Developing Technologies in the Tv industries

Television technology has come such a long way in such a short time. Long gone are the days of 12 inch black and white TV's we now live in the age of 42 inch HD plasma Screens and LCD Tv's. TV Technologies are ever growing and its anyones guess what comes next we already have Ultra thin modern flashy TV's and 3D Tvs so what comes next?

3D TV



3D TV is a revolutionary technology in the tv industry that allows us to watch programs and play games in full 3d up until recently the pleasure of watching anything in 3D was reserved for cinema films only but now 3D Television is openly available for purchase. 3D TV works in the same way as your eyes, 2 images from the right and left eye are merged together and processed in your brain to display a 3D image, this is the same for the TV 2 images are overlapped and the glasses seperate each image and send them directly to the correct eye. There is now 3D TV without glasses which uses a special Barrier called the parallax barrier, this is basically like a huge pair of 3D Glasses over the tv screen which shoots out each image into the correct eye to give off the appearance of Full 3D without having to wear glasses. Although 3D TV has been around for a little while not everyone has one the future of 3D TV is a little bit rocky, it is not a neccessity and for some people 3D hurts their eyes so some people are alienated from certain technology because it can't be acessed by everyone.

Sattelite TV

Sattelite Television is one of the most used ways of watching television in england because not everywhere is cabled for Cable TV. Sattelite TV works via sattelite obviously, the company broadcast out the signals to the sattelite which is then broadcast to the sattelite dish on your house. of course there can be problems with signal being recieved due to bad weather or if there is no clear place for the signal to be sent to (like if your house was surrounded by huge trees).

Cable TV

Cable Tv is the other way of watching TV in the uk. Most parts of the UK are cabled underground ready for cable boxes to be installed, the cables used nowadays are Fibre optic instead of copper wiring which means its a lot faster. The cable company sends all their TV channels down the fibre-optic cable into your home. The set-top box 'decodes' and splits the signal it receives - so you only see one channel on your TV.

Interactive TV

Interactive TV is the way you interect with your tv (shocking i know) There are various different ways of interacting with your TV such as Voting for people on the X factor with the red button or playing sky games with your remote, interactive TV has the potential to expand in the future into something better, more interactive, such as choosing different camera angles and such.

High Definition

High Definition TV offers a clearer more vivid and sharp view than other TV's because of the higher amount of pixels that they can fit and then compress into widescreen TV's, it has around 2 milliom pixels per frame. I dont really see a point in HDtv as long as the screen is not blurry and you can see clearly i dont see why you would need to fork out a lot more for a sharper image.

streaming media and internet television/on-demand viewing

Streaming media is a way to watch television shows online that you have missed on TV online via youtube or on their own specific website For example the BBC i player and 4 on demand. the word streaming comes from the way that they are broadcasted to each individual person. i think that Streaming media is really useful because even if there is a +1 repeat channel, there isnt always (bbc3 for example) so if you miss something that you cant see again on TV it will most likely be streamed online.

Digital Recorders

Digital recorders allow you to record television programs as they are broadcast and are then saved onto a hard drive and can be played like a dvd sort of with the basic controls of rewind fast forward stop pause and play meaning you can skip adverts which is always less of a pain than watching them.

Pay Per View


Pay per View is paying For private broadcasts of certain events such as football or wrestling, it is broadcast at the same time but only to those who have payed to watch it. I think pay per view is a step too far with money grubbing companies, if you have sky you're already paying ridiculouse prices for sports channels and then you have to pay more for certain shows.

CGI

CGI (computer generated imagery) is a revolutionary technology that Allows us to Create the impossible in films and TV Shows

Regulatory issues

Regulatory bodies often face certain issues within the media Sector when making the guidelines and rules such as:
Ownership - How many subsidiaries a conglomorate can own
Monopoly - The power of a conglomorate because of the amount of things they own. if one conglomorate controlled every media company in the world they basically controll the world because there is no one else to offer another side of the story so what they say is believed because no one else stands against it

Regulation of the media sector

British Video Association,
The BVA represent the interests of publishers and right owners of pre recorded video entertainment

Film Distributors Association,

the FDA are a trade body that offer advice and will stand up for film distributors in the UK they are also trying to battle film piracy and theft.

