Case Study - BBC worldwide

1. Visit the BBC worldwide website and find out more about the products and commercial activities that they are involved in 

The BBC worldwide company is a commercial run business, this means they aim to make profit. The majority of profit they make gets forwarded over to the BBC. Whatever actions BBC worldwide carry out they have to abided for or achieve these set out guidelines, Fit with the BBC’s public services set out in the charter, Be commercially efficient, Not jeopardise the good reputation of the BBC or the value of the brands, Comply with the BBC’s fair trade guidelines and avoid distorting the market. BBC own BBC worldwide and it is BBC’s duty to ensure they follow the guidelines given and meet targets for the BBC.

The reason BBC worldwide has been put in place is to essentially advertise BBC. There job is to make BBC a well known popular brand overseas. They have to advertise what BBC is like what it offers etc. The result of BBC worldwide doing this has improved BBC’s audience and profit significantly , these where some of the final figures that BBC achieved due to BBC worldwide playing a part in exploiting BBC. In 2012/13 the company saw headline sales rise by 3% to £1,116m - exceeding the £1bn mark for a fifth year.  Profit for the year 2012/13 rose 1% to £156m.

2.   Why is research such an important activity for them?

It is crucial for the BBC worldwide company to carry out their audience research, the reason this type of research is essential for them is so they have a good understanding of the type of demographic of people they should be targeting. If they know the type of people to target it will be a quicker less time consuming and costly process for them to commercialise BBC’s products. They will have the ability to easily identify what BBC media product will suit the consumer. Market research is also a good part so BBC world-wide have an idea of who they may be up against.

3.  Can you understand why some commercial rivals are unhappy with BBC worldwides operations

Case Study - Protecting your rights and earnings

1. Why do you think music artists and other people working in the media are concerned about the digital reproduction of their work?
   When a music artist produces a new song they need to ensure that it is copywrited straight away.  The reason material like this has to be copywrited is so their work cannot get stolen used or copied by anyone else. Copywrite procedures are also in place so that if anything related or to do with their work comes up then they are informed about it.
   Most artists have a cause for concern about their work being downloaded by consumers. The reason artists have these concerns are because a lot of music is downloaded and streamed illegally by consumers  for free, if this way of getting music continues that means the artists are going to be paid less for their music as most consumers are receiving it for free. Even some music download company’s like Spotify don’t pay the artists providing the music very much money. This worry’s the majority of artists because they want their music to be heard but are not being paid fair money from company’s who are streaming their material. For example a band called ECM told Spotify they were not allowed to use their music as they felt Spotify did not pay them enough money.
   If Spotify decided to raise the fee that customers have to pay, this would mean they would have more money to pay artists a fair wage. It will also mean that more artists/bands will want their material on Spotify as they are being paid a good amount of money.  It is likely that consumers will be willing to pay more money to have more choice of music.
   This is the Spotify logo that represents Spotify

1. Why is a website such as this a help to organisations like the PRS?
   The website fairplayforcreators is linked with PRS; PRS have designed this website to help keep consumers informed of recent news on the issues of artists not receiving enough royalties. Fairplayforcreators informs and educates its readers on what PRS is and gives its audience a good understanding of what PRS are trying to achieve.
   The website states what their targets and aims are, they want all music to be free for consumers to enjoy and they believe artists should be given a fair amount of money.
   The reason the concerns over music not being free and available to customers arose in the first place is because google removed an artist/band from YouTube and no longer made it available to consumers for free. PRS believe google should pay the artists a fair wage to keep them on YouTube.
2. What might happen if sites like YouTube are forced to pay too much money to show digital media content on their website?
   If YouTube where to ever be in this situation then they may start charging people to use   YouTube. This means YouTube might set out a monthly fee that has to be paid and all people paying must be a member of YouTube. This could either make a lot of money for them which then allows them to pay the artists showing their content a fair wage, however, this may lose YouTube loads of customers due to the new fee that has been put in place.
    Above is the YouTube logo which is recognised by millions. If YouTube make the decision to add a fee which all consumers have to pay then this will affect their logo. The reason the logo may be affected is because if YouTube makes customers pay and then it doesn’t go right and they lose all their customers they are going to have to rebrand and design a new logo so consumers don’t see the logo and think that this site charges a fee.

