Newsdesk - Producers Role.

This weeks news within the media industry seems to be directed towards the various changes which are currently under way.

To start with the bad, Channel 4's audience levels have plummeted by 11% since 2006, they have been the worst hit by dwelling numbers of viewers out of the five terrestrial channels. These channels need to find a new way of re-capturing the public, or terrestrial television is a thing of the past?

Microsoft seems to be trying to take dominance of the web, by tying up with Multimap in order to compete with Google's map utilities such as Google Earth and Google Map. They have also recently invested £117 million in the social networking site we all know, Facebook. This could allow them to reach out to specific target audiences, and find out exactly what people want.

Another internet site, Youtube has offered some of its high ranking users the ability to earn money through advertisers on their site. The scheme called AdSense could lead another step forward within V.o.D. Technology.

Recently it has been found that 68% of the UK's internet users would like to stream and download high quality movies, while only 40% would be willing to pay for this service. Ofcom's recent broadband test speeds have also proven that the majority of the population will only get 39% of their promised internet speed.

Ofcom has also been researching the effects of restricting junk food advertising aimed at a young audience. They have discovered a 20% reduction in the viewing of these sort of advertisements, the new target audience seems to be towards healthy people by advertising healthy alternatives to junk food.

Ofcom has also been auctioning off airwaves which will be freed up during the digital switch-over, making room for new things such as; new channels-including localised, high speed mobile broadband and broadband delivered through radio waves.

Media Consumption Over a 2 Week Period

Friday
Wake up to Radio 1
Read The Sun
Listen to iPod
Watched Reqiuem for a Dream
Browsed Youtube
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Saturday
Watched Scrubs
Listened to music
Read FHM
Watched rugby in the pub
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Sunday
Checked myspace/facebook
Watched Natural Born Killers
Browsed Youtube
Listened to music

Monday
Listened to music
Played PS
Listened to more music
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Tuesday
Woke up to Radio 1
Watched Goodfellas
Browsed Youtube
Listened to music
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Wednesday
Listened to music
Watched Boondock Saints
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Thursday
Woke up to Radio 1
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Friday
Woke up to Radio 1
Listened to iPod
Listened to music
Browsed Youtube
Checked Myspace/Facebook


Saturday
Listened to music
Checked Myspace/Facebook
Watched Scrubs
Watched South Park

Monday
Watched Family guy
Listened to music
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Tuesday
Listened to music
Browsed Youtube
Checked Myspace/Facebook

Wednesday
Listened to music
Browsed Youtube
Checked Myspace/Facebook
Browsed Liveleak

Thursday
Woke up to Radio 1
Checked Myspace/Facebook
Listened to music
Watched Dane Cook

BBC Bosses Warned

Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of The BBC Trust has warned management that they will be watching the children's department very closely.

This comes after a 10% budget cut was placed on the department due to the BBC not getting the license fee that they requested.
With many broadcasters cutting down on their child orientated programming, due to the severe lack of commercial interest, BBC1 remains to be the only analogue linear broadcaster to show these programs after a regular school time.
Lyons has promised that the trust are going to keep a close eye on the quality of programming intended for children, and make sure that the standard doesn't fall.

It is a pure shame that quality children's programs are becoming so few and far between, as I remember myself getting up at stupid-o'clock in the morning to watch my cartoons as a child.

Videogram License (for video cassette, optical laser disc, home video product)

"Music licensing is the process by which songwriters, in theory, get paid for their work. In much the same way you don't own that copy of Doom or Windows, a purchaser of recorded music does not own the music, they own the media that music is stored on, and they have a limited right to use the music for themselves, so long as 'using' doesn't mean 'making unlicensed copies of' or 'broadcasting' the recorded work." - Wikipedia

You need to obtain a license because when you buy a music music track you are only paying for the right to listen to it yourself, not to distribute or play in the public domain.

In order to license a music track for a DVD, you would need first research who owns the copyright of the material you want to use, such as a record label like SonyBMG or Columbia records. You should also consult a music clearance and licensing expert to help with whatever you may need and get the process of licensing the track underway.

I found a website which has very cheap music licenses with a vast array of artists and music genres. www.beatpick.com
On this site I calculated that for a track on a DVD which had the following properties (Not in credits, background or source music, licensed for Europe only and a budget of less than 50,000 euros) it would cost £181.88 for the license.
This website encourages people to submit their own music and get paid through their licenses. Once you pay for the CD or other form of media, the tracks are yours to do with as you please.
For non-commercial usage, the site also has a Creative Commons License (http://www.beatpick.com/creative_commons.php), which allows the media to be used for non-commercial usage, such as students doing projects!