Video Standards Council (VSC),

The VSC are a company dedicated to ensuring that the high standards of classification are met. they also develop and oversee the code of practice for video games DVDS and videos.

Trading Standards

The Trading Standards Institute Check that Shops are not selling any illegal or counterfit goods such as games and Dvd's

Press Complaints Commission (PCC)

The Press Complaints Comission are a regulatory body for the printed media (Newspapers and magazines) they handle all complaints concerning these forms of media.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA),

The ASA are a group dedicated to Regulating the UK's Advertisemants and handling complaints from adverts and remove them if they are too problematic

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF),

 They help to promote the industry and support those who work within it.

The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA),

 they are dedicated to helping game developers advance their careers in development.

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA),
They are a charity in the UK that hold awards ceremonies for films and games etc.

Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA),

The International Visual Communication Association (IVCA),
They help members to promote themselves to the government or stakeholders.

Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C),
The W3C Develop protocols and guidelines for the internet so that it can continue to grow and expand.

British Web Design and Marketing Association,
They promote and Encourage the standards within british web design and the new media sector.

British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA)
BIMA are a union to represent all those working in the UK digital industry. they reweard good work and promote good practice and knowledge.

Media representation

Representation in the media is the way that publications or broadacasters Portray a certain gender, race or group of people. their language actions and things that happens involving them help the public to develop either a positive or negative opinion on the group of people portrayed.  Representation of certain groups can change over time due to pressure from the community being represented to change the way that they are viewed, for instance if a well known TV show had a load of black people robbing shops and starting gang wars every week there would be tons of complaints because this can damage an opinion on the black community making them out to be all                                                   

The BBFC

The bbfc are the british board of film classification and they are in charge of classifying all films adverts tv programs and video games in britain. On every dvd or game or film box/poster there is a triangle that contains either a letter or number with a specific colour to show that it belongs to a specific age group, Green and U means universal which means its alright for children, Yellow and PG means Parental guidance which means that there are some scenes which may be innapropriate for young children, Red and 12 means it is suitable for children but has too many scenes that arent suitable for younger viwers, this is the same with 15 and Red and 18 means there is either strong violence language or sexual content or all of the above. Any films games etc.. not classified by the bbfc are in breach of the video recording act and are illegal to sell and posess.

Ethical and Legal constraints within the media Sector

Ethical:

social issues and sensitivities, eg representation of gender, representation of religious beliefs, linguistic usages, accessibility; professional body codes of practice, eg BBC producers’ guidelines, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards

Legal:

 Broadcasting Act 1990 (and later amendments),

The broadcasting act is a series of laws passed through government on what you can and cannot broadcast on UK Television. An example of breaking this act wuld be to Broadcast something Obscene or Vulgar without persmission.

 Official Secrets Act 1989,

A law stating that it is illegal to disclose information regardeing national security. An examplwe of this would be if a british newspaper Dsiclosed the Location of an important military base or Secret bunker or the location of an important person like a member of the royal  family

 Obscene Publications Act 1959

Laws relating to obscene mataerial being published,

Films Act 1985,

Laws concering Film finance and defining british films

 Video Recordings Act 1984,

laws stating that all videos that are sold or available for rent are classified by the bbfc

 Race Relations Act 1976

laws stating that no one on Television is to be discriminated over their race

Human Rights Act 1998,

rights that are believed to belong justifiably to every person


Licensing Act 2003

Licensed buildings must have a specific license to play certain music or broadcast certain TV channels

privacy law

Privacy is the right to be left alone

 copyright

Copyright is the law stating that anything copyrighted is the property of the person or company that created it and cannot be used by another company etc

 intellectual property law

Intellectual property reffers to things that are created in the mind such as designs, art work, music, images, symbols etc used in commerce, I.P can be owned, bought, or sold

 libel law

Libel Laws are about slander/defamation stating that no publications or broadcasters are allowed to say or write anything that shows an individual or Group in a negative way


Codes of practice
A code of practice is a set of guidelines that you must follow in a work environment, Each career has its own unique Codes of practice which relate to how you behave, dress and specialist things to do with the career itself. Breaking the rules of a code of practice can end up in you being fired.

