Focusing on the growing power of transnational media corporations in an increasingly globalized environment for distribution of television content, and on the effects of mergers and acquisitions involving local and independent television production companies, this book examines how current and recent re-structurings in ownership across the television industry reflect changing business models, how they affect creativity and diversity of television output, and to what extent they call for new approaches to regulation and policy. Based on a major study of the UK production sector as a case study, it offers a unique analysis of wider transformations in ownership affecting the television production industry worldwide and of their economic, socio-cultural and policy implications.

Provides a forensic and empirically grounded examination of how and why seismic shifts have taken place in the structure of ownership of the television production industry Draws on interviews with leading television executives and industry stakeholders and on extensive ground-breaking quantitative analysis of company data and programme content Offers major advances in understanding the economic and socio-cultural significance of restructurings of ownership in the television industry and examines the wider interplay between cultural production, indigeneity and globalisation

Autorentext
Gillian Doyle is Professor of Media Economics and directs Glasgow's MSc in Media Management. A former President of the Association for Cultural Economics International, she has led funded projects for the OECD, Council of Europe and UK research councils and her research on media economics, policy and on the impact of digitisation has been published in several languages.

Richard Paterson is former Head of Research and Scholarship at the BFI where he had been on the staff for more than 30 years. He has published widely on film and television industry issues and led two major longitudinal research projects in the 1990s: the Television Audience Tracking Study and the Television Industry Tracking Study. Kenny Barr was a post-doctoral researcher on the Television Production in Transition project based in CCPR. Funded by a Lord Kelvin/ Adam Smith Scholarship his doctoral research investigated music copyright in the digital age. His main research interests centre on creative and commercial decision making and intellectual property.

Inhalt

Why does TV production matter.- 2. International trends in TV production.- 3. The history and development of the UK TV sector: From minnows to sharks.- 4. Configuration and business performance in TV production companies.- 5. Scale, independence and economic sustainability in TV production.- 6. How ownership of TV production companies affects configuration and content.- 7. Cultural production, indigeneity and globalisation.- 8. Implications for media-related public policy.