Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models



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Sky – The amount of channels that Sky has added is nothing short of extraordinary. When Sky was founded it only had the one channel, but then when Sky Network was started they added three more, making four channels. Since then Sky has expanded and developed rapidly, and the company now has over 900 channels, if you include all of the radio channels. The channels vary in what they show, from movies to sport to entertainment to music, and so much more. There is no doubt when you compare both Sky and the BBC that Sky will always come out on top on this topic. Sky offers so many more channels and great television programmes that the BBC simply cannot afford to show. Sky has television shows such as; Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods, Game of Thrones, Fortitude, Penny Dreadful, Mad Men and many more. Sky has movies such as; Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek Into Darkness, Fast and Furious 6, Man of Steel, Iron Man 3, The Dark Knight Rises, Dredd and many more. Sky Sports shows a lot of live Premier League football matches, among a lot of matches from other leagues, such as La Liga and the Bundesliga.
Sky has many different channels, some of which are:

  • Sky1

  • Sky Living

  • Sky Atlantic

  • Comedy Central

  • Universal Channel

  • Sky2

  • Sky3D

The majority of Sky’s channels are available in high-definition viewing.


BBC – The BBC has a lot of programmes that are very popular due to being around for so long, such shows include Doctor Who, Match of the Day, and Blue Peter. All of which have been running for fifty years or more. The BBC also has a very popular soap, Eastenders, which has won numerous awards.
Some of the channels that the BBC have to offer are:

  • BBC 1

  • BBC 2

  • BBC Three

  • BBC Four

  • BBC News

  • CBeebies

  • CBBC

A lot of these channels are also available in high-definition. The BBC has a lot of flagship television programmes as well, such as; Doctor Who, Match of the Day, Strictly Come Dancing, The Two Ronnie’s, Top Gear, and EastEnders. A lot of these programmes have been running for years, Doctor Who turned fifty years old in 2013. The Daily Telegraph dubbed The Doctor, the main character from Doctor Who, as ‘Britain’s favourite alien’.
The BBC has also developed new dramas, such as The Fall and The Missing, both of which got fantastic reviews. If you compare what programmes and movies that Sky has to offer against what the BBC has to offer, then Sky will win every time. The difference is that the BBC recognise that some shows, such as Doctor Who, are some of the nation’s favourite television programmes, and that’s what’s kept Doctor Who and many other shows alive for so long. When a programme stops making money for Sky, they will drop it immediately, but it’s the opposite for the BBC. If a television programme is a favourite of their viewership, then the BBC will continually develop this programme in order to suit the viewer’s needs.
Match of the Day is another fantastic example of how the BBC will fight in order to keep the nations favourite programmes. ITV used to show highlights of the weekends football on their channel as well, and for a period Match of the Day played second fiddle to ITV’s coverage of the sport. Now, however, Match of the Day is the best show in the UK and Ireland to watch all of the highlights from the weekends Premier League fixtures.

Regulators

Sky – Sky is regulated by their own department of complaints. Sky subscribers, whether that be SkyTV subscribers or SkyBroadband subscribers, can get in contact with the company and lodge their complaint. The subscriber can do this in a few ways; email, via post, over the phone, or through an online chat with one of Sky’s online advisors.
The Office of Communications (popularly known as Ofcom), is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries in the UK. Ofcom regulates and takes complaints regarding BSkyB. Ofcom has a duty to represent the citizens and consumes by providing competition and protecting the public from harmful or offensive material.
BSkyB is regulated by Ofcom, and Ofcom can investigate any complaint from Sky’s subscribers towards the company.


BBC – The BBC is regulated by the public to some extent, because the public pay the licence fee so they will complain to the BBC if the show isn’t of a certain standard, or the viewing figures for that show will tell the BBC that the public aren’t a fan of the programme.
Legally though, Ofcom are the body that regulates the BBC. The Office of Communications (popularly known as Ofcom), is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries in the UK. Ofcom will regulate, and investigate any complaint lodged by the public against the BBC. Ofcom has a duty to represent the citizens and consumers by providing competition and protecting the public from harmful or offensive material.