You could also use a Copyleft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft) license, which allows you to use and modify peoples creative work, but only as long as your work is freely available for others to do the same.

"Copyleft may also be characterized as a copyright licensing scheme in which an author surrenders some but not all rights under copyright law. Instead of allowing a work to fall completely into the public domain (where no copyright restrictions are imposed), copyleft allows an author to impose some but not all copyright restrictions on those who want to engage in activities that would otherwise be considered copyright infringement. Under copyleft, copyright infringement may be avoided if the would-be infringer perpetuates the same copyleft scheme." - Wikipedia

Another way to reduce the costs of music tracks, is to use Copyright/Royalty free music, where once you buy the CD you're free to use the tracks as much as you like in your productions. I found a website called AkmMusic (http://www.akmmusic.co.uk/) which supplies many big companies, as shown in the graphic I stole from their site.

The licence covers the following:
Television
Radio
Corporate Video/DVD
Training Video/DVD
Commercial Video/DVD
Point of Sale Video/ DVD
Amateur Video/DVD
Photographic Presentations
Message on Hold
Multimedia Presentations
Media Courses
Websites
Podcasts

Another way of course, is simply to make your own music tracks, using programs such as Soundtrack Pro. Or even record an unsigned band you know.
Personally I would go either with the Copyright Free license because of sheer simplicity of it, and you can re-use the tracks you are given multiple times. Otherwise if I am on a really tight budget, I would simply make my own tracks.

Taste & Decency

"What are the rules on Taste & Decency?
The advertising codes state that advertisements should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

The codes also require that special care is taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability.

When the ASA council decides wether an ad complies with the codes it will judge on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards of decency." ASA Educational Pdf File.

These codes keep what adverts are seen by the general public in order, so that they don't offend the majority of people that would be viewing them. They also make sure that social boundries are not crossed, and don't influence people to judge according to social stereotypes.

Social Responsibility

These codes ensure that viewers will not be harmed mentally, or encouraged to do irrisponsible things.
These include:
Advertising a product that makes children feel inferior unless they have it, making them pester their parent or guardian until they get the product. Or any sort of advertising that could harm a childs perception of morals.
Material that could be found shocking to certain viewers, such as disturbing images.
Scenes that encourage irisponsibility and unsafe behavior.
Advertising products which could be hazardous to peoples health, or falsly misleading people to think the product is something which it isn't.

Children and Advertising

As said above, you cannot encourage children to pester their guardians for the advertised product.
You cannot show other children in dangerous situations, which children may try to copy.
Having an advertising ploy aimed at making children feel inferior if they don't have your product.
Aiming adverts for sugar products such as cereals, chocolate or soft drinks at children.
No images of children in any sexual way, including dressed up, in makeup etc.

Radio Program Treatment

Treatment

You get home on a Thursday night, and think to yourself, what am I doing with myself this weekend? The answer is simple, tune in to “Live at Nine!” and find out what live music is in and around your local area! This show will also broadcast extracts from the gigs they have advertised, as well as host interviews with the bands, and competitions for tickets to various gigs.

Cast:
There will be two young, upbeat presenters who can keep the audience engaged with the program.

Locations:
This show would be recorded from both inside the studio and out at the various gigs.

Mood style:
The mood will be very upbeat, and will get people geared towards going out on the weekend and see the various gigs happening.
The type of music played will be a mixture of Rock, Punk, Ska, Drum n Bass, Dub, and other “young” music which people enjoy to see live.

At the end of this show we want to leave listeners prepped and exited for the weekend to come. Knowing exactly what they want to do with themselves, people are bound to have a good weekend, and thats exactly what this radio program is going to help people do - have a good time!

ITV - Independent Television

Ownership:
"ITV was formed after the merger of Carlton and Granada in February 2004. The broadcaster has interests in GMTV, media company SMG, Ireland’s TV3 Television Network, Australia’s Seven Network as well as football clubs Arsenal and Liverpool. It owns the terrestrial TV Channel ITV1 and free-to-air digital channels ITV2 and ITV3. The company also operates a leading cinema screen advertising business in the UK and has similar joint ventures in Europe and the US."
Found here is quite an informative forum thread which I aquired this information from.

