Academic literature on the topic 'Television production companies'

This article analyses the production cultures of two film and television companies in the United Kingdom – RED Production and Warp Films – by discussing the companies formation and identity, aims and ethos, internal structures and their networks of external relationships. The article argues that although managing directors and senior personnel exercise considerable power within the companies themselves, the companies depend on the extent to which they are able to engage with other industry agents, in particular the large-scale institutions that dominate the film and television industries. By situating analysis of these negotiated dependencies within shifting macroeconomic, historical and cultural contexts, the article argues that the increasing power of multinational conglomerates and the cultural convergence between film and high-end television drama marks a threshold moment for both companies which will alter their production cultures significantly.

While the development of commercial television advertising in Britain is often framed in the context of the American model, this paper will argue that London advertising agencies looked across the Channel to French and Dutch production companies and personnel, particularly in the first five years of commercial television, from 1955-1960. Using case studies, this paper will illustrate the involvement of these Continental companies and personnel on the production of advertising films for British commercial television, and identify the reasons why they were replaced by their British counterparts from the early 60s.

Recent technological and market changes in the television industry appear to have transformed the corporate configurations which conduce to economic success in the production industry. As a result, many leading independent television production companies in the United Kingdom and elsewhere across Europe have become prime targets for corporate activity and many have been subject to takeover, often by the US media groups. Does this matter? Does the concept of ‘national’ television content still have any relevance in the digital era? Drawing on a multiple-case-study-based analysis of several UK-based television production companies over recent years, this article examines how corporate takeovers in the production sector may affect creative decision-making and impact on the nature and quality of television content. Against a background of increased investment interest from multinationals in indigenous players in the United Kingdom and across Europe, the analysis presented makes a timely and policy-relevant contribution to knowledge.

Over recent years leading independent television production companies in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe have become prime targets for corporate activity, and many have been subject to takeover, often by US media groups. Why is it that nurturing the development of television production companies which achieve scale but, at the same time, remain independent appears to be so challenging? This article considers which factors are crucial to the success of television production businesses and argues that, besides the ability to make compelling content, two key variables which strongly affect commercial success and sustainability in this sector are, first, effective management and exploitation of intellect property rights (IPRs) and, second, scale and configuration of activities. Focusing primarily on the latter, it analyses how changing technological and market conditions are affecting the advantages conferred by size and by adopting differing cross-ownership configurations thus, in turn, fuelling current processes of industrial re-structuring.

The pattern of news production in the Indonesian television broadcasting industry generally uses two human resources, namely permanent journalists and temporary journalists. Regular journalists are organic employees of television companies. Meanwhile, journalists who are not permanent or contributors only work under a news sale and purchase contract. They are not the organic employees of the television company. They only get honorarium when the news airs. As a result of such a working relationship, the contributors' bargaining position is very weak in front of the television station management. The coverage and news agenda will follow the tastes of television stations. News coverage that is at risk of not airing will be avoided. As a result, there has been neglect of the ideal function of the media in serving the public interest. Based on the political economy theory of media, there has been a commodification of labor in the television news production process. The object of this research is the process of commodification of contributors in the production of television news.Meanwhile, the subjects of this study were television contributors, and news producers of Jakarta television stations.Other contributors who became research informants were in West Java and Ambon. This research uses a qualitative approach with a case study method. Collecting data using in-depth interviews, observation and literature study. The results showed that there has been a commodification of contributors in the production of television news. Television management exploits contributors. Television management promotes false consciousness among contributors who are unaware of the commodification. Pola produksi berita pada industri penyiaran televisi Indonesia umumnya memanfaatkan dua sumber daya manusia, yakni jurnalis tetap dan jurnalis lepas. Jurnalis tetap adalah karyawan organik dari perusahaan televisi. Sementara jurnalis lepas atau kontributor hanya bekerja berdasarkan kontrak jual beli berita. Mereka bukan karyawan organik perusahaan televisi. Mereka hanya mendapat imbalan honor ketika beritanya ditayangkan. Akibat dari hubungan kerja semacam itu, posisi tawar kontributor sangat lemah dihadapan manajemen stasiun televisi. Agenda peliputan dan berita akan mengikuti selera stasiun televisi. Peliputan berita yang berisiko tidak tayang akan dihindari. Akibatnya terjadi pengabaian fungsi ideal media dalam melayani kepentingan publik. Makalah ini hendak membedah proses komodifikasi kontributor berdasarkan teori ekonomi politik media. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan metode studi kasus. Objek dari penelitian ini adalah proses komodifikasi kontributor dalam produksi berita televisi. Sementara itu subjek dari penelitian ini adalah para kontributor televisi, dan para produser berita stasiun televisi Jakarta. Kontributor lain yang menjadi informan penelitian berada di wilayah Jawa Barat dan Ambon. Pengumpulan data dengan menggunakan wawancara mendalam, observasi dan studi literatur. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan telah terjadi komodifikasi kontributor dalam produksi berita televisi. Manajemen televisi melakukan eksploitasi tenaga kontributor. Manajemen televisi mempromosikan kesadaran palsu kepada para kontributor sehingga tidak menyadari adanya komodifikasi tersebut.

