Convergence and Synergy Assignment

 Convergence and Synergy Case Study

Activity 1:

Some subsidiaries of the Time Warner company are Warner Bros. International Television Production Limited, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc, CNN America, Inc., and DC Comics (partnership)

 

Activity 2:

Film
What studio made the film	Shepperton Studios, Pinewood Studios, and Longcross Studios	Walt Disney Pictures
Which conglomerate is the studio part of	Time Warner	Warner Brothers
Which broadcast subsidiaries were used	Exclusive making of featurette shown on HBO	Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, YouTube
Which print media subsidiaries were used	DVD and Blueray	DVD
Which e-media subsidiaries were used	The Heat Vision Blog, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic	Disney Interactive Media Group included Prince of Persia content on the Disney

 

Notes

·      The growth of media institutions is achieved by vertical integration and horizontal integration

·      Vertical integration: Is the term used to describe a company owning more than one step in the supply process of a particular product

·      A media conglomerate is a large company that is included of several smaller companies (or subsidiaries).

·      These companies may be involved in hugely different areas, but they are all under the ‘umbrella’ of the conglomerate.

·      For example, News Corporation is a conglomerate that owns companies associated with film production, television production and broadcast, cable television provision, magazine, newspaper and book publishing, Internet sites and professional sports teams.

·      Vertical integration, to the extent where a company can make a film, do all of its marketing and show it at a cinema chain owned by the conglomerate, is less common now than it was in the past

·      during the time of the Hollywood Studio System (1920s until 1948) companies such as Paramount were able to produce, distribute and exhibit their own films since they owned a film studio and a cinema chain

·      The creation of such conglomerates has led to a concentration of ownership in the media industry. As a result of smaller, individual companies merging with each other or being taken over by larger companies, a small number of very large media institutions dominate the industry.

·      1948, the Paramount Decree forced the film studios to sell off their cinema chains so that independent film producers could access screens too. Nowadays, conglomerates like News Corporation are reliant upon external cinema chains to exhibit their film

·      Horizontal integration Is much more common than vertical integration and is when a conglomerate owns several companies at the same level in the supply process (but not necessarily all connected with producing the same type of product).

·       Many of the major media institutions will own several companies that specialize in several types of media that can all be used to distribute a particular product.

·      Hint:- Media conglomerates and their subsidiaries are constantly changing so it is important that you keep your research up to date. Every major conglomerate will have a corporate website which will have details of all its subsidiaries and any press releases about new acquisitions or companies which have been sold. Make sure you check the details of your case study to ensure the information you have for the exam is correct

·      The fact that media institutions are vertically and / or horizontally integrated and the existence of digital media technologies mean that convergence is made possible. Convergence is the term used to describe how technology has brought together previously separate media channels.

·      Convergence can also be seen in the film industry. In the past, film-making involved images being recorded onto celluloid film that would then be physically cut and stuck together in the editing process.

·      The concept of synergy is closely linked to convergence as the ‘coming together’ of the separate companies associated with different technologies within a conglomerate allow for synergy to happen. Synergy is the process through which media products derived from the same text are promoted in and through each other and throughout the subsidiaries of a media conglomerate. Synergy works on two levels:

• the main text is promoted using the many subsidiaries of the conglomerate

• the individual products used to advertise the main text are linked to each other