Task 1
- 1. Task 1 By Alex Pereira & Millie West
- 2. Ownership of the BBC The BBC (The British Broadcasting Corporation) is not a private enterprise as it is owned by the british public; this is as the public pay for a TV license which go towards the BBC. The Government run the BBC on the behalf of the public. They have to make sure that certain rules and codes of conduct are in place. To ensure this they put in place The BBC Trust, but as it was performing badly OFCOM (The Office of Communications) will take over. The BBC need to follow a royal charter which has 3 principles: to inform, to entertain and to educate.
- 3. Ownership of Walt Disney Walt Disney is owned by a variety of individuals and is the world’s second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Although it is privately owned, it is in fact a public limited company. This means that unlike the BBC, Disney can be bought by the public individually as shares. It is classified as a private corporation, because not everybody, as the public, have shares in it. Yet it is called a public limited company, because it is open for the public to buy shares of it, but there is a certain amount of shares that can be bought, hence the use of the word in the title ‘Limited’. Robert A. Iger is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. As Chairman and CEO, Mr. Iger is in charge of, runs and represents as previously mentioned, the shareholders. Similar to Iger, Alan Braverman is also one of the largest shareholders, as well as the senior executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of The Walt Disney Company. After Thomas Staggs, who is the third-largest individual shareholder of Disney stock, comes Christine McCarthy, who has a total of 112,135 shares of Disney Stock, and is also the Senior executive vice president and chief financial officer for Disney.
- 4. Funding the BBC The BBC is funded in many different ways, one main way that they get funding is the money gained via people paying for a television license. It involves members paying a fee so that they have legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service. Another way they are funded is by selling merchandise from their different shows. A way they sell their products is through the BBC Store. This is an online store where they sell clothes, toys and boxsets of their shows. Another massive way they are funded is through selling formats. This is when they sell the idea of a show to others and in return get money either to use the format indefinitely or pay every time it is used. An example of this is the show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. They have sold this format to many other countries including the United States which call it ‘Dancing with the stars’
- 5. Funding Walt Disney There are many ways in which Walt Disney gain their funding, one of these includes the selling of merchandise. On December the 16th 1929, Walt Disney Productions formed the Walt Disney Enterprises - The WDE. This division was created to handle merchandising, and ever since has been operating successfully, offering a wide range of toys, games and products to the public. Using investors and shareholders is another ways in which Disney can obtain funding. As mentioned in ownership, Walt Disney is a public limited company, meaning that it is open for the public to buy shares from. Each share share bought costs the shareholder a significant sum of money to buy it. All of the money that gets collected from shares bought, goes to The Walt Disney Corporation, which provides Disney, which another means of funding. A major and common way for Disney specifically to gain significant funding, is through the use, and popularity of their theme parks such as Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disney Resort. The theme parks are so loved, that although they cost huge amounts to built, start up, pay for staff and advertise, Disney Corporation still receives huge amounts of profit, which benefits their funding. Films, TV Programmes and shows produced by Walt Disney, enable them to receive huge amounts of funding.Common classics produced by Disney include Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi and Pinocchio, and TV shows include, Hannah Montana, That’s so Raven, Wizards of Waverly Place and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. All of these films and TV programs, do massively well for Disney, considering they have such a large audience. Although they cost thousands if not millions to produce, The Walt Disney Corporation still gains profit through its popularity.
- 6. Synergy and the BBC Synergy is the creation, promotion and sale of a product or brand across different platforms. An example of synergy from the BBC is Doctor Who. Doctor Who has been very successful in a variety of formats. It has been made into a Film, books, magazines, soundtracks, Card games and an animated movie. This is good for the BBC as it expands their target audience massively as it gives them more potential viewers. Another benefit of synergy is that it can also massively increase brand image which will make the audience view your product in a more positive way.
