Media Company Case Study

Task 1 Understand the structure

and ownership of the media sector

Shauna leacy

Example: MTVPrivate ownership is funded by advertising. Private ownership's is more able to satisfy the company shareholders instead of the public’s interest. Private ownership defiantly has more of a channel choices. You find with private that certain channels are only aimed at one type of audience like MTV is only aimed at an audience between the ages of 16 - 24 the advertisements on these channels would be different from the adverts on like the discovery channel A advantage of private ownership is that its run on advertisement funds because a lot of companies want to advertise their product on popular TV channels like MTV this being popular it costs more to advertise on itA disadvantage is that if they have a idea for a TV show they don’t do any research like a public ownership would like the BBC and they wouldn’t be able to have the publics input so they could fund it but it’d be down to the fact that the show is good

Types of ownership: private ownership

Example: BBCPublic ownership is funded by the government like the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC As the BBC is government run they have to cater to the Public wants and interests. For example the Public are able to complain and give feedback and BBC will take in the feedback and make changesA advantage of Public ownerships is that the BBC is run on what the public wants so they have to design it around them therefor you will get a variety of different shows for different people get a huge amount of audiences tuning in to watch different shows that are targeted at them.A disadvantage is that more people are willing to subscribe to companies such as 'Virgin Media' and 'Sky' and would prefer to pay them money rather than pay for a TV license that only funds one Channel as the BBC. This may mean that the TV License has a good chance of being scrapped.

Types of ownership: public service

Types of ownership: independent

Example: 21st Century FoxIndependent business ownership is privately held organizations. Sometimes, independent businesses are also termed as sole proprietorship companies, which have only one proprietor. A advantage as a business owner, you are your own boss. You answer to no one and you make all the decisions. You set your own work hours and work independently. Depending on the type of business, you may be able to work anywhere.A disadvantage owning a business can be a struggle financially. you may have to go into debt or invest personal funds to start your company. You may lose it all if your company isn't successful. You may have to work huge numbers of hours in the early years

Example: The Walt Disney Companyconglomerate media group is a company that owns large numbers of companies in numerous media like television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet. Media conglomerates attempt policies that enable their control of the markets around the worldA advantage conglomerate grows and gains more companies, it can take advantage of the greater flexibility it has to develop newly-bought companies and increase their size and success. A disadvantage many numbers are revealed rather than separately for each business. The difficulty of a conglomerate's accounts make them harder for managers, investors and regulators to analyse, and makes it easier for management to hide things

Types of ownership: conglomerate

Types of Companies:Horizontal Integration

Example: AppleHorizontal Integration is where an organization develops by buying up competitors in the same section of the market e.g. one music publisher buys out other smaller music publishers.A advantage is the lower costs with a large company which produces more services and products, the larger the company has more power over suppliers and customers also less competition and access to new markets A disadvantage is that it can lead to control its highly discouraged due to lack of competition governments have to approve.

Types of Companies: Vertical Integration

Example: Warner BrosThis is where an organization shares or owns each part of the production and distribution process. For example: Warner Bros Entertainment calls itself a fully integrated broad based entertainment company which owns film studios and the means to distribute the films as well as some of the cinemas they are shown in. Warner Bros in itself is part of an even bigger conglomerate called Time Warner which is a huge media conglomerate institution which uses horizontal Integration to consolidate its power and profits. A advantage are that the business costs can be controlled if a firm acquires the other firms in the vertical chain, then one separation of the same company will transfer goods to other divisions. So, business costs in form of transport, cost of negotiation, cost of control.A disadvantage large organizations are harder to manage and are less flexible in introducing innovations to the market.

Cross Media convergence

Media convergence is combing two or more mediums different mediums are TV, film, computer graphics, radio and websites.Media convergence in the film industry can happen In production, distribution or exhibition it also happens when an artist from the music industry brings out a single for a film.Music working with games

Synergy

Synergy can be used most often by bigger companies as the different elements them often a media conglomerate work together to promote linked products across different media. If they bring out two products or more they will promote each other for example skyfall has the film, soundtrack, game and perfume. Conglomerates like song can use synergy to increase because they own lots of different companies. Synergy works when different elements of companies promote each other for example film studio, record label, video game division all link eg. Film, soundtrack, video game.

