TV and Video are regulated and owned in many different ways.

There are two different forms of ownership and both of these are regulated in
different ways.

First example is the BBC. The BBC is publically owned by owners of a TV licence that
is what they are paying for each month. The BBC was founded in 1922 and was run
by 4 members of staff. It would cost you 10 shillings. The first broadcast was on the
14th of November.

Only a month later John Reith became the general manager. Shortly after this was
the baptism of fire general strike in 1926. The company was the dissolved and the
BBC formed with a royal charter.

In the 1930s radio listening became very popular, people would gather together to
listen to national and sporting events. In this time the BBC also became a big patron
of the arts commissioning music and drama.

In 1932 the BBC then set up at Broadcasting House in London in the same year as
the Empire Service.

The BBC then arrived as a Television Service on the 2nd of November 1936 but was
suspended as the war broke out in 1939.

The wartime did introduce many challenges for The BBC. In this time they were
dealing with the government’s ministry of information while also finding itself a target
of German bombs.

During a broadcast in October 1940 Bruce Belfrage was on air when 500lbs of
explosives hit The Broadcasting House. When hearing the bombs he did pause
however continued as normal due to not being able to react on air for security
reasons. In this time 7 people were killed.

Entertainment and service carried on producing content. In this time ‘It’s That Man
Again’ featuring comedian Tommy Handley. While this was occurring the Empire
Service settled in to new headquarters at Bush House.

In 1946 when the war was at peace, this resolved in the television service and then
the reorganisation of radio. From this time a third programme was creative which
featured music, drama and the arts. The empire service was then continued as the
External Service. Receiving grant in aid (funding) from the government.

Television then progressed steadily, it was broadcasting for 30 hours a week by 1950
from its base at Alexandra Palace in north London. This upped to 50 hours in 1955. In
1953 families were rushing to buy television sets to watch the Queen’s coronation.

In 1955 this is when ITV comes into the picture the other form of ownership I was
going to be talking about. ITV is commercially owned meaning its privately owned

Once the competition started to build this became difficult for the BBC as many
workers left to join the newer ITV companies.
This challenged the BBC of course, but during this period the BBC grew confidence
and produced a popular show that is still aired to this day ‘Grandstand, The Sky At
Night This Is Your Life.’

In 1960 the Telision Centre in Shepards Bush, London, was opened. This was the home
of ‘That Was The Week That Was Two Years Later’ a very popular TV show in this time.

In 1964 after hesitation and lots of planning BBC Two was launched but a put cut
delayed the process on the first night.

The 1970s brought a strong decade of successful shows for the BBC this was when
the likes of Fawlty Towers, The Generation Games, The Antiques Roadshow, Top
Gear, Question Time and Not The Nine O’Clock News were first aired and created.

In 1982 the BBC faced more competition in the industry, this was when Channel 4 first
aired. On top of the more commercial radio in 1973.

In the 1990s the BBC gained a new general director John Birt, who caused a lot of
controversy being a pubic figure in the political world.

The BBC continued to blossom producing more channels and broadening the
company as a whole. World Service radio being complemented by a BBC world
telelvision service as well as a satellite channel UK Gold very much helped the
company.

1990 was when Radio 5 was launched, this was a platform of news and a sports
network. In the later 1990s the BBC invested in some new internet services for their
audience such as BBC News Online, as well as releasing new channels. Greg Dyke
has since launched children’s TV services such as CBeebies and CBBC as well as a
catalogue of digital radio services. News.bbc.co.uk. (2018)

Going back to the BBC’s main competitor a commercially owned company

currently known as ITV. ITV was founded and first began broadcasting in 1955
following the Television Act of 1954 which was a guideline that made commercial
television in the UK be possible. It was broadcasted on Channel 3 in London,
England. The broadcasting Ac of 1990 allowed regional companies to merge
together (under certain terms and conditions etc) This allowed ITV to make the first
merge in 1994 when Granda (Channel 3) bought LWT ( London Weekend Television)
Granda then went on to own six regional licences.

During this time it was excepted that adverts between shows were linked and
related to the programme being broadcasted. For example a game show woulds
break for a car advert or The flint stones to break for a cigarette ad ,etc. Following
the development of “Independent Television” a network named in post
independence of the BBC was formerly made of of multiple companies providing
regional television services.

Each of these individual companies were broadcasting on ‘405-line VHF to provide a

local service this would involve a daily bulletin and local documentaries. Also would
be responsible for the advertisement slots on their channel. By following this measure
this ensured that all the ITV company its were working in competition with each
other and no individual broadcaster would be able to gain a monopoly over
commercial broadcasting. Within this time at ITV the services were not national the
national services were provided by Independent Television News (ITN)

There are certain consequences to manage the content that is put on onto
television screens. All shows that are broadcasted must go through OFCOM a
organisation that regulates the content that is put onto TV screens. If a programme
were to be flagged as inappropriate or breaking the guidelines then ofcom would
be contacted/ alerted. Ofcom have phone lines on their websites that people can
call if they have seen/heard something broadcasted that they find a problem with
they can contact this number.

A new law was enforced in which the BBC board would also be responsible for the
governance in within television. Meaning they will be the ones to deal with any
complaints regarding inappropriate content of any kind that has been
broadcasted. In terms of appointments processes.

