HNC Media Production Y1 Unit 1: Contextual StudiesFaustina Starrett Darren Harkin

Unit 1: Contextual Studies

For this task I have been asked to research the companies of BBC and Sky and analyse their corporate control structures and distribution, their sources of income, regulation and legal constraints and the marketing of their brand identity.

History of Companies

Sky

In 1990 Sky was founded by Rupert Murdoch and Sam Chisholm. 1993 BSkyB became the largest digital subscription company in the UK as BSkyB launched the Sky Multichannel. This service continued until its closure in 2001 on analogue, due to the launch of the Sky digital platform. Over the years, Sky has continued to increase the number of customers it has and by 2010 Sky had 10 million subscribers and was installed in 36% of UK and Irish households (Bitterwallet.com, 2010). Sky also has various apps for smart phones, tablets and gaming consoles, making it easier for subscribers to access news, movies and TV programmes (Sky.com, 2015).

BBC

BBC was founded in 1922 by John Reith and was to be financed by the royalties from the sale of the BBC Wireless receiving sets and through a license fee. In 1955 ITV was created which became was competition for the BBC. In 1962 the Pilkington Committee report was published and in it the BBC was praised for its quality and range of its output and ITV was heavily criticised for not providing enough quality programming (BBC.co.uk, 2015). This resulted in the BBC being given a second broadcasting channel known as BBC2; they renaming the existing channel BBC1. In July 1967 colour was introduced to broadcasting on BBC2, which was followed by BBC1. ITV only started broadcasting in colour in 1969.In 1997 a rolling news channel was launched which was called BBC News 24. Throughout the years, the BBC continued to grow with a number of television channels and radio stations E.g. BBC1 Radio, BBC Radio 2. Since then, the BBC have launched apps for smart phones, tablets and gaming consoles making it easier to access news and programmes (BBC.co.uk, 2015). The BBC is the largest broadcaster across the world and claims to reach “300 million households and 1.8 million hotel rooms worldwide” (BBC.co.uk, 2015). And they are moving forward in technology and broadcasting for future generations.

Income

Sky provides a variety of bundles of programs that will suit a variety of people. The prices for these bundles range from £20-36 a month. Sky also provides a range of different broadband and internet packages which bring also bring income.

Sky makes their money through subscriptions and advertising. Subscriptions make the company a lot more money than advertising. Media analysts say that this will still be the case in the future.

BBC depends upon the government to decide on what money goes into the BBC as it is funded by the government. The BBC makes its money from TV license payments and does not run commercials so it does not get any income from advertising. Things like changing from analogue to digital had been costly. BBC estimated the cost of completing the transition from analogue to digital to be around £1.64bn (House of Lords, 2005).

Ownership Models

Sky TV is a commercial broadcasting company which is owned by shareholders and investors. Sky make their earnings through a subscription-based service which lets the subscriber customize their own package and choose the channels they want to have.

BBC is a public service broadcaster which is owned by the British public and funded by the Government. They make their income through the TV licensing fee, which is charged to all British Households. The Government makes the decision and sets the fee and it is agreed by Parliament.

The Key Players

Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch is the chairman and CEO of Sky and holds positions in many different companies, e.g. News Corp and, 21st Century Fox). Sky was a very popular subscription service, which pretty much made Murdoch the 33rd richest person in America. But later on in 2011 there was a fall in profits, due to the phone hacking scandal Murdoch had been

involved in (Wikipedia, 2015). Murdoch has done what he did in order to provide Sky with one of the leading subscription services in the UK.

Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson is a British media executive and at CEO at the New York Times Company. Thompson is also known for being the former chief executive of Channel 4, but he was best known as the Director General of the BBC from 2004-2012. During his time there it emerged that

the BBC had been involved in a number of editorial guideline breaches. Thompson investigated these breaches, and presented his interim report to the BBC Trust on 18 July 2007 The Trust felt that the BBC’s values of accuracy and honesty had been compromised, and Thompson outlined to the Trust the actions he would take to restore to return to Britain to deal with The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row. Thompson then made the to suspend the BBC’s highest paid presenter, Jonathan Ross, from all his BBC work for three months without pay.  In 2012 he decided his time was up and made the decision to step down from General-Director, saying, “it’s the appropriate time to hand over to a successor” (Wikipedia, 2015).

