Who owns and funds media products, and how does ownership and funding shape what is made?
Media industries: who owns media companies (including conglomerates and concentrated ownership), how products are funded (advertising, subscription, licence fee, public funding), and how ownership and funding models shape the products that are made and who they serve.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to ownership and funding in the media industries framework: conglomerates and concentrated ownership, the main funding models (advertising, subscription, licence fee, public funding), and how they shape the products made.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this dot point is asking
OCR's third framework area is media industries, and the starting point is understanding who owns and funds media products. This dot point covers ownership (including conglomerates and the concentration of ownership in a few large companies), the main funding models (advertising, subscription, the licence fee and public funding), and crucially how ownership and funding shape the products that are made and who they serve. The key skill is linking an industry fact to a creative or commercial consequence.
Ownership: from independents to conglomerates
Ownership matters because it shapes what gets made. A conglomerate has the scale to fund expensive products, promote them across many platforms it owns (films, channels, games, merchandise), and absorb the risk of a flop. Concentrated ownership can reduce diversity, because a few companies chasing profit may favour proven, mainstream products. The set product The Lego Movie is a useful example: it was made and promoted across film, marketing and a tie-in video game by a global conglomerate, showing how ownership enables cross-platform reach.
Funding models
How a product is paid for shapes what it can be.
- Advertising. Commercial broadcasters, websites, newspapers and magazines sell audience attention to advertisers. The product must attract a large or valuable audience, so it may pursue mainstream appeal and be shaped by advertiser interests.
- Subscription. Audiences pay directly (streaming services, some publications). The product must be distinctive enough that audiences will pay, which can fund ambitious or niche content.
- Licence fee and public funding. The BBC is funded by the licence fee and has a public service remit to inform, educate and entertain all audiences, free of advertising. This lets it make products that do not need to maximise profit, such as BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge supporting new and diverse artists.
- Mixed and other models. Many products combine funding (a magazine sells copies and advertising; a website mixes subscription and advertising).
How ownership and funding shape products
The analytical move OCR rewards is connecting an industry fact to a consequence.
- A conglomerate's scale enables cross-platform products and heavy promotion (synergy: one property sold across many forms).
- Advertising funding pushes products towards mainstream appeal and shapes content around what advertisers want.
- A public service remit funded by the licence fee allows products to serve audiences a purely commercial model might ignore.
- Concentrated ownership can limit diversity and the range of viewpoints available.
Examples in context
How this is examined
Ownership and funding are examined across both components, especially through the producers of the set products: the conglomerate behind The Lego Movie (Component 01) and the contrast between commercial and public service music and news producers (Component 02). Questions range from short definitions to extended responses linking industry to product. The reliable move is to name the ownership or funding model and then explain its consequence for what is made and who it serves.
Try this
Q1. Explain what is meant by concentration of ownership in the media. [3 marks]
- What the marker wants. When a small number of large companies (often conglomerates) control much of an industry, which can give scale and synergy but reduce diversity (AO1).
Q2. Explain how the funding of a media product you have studied affects what is made. [6 marks]
- Cue. Name the funding model (advertising, subscription, licence fee), state what it requires, and link it to the kind of product made and the audience served (AO1 and AO2).
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR J200/01 20224 marksExplain what is meant by a media conglomerate. Use an example to support your answer. (Assesses media industries, AO1.)Show worked answer →
A short media industries knowledge question (mostly AO1). Markers want a clear definition plus a relevant example, not a vague gesture.
Method: define a conglomerate as a large company that owns many smaller companies across different media (and often other industries), giving it scale and reach. Then give an example: a global conglomerate that owns film studios, television channels, theme parks and merchandising, allowing it to make and promote a product like The Lego Movie across many platforms.
Four marks reward a precise definition (a large parent company owning many businesses) and a clear example, ideally linked to one of the set products' producers. The common slip is defining it as simply a big company without the idea of owning many companies.
OCR J200/02 20236 marksExplain how the way a media product is funded affects the product that is made. Refer to one example. (Assesses media industries, AO1 and AO2.)Show worked answer →
A media industries question linking funding to product (AO1 and AO2). Examiners reward the connection between a funding model and the choices a producer makes.
Method: identify a funding model and explain its effect. A commercial product funded by advertising must attract a large or valuable audience, so it may chase mainstream appeal and be shaped by advertiser interests. A public service product funded by the licence fee (the BBC) has a remit to inform, educate and entertain all audiences, so it can make programmes that do not need to maximise profit, such as BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge supporting new and diverse artists.
Six marks reward a funding model named and clearly linked to the kind of product made and the audience served, anchored in a real example.
Related dot points
- Media industries: the processes of production, distribution and circulation, the role of regulation and regulators (such as the BBFC, Ofcom and the press regulators), and why regulation exists to protect audiences and uphold standards.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to production, distribution and regulation in the media industries framework: the processes that bring products to audiences, the main regulators (BBFC, Ofcom, press regulation), and why regulation exists.
- Media industries: how digital technology and convergence have changed production, distribution and consumption, including cross-media and synergistic production, participatory and user-generated content, and how convergence reshapes the relationship between producers and audiences.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to technology and convergence in the media industries framework: what convergence is, how digital technology has changed production, distribution and consumption, and how cross-media and participatory culture reshape the producer-audience relationship.
- Media audiences: how producers identify, categorise and target audiences (by demographics such as age, gender and social class, and by psychographics such as lifestyle and values), and how products are constructed to appeal to and reach a target audience.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to targeting and categorising audiences in the framework: demographics and psychographics, how producers identify a target audience, and how products are constructed to appeal to and reach that audience.
- Component 01 Section B: the promoting media set products from one global conglomerate (the film poster, trailer and tie-in video game of a film franchise), studied for media language, representation, industries and audiences, and how they promote a property across forms.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to the Component 01 Section B promoting media set products: the film poster, trailer and tie-in video game from one global conglomerate, studied across the framework, and how they promote a property across media forms.
- Component 01 Section A: the industries and audiences of the television crime drama set products, who produced and broadcast them (public service and commercial broadcasters), how broadcast television is regulated, who the dramas target, and how the social, cultural, historical and technological contexts shaped them.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to the industries, audiences and contexts of the Component 01 television crime drama set products: the broadcasters, the regulation of television, the target audiences, and how the contexts of each era shaped the dramas.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR GCSE Media Studies (J200) specification — OCR (2023)