Understanding the Creative Media Sector (Task 1)

Each of the media industries are vital to the UK's economic success, as well as to the quality of our society and our lives.


Film Industry
The film industry refers to six different parts: development, production, facilities, distribution, exhibition and export. The companies existing today are approximately 43% production, 13% distribution and 44% are exhibition companies. Research shows that in 2006 the UK film industry contributed 4.3 billion to the UK economy. In 2007 the UK film production was 747 million, inward investment productions including Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price and Chronicles of Narnia.
The UK has the largest amount of digital screens in Europe, usually the cinematic release of a film builds its reputation, but over half the revenues of the industry come from DVD rental. Film theft is one of the major challenges for the industry, it was estimated to reduce the film market by 404 million.


The animation industry faces challenges and opportunities that affect its various sub-sectors in different ways. To stay secure in the international market for animation, the UK's animation business relys strongly on a highly skilled workforce that responds to the markets needs.


Interactive Industry
The interactive industry overlaps with other sectors. Its worth several billion pounds and employs around 34,300 people a year. Overall it represents around 7% of the total creative industries. The market for interactive media contributes to larger markets, taking into account those who buy from it and those who are supported by it. The biggest being online advertising. Having a strong definition of this sector is difficult as the pace of change is very rapid, as well as the different companies and individuals involved in interactive media.


Publishing Industry
The publishing industry is one of the biggest earners in the UK creative media industries, it generates a turnover of £10.1 billion. The sectors that come under this topic are:

• Books
• Journals
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Directories
• and Other information services

 This chart shows the main areas of employment in this certain sector. The industry tends to consist of small companies, 88% of them having less than 10 employees. The main area of employment is London and the South East area. The main skill to have is to understand what the customers want, as well as communication skills and project managment skills. These job rolls are critical.


Radio Industry
There are three board categories: publicly-funded radio, commerical radio and the community or voluntary radio - such as students, hospital radio. The industry is growing steadily, and employs over 22,000 people. Employers range in size from the BBC and larger commerical radios, to community radio stations run mainly by volunteers. About a quater of the workforce is freelance or employed on contracts of less than a year. About half the workforce are female, the radio industry employs a relatively low proportion of people from minority ethic groups.


Television Industry
There are nine terrestrial broadcasters. They include the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, S4C, SMG, and UTV. They are also known as 'public service broadcasters'. There are also around 300 cable and satellite broadcasters, these sectors include Virgin media, Discovery, Disney, Viacom, and a number of niche broadcasters catering for the audiences interests. The largest part of the industry is comprised of around 800 independent production companies, they make the well-known programmes such as X Factor and Big Brother. These companies generate between £100-200m per year and employ thousands a year.
In 2008 the gross value added for radio and TV combined to a total of £3.2 billion.
Television is going through a rapid change, some of the challenges are:

• Faster predicted growth of broadband in the UK
• Tradional TV buisness models challenged by audience fragmentation and move to advertising on the internet
• Growth of the indie sector (independent production companies)