Industry Glossary

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
An independent regulatory body that regulates the advertising industry.

Broadcasting Audience Research Boards (BARB)
Provides data on audience intake of TV per minute.

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)
Regulatory body for film industry. Classifies films with age limits such as 12, 15 and 18.

Broadcasting
When information leaves one source and is received by many sources.

Company Size: Major Companies (TNC)
These are massive international corporations such as CNN, Sky and Fox.

Company Size: Big to Medium Sized
Corporations who’s turnover doesn’t exceed 22.8 million and profit doesn’t exceed 11.4 million.

Company Size: Independent
A company solely owned and regulated by one person or a small team of people.

Cross Media Companies
A company that operates in different media sectors such as print, film and advertising.

Horizontal Integration
When a corporation buys other companies, of a similar size or smaller, in the same area of industry.

Institution
An organisation that is heavily organised and regulated, such as like Banks and Media industry companies.

New Media Industry
Modern technological media such as; online services, video games and interactive TV.

Narrowcasting
When a product is created and distributed to a specialist, and nearly always very small, audience such as fishing TV channels, equine magazines etc.

National Readership Survey (NRS)
A company that gathers data to estimate the readership of the major magazines and newspapers.

Office of Communications (OFCOM)
Independent regulatory body that controls the content of communication services in the UK, such as BT, Virgin media and the BBC.

Press Complaints Commission (PCC)
Regulatory body in the press industry that deals with reader’s complaints. These could be regarding things like racism, libel, bad language and slander.

Private Ownership
This is when a company is funded and owned by one or a small group of people.

Public Ownership
When a company is owned and controlled by a board of shareholders.

Public Service Broadcasting
An organisation created solely for the benefit of the public such as the BBC.

Regulatory Body
An independent organisation that’s established by the government that regulates the content produced by an industry.

Self-Regulatory Body
A corporation that internally regulates itself.

Vertical Integration
This is where a company owns everything in the process to make the final product. For example a film studio, a distribution company and a cinema.