Television production is a vital component of the media and a sector whose performance has important cultural and economic ramifications. In the United Kingdom, the growing prosperity of the programme-making sector – attributable partly to historic policy interventions – is widely recognized as being a success story. However, a recent wave of corporate consolidation and takeovers, characterized by many leading UK production companies being bought out and often by US media conglomerates, has raised concern about the ability of the independent production sector to flourish in an increasingly globalized and competitive digital environment for television. Although preserving indigenous television production and associated audience access to locally made content remain important goals for media policy, achieving these has become more difficult in the face of trends towards consolidated ownership and ‘the emergence of powerful transnational platforms commercialising cultural goods and services online’ (García Leiva and Albornoz 2017: 10). This article examines the challenges raised for public policy as ownership structures in the television production sector adjust in response to new distribution technologies and to the transformative forces of digitalization and globalization. Focusing on the United Kingdom as an example, it asks do we still need television production companies that are indigenous and independent in a digital world and if so why? What role can and should public policy play in supporting the sustainability of an ‘indie’ sector? Drawing on recent original empirical research into the association between corporate configuration, business performance and content in the television production sector, it reflects critically on historic and recent approaches to sustaining independent producers and it considers how, in a digital world, public policy may need to be re-imagined for a rapidly evolving television landscape.

In recent years, the Italian television scenario has become fully convergent, and social TV is an activity – and a hip buzzword – indicating both a rich set of possibilities for the audience to engage with TV shows, and an important asset developed by the television industry to provide such engagement, with promotional and economic goals. Mainly adopting the perspective of the production cultures of Italian broadcasters, the essay will explore the “Italian way to social television”, highlighting the strategies adopted by networks and production companies to encourage online television discourse and to exploit it as a content, a marketing device or a source of supplementary income.

From 1948–1952, Rudy Vallée, a successful performer whose career spanned radio, film, recorded music and stage entertainment, expanded his operations into the burgeoning US television market with the launch of his independent production company, Vallée Video. One of hundreds of forgotten companies that arose during this period to meet growing demand for programming content, Vallée Video offers an important case study for understanding animation workers’ role in postwar television production. Drawing on corporate records and films preserved in the Rudy Vallée Papers at California’s Thousand Oaks Library and the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the authors’ analysis documents Vallée’s use of freelance artists and external animation houses for work ranging from camera effects for illustrated musical shorts to animated commercials and original cartoon series. These productions demonstrate the fluid movement of animation labor from theatrical film to small screen markets and participated in larger aesthetic shifts toward minimalist drawing styles and limited character animation that would soon dominate mid-20th century US television.