This is the newspaper and periodical industry’s Code of Practice. It is framed and revised by the Editors’ Code Committee made up of independent editors of national,

regional and local newspapers and magazines. The Press Complaints Commission, which has a majority of lay members, is charged with enforcing the Code, using it to

adjudicate complaints. It was ratified by the PCC in September 2009. Clauses marked* are covered by exceptions relating to the public interest.

 

All members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest professional standards.

The Code, which includes this preamble and the public interest exceptions below,

sets the benchmark for those ethical standards, protecting both the rights of the

individual and the public's right to know. It is the cornerstone of the system of selfregulation

to which the industry has made a binding commitment.

It is essential that an agreed code be honoured not only to the letter but in the full spirit. It should not

be interpreted so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights of the individual,

nor so broadly that it constitutes an unnecessary interference with freedom of expression or prevents

publication in the public interest.
News international Phone hacking Scandal

One of the most Recent Famous cases in media which Clearly breaks more than 1 of these Laws is the News international Phone hacking scandal. The cases of phones being hacked were being looked into from 2005-2007 but in July 2011 it was revealed that the phones of murdered school girl milly dowler, Relatives of Deceased souldiers and survivors of the 7/7 bombings in london were acessed also, this caused public outrage against news international it was a clear Breech of Privacy and is also rather disgusting. This eventually lead to the news of the world newpspaper being closed down and Rupert murdoch had to withdraw his bid from Buying BskyB. Phone hacking is an obvious breach of human rights and Privacy laws stating that everyone has the right to a private life and to be left alone, it can be scary knowing that there is always people prying into your life through your phone.

Film Financing

Film Companies have 4 main ways of getting the funds they need for film production and these are:
.Government Grants
.Tax Schemes
.Debt Finance
.Equity Finance


Government Grants
Sometimes the Government will give grants to a film production company if certain Criteria are met. A lot of the time the government will give grants to films being made in certain areas because they believe that this may attract people to the area and help to stimulate employment and tourism. Government Subsidies are often pure grants meaning that they expect no money in return because in theory the tourism that films could attract shot in certain places is payment enough.


Tax Schemes
A number of countries have introduced legislation that has the effect of generating enhanced tax deductions for producers or owners of films. Schemes are created which effectively sell the enhanced tax deductions to wealthy individuals with large tax liabilities. The individuals pay the producer a fee in order to obtain the tax deductions. The individual will often become the legal owner of the film or certain rights relating to the film, but the producer will in substance continue as the real owner of the economic rights to exploit the film Governments are beginning to recognise that enhanced tax deductions are an inefficient way of supporting the film industry (information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_finance) So basically the film producers sell off the Tax deductions to rich people who then sort of become a part owner of the film but the producers are still the owner and have the rights to the film. so that when the film is released the people who bought the Tax Deductions can make money off the film aswell its like investing in a films success basically.


Debt Financing is based on pre–sales and television pre–sales. The pre sales is based on the script and cast selling the right to distribute a film in other territories before said film is completed. If the film has any big names in it or if the genre of the film is big at the time, they film will be expected to do well once finished. A deposit of 20% is made by the buyer into the film bank account upon the signing of a pre sale and the leftover 80% due to be paid upon the films delivery to the foreign film agent.
It is more usual for a producer to see the TV rights of this film after it’s been produced made, sometimes it can be possible to sell the rights in advance and use the money to pay for production. A television station will be a subsidiary of the movie studio’s parent company.