Methods and Sources (Secondary Research)

Secondary Research

Secondary research is a form of research that already exists. All of the data and information you will need has already been researched by other people and organisations. An example of secondary research is something like a newspaper or the internet. The internet provides thousands of secondary research that is available to use. The purpose of using secondary research is to gather together valid and factual information. An advantage of using secondary research is you have all the information you need already on the internet or elsewhere. But a negative is the data you are gathering may not be correct.

Book/Journals - All of these forms of secondary research can be found via a library, book store, personnel books as well as through school facilities. Books are an extremely useful tool to use when trying to gather information together. They are very organised with the use of a content page. The content page allows you to fast track to sections and certain text in the book that is useful to what you are looking for. This saves you time when you are researching and trying to gather specific media research together. Some content pages are more specific than others, but they are all very useful to use. A journal is something that can be used to track daily events in media happening, you can also get a periodical.

Directories - This type of information can be found via a book or website, the information given is numbers addresses etc.

Periodicals - This type of secondary research is similar to a journal or article. It is news information and updates that is updated frequently. It will normally be published on a magazine or a newspaper.


Newspaper - A newspaper is printed information on many different A3 sized pages. There are many types of newspapers that give out different information. Newspapers can be out all of the time, there are daily newspapers weekly and even monthly ones.

There are three main newspaper types that help put newspapers into category's, the first one is a tabloid newspaper. A tabloid newspaper is the most popular of all the newspapers. Many copies are made using a tabloid format. The types of newspapers you will find in a tabloid format is The Sun, tabloid newspapers are smaller and easier to read. The second is a broadsheet. A broadsheet newspaper is the opposite of a tabloid newspaper, it targets a very niche audience compared to a mainstream one. The content in a broadsheet newspaper is full of text instead of imagery. As a rule reports in broadsheets are more rigorously researched and edited. Therefor from the point of view of a media students they carry more weight and cudos. The size of a broadsheet newspaper is almost double in size, it is the largest of all the newspaper types.

Broadsheet Newspaper Format

Various different tabloid newspapers

As you can see there is a significant difference in size

Film Archives - A film archive is a list of films, there is also a film archive forum which updates new information often. If you visit this website,
http://www.screenonline.org.uk, go to the film link then films by decade it gives you a detailed list of all the films that have been made and aired over the years. You are able to click on the films and get an in depth description of the film itself. On some films you are able to see clips.

All of the above images are a list of a handful of films from different generations

Photo Libraries - A photo library is similar to a normal library except photos and images are stored instead of books being stored. In photo library's there are collections of images varying from extremely old to brand new.  Some of these images are available to people either for free or a small fee. A lot of individuals/company's may want to buy images from a photo library instead of having to hire a photographer themselves.

Above are images of a photo library website I found. These images are for a specific audience as it targets science.

Worldwide Web - The worldwide web is a form of research that is available to everyone for free. If you need specific information you may need to sign up for things or pay money, the majority of information is available for free. The worldwide web is made up of links to websites and secondary information.

Searching internet forums - bing/yahoo Searching an internet forum can be done via the internet. Internet forums are really useful for detailed information, you will also get first hand responses from individuals.

This is one of the popular bing logo's

This is the yahoo logo

Google Logo

Bing - Bing is the most recent search engine that has come out, it is also the least popular but it does target some people specifically. The main reason bing is not extremely popular is because people don't really know about the search engine and have never given it a chance. Bing has different features to google which separates it from google. On a website I researched I found that 23% of people believe bing is better than google. Although it is only a small amount of people this is an achievement for bing as they are faced up against google. They have managed to gather a reasonably big audience.

