History and Ownership Model (Sky)
Sky Television was originally Satellite Television Ltd. (SATV), a consortium originally set up by Brian Haynes in November 1980. Sky was formed when Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merged in 1990. News Corporation is their parent company this is a multi million pound empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch owned 175 newspapers and owns media outlets in Australia, the UK, Europe, Asia and South America and the United States including Twentieth Century Fox , Cable Networks and 35 TV stations including Fox News and 19 regional sports channels, Sky are now the largest pay TV broadcaster in the UK and have over 10 million subscribers. As Sky is a commercial operation it is interested in making money for its shareholders by selling products through its programmes or through advertisements.
Sky Television was originally Satellite Television Ltd. (SATV), a consortium originally set up by Brian Haynes in November 1980. Sky was formed when Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merged in 1990. News Corporation is their parent company this is a multi million pound empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch owned 175 newspapers and owns media outlets in Australia, the UK, Europe, Asia and South America and the United States including Twentieth Century Fox , Cable Networks and 35 TV stations including Fox News and 19 regional sports channels, Sky are now the largest pay TV broadcaster in the UK and have over 10 million subscribers. As Sky is a commercial operation it is interested in making money for its shareholders by selling products through its programmes or through advertisements.
History and Ownership Model (BBC) BBC was the first live broadcast, and first broadcasted from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford in June 1920. BBC went from a Private company to a Public Service Corporation between 1923 and 1926. The BBC is funded by the television license which is paid for by householders and businesses who use TV and also by its commercial company BBC Worldwide which sells BBC programmes throughout the world. The BBC provide television and radio programmes nationally and locally as well as the BBC World Service which provides television and radio around the world in 28 languages. The BBC has a Royal Charter which ‘specifies that the mission of the Corporation is to "inform, educate and entertain". It states that the Corporation exists to serve the public interest and to promote its public purposes: sustaining citizenship and civil society, promoting education and learning, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence, representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities, bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.’1 |
Key Players(Sky) The key player in Sky is Rupert Murdoch. He owns the world’s second largest media conglomerate and is worth $14.9 billion. He inherited his father’s Australian media ‘the News Corporation’ and went on to create his empire. He is extremely influential as he controls so much of the media. He formed BskyB in 1990 |
Key Players (BBC)
The person in charge of the BBC is the Director General. They are appointed by the board of governors and are employed for a period of time. They are paid a salary rather than earn money through profits. The current director General is Tony Hall. He became Director General in spring 2013 after George Entwistle left.. Entwistle had the shortest term of Director General after becoming caught up in the Jimmy Saville /Newsnight scandal.
The person in charge of the BBC is the Director General. They are appointed by the board of governors and are employed for a period of time. They are paid a salary rather than earn money through profits. The current director General is Tony Hall. He became Director General in spring 2013 after George Entwistle left.. Entwistle had the shortest term of Director General after becoming caught up in the Jimmy Saville /Newsnight scandal.
Income Generation (Sky) Sky generates income from selling packages of TV and internet to customers worldwide. They sell advertising between programmes and do deals for product placement. For example they made a deal with X box so that the game Kinect Sports would appear in the pre-title sequence of Sky 1 HD’s sports panel show A League of Their Own. Sky also has betting and gaming products which are connected to sports channels and generate income. |
Income Generation (BBC) BBC raise most of its money from the license fee from householders and businesses. The foreign office provides funding for the world service and programmes are sold abroad which raise funds. The most popular programmes are Top Gear, Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing. BBC do not do product placement or advertising (apart from for their own products). |
Programming Platforms and Technologies of Production(Sky)
Sky invests a lot of money in technology to be at the cutting edge with its products and services. In April 2010 they launched Sky 3D Channel which is the first UK 3D channel. Sky have led the way with new ways of watching such as Sky on Demand and Sky Anytime and produce apps to be able to stream sky through tablets and phones.
Sky invests a lot of money in technology to be at the cutting edge with its products and services. In April 2010 they launched Sky 3D Channel which is the first UK 3D channel. Sky have led the way with new ways of watching such as Sky on Demand and Sky Anytime and produce apps to be able to stream sky through tablets and phones.
Programming Platforms and Technologies of Production(BBC) The BBC Iplayer was launched on Christmas day in 2007 and has had several makeovers since then allowing viewers to catch up with programmes they might have missed. The Iplayer can be used on a variety of operating systems including game consoles, roku and Sky. BBC contracts its technology division to a German company called ATOS. |
Development of channels/ Flagship Programmes(Sky)
Sky have many different channels with their flagship channels being films and sport. Sky gets new releases before many other media outlets and exclusive coverage of many sporting events.