Equity Finance – This requires the film makers to sell interests to the film or Film Company in exchange for all funding. For example if a film maker sells 50% of the corporate interest to an investor, then the investor will lose his entire investment if the film is a complete failure. And if the film is a success then the investor will receive 50% of every £/$ that the film makes, far more than what a lender would get. So an investor would only receive his/her money back if the film shows a return.

TV Funding

TV Funding

There are many different ways that TV companies Get the funding they need, Each company has its own way of making money dependant on which type of company they are, a Few examples are the BBC who are public service and have the licence fee and Sky who get their money from Subscriptions and Advertising.

The BBC

the BBC are a Public Service Broadcaster meaning that they are government owned and they cannot advertise most of the BBC’S Money comes from the licence Fee which is £145.50 a Year per each household and this is divided out into Each different Service that the BBC has, £7.96 goes to Television, £2.11 a month goes to Radio £0.66p goes to maintaining the online services (BBC Online, BBC iplayer and BBC mobile) and £1.40 goes to other things such as running costs and investments in new technologies. While the Licence Fee is how the bbc mainly make money they have many other ways such as Syndication, Merchandising and Competitions. Syndication is when they Sell their programs to other companies, after theyve been showed originally the companies buy them to re run on their channels. Merchandising and Competitions are pretty obvious and Self explanatory and the BBC are not the only ones to use these methods to get money as they are fairly standard precedure for making money.

Sky and Virgin media


Sky and Virgin Media are Subscription broadcasters which mean that they have an annual fee on Top of the licence fee and provide Hundreds of channels making it seem like its worth the money but Really its not because if you get the full package for Sky you get about 900 channels and it's highly unlikely that you'll use more than 100 channels at most.  Sky and Virgin also Syndicate their programs, Advertise, Sell merchandise and also sell the rights to their licenced programs. The popularity of sky has Risen tremendously over the years with company turnover at £93 million at june 30th 1991 and Company Turnover at £5,912 Million at june 30th 2010.

ITV and Channel 5


ITV and Channel 5 are Commercial broadcasters meaning that they are private companies and most of their funding comes from advertising but they also Syndicate Programs, have call ins and competions and merchandising, theyre pretty standard and dont really have any distinguishable ways of making money compared to the other companies.

Channel 4 

Channel 4 is rather unique in the way that it is part commercial and Part public service, this means that they get a small part of the Licence Fee but they can Still advertise unlike the BBC and of course they have all the standard other ways of making money such as Syndication, Merchandising and Competitions.

Paramount pictures

Paramount pictures is a large film production company that is currently owned as a subsidiary 

of the media conglomerate Viacom and was founded in 1912 as Famous players studios then renamed to paramount pictures in 1914, it is Americas oldest existing film studio and is still consistently ranked one of the top grossing movie studios. Paramount started out as a small production company known as famous players by Adolph zukor, He saw that Films mainly appealed to the working class immigrants so He and his partners Daniel and Charles Frohman planned to make Films that would appeal to the middle class by using the top theatrical players at the time as actors (which lead to the slogan famous players in famous plays) in that same year another budding film director Jesse L Lasky opened his lasky feature show company. Later that year both Zukor and Lasky released their first films through a start up company paramount pictures corporation organized by Utah based theatre owner W. W Hodkinson  who had bought several small firms and merged them together . Paramount was the first company to successfully distribute films nationwide because at the time films were sold state-wide or regionally. Because Zukor believed in stars, he signed and developed many of the leading early stars, including Mary Pickford, Marguerite Clark, Pauline Frederick, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, and Wallace Reid. With so many important players, Paramount was able to introduce "block booking", which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but which led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than twenty years. The driving force of paramount was Zukor all throughout the teens and twenties, if it wasn’t for him the company wouldn’t be where it is today; he built a chain of nearly 2000 screens, ran 2 production companies and was one of the early investors in radio.  By sucessfully purchasing the balaban & katz chain in 1926 Zukor Gained the services of three people who would later become important in paramounts rise; Barney Balaban Who would later go on to become president of paramount , A. J Balaban who would later supervise all stage productions and Their Partner sam katz who would run the paramount publix theatre chain from new york city . in 1927 Famous players-lasky took on the name Paramount-Famous Lasky and then 3 years later changed to Paramount-publix Corporation because of the importance of the publix theatre chain.