Yahoo - Yahoo is a very popular search engine that is used by many. You are able to create an account on yahoo which allows you to ask and answer individuals questions. Yahoo is very popular because it has different features to the other search engines. Consumers are able to get more involved with the yahoo search engine.

Google - Google is the most well known search engine there is. Almost every individual will either use google or know what google is. Google is constantly improving its features to remain at the top.

CD Rom Databases - Who would need to buy a photstock CD? Photstock CD's are CD's that are used to store imagery on. The type of imagery that can be stored varies through different categories. Below is shows an example of the different type of categories that are available to choose from if you needed to use an image from a stock photo library.

Photo CD

Sound CD - A sound CD is almost the same as a photo stock CD except sound is being stored instead of imagery. The type of sound that can be stored varies from different sound effects etc. People who may need to buy and use a sound CD are people who where creating a film but the sound they needed didn't quite work out over the top, so they needed to replace that sound. Sound CD's can be extremely useful to a media student or for any other media related issue. 

A sound library CD is usually accompanied with a catalogue for easy access to different types of sounds. it will include an index with all the sounds numbered.

Audio Material - Audio material is where sound can be stored, only sound can be stored which can then be used by other individuals for free or a small fee. I took a look at some sound material websites and I came across a site called free sound, this website was very useful the content of the website was full of various different sound material and sound affects. I was not able to listen to the sound material unless I made an account with free sound, so I then produced an account with free sound which aloud me unlimited access to the free sound material on the website.

Some of the sound I had a look at where popular sound affects used during media production videos, they where the top used sounds, as you can see from the images below it gives a brief summary of what the sound is and how many individuals have downloaded or streamed these sound effects. There is also an opportunity for the consumer using the sound to leave some personal feedback to the individual who has made the sound available on the website

Ratings - Ratings are something that can be researched by a consumer or business owner etc. It will show how many ratings or how high or low something is rated. It will give a brief overview of a product in my case I would look at media product ratings which would show me what type of quality that product is. BARB is an extreamly professional and useful website that shows thousands of different ratings for audience measurement. As a media students it is very useful for me.

Circulation figures 

Newspaper circulation figure data

Circulation figures are simply the amount of something (how many copies) are being distributed per day/week/month. Newspapers have the highest circulation figures over any other reading material. Above is a table that gives an estimate of how many copies are produced and distributed for each individual newspaper. Although it shows how many copies are being distributed this does not necessarily mean that is how many copys of the product where bought.

Government Statistics - Government statistic is the collection of data from numerous different organisation. I did a google search on government statistics which  lead to me being directed to the official government statistics website. The context of what was in the website was important statistics showing data from different sources. The statistic information was gathered by DCMS, all information they collect is then put into the statistic catalogue. I furthered my research and took a look at the different statistic catalogues available, I came across some media related links which consisted of UK Film council, Ofcom statistics etc.

A link which takes you to statistics gathered by DCMS

Links to both UK Film council and Ofcom statistic data

Methods and sources of research (Primary Research)

Primary research - Primary research is a source of research that you do yourself, all research you gather is original. To gather this information together there are many different sources and techniques that are available. There are lots of different methods for primary research like ringing up people and getting information or sending out a quiz or survey. The purpose of doing primary research is to get first hand information that you have found out yourself. One of the positives of doing primary research is you collect and gather the information yourself so you know it is what your looking for because you have done it yourself. However, it might be hard to collect the information together like having to hand out your own questionnaires or doing data spread sheets yourself, it takes time and costs money that you might not have. 

Questionnaires - To gather primary research together you could hand out a questionnaire you have designed yourself. This means you know what questions are on it so you will get a desired responses back from your audience and get the information you need. A questionnaire can be handed out when you need feedback on a media product or if you need to get a better understanding of your target audience.

Interview - You yourself could carry out an interview, this will ensure you get accurate information, you will also be able to ask the exact questions you want. If you don't get a desired answer you have the opportunity to ask it again. Doing an interview is great for primary research as it is quick to receive responses and you don't have to process all of the research like you would have to do with a questionnaire.

