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.