Task 6 - Issues in the industy

1. Task 6
By Alex Pereira

2. Ratings War
 Rating wars are based on how many views a show gets. Companies such as the BBC and ITV compete
with each other to gain the largest audience. Audience numbers are dependant on a number of
factors. Rating wars are an important element of the broadcasting phase. Advertisers look at how
many viewers a production has using ‘BARB’ and from this, they decide where they want to
advertise their product.
 They want the most people possible to view the product they are advertising and so they choose the
channel that receives the most views, to air their product on. Obviously, advertisements are another
form of income for corporations and so they want to show the advertisers their products in order to
increase their income.
 ‘BARB’ stands for ‘Broadcast Audience Research Board’ and is an organisation that deals with rating
wars and what programmes are receiving the most views. The research BARB formulates takes into
consideration a number of factors, which include, who is watching? What are they watching? When
are they watching? How are they watching? What device they will watch it on and how did the
content get to the screen? Advertisers want reports on such information. They can receive
information about the programmes that advertise on, to increase their target potential. BARB
creates audience profiles which advertisers can access.

3. Ratings War
 According to BARB, approximately £7b is invested annually into the production and distribution of a
commercial or the content of a programme. The BBC receive money from a range of sources and this
goes towards making the productions they produce, the best that they can be. There have been
many famous rating wars in recent years. Companies have fought for their television programmes to
receive the most amount of views and the key wars are ones where media is aired at peak show
time - between 7:00pm and 9:30pm on a Saturday evening.
 Both the BBC and ITV air some of their flagship programmes between these times, such as Strictly
Come Dancing. Flagships are the most popular shows that they produced, which are intended to
receive the largest audience of all the shows that they produce. Some other channels have decided
that it is not worth putting on their flagships shows at the same peak time, because they know there
is no point in competing as they won't receive the largest audience. Other channels most popular
shows are therefore aired at a separate day or time.
 ITV decided to move ‘X Factor’ because BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ was receiving more views,
and therefore ITV were losing out. ‘X Factor’ was postponed until half an hour later, to try and
increase their audience capacity and up their numbers which were being produced on BARB.
Obviously losing out on viewers means the possibility of not receiving income from advertisers and
no company wants to be in that situation, so ITV altered their original plan to boost their viewing
numbers.

4. Ratings War
 The BBC air their daily six o'clock news in the order of national stories, followed by regional ones. In
contrast, ITV have decided to show the regional stories first, followed by the national ones, simply
in order to accumulate the most viewers possible. Having different types of news on, at different
times, on different channels, allows for a more equal spread of viewings.
 BT and Sky are constantly in a ratings war battle when it comes to sports because they both want
the largest number of viewers to watch their channel. As mentioned, the larger the viewing number
is, the more money advertisers are willing to pay to air their product, sponsoring a programme. This
is an easy and effective way for companies earning large sums of money. Therefore, TV broadcasters
are in constant competition to win viewers and advertisers or sponsors.
 Netflix and Amazon are examples of a new kind of online streaming ratings battle. Both offer their
subscribers a range of exclusive programmes, which could potentially divide audience loyalty
between the two streaming services.

5. Technology (The Internet)
 The internet is a global computer network that provides a variety of information and communication
facilities. It consists of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols. The
use of the Internet has changed television and film promotion over the years in a number of ways.
One of the many ways in which it has done that is through marketing. In society, a large majority of
TV and film promotions are done through the use of online marketing.
 By marketing and promoting online, it increases a product being a film or television programme or a
company’s potential audience. In addition, the internet is a effective tool for the distribution of
different types of media, including television programmes and films. It acts as a source for people
across the world to be able to view them.
 The use of the internet also enables viewers to stream, download, buy and sell various forms of
media. In addition, the internet provides a source of communication, for people to be able to talk
freely and discuss a range of topics, including film and television, furthering its promotion.