Observations - Observing a scene or meeting that is occurring can be an excellent way of primary research. If you was to sit in on a media based meeting that was taking place you would be able to gather information from listening and taking notes on what they are saying. It would open up opportunities to meet people who are based in the media industry, this will allow you to further your research and gather a solid amount of information together.

Surveys - A survey is similar to a questionnaire but slightly less formal. A survey gives an individual the opportunity to ask questions and receive back peoples opinions etc. Surveys are a good form of receiving research in large quantities as you are able to hand thousands of surveys out.

Types of questions - When conducting an interview or creating a questionnaire for a group of people there are two different types of questions that can be asked. Closed questions or open questions. There is a huge difference between the two which can affect what kind of responses you receive back from your audience.

Closed questions - A closed question determines what kind of response you are going to get back. If you ask a closed question you are most defiantly going to get a basic limited response back from the person you asked. For example How old are you? , There is really only response that can be given which is what makes it a closed question, because it is so limiting.

Open Questions - When a person asks an open question they have done this to get a detailed response from their audience. An open question leaves opportunity for the person to respond in depth. For example, What is your favourite comedy programme and why? This type of questions leaves room for detailed feedback from that individual. Open questions can be a lot more personnel than closed ones. 

Focus Groups - A focus group is when a variety of individuals get together to answer numerous different questions. A focus group is a great form of primary research as you get varied responses from each individual, as well as being able to have discussion. When doing a focus group it is best to ensure the demographic of people is different so you know you will get a mixed opinion.

Audience Panels - An audience panel is similar to a focus group in some ways, an audience panel is feedback from an audience on a product they have used or something they have viewed on TV/heard on the radio. The way an audience panel works can differ, the majority of the time a handful of the general public will be picked out to view an advert, programme etc. Once they have viewed the new media product they are then given the opportunity to give feedback and comment on it. This is an extremely useful method of primary research as you are getting first hand information on something that is fresh in the consumers mind.

photographic record of events -  Photographic record of events is simply the storage of photos, taking images to remember visual settings/scenes. For example if I was locating scouting I would need to take photo's so I know what my locations look like and I can compare to other locations. Photographic records will help me to do photographic research.

Own Video - Own video is a great form of primary research, you are able to film events, protests, demonstrations. You are then able to use these videos to help you with your primary research. There are not many limitations to what you can film. If you needed information but did not want to write it down you are able to film a meeting taking place. This means you have filmed primary research.

Types Of Research (Quantitative Research)

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is the opposite of qualitative and is purely based on facts and statistics. If you where to do quantitative questions in a questionnaire they would be closed questions not open questions. Quantitative research is solid information retrieved from facts. If I needed to gather quantitative data for my media production I would search for Programme ratings, the amount of hits on a website etc. This gives me the opportunity to get a better understanding of what my target audiences preferences are and what they enjoy watching. If I have a better understanding of this then I will know when the most suitable time is for me to air my advert.

Top 28 BARB TV Viewing listings

Hits on a website

Below is a list of the amount of hits the YouTube website receives in a month. The information provides a quantitative breakdown of various data, it gives an overall picture of YouTube usage.

• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that's almost an hour for   every person on Earth
• 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• 80% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
• YouTube is localised in 61 countries and across 61 languages
• According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults aged 18-34 than any cable network
• Millions of subscriptions happen each day. The number of people subscribing daily is up more than 3 times since last year, and the number of daily subscriptions is up more than 4 times since last year

Cd and DVD Sales

Below shows a summary of quantitative data of how many CD's are bought in different country's. It represents four main country's and lists 10 different CD's.

Readership circulation figures

Readership circulation figures can be find online. A key website is the NRS they provide the figures of how many people are reading magazines, newspapers etc.

Purposes Of Research (Production Research)

Production Research

Production Research is the final major part of research that will have to be carried out. This type of research comes after audience and market. It is research to help a company/individual find out what materials/items will be needed. This section of research will help the individual have a better understanding of what costings will be needed to produce the products and how many units of that product can be produced.