This article discusses the corporate strategy of one of the most successful television production companies in Norway: Rubicon TV. Based on a historical analysis from the company’s establishment in the early 1990s until today, the article illuminates how Rubicon TV has navigated in and contributed to the changing Norwegian television landscape. Rubicon TV has gone from a supplier of popular and provocative programmes to a small group of Norwegian broadcasters to a truly digital and global industrial force which produces linear ‘flow’ programmes as well as web-TV and streaming series for both national and international players.

Web, or networked, distribution technologies have challenged the power of US media corporations, which set high technical standards for production value, a measure of content quality. Legacy TV companies privilege complex, seamless technical execution supported by large crews of workers – lighting, sound, design, visual effects – but exclude as producers culturally marginalised creators perceived as too risky for the big investment necessary to execute it. The internet disrupts these dynamics by allowing for the distribution of smaller scale TV and video productions that are independently or inexpensively made. In smaller scale work, cultural production value asserts more importance, as producers create with and for their community.

The study concerns the inter-relationship between media reform and civil society in Thailand between 1995-2000. It examines case studies of two selected television organisations - the production company Watchdog and the broadcast channel Independent Television (iTV) - and analyses their internal production decision-making processes, their public affairs programs and their urban and rural audiences. Debates about civil society and media reform between 1995-2000 influenced the government's media regulation policies to the extent that more attention was paid to media freedom as intended by Articles 39, 40 and 41 in the 1997 Constitution. Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) took an important role in monitoring government policies on media reform under the Constitution and issues about media re-regulation and ownership were canvassed, although the drawn out National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) selecting process delayed media reform. The transparency of the selection process of the NBC has been widely debated among NGOs, media scholars and media professionals. Most Thai public affairs programs in the period were shown on iTV, Channel 9 and Channel 11 and were in the minority compared with entertainment. Thai television stations normally screened entertainment programs to make profits, while they usually would not allow producers to air open debates critical of the government. Also, public affairs programs that were screened often were given inappropriate airtimes. Watchdog and iTV treated public affairs programs in different ways. Watchdog, originating from an NCO, the Creative Media Foundation, emphasized public participation in local community-oriented programs - such as Chirmsak Pinthong's Lan Ban Lan Muang - which exemplified civic journalism on television. In contrast, iTV was created in 1996 to meet the promise made in 1992 after Black May that a non-state commercial channel would be introduced. It was organised by journalists from the Nation Multimedia Company and focused on current national news issues which seldom allowed public participation. Both organisations attempted to maintain their professionalism despite political and business pressures. Chirmsak and Watchdog were accused of bias favoring the Democrat Party and often encountered program censorship. ITV staff, especially in the news department led by Suthichai Yoon and Thepchai Yong, unsuccessful fought. Shin Corps 2000-2001 takeover of the station that had been brought on by the financial problems of iTV and the Siam Commercial Bank after the economic crisis of 1997. There were three main concepts of civil society in the period 1997-2000 - Communitarianism, Self-sufficiency and Good Governance. These ideas were advanced by reformers such as Dr. Prawase Wasi and Thirayut Boonme, and were reinforced by His Majesty King Bhumibol's December 1997 Birthday Speech that endorsed the ideal of national self-sufficiency. Thai civil society debates often were involved with rural people, while the 8th National Development Plan and the Chuan government's policy on decentralisation aimed to strengthen the rural sector as an antidote to the 1997 crisis. However, the aims of civil society reformers were at times too idealistic and were viewed with skepticism by some middle class urban critics. The continuing influence of electoral corruption in rural areas also obstructed civil society ideals, while decentralisation and community development still maintained a top-down way of development and depended on government support. These difficulties in implementing pro-civil society reforms in the political process were paralleled by difficulties in developing public interest programs on Thai television. Current affairs and investigative journalism programs, such as iTV Talk, Tod Rahad and Krong Satanakarn, did not often open public discussion on the programs. Rather, the regular format of panel discussions, consisting of elites and some celebrities, tended to focus on national topics rather than local issues. The hosts of many of these public affairs programs depended on their own celebrities status and tended to invite well-known guests, whereas community-oriented programs such as Lan Ban Lan Muang and Tid Ban Tang Muang promoted civic journalism and deliberative democracy more effectively. The latter programs allowed the public to participate in the programs as the main actors and even proposed their own agendas. However, a limited study of three audience focus groups - an expert urban group, a young middle class urban group, and a rural group - found considerable scepticism about the possibility of developing public interest awareness via television programs. The expert and young middle class groups criticised both the hosts and the style of a selection of current affairs programs, which they thought were too serious and also biased. Some also considered that current affairs programs were a platform for the people in power rather than providing a space for the public. Therefore, they rarely watched them. In contrast, the rural group who participated in Lan Ban Lan Muang, believed that the program was useful for development communication. The audience gained information about other communities and used the media as the means to publicise their own community. However, they rarely watched it because the airtime of the program was the same as a popular entertainment program on Channel 3. The researcher used qualitative research methods to collect data, including indepth interviews, focus groups, participant observation, program recording and document analysis. Theoretically, the study has attempted to combine the approaches of western and Thai scholars. The main approach used to explain the relationship between the media and civil society is media and public sphere theory, as introduced by Habermas, and combined with the perspectives on media re-regulation of the Thai scholar Ubonrat Siriyusak. In terms of analysing Watchdog and iTV, the researcher used political economy perspectives to understand decision-making in both organisations. In addition, an organisational culture approach was used to explore conflicts of interest that arose in both organisations due to their different sub-cultures. Civic journalism, framing theory and development communication theory were further employed to examine the television programs and their roles in promoting the public interest and development projects, while the audience groups were considered in the context of participatory communication theory and reception theory.