6. Technology (The Internet)
 There are many advantages of using the internet but there are two main advantages.
The first is that the public has easier access to media material, through the use of
streaming websites such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, 4oD and ITV Hub.
 The second advantage is that it creates easy distribution for companies that are trying
to promote their project or product. With any advantages, comes disadvantages. One
of these includes companies not making as much money as they should. Different
websites may or may not ask for a viewing fee. If viewers are not asked to pay for the
service, then, technically, companies are losing out on possible gains, which they could
receive if they had their material sourced elsewhere. Another disadvantage involves
people breaching copyright laws for online material. By illegally downloading or
recording and distributing material, one who commits this crime would be committing
piracy, which bring a variety of punishments; also with the increase in technology
people are finding more ways to pirate content.

7. Technology (The Internet)
 As pirating has been seen to be a reoccurring issue, some solutions have been sought.
Some of these suggestions include companies fighting back. As a result, this would
mean that viewers won’t be able to do it or it would be increasingly hard to pirate
material, and it would be increasingly harder for the public to commit copyright acts.
In addition, as briefly mentioned, there has been the introduction of cheap and
legitimate sources to stream and screen watch material. The introduction of such
websites mean that a small fee is required to use the service, but once you have paid,
you have access to all of the material that the website has to offer. One previously
mentioned website that is highly popular for what is has to offer is ‘Netflix’. Not only
does it entitle you to TV programmes, films and specials, it also offers you exclusive
material, owned and created by ‘Netflix’ itself, such as ‘Orange is the new Black’, ‘13
Reasons Why’ and many more. This solution is used to try and encourage people to
legally stream material of high quality, yet for a small price.

8. Technology (The Internet)
 The internet is also used as a form of democracy. As a society, we now have
less reliance on television for news and entertainment as we can watch things
on catch up or on a portable device. This means that applications such as
YouTube, Netflix and Amazon prime have taken over television as audiences
have realised that they can get such media elsewhere. Television for such
reasons has had to change and adapt to meet contemporary society and its
needs. Technologies have changed and so the production of media has
evolved. Convergence has been a significant change in the media industry,
this means producers adapt their projects and products to suit their audiences
needs and wants.

9. Technology (Smartphones)
 Smartphones are a form of modern technology that have accessibility to the internet. This
new form of technology gives audiences the choice of what they want to view and where they
want to view it. That freedom of choice gives the audience a feeling and sense of power.
They are in control of what they watch and when they want to watch it, without having the
pressure of missing a show or needing to rush to a cable television to watch it. The power is
literally in their hands.
 Through the use of new technology such as smartphones, audiences are able to access a
variety of media through different sources and platforms. For example, audience members
can use the BBC app to find out current information and affairs, instead of having to wait to
watch the news at 6pm. Releasing media productions over different platforms helps both
producers and developers gain an increased amount of funding from advertisers as gaining
large audiences not only from TV but other sources can help advertisers be able to choose
which corporate company they would like to advertise with and what platform they would
like to advertise on. BARB also takes into consideration viewers that watch productions from
devices other than the common television, and therefore, the audience numbers generated,
include viewers watching media via smartphones.

10. Technology (Smartphones)
 Social media which is accessed by a range of technologies that can generate an internet connection,
such as a smartphone, is also used to help promote certain shows. Social media sites are able to
entice potential audiences by winning their hearts and minds and give them the sense that they
must watch the production. Twitter is a common social media site used to entice an audience. Both
production companies, their shows and in some cases, the shows characters all have social media
accounts in which aid to create a buzz. Social media can also be an effective way of bringing fans
and audiences as well as channels and productions themselves together, to allow them to talk about
and bond over a common theme. Deadpool is a great example of a production that has interacted
with its audience. Deadpool is a citizen of society and has his own twitter account. He comments on
post and tweets about upcoming events regarding ‘his’ movie and creates excitement amongst
audiences.
 The biggest brands and newest forms of technology are both expensive and vulnerable. Society have
seen a need to have the best technology possible but they are not all of the good that they are
shown to be. They are increasingly expensive, and valuable. They also use a large amount of
memory and storage space. The use of GPS tracking and availability to find internet connections and
signal drains a piece of technologies battery quickly.