Different types of costings that can be figured out will be.....

Viability - viability means do you have the resources and materials to make what you are doing happen. Is it doable? For example do I have access to locations, cast and the finance that Is needed to fund the video. I will have to carefully plan out everything before I start to ensure nothing will go wrong. I would also have to check if everything is realistic and doable. If a producer was going to make a music video they would have to sit down and think out every option as well as putting contingency plans in place in case it doesn't work out.

Finance/Costs - Finance and costs covers the funding I have for the video and where the money will be spent. I need to receive an understanding of how much money I will need and what the costs will be spent on. If I was doing a music video I could produce a small budget which would outline what money is going to be spent and how much of it. This will enable me to keep track of my funding at all times, If a producer was to make a music video doing a budget would be essential so they know that they actually have the appropriate amount of fundings for the video.

Personnel - If I was to produce a music video I would need to know how many personnel I need and whether I am able to get access to them. I would have to work out all individual costs for each member of personnel as it will be different. Some personnel will cost more within a music as they will have more involvement within the music video. However, some personnel are going to be at a low price as they are located in the background for the majority of the video. 

Above are links and screen shots from a useful website that provides potential actors/actresses willing to take part in films, music videos etc.

Locations - If I was making a music video I would need to find out if the locations I was choosing to film in were realistic as well as accessible. If I choose a location that I cannot get access to for a long period of time it is going to be difficult to film. I will have to ensure the location is available most of the time so it is easier for my crew to turn up. When location scouting it is important to consider  the limitations to the venue you are choosing like accessibility of the venue. It would be useful to carry out location breakdowns and risk assessment forms. This will help you to narrow down the key locations that can be used. Once all of the risks and limitations of the location are written down on paper you are able to narrow down the best possible locations to film the music video. I did some research into locations around the surrey area. I found an extremely usefully website called sutton film office which displayed 100's of different possible locations.

The image above is a screen shot showing small previews of locations in sutton that can be accessed to film in. There are a total of 63 albums with thousands of different images and locations that can be accessed.

Content - I am going to look closely at content of other music videos, this will give me a better understanding of how I want my music video to look and what style I will be aiming for. I will also look at other music videos to see the type of framing and shots that have been used in the most viewed videos. If a music producer wanted to get an idea of how to use there resources before filming it would be extremely useful to view music videos. If the producer has a better understanding of popular shots then they could be included into the music video.

placement media (product placement) - Product placement is when a certain product will be spoken about, or shown in something media related. Product placement is becoming a popular way of advertising products as the media and television is getting more advanced. A company may decided that they want there product to be shown in a new movie coming out so for example, if a business had a new game out they may show one of the main characters playing this game in the movie. That is what product placement is. This is benefiting that business as word will get around that celebrities are using there products. The way this form of advertisement works is through both the owner of the product and the person in the media department coming to an agreement and a small fee being payed out.

All of these costings will be worked out once audience and market research is completed. Production research is in place to ensure that before a company launches a new media product they know whether they will actually make some sort of a profit with the end result. You are going to have to ensure you have enough funds and finance so you have enough supplies and materials to actually manufacture your media product. You need to find out whether the money will be a loan or your own personal funds which you will be putting into the making of the product. You will have to plan out the amount of personnel which will be needed to efficiently make and distribute the media product.

During the process of production research it is essential you make a rough budget that outlines all of the different sections of costs that need to be covered. It will be a good idea to set aside a large amount of funds for advertisement for your product. You will have to think out carefully where and how you want it to be advertised, whether that is via TV, Magazine, newspaper etc. TV would probably be the best choice as it is a favourable use of media. However, it is most likely the most expensive one. This is why it is important to know how much money you will be using for different areas so you know how much funding you have to work with.

It is important to think about the time of year you will be releasing your media product. If it is around important seasons like christmas then it may be a good idea to release it then as individuals are more likely to spend money on buying your product.