Media of the United Kingdom

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Media of the United Kingdom

• Brian Lee, Andrew Stanley, Michael Ardizzone

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DCMS

• Department for Culture, Media, and Sports
• What does the DCMS do?
• Responsible for Government policy on the arts,
  sport, the National Lottery, tourism, libraries,
  museums and galleries, broadcasting, film, the
  music industry, press freedom and regulation,
  licensing, gambling and the historic environment.
• Economic contributions
• 27.7 million visitors to the UK spent around 13
  billion in 2004.
• Full switchover from analogue to digital
  television will benefit the UK in the region of
  2 billion.
• Creative industries grew by an average of 6 per
  year between 1997-2002, compared to 3 for the
  whole economy advertising, architecture, the art
  and antiques market, crafts, design, designer
  fashion, film and video, interactive leisure
  software, music, the performing arts, publishing,
  software and computer games, television and
  radio. 

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Television

• History
• First British television channel (1932) The BBC
  Television Service
• BBC television broadcasting monopoly until 1955
  (when ITV was launched)
• Analog Television
• Chartered Public Broadcasting Companies
  (Government funded)
• BBC
• Channel 4 (S4C)
• Franchise Commercial Television Stations
  (Advertising revenue)
• ITV
• Five

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Television Licensing Fees

• BBC is funded by public money
• Television license Fee gathered from all UK
  households with a television set (110)
• Revenues The 2005 Annual report gave revenue
  sources in millions of
• 2,940.3m license fees collected from consumers.
• 624.3m from BBC Commercial Businesses.
• 247.2m from the World Service, of which 225.1m
  is from grants (primarily funded by the Foreign
  and Commonwealth Office), 16.7m from
  subscriptions, and 5.4m from other sources.
• 23.5m from other income, such as providing
  content to overseas broadcasters and concert
  ticket sales.
• In total, the BBC's group income is estimated at
  3835.3m for 2005.
• Licence fee expenditure
• The BBC gives the following figures for
  expenditure of licence fee income
• 50 - BBC One and BBC Two
• 15 - local TV and radio
• 12 - network radio
• 10 - digital (BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC News 24,
  BBC Parliament, CBBC, CBeebies)
• 10 - transmission costs and licence fee
  collection
• 3 - BBC Online, Ceefax, and Interactive Content
  (including bbc.co.uk and BBCi)

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Digital Television

• Digital television
• Increased choice of channels
• Interactive services (home shopping, banking,
  e-mail, internet access)
• Improved picture and quality
• Switch from analog to digital television
• Benefit to UK economy in terms of manufacturing
  and employment
• Digital Television Action Plan (December 2001)
• Series of actions to ensure switchover from
  analog to digital
• Could start to happen as early as 2006 and
  completed by 2010

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Ofcom

• Ofcom (Office of Communications)
• Designed to be a super regulator, required in
  an age where many media platforms are converging.
  
• Initially established in the Office of
  Communications Act 2002, but received its full
  authority from the Communications Act 2003. On
  December 29, 2003, Ofcom inherited the duties
  that had previously been the responsibility of
  five regulatory bodies
• Broadcasting Standards Commission
• Independent Television Commission
• Office of Telecommunications
• Radio Authority
• Radiocommunications Agency

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Program Standards

• Government has created regulators to ensure
  standards are maintained on public broadcasts
• The regulatory bodies are Ofcom, The Governors
  of the BBC, and the Welsh Fourth Channel
  Authority (S4C)
• Bodies are appointed by government but operate
  independently
• The regulations are set by the Codes of Practice
• Codes of Practice set the rules on content and
  nature of programs and advertisements

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Media Ownership

• Communications Act simplifies media ownership
  roles
• The Act also sets limits on the ownership of
  media assets
• The Act deregulates, whenever possible, programs
  and advertising in order to promote competition
  and attract new investments
• The aim of the Act is to have a balanced of
  different media viewpoints
• The Act includes the Competition Law which
  encourages dispersed ownership and the engagement
  of new players in media

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BBC Charter

• The Royal Charter sets out what the BBC does and
  how it does it
• Every 10 years the public reviews the BBC to
  determine its effectiveness and consider its
  future
• The reviews are initiated by the Secretary of
  State
• The current review began on December 11, 2003
• They are expected to pass the current review

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BBC Programming

• In the UK the BBC has 8 channels
• BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC
  Parliament, BBC News 24, CBBC Channel, Cbeebies
• BBC One competes with ITV1 as the most viewed
  channel in the UK
• BBC One is more mainstream than BBC Two and
  generally gets higher ratings
• BBC Two caters to the wealthier citizens, and
  often has prestige drama productions
• A show might start out on BBC Two, but move to
  BBC One once it becomes popular

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BBC and Public Broadcasting

• The government encourages strong public service
  broadcasting to ensure that all consumers have
  access to varied programming
• The main public broadcasters are
• The BBC, funded mainly by television license fees
• Channel 4, self-funded by advertising revenues
• S4C, funded grant-in-aid from the government and
  advertising revenue
• ITV, Channel 5, and Teletext

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BBC Programming

• CBBC provides programs for younger viewers
• It also shows film premiers and documentaries
• BBC Parliament broadcasts coverage of the British
  House of Commons and Lords, the Scottish
  Parliament, and Welsh Assembly
• BBC News is the largest news gathering operation
  in the world
• It produces 165 hours of news output every hour
• The Six OClock News is followed by a half-hour
  of regional news shows

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BBCPublic or Commercial?

• The BBC provides domestic public service
  broadcasting to educate and entertain free of
  commercial advertising because government
  regulation controls its funding
• However, the BBC engages in commercial
  advertising in its newspapers and some radio
  broadcasts
• Income from commercial enterprises has
  substantially increases over recent years
• Its annual budget is approximately 3.7 billion
  pounds
• BBC Worldwide is the only BBC subsidiary that is
  completely commercially owned
• It broadcasts television stations throughout the
  world, such as BBC Prime, BBC America, and BBC
  Canada

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Political Influence

• In theory, the BBC is free from both political
  and commercial influence
• However, the Board of Governors is a group of 12
  who regulate the BBC and represent the interest
  of the public
• The Government appoints the Board
• Governors are nominally appointed by the monarch
  on the advice of Ministers
• The idea that the BBC is regulated by government
  appointees undeniable demonstrates governmental
  influence
• Political influence manifests in the form of
  government controlled license fees
• The Government can threaten to lower license fees

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Sources

• Department for Culture, Media, and Sport
  www.culture.gov.uk
• The Economist www.economist.com
• Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org
• Encyclopedia Britannica www.britannica.com