Important Events:

.By 1917 Zukor had gotten rid of many of his partners including the Frohman brothers, hodkinson and Laskys brother in law samuel goldwyn and then eventually lasky in 1932 when he was blamed for the near-collapse of Paramount in the Depression years.

.Paramount-publix went into bankruptcy in 1935

.in 1936 Barney Balaban became president and Zukor became chairman of the board and sucessfully re-organized the company as paramount pictures inc

. in 1948 the U.S Sepreme court decided that movie studios could not own movie theatre chains which broke up Zukors creation and ended the classic hollywood studio system.

.in 1970 paramount pictures teamed with Universal Studios to make Cinema international corporation.

.in 1993 Viacom made a bid to merge with paramount pictures and ended up in a bidding war but won with the winning bid of 10 Billion dollars

. In 1999, Viacom bought out United Television's interests, and handed responsibility for the start-up network to the newly acquired CBS unit
.in 2005 Viacom wrote off over $28 billion from its radio acquisitions and, early that year, announced that it would split itself in two

.On December 11, 2005, The Paramount Motion Pictures Group announced that it had purchased DreamWorks SKG in a deal worth $1.6 billion

.In 2009, CBS stopped using the Paramount name in its series and changed the name of the production arm to CBS Television Studios, eliminating the Paramount name from television

The BBC

The BBC is Britain’s largest public Service broadcaster; they are funded by the TV Licence as they can’t advertise. The TV licence is basically a yearly fee for the privilege of owning a TV. As of April 1st 2011 the licence Fee costs £145.50 (or £45 for black and white TV’S) which is the equivalent of about 40p per day. The BBC operate  10 Channels; BBC 1,2,3,4, CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC news, BBC Parliament,  BBC HD and BBC red button.  The Government Decide The cost of the licence fee and It has risen £10.50 since 2007. The licence Fee is divided up and spent individually on all BBC Services, some for TV, some for radio, and a little bit for online. £7.96 per month per household goes to Television, £2.11 per month per household goes to radio and £0.66p per month per household goes towards maintaining online services and £1.40 per month per household goes towards stuff such as running costs and investments in new technology.  They are owned by the Government and Run by a board of Directors and Chief executive officer. It was founded in 1927 by Jon Reith and George Villiers. Each channel BBC1 etc are all aimed at a specific audience so that they’re not biased to one group of people to another, if you’re going to pay for a TV License there should be something for you to watch that appeals to you otherwise what would be the point in paying?

News Corporation and Bauer Media

 I will be Researching the Structure and Ownership of 2 large Media Conglomerates: News Corporation and Bauer Media.

News Corporation is a large media Conglomerate; it’s the 2^nd largest media conglomerate in the world as of 2011 based on revenue and the world’s 3^rd largest based on entertainment.  Rupert Murdoch is the founder and Current CEO of News Corp.  it is a public listed company meaning that you can buy shares in the company and own a part for yourself. There is a board of 17 Directors who make decisions but the final word is always down to Rupert Murdoch as the chief executive officer and Primary shareholder.

