The BBC is a public service broadcaster and operates under Royal Charter. This means that everything is produced with the British publics’ best interests in mind and it is there mainly to entertain, educate and inform. It is owned by The Crown on behalf of the British public. By being a public service broadcaster, the BBC has to follow certain guidelines and provide certain information to us. Channels under the BBC name also contain no adverts in between programmes, unless they are to do with the BBC. This is very different to a commercial enterprise such as Time Warner. As they are not a public service broadcaster they do not have such restrictions.
Time Warner is a media corporation which was formed due to the merge of Time Inc. and Warner Communications in 1990. It is sectioned now into Home Box Office, Time Inc., Broadcasting System and Warner Bros.They have around 200 subsidiaries worldwide and have become completely global due to its profits from the USA falling and rising everywhere else. They produce almost everything including TV, film, music, video games, music, publishing and cable.
The BBC is funded essentially by the public due to the licence fee. Everyone who owns a TV and watches it (or watches/records TV content as it is broadcasted e.g. on computers, phones etc.) automatically has to pay the annual sum of £145.50. This works out to be £12.13 per month or just under 40p per day. However some people still choose to keep the old fashioned black and white TV which comes in at a cheaper cost on the licence fee at £49 per annum. The breakdown of the licence fee per month per household is as follows:
• TV - £7.96
• Radio - £2.11
• Online - £0.66
• Other - £1.40 Costs (e.g. digital, investments in new technology, running costs)
The BBC make part of their income out of things such as subscriptions. You can subscribe to a few magazines that they produce such as Countryfile, Good Food, Focus, Gardeners World, History and many others for a small fee. These provide you with a copy every month for a year. There are usually a few benefits to subscribing and these are usually what draw the public in.
The catch up BBC iPlayer has been rumoured to launch a pay per view version. This will be another way for the BBC to gain more income as it is aimed to bring in+ overseas consumers. This pay per view version would mean that overseas viewers could watch programmes such as Torchwood, Top Gear and Doctor Who up to 7 days after they had been broadcast here in the UK. This project was developed by BBC Worldwide, which is a subsidiary of the BBC, who believe that overseas viewers would be prepared to pay their equivalent of £6 per episode for shows such as Torchwood. An issue with this project is that it will require even faster broadband due to higher demand for online streaming.
Advertising and sponsorship lie with one section of the BBC. They can provide more funding for the BBC and can improve a consumer’s experience. If things go wrong in this department it can cause damage to the BBCs reputation and their commercial relationships. A set of guidelines have been written to protect their reputation stating what types of advertising and sponsorship are suitable for the BBC brand. These guidelines were agreed by the BBC Editorial Standards Board and apply to all of the BBC Commercial services and ventures e.g. TV, Radio, iPlayer, Magazines. These guidelines are applied in addition to the advertising regulations that already stand for the UK e.g. Advertising Standards Authority. They would have a designated member of editorial staff who will take it upon them to make sure that anything that is broadcast complies with the guidelines. This person would be referred to as the ‘Advertising Standards Guardian’ (ASG). This job role is really important and they have to keep a record of all of the referrals and approvals made. When it comes to publishing things such as
