Industries: Owner and Control

Comcast notes:

• There are many different brands under Comcast such as NBC, Illumination, Focus Features, Dreamworks and Universal.
• One example of vertical integration is the universal branches (studios, music and films).
• One example of horizontal integration would then be NHL because it is not related to the film industry in any way.
• One example of synergy would be TV crossovers. 
• Diversification comes in the form of streaming.

Do you agree that governments should prevent media conglomerates from becoming too dominant?

I believe that yes the government should do something about conglomerates to prevent them from being too dominant on the society, however, it can be argued that there is no guaranteed negative impacts towards anyone. Although it is not certain but the dominance of conglomerates can cause immense damage towards businesses by taking out the competitive market. This shows the damage conglomerates can cause if they gain too much power so even though I believe that government should try to prevent their dominance, I think that the idea of forming media conglomerates can be useful because one element can present their way of thinking to another different type of element.


Briefly describe the production, promotion and distribution process for media companies.

• Production - The media company makes what the audience want.
• Promotion - The company carries out research on their target audiences to market their product more effectively to them.
• Distribution - The company finds the more easiest and efficient wat to get their product to their audiences.

What are the different funding models for media institutions?

• BBC - License fees, merchandise selling
• ITV - Adverts, Program sponsorship
• Netflix - Subscription fees

The article gives a lot of examples of major media brands and companies. Choose 3 examples from the article and summarise what the writer is saying about each of them.

Google - Google has taken over many big companies such as YouTube in order to change the way most of the population sees music, films, news and more.

BBC - Since on-demanding viewing is being more ad more well known and used, BBC's strategy of license fees are not working as effectively. They are reconsidering to change.

Facebook - Facebook as a large company has taken over other large social media companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp. To further extend their range of markets, they have also taken over VR technology such as oculus rift.

What examples are provided of the new business models media companies have had to adopt due to changes in technology and distribution?

The music industry - As time goes on, people start to buy less and less physical copies of music because internet downloading has grown so much over time that people can get songs they want straight off the internet. They now rely on sponsorships, advertising and income from live shows that they put up.

The BBC - The BBC is reconsidering its funding to structure because on-demand viewing is growing rapidly.

The movie industry - Huge investments are being put into 3D technology (CGI) so that they can maintain audience members.

Re-read the section on 'The Future'. What examples are discussed of technology companies becoming major media institutions?

Facebook - Now owns Oculus rift allowing people to experience new sorts of technology with ease.

Google - Now owns YouTube which is now one of the biggest online platforms people search to go on. 

Streaming platforms - All companies such as Netflix, Amazon now create, produce and broadcast their own content which has been overall successful.

Do you agree with the view that traditional media institutions are struggling to survive?

I agree with the view that traditional media institutions are struggling to survive mainly because of the ever growing technology. The majority of the things we could do in person can now all be found online. This includes actions like reading newspapers, watching movies, speaking to people, shopping, telling others about what you're doing. In fact, doing the above online can be much easier and efficient which may be a reason why people are choosing the internet over physically going out to socialise. Although a lot of sites charge subscription fees to watch, that can be overcome very easily because there are sites out there that don't require anything in order to stream films and series.

How  might diversification or vertical integration help companies to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape?

It will allow a company to cover all bases that are required to manufacture a media product instead of having to outsource certain aspects required for the production. Instead of having to outsource certain aspects required for the production, which would see the media companies losing profit, whereas diversification would see the media companies as making more profit.

How do you see the relationship between audience and institution in the future? Will audiences gain increasing power or will the major global media conglomerates maintain their control?

I personally believe that conglomerates will continue growing because the more companies they can buy, the bigger their profits grow and with the increase of profits, they would be able to continue buying and buying other companies. Without the big companies buying certain companies wouldn't be able to survive because the physically don't have the funds to expand or even keep it going. Individual companies will be able to do well under a bigger company as a support.