20 billion.

Time Warner’s subsidiary companies include New line cinema, Time inc, HBO, Turner Broadcasting system, The CW television network, TheWB.com, Warner Bros, Kids WB, Cartoon network, Boomerang, Adult swim, CNN, DC comic, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon network studios and Castle rock entertainment.

Time Warner is a huge company nowadays with around 32,000 Employees broadcasting to a worldwide audience with a

The problem with media conglomerates owning lots of companies in many areas of the media especially in news is that all of what we are being shown comes from the same group of people and they will put their opinion forward as opposed to others.

The fact that Time Warner owns so many companies can be seen as a good and a bad thing. It is good in the respect that lots of companies can now be trusted, under control of a well established company. However as they own broadcasters such as CNN and radio stations, a lot of what they show us could be based on what a few specific people believe and the truth could be bended to fit what they want us to think. http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/  <- a website to show how TV companies can bend the truth.

XFM

XFM is a mix of two radio stations that play mainly indie pop. The radio station is owned by global radio.

XFM was created in London, 1992 by a man called Sammy Jacob when it expanded to four stations. XFM now only has two main services: XFM London which has been broadcasting in the London area officially since 1997 and unofficially since 1992, and XFM Manchester which was launched on the 15^th march 2006. XFM is now available across most of the country over DAB radio. XFM has, in the past employed various DJ’s that have gone on to become even bigger celebrities. These include: Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant, Simon Pegg, Christian O'Connell, Russell Brand, Justin Lee Collins, Adam and Joe, Zane Lowe and Dermot O'Leary.

On the 11^th February 2008 GCap Media decided they were going to sell the analogue licenses for the Manchester Scotland and South Wales stations, leaving only the London station. However, although the sale of the South Wales station preceded the sale of the Scotland and Manchester stations stopped when Global Radio started to purchase Gcap.

XFM became the first station ever to release and bands album completely free from the website. The album was ‘You cross my path’ by The Charltons