In this book, Eli Carter explores the ways in which the movement away from historically popular telenovelas toward new television and internet series is creating dramatic shifts in how Brazil imagines itself as a nation, especially within the context of an increasingly connected global mediascape. For more than half a century, South America’s largest over-the-air network, TV Globo, produced long-form melodramatic serials that cultivated the notion of the urban, upper-middle-class white Brazilian. Carter looks at how the expansion of internet access, the popularity of web series, the rise of independent production companies, and new legislation not only challenged TV Globo’s market domination but also began to change the face of Brazil’s growing audiovisual landscape. Combining sociohistorical, economic, and legal contextualization with close readings of audiovisual productions, Carter argues that a fragmented media has opened the door to new voices and narratives that represent a more diverse Brazilian identity.

This chapter examines how broadcast television helped NFL Films transform pro football from a sport that appeared primarily on Sunday telecasts and evening news recaps into a spectacle that could be consumed throughout the entire week and year. It discusses NFL Films productions designed to augment and publicize exceptional National Football League (NFL) broadcast events, specifically the annual Super Bowl and ABC's Monday Night Football. It shows how NFL Films strengthened the NFL's relationship to television to attract television viewers (and sell advertising time) around the clock. The company's productions demonstrated that nonlive sports television programming could have appeal throughout the week and throughout the year. Furthermore, NFL Films anticipated and precipitated the continuous sports television that developed along with cable television.

Born in Philadelphia in 1905, Catherine Littlefield first learns dancing from her mother, Caroline (called Mommie), who was an expert pianist, and from a local dancing master, C. Ellwood Carpenter. As a teenager, Catherine becomes a Ziegfeld dancer and takes lessons from Luigi Albertieri in New York. She returns home in 1925 to help Mommie teach at the Littlefield School (among her students is Zelda Fitzgerald) and stage dances for women’s musical clubs and opera companies. William Goldman hires Catherine to produce routines in commercial theaters throughout Philadelphia and becomes her boyfriend. Catherine, Mommie, and Catherine’s sister, Dorothie, travel to Paris so the sisters can study ballet with Lubov Egorova. They become friendly with George Balanchine in Paris and help him establish his first American school and company when he comes to the United States in 1933. Catherine marries wealthy Philadelphia attorney Philip Leidy and founds her Philadelphia Ballet Company in 1935. She choreographs—and her company presents—the first full-length, full-scale production of Sleeping Beauty in the United States as well as popular ballet Americana works such as Barn Dance and Terminal. Her company’s European tour in 1937 is the first ever by an American classical ballet troupe. Catherine loses some of her protégées to the newly formed Ballet Theatre and disbands her company after the United States enters World War II; she then choreographs Broadway musicals, Sonja Henie’s Hollywood Ice Revues, and Jimmy Durante’s NBC television show before dying in 1951 at age forty-six.