News Corporation was founded in 1979 By Rupert Murdoch as a Holding company for News limited. News limited was created using the assets that Murdoch inherited after his father died in 1952. The Main asset his father had left him was ownership of the Adelaide afternoon Tabloid. News Limited is still operated today as the Australian brand of News Corporation. In 1973 News Limited bought the San-Antonio express in America and then soon after founded the national star and then in 1976 it purchased the New York post. Then in 1981 News Corporation bought half of the movie studio 20^th Century fox then bought the other half in 1984. In 1985 Rupert Murdoch announced that he was going to buy the Metromedia group of stations but to satisfy legal requirements he had to become a naturalized citizen of the United States of America Because only U.S Citizens can own American Television stations but in 1986 the Metromedia group was closed and Fox broadcasting network was launched and today fox can be received in over 96% of American Households. By 1992 News Corporation was in huge Debt forcing it to sell most of its American magazine interest’s as well as spinning off some long held Australian magazine interests. These Debts were because of the large stakes the company had in sky which had huge losses in its early years of operation but since sky merged with BSB (becoming BskyB) it has dominated the UK broadcast pay-tv market since then. In 1995 Fox network was under FCC Scrutiny when it was alleged that because its base was in Australia it was illegal for Murdoch to own Fox in America But they later ruled in his favour saying that it was in the public’s best interest to leave Murdoch in charge of FOX. In 2003 News Corp Acquired a 34% stake in DirecTV group but was sold off to Liberty Media in exchange for its holdings in news international, then in 2007 News Corp bought The wall Street Times for $5.6 Billion. In 2011 News Corp was the topic of major controversy over accusations of phone hacking  and the news of the world news paper was closed down in july, allegations inovled trying to access former prime minister Gordon browns voice mail, bank accounts, Family medical history and personal legal files Other allegations put out by The Guardian newspaper include the exploitation, with intent to gain access to or use private information, of a list of 4,332 names or partial names, 2,987 mobile phone numbers, 30 audio tapes of varying length and 91 PIN codes. Because of this controversy Rupert Murdoch had to withdraw his bid to buy the remaining 61% of BskyB but he still owns 39.1% of the company.

Bauer media group is a large German publishing company founded in 1875 and is a privately owned company managed by the Bauer it was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG abbreviated to HBV but usually just shortened to H. Bauer.  Originally a small printing house Bauer media has been run by 4 generations of the Bauer Now Bauer owns 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started off in the UK with Bella magazine launched in 1987 and as H Bauer publishing became Britain’s 3^rd largest publishing company. Bauer expanded further in Britain with the purchase of EMAP consumer media and EMAP radio in 2008 to become the UK’s biggest publishing group. Bella was designed to make an impact on the UK by mixing previously unseen real life editorials with more classic things in women’s magazines such as fashion, beauty, cookery etc. Today’s Bella has evolved to reflect the roll of a modern day woman.  In 1990, H Bauer gained attention with the launch of Take a Break magazine. Take a Break sits in the true life market of the women's weekly sector and quickly became market leader with an ABC audited circulation of over one million sales. Up until 2005 there were only three women's magazines dedicated to delivering true life editorial, one of which was H Bauer's sister title, that's life! (Launched in 1995). Since then the sector has become increasingly competitive with a series of high profile launches that saw the number of titles in the market expand to seven magazines all fighting for market share. Take a Break has retained its lead position in the market, and a number of brand extensions have seen H Bauer's business expand to include puzzle magazines that carry the Take a Break name. 1991 saw H Bauer's first foray into TV listings publishing with the launch of TVQuick magazine. The UK is a nation of TV lovers and traditionally the TV listings magazine market was divided between buyers of Radio Times (launched 1923) and TV Times (launched 1955), depending very much on people's viewing preferences. In 1991 there were two launches into the sector What's on TV was launched by IPC media and H Bauer launched TVQuickwhich sought to provide readers with a listings magazine that combined women's weekly magazine features, TVQuick ceased publication in July 2010. In 1999 H Bauer launched TVChoice at a relatively low price, to provide an alternative to the then market leader (according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations ) What's on TV. TVChoice overtook its main competitor in the February 2008 audited ABCS and has been the number one magazine sold in the UK ever since, reflecting the UK's continued interest in all matters TV related. TVChoice runs an annual TV awards in which readers are encouraged to vote for their favorite TV programmes and personalities. As developments in UK television progressed, H Bauer launched Total TVGuide in September 2003 to cover the increasing number of programmes available on free view. Personally I think it is wrong for one company to own so many different magazines and subsidiaries because it’s like they control so much it’s scary to think that they could control so much of what you see and think in the media.