I also found out that of the 13 networks which merged/got taken over on this venture, only Granada still exists in it's original form. Their success has much to do with their very successful soap Coronation street, which they earn around £60 000 per episode.

ITV's chairman is former BBC chairman Michael Grade who joined them in late 2006 after Michael Allen resigned. Although other companies such as BskyB own large portions of ITV.

Funding & Revenue:
The majority of ITV's revenue comes from advertising and media companies, which want their products promoted in the primetime slots. I also found the blog of an independant business owner who joined ITV, this is called the ITV Ventures™’ Opportunity. The blog and more information about it can be found here.
ITV also wants to expand into interactive TV gambling for a source of more money, as can be found here.
ITV has been facing financial trouble for the past few years and has been close to shutting down a few times, as shown in this news article I found here.
Their main funders Carlton and Granada are refusing to put further money into ITV.

Means of Distribution:
ITV's main form of distributing its media is of course, through television. Although they also have a website which you can find various sorts of information you want, and even catch up on any soaps or programs you may have missed.

On the internet they also own a website called Friends Reunited, which is a site dedicated to finding any of your old schoolfriends and peers. This is exactly what Rupert Murdoch, owner of BskyB did by buying Myspace, another popular but more young peer website. By doing this he can advertise on the site as much as he wants.

ITV's interactive TV and Broadband service will bring many new opportunities, such as:

• Producers get design freedom, a standard way of developing interactive programming, advertising and services that can be deployed to all platforms, and the ability to create an interactive storyline while editing their on-air programming for shows in production today
• Networks can distribute their interactive programming to a larger base of potential interactive viewers and give their viewers complete choice and flexibility around how they interact with a show
• Sponsors get broader reach for their two-way interactive advertisements, which provide valuable consumer feedback and data
• Cable and satellite operators are able to provide greater value for their digital subscribers and increase revenues with access to interactive applications including enhanced television programming, interactive advertising, games, managed content and virtual channels
• 3rd Party Developers can develop software and authoring tools that will be compatible with existing interactive solutions and distribution platforms

Found on ITV's standards website, which is worth a read, here.

Table taken from Wikipedia, this table shows the media which ITV are involved in.

Companies	ITV plc · SMG plc · UTV plc · Channel Television Ltd · GMTV Ltd
ITV Franchises	Northern Scotland: Grampian · Central Scotland: Scottish · Scottish/English Border and Isle of Man: Border · Northern Ireland: UTV · North East England: Tyne Tees · Yorkshire/Lincolnshire: Yorkshire · North and North West England (Weekdays): Granada · North, Midlands, and North West England (Weekends): ABC · Wales and the West of England: TWW, WWN, ITSWW, HTV · Midlands: ATV, Central · East Anglia: Anglia · London (Weekdays): Rediffusion, Thames, Carlton · London (Weekends): ATV, LWT · South and South East England: Southern, TVS, Meridian · South West England: Westward, TSW, Westcountry · Channel Islands: Channel
National franchises	Breakfast: TV-am, GMTV/GMTV2 · Teletext: ORACLE, Teletext Ltd.
Non-franchise regions	STV · ITV Thames Valley · ITV London
Digital channels	ITV2 · ITV3 · ITV4 · CITV Channel · Men & Motors
News	ITN · ITV News
Sport	ITV Sport
Gaming	ITV Play
Children	CITV
Weather	ITV Weather
Mobile	ITV Mobile
Online	itv.com · ITV Local · Friends Reunited
See Also	ITV television presentation · ITV Digital
Independent television regulators	ITA (1955-72) · IBA (1972-91) · ITC (1991-2003) · Ofcom (2003-present)

Audience:
ITV seems to be geared towards a very wide audience range with programs ranging from the Simpsons, to Soaps, to programs such as countdown (which a much older audience would watch).
The majority of the programs on ITV are for the teen-middlage range by having lots of soaps, movies and young dramas. This would make the channel more a family channel, which people can get home from work and watch together as a family, instead of fighting over te romote control.



Formats/Types of programs:
The majority of programs on ITV, as said in previous section, are Soaps and serials. These programs have people tuning in every day to find out what is happening in their favourate soap stars lives.
An interesting news article about one of Michael Grade's plans for the future of ITV and its content can be found here.
They also play the occasional movie at night from around 8pm onwards.
Their format has quite a relaxed feel to it, with not much news or programs geared around current world events, which makes it a relaxed channel which you can tune in to and escape the stresses of the real world. Although they do have their own seperate news channel as well, ITN.

For example of ITV's guide, click here.