New creative work began to appear in the 1990s through television culminating in the breakthrough feature film Kuldesak (1998). It became the watershed for a new generation of young Indonesians to make their own films, often through an indie philosophy. At first being indie and independent were important values, but over time and with the regularisation of production, the need for consistent capital meant more filmmakers turned to big production companies for capital. A new accommodation between creativity and capital has become the dominant mode of production in the post-1998 film industry.

Even with the entry of new filmmakers, production companies, and investors, the Indonesian film industry remains dominated by an oligopoly of old producers. In identifying this group, this chapter traces their connections back to the 1960s and their consolidation throughout the New Order. With significant presence in television production, these producers are both now wealthy and well-connected, allowing them to reassert themselves in the reformed post-1998 film industry. Largescale capital has been important to the systemisation of film production for the mainstream market but speaks to the legacy structures of the New Order.

Chapter 1 analyses the cinematic transnationality of Iñárritu through an auteurist lens suggesting that his Mexican-produced Amores perros, US-produced 21 Grams, and Babel, and Spanish/Mexican co-produced Biutiful, problematise the notion of industrial and national borders and (for the deterritorialised productions) the assumption of political co-optation by a hegemonic mainstream cinema (Hollywood) because they share the same radical and alternative aesthetics and ideologies. The chapter traces continuities and critiques across the production contexts of Iñárritu’s films from Mexican independent (privately funded) cinema in Amores perros, to a complex institutional position including US independent distributors, European Government bodies, Spanish and Mexican production companies and Spanish and Catalan television companies in Biutiful. The chapter argues that the films’ ‘independent’, non-hegemonic funding structures and presence of a mostly unchanging core creative team facilitates the singular vision at the heart of the auteurist endeavour. The chapter’s analysis of Iñárritu’s first four transnationalised film projects (Birdman and The Revenant are analysed in the Epilogue) suggests that rather than purely imitate Hollywood or US traditions (as some scholarship suggests) his films embody a perspective aligned with Mexico, Latin America and more broadly the peoples of the Global South.

The arrival of Netflix in Spain represents a complete revolution in the distribution and consumption of audiovisual content. The platform has not limited its offer to what is already available in its catalogue, but has boosted the international distribution of some Spanish productions, which were already available on local channels. At the same time the platform has established alliances with relevant production companies in Spain to create new products, providing them with the imprimatur of Netflix. The two-way relationship between Netflix and Spain, to which this chapter applies an ample and up-to-date analysis, offers an interesting glimpse at the penetration and influence of the one of the largest providers of video on-demand in the Spanish audiovisual panorama, which it is essential for understanding not only the sphere of Spanish television but also more broadly the European context.

The final chapter follows the decline of the studio system. Toward the late 1940s, political and economic factors such as the rise of television and changes in the tax code, pushed film production away from the studio system and towards a system based more and more on “spot production” or separate deals. Furthermore, the Paramount decision handed down by the Supreme Court ended vertical integration and eroded the power of the major film companies. Changes in labor practices followed, as demonstrated by the career of actors like Gino Corrado and producers like Hal Wallis. As the “stock-company” model ended, and the number of long-term contracts declined, new forces, particularly talent agents such as Lew Wasserman became the power brokers of the new Hollywood.

