A man's got to know his limitations

Long before the widespread use of non-linear editing systems, the initial editing of all films was done with a positive copy of the film negative called a film work-print by physically cutting and pasting together pieces of film, using a splicer and threading the film on a machine with a viewer such as a Moviola, or “flatbed” machine such as a K.-E.-M. or Steenbeck. Today, most films are edited digitally on systems such as Avid or Final Cut Pro and bypass the film positive work-print altogether. In the past, the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do as much experimenting as he or she wished, without the risk of damaging the original.

When the film work-print had been cut to a satisfactory state, it was then used to make an edit decision list (EDL). The negative cutter referred to this list while processing the negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which were then contact printed to produce the final film print or answer print. Today, production companies have the option of bypassing negative cutting altogether. With the advent of digital intermediate or “DI”, the physical negative does not necessarily need to be physically cut and hot spliced together; rather the negative is optically scanned into computer and a cut list is conformed by a DI editor.

Once upon a time there were only four (or five given your geographical location) terrestrial television channels in Britain; they were made up of the publicly funded BBC and three commercial stations, namely ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. However, one day a nasty media giant who came from the Land of Oz infested many T.V. sets with non-stop satellite broadcasting, beaming hundreds of channels from around the globe into peoples purchased boxes. His name is Rupert Murdoch and he is the CEO of News Corporation, a media conglomerate that has a powerful stranglehold over most aspects of the modern media, including UK television giant BSkyB and hundreds more digital and print based publications.

But enough with the fairy story, I am going to be explaining the structure of the television and video industry in the UK, focusing mainly on the BBC and how they as a corporation are funded, maintained and regulated.

The BBC are funded by the public, through the use of a license fee (£145.50 per household, per year). This not only funds programming but also is used to enhance every aspect of the corporation, whether it may be an improvement on a technological scale or just an influx in the number of staff employed who require training. This also means that BBC television and radio stations can broadcast commercial free, a great bonus compared to their other main rivals because even a media moguls empire has to rely on other sources of income to fund their respective channels. For example ITV show recurring commercials throughout their programmes the same goes for Channel 4 and 5 respectively. BSkyB also employ this method and so do all the other lesser channels that they broadcast, but Sky use many more to their advantage that the three terrestrial broadcasters cannot, for instance a common sight whilst watching Sky is the promotion of exclusive pay-per-view content and programming. These offers are usually for sporting events or the release of the latest movies. Sky also use the likes of Channel 4 and 5 to test the water for new exciting shows that have proven popular over on their American owned networks, a good example of this would be 20th Century Fox’s “House M.D.” starring our very own Hugh Laurie; in the states episodes premiere on the Fox Network, that just happens to be owned by News Corporation who in turn, as we know own the controlling interest in BSkyB. So Fox allows Channel 5 to broadcast “House M.D.” in the UK but once the series has proven its worth over here the rights are bought up by BSkyB and people now have to pay a monthly subscription if they want to see their new favourite show. Quite a slick way of gathering income for our company but very teasing from the viewers point of view.

The BBC also gain Transatlantic popularity by branching out existing franchises such as “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock” to be shown on their affiliate channel BBC America, or by collaborating in cross-over productions such as “Rome” on which they worked in co-ordinance with HBO. The BBC have also succeeded in selling various original ideas and formats to American television networks, the most popular and successful being “The Office” the Ricky Gervais creation that has gone on to achieve mass acclaim no matter what version is being spoken about. Although some ideas do fail across the pond (“Life On Mars” being a prime example) the BBC still take away a sizeable profit.

After the big switch over from analogue to digital freeview began in 2007 the BBC have been able to capitalise on the fact that they are now able to accommodate ore than just the two standard channels they had before. they are now able to reach a much wider and varied target audience, they of course still have BBC 1 and 2 but they now have BBC Three which is aimed mainly at young adults, BBC Four aimed at the middle aged intellectual, BBC Parliament, CBBC (Childrens BBC) and of course BBC News 24. By having a larger range it makes it easier for the BBC to justify the license fee and with an ever expanding category of genres and style of programming be it on television or radio, with ventures into new technology with the launch of the BBC HD channel and with the increase for extra online and on-demand content they are setting an example to the other broadcasters on how to be a very modern and dynamic corporation.

Nowadays all of the main British broadcasters have to be very functional and dynamic to incorporate the different levels of regulation that take place. For one, self regulation must be a broadcasters first priority, being able to trust the judgements of a programme’s producer is key but has its risks especially when the watershed is in place to say what can and cannot be shown before and after 9pm. Also with the existence of advisory bodies such as OFCOM who will pounce on broadcaster indiscretion, this proven with lasting effects after the affair concerning Jonathon Ross’ Radio 2 show where he and comedian Russell Brand left offensive messages on Andrew “Manuel” Sachs’ answering machine. The problem lay in the fact that the programme was not a live broadcast and could and in OFCOM’s eyes should have been censored. So through OFCOM complaints and public outcry all guilty members either lost their positions immediately or were slowly forced out by the corporation. It just shows a prime example where self regulation failed and was caught out by the public. The BBC also have to comply with The Royal Charter (Which came into effect for the first time in 2007) that gives the BBC a set of guidelines that the entire corporation must stick to, so they must sustain a civil society through high quality news and current affairs, promote education and offer support, stimulate creativity and cultural excellence, to show and reflect regional issues, bring the UK to the world and the world to the UK and to help the British public get the most out of emerging technologies. The BBC are a public corporation so they have a duty to serve the public, whereas satellite broadcasters have less to worry about due to the lower viewing figures and the volume available. However The Broadcasting Act (1990 and 1996) states that newspaper groups with national circulation of 20% or more cannot own ore than 20% holdings in channel 3 or 5 licenses meaning that News Corporation ould not take over ITV or Channel 5.

This has been my piece on the structure of television in the UK.