Glossary of Key Terms

Glossary of Key Terms

An Independent Company

A small company is a self run company, that isn't owned by or part of a conglomerate. An example of this is Hat Trick Productions.

Conglomerate

A company that owns a lot of companies that focus on different media sectors, such as radio, publishing and movies. For example Walt Disney is a conglomerate owning walt disney studio's, ABC broadcasting and 14 theme parks around the world, plus many more different companies.

A Monopoly

Control over a media sector. For example Bill gates was a monopoly before he shared his company Microsoft out to his family.

An Oligopoly

A Oligopoly is when the market is taken up and run by a small number of big conglomerates. For example, GE, News Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS in the media industry.

Globalisation

When a company grows to a worldwide or global scale.

Cross Media Ownership

This is when a person or corporation own multiple media businesses.

The 'Advertising Cake'
The 'Advertising Cake' is a metaphor for the way that advertising is shared out between many companies. For example in 1990 most people only had 5 channels on their TV and the amount spent on advertising was the same as now however now the advertising is shared out between a lot more companies so therefore the advertising time they get is a lot less.

A Franchise

A successful film, book or TV series can produce income by licencing other companies to use the name and logo etc, to sell merchandise or to create a spin off, like the James Bond franchise.

A Merger

A merger is when two or more firms combine and create a completely new firm or a subsidiary controlled by one of the constituent firms. For example Alliance & Leicester Merged with Santander.

A Takeover

A takeover is when one company purchases another company. For example sports direct taking over JJB.

Media Convergence
This is when media converge different types of technology into one product, for example Sky + has converged a TV and a DVD player in one.