Television Finance:

There are many ways in which television finances itself one of them being BBC
licence fees, which today costs each household £150.50. The price has increased
over the years. Starting off in 1946 with monochrome tv being £2 for a license.
Coloured Television licences were obligable in 1968 for £10. It climbed up in price by
the pound then in tens and by March 1985 a licence would cost you £58. Continuing
to go up in price, then slowing down in the late nineties but still going up steadily.
Starting off in 1990 at £71, by 1999 it was £101. By 2005 it was at £126.50 following
upwards to present day at £150.50 per year.

Another way television finances its self is through Advertising. The first ever advert to
be broadcasted on television was in 1941 during a baseball game on a local
channel in New York. (GOV.UK, 2018)

In terms of revenue generation created by advertisements, each channel will have

its own fees which will be decided through the time of day, before/after/during a
popular show etc etc.

In 2011 in the UK advertisements on TV raked in a massive £4.16B these figures

continued to climb and it 2015 it was at £5.27B. In 2017 figures dropped by a fraction
to £5.11b. It is estimated that in 2019 revenue will be at £5.38B.

Per Channel prices vary due to popularity of that channel how soon you want it
broadcasted etc. For example a website like ITV advertising slots can vary from £2k
to £1M depending on: The Region, Length of the commercials, time of day, The
programming environment, the time of year, the target audience and volume of
viewers.

Another method of television financing is through sponsorships. This is when a brand/

product will sponsor a tv show/channel. Essentially this will involve every time the
programme starts or breaks this ad will be played to introduce the show. For
example Keeping Up With The Karashian’s is sponsored by Pretty Little Thing, this is
very fitting for their demographic as Pretty Little Thing sell clothes that are often worn
by the Kardashians which people will be interested in as their style is often admired.

Subscriptions is another form of income for television companies. An example being

Netflix. Netflix was founded in 1997 but Reed Hasting and Marc Randolph in
California, USA. To this present year Netflix had 125 million subscribers world wide,
56.71million of these being from the USA. Netflix is a television subscription service in
which you pay monthly to have access to their content. Netflix provides original
movies and tv shows which have proven to be very popular worldwide. Examples
being ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Orange is The New Black.’

Pay per view is another example of how TV finances itself. Sky is a popular example
of pay per view television. Essentially you pay a monthly fee for your sky box and this
gives you access to hundreds of channels for your TV. Sky monthly feeds start at
around £20 p/m (the price will vary from package to package.)

There is also a income through merchandising and franchise which is a non

broadcasting method of financing. An example being the Dr Who franchise. The
abc have a shop in which you can buy merchandise from the Dr. Who series in
which fans will buy different clothing items and accessories to support the show.

Spin offs:

To present day there are so many options and different ways to watch television as
technology is so developed but things were not always this way. It all started with
mechanical television in the 19th century. This was followed by Electronic television
to colour television to digital television, to smart television to 3d.

Analogue television was the first way if viewing television a very one dimensional
system with 3 channels to choose from In black and white. But now there are so
many more options. Satellite television is a ‘newer’ technology in which television
programming use broadcasting signals to communicate through satellites. To
present day satellite television is so developed. In older times your lives would work
around television in the sense that if you favourite show was on at 7pm, you would
work around your day to watch it. Where as now you can record tv shows and play
them on demand when its convenient to you, making television way more tailored
to each person.

Cable television is system of broadcasting television programming to their paying

subscribers. (similar to sky tv) originally cable television was analog, but developed in
the 2000s switched to digital television.

There are so many ways in todays technology to view these types of tv. Obviously
one of them being a television set up but also tablets and phones. Most of these
require you to download an app in which you’re subscribed to such as Netflix and
then you are able to view from your device.
Tv regulations

There are a few different ways that television is regulated to ensure all the content
we see if appropriate and follow the guidelines that have been executed for the
safety of everyone at home. The watershed is a system that has been put into place
by OFCOM (the main regulators of television.)

Essentially the watershed is system that ensures that all content broadcasted before
9pm is child friendly meaning shows can not include any sexual content, graphic
imagery or swearing etc. 9pm is when the watershed begins and any content that
was previously stated may resume play. When the watershed was introduced in the
uk popular daytime television shows were no longer streamed during the day shows
like Malcom in the middle, The Simpsons and Doctor Who were all moved to
watershed hours. That being said there are still guidelines that must be followed past
9pm, all content will still be monitored by OFCOM. The watershed doesn’t allow any
content to be played it just means that the slightly more mature content can be
broadcasted but this will still be in control of Ofcom.

These guidelines were put into place by after the Broadcasting Act of 1990 and
1996.

The broadcasting act of 1990 put into place a framework based of of any
complaints they may have received in the past about inappropriate content
previously broadcasted this was put in place for independent television companies
and radio. Once this law was put In place a few years later in 2003 Ofcom was
launched to regulate these types of media.

Ofcom is run by a board that follow the guidelines of the broadcasting act of 1990,
the communications act of 2003 along with other rules which are listed on their
website that parliament decided on. Ofcom have a number of different boards and
committees that run world wide to ensure all the guidelines are being followed.

Oftede example:

References:

GOV.UK. (2018). BBC Board Members for Scotland and England appointed. [online]
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bbc-board-members-for-
scotland-and-england-appointed [Accessed 22 Jun. 2018].

News.bbc.co.uk. (2018). BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | A short history

of the BBC. [online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/
1231593.stm [Accessed 18 Jun. 2018].