- 7. Synergy and Walt Disney Synergy, as mentioned, is the release of a brand across different media platforms. Media institutions use synergistic techniques for two reasons; the first, is to increase a brand’s image, and the second, is to expand a company, and a product’s potential target audience. In 1932, Disney allowed people and companies a license to use the Steam Boat Willy and Mickey Mouse character image and/ or logo to use on items such as lunch boxes and t shirts. To our knowledge, Walt Disney was the first person and company to use synergy. Synergy can come in many different media forms. These include books, films, animated films, magazines, videogames, theatre shows and soundtracks. Aside from Mickey Mouse and Steam Boat Willy, another example of synergy being used in The Walt Disney Corporation, is Cinderella. Cinderella began as a film, and after its huge popularity Disney saw that they could make even more money, through the use of Cinderella, the storyline and its characters, but through other profitable platforms, such as those mentioned above. To this day, Cinderella is now a film, an animated film, a book, a soundtrack, a theatre production, an on ice production and much more. Cinderella merchandise can be found in the Disney Store as well as many other places, as wide range of items, varying from pens and pencils, to backpacks, to clothing items such as dress’, T-shirts and swimming costumes. All of these synergistic techniques help Disney to gain both popularity, through the use of characters, props and storylines, used in the films and TV programs that they produce, as well as profit, which is another way that they can gain their funding.
- 8. Subsidiaries and the BBC A subsidiary is a company controlled by a holding company. The BBC has many subsidiaries which are similar to the BBC but focus on certain areas of the media or focus on other countries. Examples of BBC subsidiaries are BBC Films, BBC Weather, BBC Records and BBC Brasil. Subsidiaries are a very useful thing as they gain more viewers individually but also raise more awareness for the BBC. This is good as it could bring more potential viewers to the BBC. Another reason why it is good is because it means that viewers can find what they want and need quickly as a pose to searching for a long time.
- 9. Subsidiaries and Walt Disney A explained, a subsidiary, is effectively the mother company, to other smaller companies. This is also known as a conglomerate, whereby the smaller companies are owned by the larger ones. In this instance, The Walt Disney Corporation is the head company. They have a large number of ‘daughter’ companies, some of which include Marvel, Pixar, Lucas Films, and Walt Disney Animation Films (WDAM). Marvel Studio’s is very well known for superhero and heroine films, which include Captin America, Guardians of The Galaxy, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk and Spiderman. Founded in 1993, it was attached to and funded by The Walt Disney corporation. This meant that some of the profit recieved due to the popularity and success of the compay would go to Disney. In relation to funding, this is another way that Walt Disney is able to recieve funding. Being a subsidary. Similarly to Marvel Studio’s, Pixar which was founded on February the 3rd 1986, and very well known for producing Monsters Inc, is also a peripheral company, and an offshoot to Disney. Lucas Films founded in 1971 is very well known for the Star Wars Films, and is also parented by Walt Disney. As well as being a ‘daughter’ company, it is also a Conglomerate itself. ‘Lucas’ is the mother company to establishments including, Lucasfilm Animation, Skywalker Sound and Lucas Digital Ltd. On October 16th 1923, another division of the Walt Disney Corporation was founded. Today, we know this subsidiary as Walt Disney Animation Films. WDAM is well known for creating productions such as Aladin, Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan and The Princess and the Frog. Conglomerates are a good way to gain busines popularity as well as funding, through the sucess of the branch of the mother company.
- 10. Products and Services in the BBC A product is something that an audience can consume and a service is thing that offer you the product. In the case of the BBC the product is a programme or film and the service is the channel that the programme or film is shown on. An example of this is the show ‘Eastenders’. This soap opera is a product aimed at 13-60 year olds. The service that it is provided on is BBC One. Another example of this is the show ‘Top Gear’, this product is aimed at middle aged males and the service for this is BBC Two. One more example would be the show ‘QI’, QI is aimed at people aged 18+ and the service its provided on is BBC Four.
- 11. Products and Services in Walt Disney A product of a business, is what is the consumer, user or audience gains from it, as the BBC slide explains. Whereas a service of a company is what it offers, and what provides the product. There are many examples in which The Walt Disney Corporation use products and services. There are so many subsidiaries, which create a wide range of services. Considering there are so many services, they all in turn make large amount of different and diverse products. These include TV programmes such as ‘Lion Guard’ (which is the product), whose producer company is Disney Junior. In addition, Disney Junior’s target audience ranges from 2 to 8 year olds. Other examples include Disney Chanel, which is the service. As the service, as mentioned, it creates many products. One product that Disney Chanel creates is the very well known Hannah Montana. DC’s target audience is 9 to 16 year olds. ABC which stands for American Broadcasting Company and is another service and subsidiary of Walt Disney, provides products for consumers such as the beloved Modern Family, The Middle, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and more. ABC’s target audience is approximetly those who are aged 14 and above. A final example is Iron Woman, which is the product, and whom its produced by is Marvel Studio’s. The Marvel Studio’s company target audience ranges between 4 to 11 year olds. The the use of characters, storyline and content included, all determine a company, service or products target audience.