This chapter explores opportunities for the offshoring of assorted processes in the global entertainment and media industry. Currently, this industry is experiencing incredible growth, much of it spurred by the increased digitalization of media production around the world. The rise of digital technology, faster global connectivity, an increased quality of downloads have been the driving factors behind this growth. The filmed entertainment, recorded music, and television networks and distribution sectors of the industry will undergo major technological changes in the coming years. These changes will provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to enter the global media industry. Using venture funding, startups are utilizing offshoring concepts to create a more efficient cost-effective means of doing business. The Asia Pacific market is currently the fastest-growing region, with India leading the way with offshoring of film functions. The industry will see a change from large media conglomerates as the sole owners of all media to smaller companies offering services, in which they specialize, to these larger companies, as digital media makes it easily accessible around the globe.

This chapter explores opportunities for the offshoring of assorted processes in the global entertainment and media industry. Currently, this industry is experiencing incredible growth, much of it spurred by the increased digitalization of media production around the world. The rise of digital technology, faster global connectivity, an increased quality of downloads have been the driving factors behind this growth. The filmed entertainment, recorded music, and television networks and distribution sectors of the industry will undergo major technological changes in the coming years. These changes will provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to enter the global media industry. Using venture funding, startups are utilizing offshoring concepts to create a more efficient cost-effective means of doing business. The Asia Pacific market is currently the fastest-growing region, with India leading the way with offshoring of film functions. The industry will see a change from large media conglomerates as the sole owners of all media to smaller companies offering services, in which they specialize, to these larger companies, as digital media makes it easily accessible around the globe.

Chapter 2 uses as its starting point United Artists’ diversification during the early 1960s via European film distribution as well as television and record production. This company’s varied commercial investments informed the way it attempted to incorporate the Beatles into feature filmmaking. Yet a transmedia approach to filmmaking also defined the Beatles’ efforts to distinguish themselves from the formulaic models that characterized the film careers of Presley and British rock ’n’ roll icon Cliff Richard. By forming an autonomous media company in Apple Corps., the Beatles sought a countercultural design of industrial convergence through which they could take authorship over their own media images, explore alternative forms of cultural production in film and music, and provide an ostensible platform for unconventional creative voices. As is evident in their discourse about Apple and their creative work during and after 1967, the Beatles viewed the moving image (in short- and feature-length modes) as essential to their pursuits in music. An ensuing dispute between United Artists and the Beatles effectively put to rest the Hal Wallis model of rock stardom on screen, as (at least) the appearance of creative autonomy became intrinsic to the ideology of rock. The case of the Beatles illustrates a distinctive break in the assumed power structure between rock stars’ ideas about cinema and those of the companies that represent and produce their image.

Aymar Christian and Khadijah Costley White theorize Perry’s place in the television history, explicitly in the context of his niche production system and industrial marketing practices. Christian and Costley White critique Perry’s dominance in the televisual landscape and the numerous ways in which his direct control over his media entities has compromised not only his content but also his company’s ethics and labor practices. Given that Perry’s television successes occurred concomitant with the fragmentation of key media marketplaces and given the lack of structural changes surrounding his productions, Christian’s and Costley White’s chapter ultimately questions (and redefines) the extent to which Perry has truly been a game-changer in the television industry.

This report examines changes in the production and commissioning of Australian television drama from 1999–2019, a period marked by notable changes in the business of television in Australia and globally. More production companies now make drama in Australia; however, the fact that more companies share less than half the annual hours once produced raises concerns about sustainability. Several major Australian production companies have been acquired by foreign conglomerates and challenge the viability of domestic companies that lack access to international corporate capital and distribution. The decrease in adult drama hours commissioned by commercial broadcasters has reshaped Australian television drama more than any other change. The national broadcasters have increased their role in commissioning, particularly in children’s drama. Titles have not decreased nearly as significantly as the number of episodes per series. Commercial broadcasters’ drama decreased from an average of 21 episodes per title in 1999 to seven in 2019, a 60 per cent decrease that, along with the increasing peripheralization of soaps, has diminished available training grounds and career paths in the Australian scripted production industry.