11. OFCOM
 OFCOM stands for Office of Communications. They are the communications regulators regarding TV
programmes in the UK. They create a set of regulations that all TV programmes must follow. For
example one of these guidelines include the disallowance of racial, ethnic or cultural remarks -
coming under the protection for members of the public, and others against offensive or harmful
material in television or radio. All shows must ensure, as mentioned, that they go by Ofcom
guidelines. The main set of laws that they abide by is ‘Communications Act’ of 2003. The act says
that OFCOM’s principle duty is to further the interests of citizens and consumers - meaning that
each organisation focus’ its material on what the public would want to see and where appropriate,
promoting competition.
 Regulatory bodies are organisations that supervise the content of specific media industries and aim
to safeguard the public from offensive material. They ensure that all media companies are
publishing suitable material. If Ofcom get a significant number of complaints about a particular TV
programme then then there are concerns that a channel may have breached the Ofcom guidelines.
As a result, Ofcom will perform an investigation. This will be to see if the initial terms and
guidelines have been broken. Following this, if the programme has been seen to have breached their
contract, then they may be fined, or in a worse case scenario, the programme may be cancelled.

12. Moral Panics
 The idea and theory of ‘moral panics’ was created by Stanley Cohen in 1972. The
theory stated that a production focused on the negative aspects of a subject or
story and exaggerated upon it to create, what audiences thought felt like a
worldwide issue.
 A key issue in the industry involves moral panics going too far. If the media portray
issues that are occurring as horrific, then it will be being used in the wrong way.
The media is used to enforce a message, not scare its audience. Moral panics
occur quite often thanks, in large, to exaggerated reporting and responses to
certain groups in society. An example of this is Ebola (2015).
 An example of a television programme that includes moral panics is ‘Hollyoaks’,
this is done through the choice of storylines. In previous years, teen drinking,
teenage pregnancies and mental health issues have been featured and in turn
created panic in society. Another form of media that creates moral panics through
its use of exaggeration and possible bias opinion is the news.

13. Encoding and Decoding
 Stuart Hall's “Encoding and Decoding” is a theory that can be seen to create issues in the media
industry. This theory regards embedding a or multiple messages into a media text. The theory works
on three ways that an audiences could take a message from a media text; these three types include
preferred, negotiated, and oppositional. ‘Preferred’ regards an audience who not only understand
the message embedded into a media production but also firmly agrees with it. ‘Negotiated’ refers to
an audience who are on the fence about a message embedded into a media text. Finally,
‘oppositional’ audience’s are those who completely disagree with a message embedded into a text.
Each individual can be any of the three types of audience member. A person's choice of how they
choose to receive the message is dependent upon their culture, class, life experiences, upbringing
and many other factors.
 ‘The Inbetweeners’ is a show that first aired in 2008. It is a British coming of age sitcom. The series
follows the misadventures of suburban teenager Will (Simon Bird) and his friends Simon (Joe
Thomas), Neil (Blake Harrison), and Jay (James Buckley) at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive.
The show involves situations of school life, uncaring school staff, friendship, male bonding, lad
culture, and largely failed sexual encounters. People who are preferred accept the shows themes
and jokes. The people who are negotiated accept some of the themes and jokes although not all of
them and the people that are oppositional don’t accept any of the themes and jokes and feel that
they are unacceptable in society.

14. Uses and Gratification
 Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory (1974) is one that can be applied to any
media production. This theory suggests that media is used to satisfy the needs of the
audience. According to Blumler and Katz, there are four main needs to satisfy and each
media text could cover at least one. The four categories are diversion, personal relationships,
personal identity and surveillance. Diversion, means that a production is a form of
entertainment to distract people from the reality of society - a form of escapism into the
surreal, or another world reflecting one’s own. The second aspect is surveillance. Audiences
want to feel safe or see what not to do to jeopardize their safety. The third aspect is the use
of personal relationships, and they are used to show how other people or characters interact
with each other. Finally, personal identity is used to ensure that films to be effective in
capturing one’s attention. Audiences should be able to identify with the characters and
almost see themselves reflected within one of the on-screen characters. In media
productions, audience members should be able to connect with and identify with a / or a few
of the characters, as it can enhance the realism of the storyline and make it that much more
thrilling and believable. Each member of a production has a characteristic and personal trait
that audiences should be able to relate to. For example, you always have the characters that
are popular, smart, sporty or nerdy.