Ownership & Funding

Ownership Concepts

Public Service Broadcasting

Public Service Broadcasting refers to any form of media broadcasting (TV, Radio, etc...) that is solely intended for public benefit rather than commercial benefit. A good example of this is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Unlike commercial broadcasters, the BBC operate through the use of an annual T.V. License fee of £147 per household*. This fee then goes toward funding the BBC's TV, Radio and online services.

*http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ1

Commercial Broadcasting

Commercial Broadcasters are run by private companies and are generally run for profit. Unlike a PSB their funding comes from selling advertising slots between their content. An example of a Commercial Broadcaster is Sky UK. Another example of a Commercial broadcaster is the radio station The Beach, who also use advertisement to run their service.

Corporate & Private Ownership

A Privately owned media company is one that is owned either by an individual or a small group and is distinctly operated For Profit (to gain money). Corporate ownership is still for profit but is instead run by a corporation and is more associated with mass media. An example of a privately owned media company is the Guardian Media Group. An example of a corporately ownership is a company oowned by one of the "big six".

Global Companies

A global company will operate all over the world. These days a lot of companies become global through acquisition of other companies either in the same or other areas of production. An example of this would be Disney which is known as one of the "Big Six" corporations that own a large majority of the world production through owning and controlling a large number of companies that would have otherwise been their rivals.

Vertical Integration

Vertical Integration is where companies/businesses in different stages of production merge. An example of this is that Warner Bros. own not only the production companies of their film & TV efforts but the distribution companies as well.

Horizontal Integration

Horizontal Integration is merging companies/businesses in the same stages of production. I've used an example of this earlier on when I talked about the "Big Six". When you look at one of the big six corporations, for example Disney, they also own ESPN, PIXAR, and MARVEL STUDIOS, 

Funding Types

Licence Fee

A licence fee is an annual charge required to watch/record live broadcasts from public service broadcasters such as the BBC.

Subscription

A subscription is where you pay a monthly/yearly fee to gain access to content. The online streaming service NETFLIX operates on a subscription basis charging different monthly tariffs for more perks.

One-Off Payment to Own Product

This is where after paying an upfront fee you then own the product. Music services such as iTunes, Google Musics, Amazon Prime Music use this method off payment though they also offer subscription services (such as Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Prime Music Unlimited). The difference being after the One-off payment the person owns that, in this case music track, forever but when the subscription runs out or is not renewed they loose access to that music unless they renew the subscription or buy the track(s).

Pay Per View

In the UK some TV providers can offer Pay-per-view services via satellite/cable/internet. In the UK this service is mainly used for film services with an example of Sky Box Office as a service. Sky will charge the viewer a certain amount to watch a film, and they will continue to charge the viewer every time they re-watch that film unlike with a One-off payment service.

Sponsorship

A Media Broadcasters can offer sponsorship to advertisers. This is where advertisers pay the companies in order to associate their product with a certain TV programme or radio programme etc.. viewers/consumers will then see the product associated with their favourite programmes and then will be more likely to buy them. An example of this is Sky 1's comedy-sport panel show and road trip spin off, A League of Their Own and A League of Their Own US Road Trip are sponsored by Right Guard. This means Sky 1 play small advertisements for Right Guard directly before and after commercial breaks, also in A League of Their own the final sporting challenge is also known as the Right Guard challenge and will have right guard branding as the challenge is revealed/during the challenge.

Advertisement

Commercial Broadcasters can sell advertising space between their content for other companies to promote their services or products. The company purchasing the advertising space will then pay the broadcaster when the advert is viewed.

Advertising can also be used on online platforms such as YouTube, where for content creators it is the source of income provided by YouTube. Advertisers make deals with YouTube who then place adverts in front of a creator's video. The advertisers then pay YouTube a certain amount of money per 1000 views (aka CPM or Cost Per Mile) of the advertisement in front of that video. YouTube then gives 55% of that money to the creator and keeps 45% for themselves.

Product Placement

Product Placement is a form advertising where a company pays the advertiser to include their product in their production. This can be done across film, TV, radio and online video.
An example of this would be content Creators (YouTubers) on YouTube such as Thomas "Tomska" Ridgewell, who make deals with the companies themselves (with out YouTube as a middleman) these companies then sponsor either a single or multiple videos. This can often require creators to place a product in their video(s) for a certain time. In Tomska's video (in collaboration with other Creator Crabstickz) "Bite Me" right at the start of the video plugs Now TV's Now TV box and an example of its content. Tomska purposely makes the placement and sponsorship blatant fro two reasons, one is that he runs a comedy channel and it adds to the hilarity and the second is that there was a lot of drama around YouTubers and hiding that they were making sponsored videos which he was trying to avoid.
Exerpt Example:
Crabstickz: Tom there are Zom-
Tomska: Zombies? I know, I saw them....in season six of The Walking Dead, Available now on Now TV (holds up Now TV box)
Crabsticks: Is this erm...Is this a sponsored video?
Tomska: A guys gotta eat.

Private Capital

Private Capital is money given to a company/business as a loan or investment that is not supplied by government, bank or any other public source.

Crowd-funding

Crowdfunding is the process through rasing funding for a product/venture through contributions from usually a large number of the public. This can be used in media for films, web series, games etc...
After Frontier Developments couldn't get backing from any publishers for its upcoming Space Adventure/Trading Simulator Elite Dangerous, it turned to Kickstarter - a crowdfunding website and afterwards through PayPal donations directly to them via a link on their website. Between November 2012 and April 2014 they raised a total of £1.7 million, £0.3 million over their target of £1.4 million.

Development Funds

The British Film Institute (BFI) runs several funds for filmmakers including for development, production and first feature funding. Their development funding is available to filmmakers who have already produced and distributed a feature film theatrically (in cinema). Their first feature funding is available for filmmakers trying to produce their first feature length film. These funds are available through the distribution of funding the BFI receive from the Lottery.