BBC

● Who owns / runs the company and what is the structure of ownership?
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is a public service broadcaster. In essence, no one ‘owns’ the
BBC. It is mainly funded by the British Public through Television Licence fees. This is made to the
government and the BBC are then handed a portion of that. It is run by a board of people, the current
head of board being n​on-executive Chairman, Sir David Clementi.

● What type of institution is it? – public service, independent, multinational, cross media,
conglomerate? – what does this mean?
The BBC is a public service institution. This means the main purpose is for the benefit of the public, not
only for commercial purposes. Another important factor is that this type of institution is a non-profit
organisation. OFCOM do have certain regulations that must be followed in order to keep their license to
broadcast.

● What product(s) does it make, and what purpose do they have? – educate, entertain etc. –
fiction, non-fiction, magazines, newspapers, children’s programming etc…
The BBC are host to a huge range of television programmes and radio stations. They educate through
documentaries, and entertain through soap operas, dramas children's entertainment and game shows (to
name just a few). Television broadcasts first started in 1932. Some of the most popular shows
broadcasted on the BBC include Strictly Come Dancing, Teletubbies, Eastenders, and Match Of The Day.
The BBC first started radio broadcast in 1922, now (2018) there are a whole array of stations such as
BBC Radio 1,2,3 4 Extra, 5 Live, 6 Music and SO many more. Currently, in the UK there is around 50
BBC radio stations, and 9 television channels. They also have an online service, BBC iPlayer, which acts
as tv on demand.

● How do the different parts of the institution interact to the needs of the products produced
and the needs of the audience?
The bbc make different content such as nature, crime, soap operas, sport, news, and childrens shows,
and therefore have different departments for these segments. This means the BBC can appeal to a larger
audience, which is relatively all of the demographic groups, leading to a rise in viewings. BBC's remit is to
educate, inform and entertain the audience. Synergy, horizontal and vertical integration come into play
because BBC also produce magazines, website content and radio. These are conglomerate strategies,
but it is all under one business, so they can appeal to a much larger audience.

● Explain the market position of the company. How does it compare against its competitors?
Who are the companies’ competitors?
The BBC are one of the biggest broadcasting organisations nowadays, but they hold great competitors. I​ n
2016, the BBC had 32.14% of market share in the UK. The largest competitor, ITV, arised in 1955
and quickly began broadcasting. In 2016, ITV had a decreased market share of 21.35%. Today, ITV
host shows such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, The X Factor, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of
Here, and just recently the NTA’s. These, arguably are some of the biggest programmes of our
century to date.
Here, are the recent statistics in November 2017. As you can see, BBC had 31.39% share, and ITV
had only 22.40%.
Here, are the radio statistics. Main competition comes from Heart and Capital.

● What advantages and disadvantages do the company have over their competitors?
One main advantage the BBC have over competitors is that they also broadcast on radio. BBC radio has
millions of monthly listeners. This could mean listeners know that BBC are a reliable streaming service
and therefore watch their television channels. BBC are publicly funded, whereas ITV are a private
company and get revenue through advertisements. An advantage to the BBC is that they make all their
own content, much like Netflix originals, so they have full control over what they broadcast. This is great
because they can keep track of statistics, and if for example, comedy is getting a lot of views, they can
create a new television programme top appeal to the audience because they know it is successful. They
don't have to pay external media companies to broadcast the show, like ITV do, but they do have all the
production and distribution costs which can be in the region of £2,512,790 per series. BBC have had
complaints that they repeat a lot of shows just to fill empty slots, and produce shows that are too much
the same. Overall, BBC have a lot of advantage over ITV because they are in control of their own
success, ITV have to rely on deals they make to see what they can broadcast and have to pay for that.