Richard Branson

Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group, which holds more than 400 companies according to Forbes 2014, list of billionaires (Forbes.com, 2014). Branson set up his own mail order business in the 1970’s, which pushed him to open his own chain of record stores known as Virgin Records, which was later on changed to Virgin Megastores. Murdoch had his faults and in the same way so did Branson. Branson was convicted of tax evasion. Branson’s Virgin Media Company would be one of Sky and the BBC’s leading competitors with some of Sky subscribers switching to

Virgin Media, as it would be cheaper and a lot of people preferring the commercial broadcaster to the public broadcasting giant BBC. Despite all of this Branson’s Virgin Media Company is one of Sky and the BBC’s leading competitors with some of Sky subscribers switching to Virgin Media, as it is cheaper and a lot of people preferring the commercial broadcaster to the BBC

Tony Hall

Tony Hall is the current Director-General of the BBC and is the 16th in the title of director general. During his run at the BBC in 2007 it was reported that the BBC had been involved with a number of editorial guideline breeches. The Former Director General was then investigated this.

Platforms and Technologies, Emerging technologies, what is being used?

Sky TV is a subscription based satellite TV which offers many different ways to ways to watch their programmes e.g. Mobile, Laptop, Smartphone, Computer. There also are many different platforms to watch Sky programmes on. With Sky Plus, you can watch things over and over again. Sky+ works

by pausing and rewinding live TV. Sky Go allows you to record from your mobile or tablet from anywhere You can record shows on your Skybox and can record shows or full series, when you’re out and about to make sure you don’t miss a thing. (Sky.com, 2015)

BBC is also up to date with the latest technology like Sky. They have also introduced apps for smart phones, tablets,

and smart TVs and gaming consoles. These services allow the public to keep up with the latest world news, and programmes that audiences have missed. These apps offer BBC News, BBC Sport and BBC IPlayer, BBC Weather and for children BBC CBeebies playtime (BBC.co.uk, 2015).

Flagship Programmes

Sky is a channel which has evolved over the years. It grew from something small with four channels and has now grown to have over 900 channels, ranging from Movies, Sports, Music and various others.

From what I have seen recently of Sky TV, most of the popular viewing and promotion on television would go to their shows such as The Following, Fortitude and Game of Thrones which seem to be their standout flagship programmes according to the Sky.com site.

BBC is as advanced as their competitor Sky but they have come a long way with its longevity in the broadcast service in both television and radio. The company started with one broadcasting channel and now they have over 16 television channels and have

over 15 radio stations. The BBC has a few great flagship programmes e.g. Strictly Come Dancing, EastEnders and Doctor Who.

Criticisms and Controversies

Negatives of BBC The company has been known to be bias of centre right politics they also have a strong hold on to their audiences of influencing them to become bias themselves with corrupt

lies.They have been criticized of recycling old news and for insensivity and bad timing when its decided to broadcast programmes called Kenyon confronts sex and Holy City.

They have made a series of cartoons that was mocking the pope and had to be shelved.BBC is criticized for its coverage of events before the invasion of Iraq in 20030 they were described as 'Sexing up' the case of the war in Iraq- they were heavily criticized by the Hutton Inquiry- branded as a whitewash government- chairman and director resigned from the inquiry showing guilt. (M.christianpost.com)

In 2006 Israeli diplomatic official boycotted BBC due to the fact they felt the story was not being reported fairly and the reports we seen give the impression that BBC is working on behalf of Hezabollah instead of doing fair journalism. (Turkishweekly.net)

According to The Independent it was reported the finding of University of Leeds study in March 2006 which accused the BBC of being 'institutionally homophobic, towards lesbian and gay community. Focus groups used in the study accused the BBC of being the worst broadcaster in terms of gay and lesbian issues and their portrayal of them.They have also been accused of Racism in the loyal television society in 2008. Lenny Henry said that ethnic minorities were 'pitifully underused in television comedy/Jimmy Mc Govern in a 2007 Interview called the BBC one of the most racist institutions in England.