Development of channels/ Flagship Programmes(BBC)
BBC’s Flagship channels are BBC1 and BBC2. They have regional aspects on these two channels which pop up throughout the day. There are also digital stations (BBC3, BBC4, Parliament Station and children’s stations (CBeebies). There are also national radio stations each appealing to a different target audience including Radio 1 (Youth), radio 2 (older music), radio3 (Classical) and radio 4 (talking about issues, plays, public interest) and radio 5 (sport)and a host of local radio stations.
Criticisms and controversies
Sky and Murdoch have had their share of controversies. The controversy Murdoch faced was accusations of phone hacking for stories which led to the closure of the News of the World.
Criticisms and controversies(BBC)
The BBC is supposed to be impartial and objective and at time it has been accused of not being. Margaret Thatcher didn’t like coverage of Northern Ireland. There have also been accusations around bias in reporting on the Iraq war, politics, ethics and religion. Other controversies include funding and over staffing. The Jimmy Saville case mentioned earlier was that Newsnight was accused of shelving a report on Jimmy Saville’s abuse so that it would not interfere with some tribute programmes they were putting out.
Audience Feedback(Sky)
As Sky is privately owned they get their feedback by what is being watched and give the audience what is popular. Diversity is risky.
Audience Feedback(BBC)
As BBC is owned by the public they do plenty of audience feedback with many shows giving the audience an opportunity to have their opinions heard. There are also audience councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which set up panels to get feedback from listeners and viewers. Diversity is encouraged to meet all license payers needs.
Here is a video of the class giving feedback on BBC and Sky -
Sky have many different channels with their flagship channels being films and sport. Sky gets new releases before many other media outlets and exclusive coverage of many sporting events.
Development of channels/ Flagship Programmes(BBC)
BBC’s Flagship channels are BBC1 and BBC2. They have regional aspects on these two channels which pop up throughout the day. There are also digital stations (BBC3, BBC4, Parliament Station and children’s stations (CBeebies). There are also national radio stations each appealing to a different target audience including Radio 1 (Youth), radio 2 (older music), radio3 (Classical) and radio 4 (talking about issues, plays, public interest) and radio 5 (sport)and a host of local radio stations.
Criticisms and controversies
Sky and Murdoch have had their share of controversies. The controversy Murdoch faced was accusations of phone hacking for stories which led to the closure of the News of the World.
Criticisms and controversies(BBC)
The BBC is supposed to be impartial and objective and at time it has been accused of not being. Margaret Thatcher didn’t like coverage of Northern Ireland. There have also been accusations around bias in reporting on the Iraq war, politics, ethics and religion. Other controversies include funding and over staffing. The Jimmy Saville case mentioned earlier was that Newsnight was accused of shelving a report on Jimmy Saville’s abuse so that it would not interfere with some tribute programmes they were putting out.
Audience Feedback(Sky)
As Sky is privately owned they get their feedback by what is being watched and give the audience what is popular. Diversity is risky.
Audience Feedback(BBC)
As BBC is owned by the public they do plenty of audience feedback with many shows giving the audience an opportunity to have their opinions heard. There are also audience councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which set up panels to get feedback from listeners and viewers. Diversity is encouraged to meet all license payers needs.
Here is a video of the class giving feedback on BBC and Sky -
My Conclusion To be honest I don’t have Sky or BBC. I stream everything online by using Netflix or an online streaming website, like project free TV. The reason that I like doing this is because there are no adverts, its instant and you can watch the TV shows in order. I don’t see why TV should be so expensive, You have to pay for your TV licence, then the monthly bill for Sky is about £30, where as you just pay a £5 a month for Netflix, or stream on-line for the cost of your wifi. All my childhood I never had Sky but always wanted it. I had the free channels like BBC, Channel 4, RTE and everything else, there was about 9 channels, and I rarely had anything to watch. I started streaming shows that I liked, like Family Guy and American Dad. It was fun to watch a series from the beginning, when I wanted to, without being interrupted by ads or having to wait until the next week to see what happened next. It was amazing. I showed my family how to do it and we slowly stopped watching live TV, until we stopped watching it completely, and then we were paying our TV licence for nothing. Now we don’t have to pay a TV license because we never watch anything live. SuRe there are some downsides, like not being able to watch the news or sport, but there is the radio, or you can read news online, or stream off BBC iPlayer. References 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Charter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/director-generals.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_iPlayer http://www.cplproductions.co.uk/news/sky-and-xbox-agree-product-placement-deal-for-sky1-hds-a-league-of-their-own.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC MurdockHNCJI Powerpoint from Faustina |