Describe the Structure and of Ownership of Either The Film, TV,

Gaming or Music Industry Vertical –Sony and 4ADOne of the big three Sony Music entertainment the labels they have are: Arista Nashville, Beach Street/Reunion Records, Bystorm Entertainment, Columbia Nashville, Columbia Records, Day 1, Epic Records, Essential Records, Kemosabe Records, Legacy Recordings, MASTERWORKS, Polo Grounds, RCA Inspiration, RCA Nashville, RCA Records, Sony Classical, Sony Music Latin, Star Time International, Syco Music, Vested In Culture, Volcano. It is a United States music corporation owned and operated by Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony Corporation.4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, originally funded by Beggars Banquet Record. signed a five-year distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records so that nearly all 4AD releases would see release in the United States. While this seemed to be a simple licensing deal, in reality executives from Warner Bros. took a lot of control during this period, as 4AD shifted focus to the US market, signing more American bands.

Sony

Sony produces a lot of products like electronics TVs, laptops, phones. Also video games and console. Also media and entertainment (music and tv)

Sony is conglomerate it owns Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial

Ownership

Sony is a corporation that is owned by its shareholders. Sony has many divisions that include electronics, music, audio, video and many more types of products. (Sony’s shareholders: Japan Trustee Services Bank, Moxley and Company, The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Omnibus China Treaty, Japan Trustee Services Bank, State Street Bank and Trust Company, Japan Trustee Services Bank, State Street Bank and Trust Company, Japan Trustee Services Bank, Mellon Bank)

Sony is vertical Sony mergers and takeovers have allowed it to become a vertically integrated company

Vertical

Competitors

Sony's main competitors are Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Philips. With cameras its main competitors are Nikon and Canon.Music sales in the United States have dropped 47 per cent since Napster first debuted in 1999. The availability of free music has cost the music industry $12.5 billion in financial losses. To recover some of these losses, the music industry has filed lawsuits against individuals who have been found to have illegally downloaded music. In some cases, individuals have been sued for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.Their biggest competitor is probably Apple.inc and Blackberry. Apple, and Blackberry are also in the electronics department, and have many devices just like Sony. Another competitor of Sony is Nintendo. Nintendo is in the gaming industry and have many game console/devices just like Sony's PlayStation. Apple is another really big competitor of Sony because they have made many sales with their iDevices.

Sony targets all different types of people. They have devices for everyone, which do not depend on age. Like cameras, or a T.V that anyone can buy, and is not specifically for a certain age group. The only thing is that if you are young you would probably want to buy a gaming system, or a T.V and if your older you are probably interested in cameras or laptops. Sony tries to make their products for everyone, so they can get more sales that way.

Audience

As in a multidivisional organization such as Sony, the division’s become flexible as in the sense that they are able to merge, add or close divisions. This is apparent in the fact that Sony’s Mobile division merged with Ericsson to produce Sony Ericsson range of mobiles.When Howard Stringer joined as the CEO of Sony Global Japan he made new strategies and used those strategies to restructure the organization to be in-line with these strategies.Firstly, he looked at the core competencies of the company and focused mainly on the electronics, games and entertainment sector. He established a growth strategy saying, “Our target is for the Sony Group to achieve consolidated sales of over 8 trillion yen and an operating profit margin of 5% (electronics 4%) by the end of fiscal year 2007”.

Sony faced considerable controversy when some of its laptop batteries exploded and caught fire in 2006, resulting in the largest computer-related recall to that point in history“The Dell laptop battery recall was announced on 15 August 2006. Dell recalled 4.1 million of its notebook laptop batteries in response to concerns that the batteries were overheating and catching on fire.”“The laptop batteries were seen as a fire risk. If a laptop had caught on fire on a flight it could have been particularly serious.”The Sony-manufactured lithium ion batteries were used by many notebook computer manufacturers, such as Apple, Dell, Lenova, Fujitsu and Toshiba, who were all forced to recall laptops.

http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Dell-Laptop-Battery-Recall-The-Expert-View

http://www.sonymusic.com/

http://4ad.com/

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/verticalintegration.asp

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/horizontalintegration.asp

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-vertical-horizontal-organization-24212.html

Bibliography

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