The TV Licence

Public Ownership

Public ownership is when a media corporation is funded by the public via a TV licence. A downside to this is that the company has to  legally take advice from the public, for example; the BBC has to process all complaints and propositions posed by the public. The advantage of this is that BBC has to legally read proposed scripts and show ideas, meaning that unknown tallent has an opportunity to be picked up by a major network, an idea which could bring ratings and money to that channel. It also means that because their main source of income is from the licence fee, meaning no adverts and the audience remain glued to the TV with uninterrupted content. Unfortunately, the BBC are having to look for new ways to fiance it's shows, in Merchandise and selling permission to broadcast repeats of it's shows to the UKTV network. There is fear that the BBC could become privatised, this could mean that the corporation may need to broadcast adverts with it's shows, some people have suggested that BBC could become a subscription service like Netflix, with the switch to digital in the UK this is certainly a possibility- it would also mean that consumers wouldn't have to put up with the problem of adverts and pause and repeat features would be another possibility.

Private Ownership

Private ownership is where a corporation is owned and funded by indepentent companies and relies on shareholders to invest in new ideas. The downside to having a privately owned network is the depentance of a varying source of income, channels need adverts between and often during shows which, in a survey by the BBC, spoils or degrades the TV experience. Another source of income is from sponsors, which partially fund individual TV shows in return for their product to be featured directly before and after every break or to be featured in the show in some way. They also rely on home release sale and merchandise, BBC rely on this too as an extra form of income to fund their shows.