Television Production in Transition: Independence, Scale and Sustainability

这个项目是关于英国电视制作行业所有权结构的关键转变，其特点是不断加强的整合和非国内母公司日益增长的控制存在，以及相关的社会经济、战略管理和政策影响。它开辟了新的领域，特别关注电视制作，一方面调查扩张，规模和不同类型的公司配置（是否由跨国母公司拥有；垂直整合与否）之间的关系，另一方面，经济表现和参与商业战略的能力，这些战略在日益全球化和数字多平台分布为特征的电视领域中维持增长。由于经济和文化的原因，电视制作是一个重要的工业部门。影响生产企业成功的两个变量是：第一，知识产权的有效管理和利用；第二，活动规模。在过去的十年中，英国公共政策的调整提高了制作公司相对于-à-vis广播公司在知识产权所有权方面的地位，这大大改善了制片人的地位，提高了他们的销售收入。但是，由于有机增长带来了规模和更大的商业成功，这引发了最近一波对英国许多领先独立制片公司的收购浪潮，收购方往往是美国传媒集团。这里的中心问题是建立对培育英国生产公司发展所面临的挑战的理解，这些公司既能实现规模，又能保持独立。进一步关注的是实证调查所有权重组如何影响内容。在跨国公司对英国本土企业投资兴趣增加的背景下，该项目将通过探讨企业结构、创造性决策和文化内容之间的关系来扩展知识和理论。透过主要个案研究，调查的范围将包括：-数码发行技术的转变，对促进电视制作行业的整合及横向、纵向和跨国扩张策略的作用；-生产公司的规模和企业结构，以及生产公司最大化其知识产权价值和取得持续经济成功的能力之间的关系；-电视制作行业中控制创意决策和内容的条件，以及这些如何受到不同公司配置的影响-对公共政策及规管的影响。当前，人们正关注现有的电视制作公司如何成功地适应先进的技术，以及公共政策应该如何改变，以确保英国独立制作在全球舞台上继续蓬勃发展。本项目及其成果旨在加深和加强公众对快速发展的媒体生态背景下的创意和商业战略的理解。对配置、策略、绩效、内容决策和产出的分析将为研究的最后阶段提供基于经验的基础，该阶段将解决当前电视行业所有权重组给监管和政策带来的挑战。市场和技术变化在多大程度上威胁到以国内为基础的独立生产部门的可持续性？公共政策需要如何改变？因此，该项目不仅将为社会科学知识做出贡献，并为工业组织、战略媒体管理和文化分析等领域的理论提供重要的批判性和跨学科贡献，而且还将为电视行业专业人士、战略家和决策者提供宝贵的资源。

This project is about crucial transformations in the structure of ownership of the UK television production industry characterized by increasing consolidation and the growing controlling presence of non-domestic parent groups and related socio-economic, strategic management and policy implications. It breaks new ground by, focusing specifically on TV production, investigating the relationship between, on the one hand, expansion, scale and differing sorts of corporate configurations (whether owned by a multinational parent company; vertically integrated or not) and, on the other, economic performance and capacity to engage in business strategies that sustain growth in a TV landscape increasingly characterised by globalisation and digital multi-platform distribution. Television production is an important sector of industry both for economic and cultural reasons. Two variables that strongly affect the success of production businesses are, first, the effective management and exploitation of IPRs and, second, scale of activities. Over the last decade, adjustments in UK public policy that enhanced the position of production companies vis-à-vis broadcasters on ownership of IPRs have substantially improved the position of producers and boosted their sales revenues. But, as organic growth has contributed to scale and greater commercial success, this has triggered a recent wave of takeovers of many of the UK's leading independent producers, often by US media conglomerates. A central concern here is to build understanding of the challenges faced in nurturing the development of UK production companies that achieve scale but, at the same time, remain independent. A further concern is to investigate empirically how a re-structuring of ownership may affect content. Against a background of increased investment interest from multi-nationals in indigenous UK-based players, this project will extend knowledge and theory by interrogating the association between corporate configuration, creative decision-making and cultural content. Using key case studies, the scope of the investigation will cover:- the role of changing digital distribution technologies in encouraging consolidation and strategies of horizontal, vertical and transnational expansion in the TV production industry;- the relationship between, on one hand, size and corporate configuration and, on the other, the ability of production companies to maximise the value of their IPRs and to achieve sustained economic success; - the conditions that govern creative decision-making and content in the TV production industry and how these are affected by differing corporate configurations; - implications for public policy and regulation.At a time of concern about how incumbent TV production companies can adjust successfully to advancing technology and how public policies ought to change to ensure that UK independent production continues to flourish in the global arena, this project and its outputs are intended to deepen and enhance public understanding of creative and business strategies in the context of a rapidly evolving media ecology. Analysis of configuration, strategy, performance, content decision-making and output will provide an empirically-based foundation for the final stage of the research which addresses the challenges posed for regulation and policy by the current re-structuring in ownership of the TV industry. To what extent are market and technological changes threatening the sustainability of a domestically-based independent production sector? How does public policy need to change? Thus, not only will the project contribute to social scientific knowledge and deliver a significant critical and cross-disciplinary contribution to theory in the areas of industrial organization, strategic media management and cultural analysis but also it will provide a valuable resource for television industry professionals, strategists and policy-makers.