Controversies of Sky and the BBC

Sky – Sky hasn’t been the biggest victim of controversy compared to the BBC. The real big controversy surrounding Sky was the phone hacking scandal. The owner of Sky, Rupert Murdoch, owns a company called News Corporation, which ran a newspaper in the UK, called News of the World. The employees of the newspaper were accused of hacking people’s phones in order to get stories.
In 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron opened an inquiry to look into the extent of the phone hacking, which many believed was limited to celebrities, politicians and The Royal Family. However, it was revealed that the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was hacked, along with the phones of relatives of deceased soldiers, and victims of the London bombings.
Rupert Murdoch, who owned the company which ran the newspaper took a lot of criticism about how much he knew of the hacking scandal, and this inevitably took a hit on Sky, another company which he owns. For a three month period, the number of people subscribing to Sky fell dramatically in 2011 in response to the scandal, but Sky still managed to make a profit for that year.
The allegations surrounding Rupert Murdoch got even worse when he was recorded by journalists working for the Sun, Murdoch said about the scandal, ‘Why are the police behaving in this way? It’s the biggest inquiry ever, over next to nothing’. Murdoch also said that he, or his successors, would take care of any News of the World employees that go to prison for their part in the scandal.
There are many people that have criticised Sky for their business strategies. Since BSkyB is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns News Corporation, many people think that Sky is evading paying tax, although this has never been proven.

BBC – The BBC has had a lot more controversies compared to Sky. The BBC has had two major controversies in the last decade or so, the Hutton report and the phone calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross.
The Hutton Inquiry was an inquiry launched by the government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq. Three BBC journalists were accused of having made untrue and distasteful remarks surrounding a report claiming that Iraq had the ability to launch a strike using ‘weapons of mass destruction’ within forty five minutes. Andrew Gilligan made the allegations twice (once on BBC Radio 4 and once in an article for The Mail on Sunday), Gavin Hewitt made the allegation on BBC News, and Susan Watts made the allegations on BBC Two’s Newsnight programme. The BBC was angrily accused by the government for poor journalism and untrue remarks surrounding the report. The BBC later revealed that David Kelly was their source.
Director General at the time, Greg Dyke, resigned a few months after the Hutton Report. Lord Hutton, who chaired the inquiry, accused Dyke of being ‘defective’ at checking the news stories. A few other people at the BBC also followed Greg Dyke and resigned.

The other major controversy that the BBC was involved in was the prank calls left to the answering machine of Andrew Sachs. It is sometimes called ‘Sachsgate’. The Russell Brand Show was a radio show on BBC Radio 2. This particular episode was recorded earlier in the week, but the BBC still allowed the show to be broadcast. The show involved both Russell Brand and a guest on the show, Jonathan Ross, leaving voicemail messages on the phone of Andrew Sachs. The voicemails included rude messages about Brand’s relationship with Sach’s daughter, Georgina Baillie, who at the time was a performer with a group called Satanic Sluts.


The BBC was heavily criticised for the whole saga, especially before the show was not live but instead recorded earlier in the week, but the BBC still allowed the episode to be broadcast. Both the BBC and Ofcom launched investigations, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown heavily criticised Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross. Jonathan Ross was suspended by the BBC’s Director General Mark Thompson for three months without pay, while Russell Brand and Lesley Douglas, controller of BBC Radio 2, resigned. The BBC was fined £150,000 by Ofcom.


Audience Feedback & Positives and Negatives for Sky and the BBC

Sky – Sky is relatively seen as a good company, that provides its subscribers with the advantage of being able to customise the channels in which they receive, which makes their viewing experience better. Sky also has the very best television programmes, movie and the best live sports on Sky Sports.
A negative for Sky is that their broadband, Sky Broadband, is widely criticised for having slow internet speeds, and to pay £30 to active the fibre connection or £6.95 to have your router delivered, is seen as trying to get money in any way possible.
A positive for Sky is the fact that they are a prime example of a company who have embraced the digital age and reaped all of the benefits that it has to offer. Sky now has a lot of apps available to watch on your mobile phone, tablet, or Smart TV, and these apps allow you to access the same service you would be accessing through your Sky box.