And there has been 24 allegations against Jeremy Bowen in 2009 for inaccurate evidence in the Middle East. And Jimmy Saville. (Wikipedia)

Negatives of Sky

Sky has faced many problems over the years here are several examples.

• Sky News criticised by Ofcom after watchdog receives 200 complaints about reporter rifling through luggage at MH17 crash site”-While collecting footage and reporting at the scene of a plan crash one of sky’s news reporters went through the luggage of one of the passengers and continued to do so even after he said “We really shouldn’t be doing this I suppose” ((Mail Online, 2014)

•• Ofcom may investigate Sky News following complaints over report accusing

Brenda Leyland of 'trolling' parents of Madeleine McCann

• As of 12 July 2011 former British Prime Minister Gordon brown had claimed that sky’s majority owner news corporation attempted to effect government policy with regards to the BBC in pursuit of their own commercial interests.

• And the Takeover bid ‘ As Pressure group 38 Degrees began a petition to Vince Cable, arguing that News Corporation (and Murdoch's) proposed shareholding would stifle a "free and diverse UK media" and affect UK broadcasting

impartiality rules. Global campaigning organization, Avaaz, has also been opposing the deal, with hundreds of thousands of its members signing petitions targeting the UK government. Although the bid was "dropped after only five weeks” some media commentators correctly presumed it has been done to "bide time” and that News Corp are "still confident" they can prove their bid is not "a serious threat to competition”.’

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Bibliography

Bitterwallet.com, (2010). Sky: Ten million subscribers, how many pricing combinations? | BitterWallet. [online] Available at: http://www.bitterwallet.com/sky-ten-million-subscribers-but-how-many-pricing-combinations/36932 [Accessed 29 May 2015].

BBC.co.uk, (2015). BBC - Homepage. [online] Available at: http://bbc.co.uk [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].

BBC.co.uk, (2015). Committees of Enquiry. [online] Available at: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/committees_of_enquiry.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

BBC.co.uk, (2015). BBC - Around the World - Inside the BBC. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whatwedo/aroundtheworld/ [Accessed 1 Jun. 2015].

Forbes.com, (2014). Welcome to Forbes. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml [Accessed 26 May 2015].

House of Lords, (2005). The review of the BBC’s Royal Charter, 1st Report of Session. London: Stationery Office Books.

Mail Online, (2014). Sky News criticised by Ofcom after reporter rifles through MH17 bags. [online] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782235/Sky-News-reprimanded-Ofcom-watchdog-receives-200-complaints-reporter-rifling-luggage-MH17-crash-site.html [Accessed 26 May 2015].

Sky.com Homepage, (2015). Sky.com Homepage. [online] Available at: http://www.sky.com/ [Accessed 27 Mar. 2015].

The Guardian, (2010). Broadcasters review the revenue. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/digital-television/broadcasting-profits [Accessed 29 May 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). Mark Thompson (media executive). [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thompson_(television_executive) [Accessed 23 May 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). Rupert Murdoch. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_murdoch [Accessed 16 Apr. 2015].

Israel says BBC not reporting war fairly - The Journal of Turkish WeeklyIn-text: (Turkishweekly.net)Bibliography: Turkishweekly.net,. 'Israel Says BBC Not Reporting War Fairly - The Journal Of Turkish Weekly'. N.p., 2006. Web. 1 June 2015.

Charlie Hebdo Offenses to Muslims Are 'Childish' Compared to Severe Mocking of Christians, Says Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill

In-text: (M.christianpost.com)Bibliography: M.christianpost.com,. 'Charlie Hebdo Offenses To Muslims Are 'Childish' Compared To Severe Mocking Of Christians, Says Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill'. N.p., 2015. Web. 1 June 2015.

Criticism of the BBCIn-text: (Wikipedia)Bibliography: Wikipedia,. 'Criticism Of The BBC'. N.p., 2015. Web. 1 June 2015.