BBC – The BBC splits opinions sometimes. There’s no doubt that it is a little prone to controversy now and again, but when the BBC get a programme right, they really get it right. The BBC recently broadcast two new dramas, The Fall and The Missing, and they were received really well by the public. It’s not as if the BBC needed any proof that they could still produce good drama, but The Fall and The Missing were good examples that the BBC can still create television programmes that hook us to our screens.
A negative for the BBC is the fact that since every household in the UK has to pay a licence fee, then the BBC really have to cover every bit of ground when it comes to creating television programmes. They have to cover what everybody likes, for example gardening shows, political programmes, antique programmes, crime drama, nature documentaries etc.
Conclusion

My opinion is that both the BBC and Sky have a lot of different positives and negatives. There is no doubt that Sky offers the best television programmes, the best movies, and the best sports. However, it’s the price of Sky that is putting people off subscribing to the company. The cheapest package is £21.50 per month, and that’s for a very basic package that doesn’t get you the best channels that Sky has to offer.


The only reason I would get Sky would be for the football. Sky Sports is the best place to watch the football. They have the best pundits, the best presentation, and their commentators aren’t that bad either. BT Sport is a recent competitor of Sky Sports, but BT Sports is struggling to keep up with Sky’s coverage of sports. Everything about Sky Sports is a lot better than BT Sports, in my opinion, especially the pundits and the presentation.
I think that the licence fee is a fair representation of what the BBC give back to us year after year. If you think of all the content that the BBC offers us in so many different platforms, then £145.50 really isn’t that much. All of the television programmes, all of the radio stations, all of the digital radio station, the apps, and, of course, the BBC iPlayer.

I don’t have Sky, and I don’t think that I will ever get it. Yes, there are definitely a lot of positives to getting Sky, but it costs too much money, and on top of that you still have to pay your licence fee to the government. All of the programmes that you see on Sky, and that you pay an arm and a leg for, can be easily streamed off a lot of websites online, and they will be pretty good quality. It’s the same with sports. There are plenty of websites where you can stream a live football match (or any other sport) from, and again, it will be pretty good quality.

So, why bother paying at least £21.50 per month for Sky, along with your licence fee, when you can just pay your licence fee and get the same programmes, movies and sports that you do with Sky, streamed from a website online for free? The age of online streaming websites has dawned, with Netflix leading the way. We’re at a digital age now where everything will be done online, so Netflix and similar companies will continue to grow.

For me personally, I only use the BBC to watch Match of the Day, Match of the Day 2, The Football League Show, and other football related programmes. The main website that I use would be Netflix, because there are some great shows on there such as; House of Cards, Orange is the new black, House, Dexter, The Killing, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and many more. Online services will become more and more popular as the digital world continues to grow, and more people will begin using the BBC iPlayer. I don’t think that watching live television, whether it be from Sky or the BBC, will ever be out-popularised by online streaming, but it will come pretty close.



References

Images

http://www.planetmondas.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Doctor-Who-Magazine-464.jpg


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http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article688371.ece/alternates/s615b/Richard%20Branson
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Other references

Greg Dyke - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Dyke


Mark Thompson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thompson_(media_executive)
History of BBC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC
History of Sky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_%28United_Kingdom%29
Sky+ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky%2B
Rupert Murdoch - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch
Richard Branson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson
Sky’s Financial Figures - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_plc#Financial_performance
Sky’s Packages Information - http://www.sky.com/shop/
Sky Broadband - http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/
BBC Licence Fee Figures - http://www.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/2014/executive/finances/licence_fee.html
BBC Licence Fee Breakdown - http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/whoweare/licencefee
Sky Channels List - http://www.insidethex.co.uk/xmltv/lineups/List_of_channels_on_Sky.html
Sky Movies List - http://www.sky.com/tv/channel/skymovies
Sky Programmes List - http://www.sky.com/tv/channel/skyatlantic/shows
Doctor Who - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_%28Doctor_Who%29
List of BBC Channels - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stations_of_the_BBC
Sky Complaints - http://help.sky.com/articles/how-to-make-a-complaint
Ofcom - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofcom
Phone hacking scandal - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal
Hutton Inquiry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutton_Inquiry
Greg Dyke at the BBC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Dyke#At_the_BBC
Pranks calls by Brand and Ross - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Russell_Brand_Show_prank_telephone_calls_row


HNC/Sem1 Matthew Mooney




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