The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Company Paper

Institution

Date

Abstract

The Aljazeera and British Broadcasting Corporation are among the the leading broadcasting companies in the globe in terms of their services and by the number of staffs. They all struggle to be the most recognized and trusted media networking companies because they all aim at reaching people irrespective of their location. Of late, they have expanded to have many outlets which offer television,news,radio, internet, music,interactive sessions and other communication services in various parts of the world (Aris& Bughin, 2005). The companies are accessible in many parts of world even though Al Jazeera company is owned by Qatar government while BBC is owned by British government. Their annual returns vary by a wide range because BBC is an old company while Aljazeera is a young company which facing a lot of resistance.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

The company aims at enriching the lives of people with broadcast services and programmes which inform, entertain and educate the public. It aims at being the most creative media organisation and it has devised several core values which include being independent, considering audiences as the centre of every activity, taking pride in delivering not only quality but also value for money, putting creativity as the lifeblood of the organisation, having respect for each other by celebrating existing diversity to ensure that people give their very best, trusting the synergy of teamwork, as well as valuing honesty and impartiality (BBC,1998).

The BBC operates with an estimated budget of around $4.896 billion per annum and the principal method of funding the company is by use of television licencing which costs around $145.50 million per annum per household. The licence is needed inorder to receive broadcasting television across the United Kingdom and in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, no licence is needed when people desire to own televisions which are used for other purposes and the charges of the licence are defined by the rulers and enforced by law enforcer. However, households which have white and black television sets are discounted. The revenue is generally collected privately but it is paid to the central rulers consolidated funds and the company pursues licence fee and enforcement as per the agreed trading name. The procedure is done by Capita which is an external agency and after collection, the funds are mainly allocated through Culture department. Added revenues are also paid to pensions and work section to take care of subsidised licences especially for people who are aged 75 years and above. 27% of its income comes from selling its services abroad and a huge portion of the income is used on radio and television services with every service having a distinct budget that is defined by its content. Therefore, BBC enjoys over 70% net profit every month because it has established wide market In (Robson, 1996).

The organization is independent from straight government intervention because all its activities and schedules are overseen by a board of governers who are currently called BBC trust. Overall, the management and control is exercised by Director who is elected by the Trust and the company embraces modern technology by having siemens services solution systems which simplifies its work. Siemens provides IT solutions for the company’s IT infrastructure. The Digital Media Act plays a key role in strengthening the accountability of the company services and it was improved following the high technology failures that had occured during the previous period.

Just like any other organization, the company offers several types of job opportunities because it is structured into various departments. However, the most commonly available types of jobs chances are those of media presentation and editing since the company keep extending its boundaries. Nonetheless, to be successful in this sector, high level of technical knowledge is required because apart from other skills, the minum education requirements for workers is a Bachelors degree. Researchers argue out that social networks are very efficient and low-cost tools of promoting new services and products, increasing brand awareness, maintaining loyalty from cleints, increasing website traffic, and improving client experience. As such, BBC uses social media as an efficient channel of creating new clients and driving loyalty of its brands. For example, BBC has signed up with the largest social networking platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest in order to capture as many customers as possible. To manage and control these social networks, the marketing managers use tools like the Hootsuite, Buffer and Podium to facilitate its reporting on traffic analysis, segmentation and other functions ( BBC,2000).

Al Jazeera

The organization focusses on delivering captivating information to the whole world with the intention to inform, inspire and also entertain through engaging talented, spirited and creative people (Al-Jaber, 2004). In addition, the company hopes to reach deeper, closer and broader levels with its content so as to promote interactions, which rebalance the global media services by respecting the humanity and diversity of people. Finally, the other motive of the company is to give a voice and hope to the hopeless and voiceless people in the community.

Despite the fact that Qatar government owns Al Jazeera, the editorial department is very independent and acts as a private entity that is independent from the government control.Of course, many people have disputed this fact but the rules have been holding for several years now.The company gained independemce in the year 2012, unlike the BBC editorial team which has enjoyed several years of freedom.On the other hand, Al Jazeera was funded by its founders until when the government took over the ownership. The Al Jazeera channel was launched in1996, which means the company is younger than BBC. This was done by use of US$137 million loan facility but its current funds and grants comes as direct subsidies from the government. The charges for Television use and other media services are estimated to be US$200 million per annum and this accounts for it total income. On the other hand, direct expenditures are reduced because the company opeartes under subsidized rates and the editorial policies are maitained by government funds.

The governance structure of Al Jazeera is totally different from that of BBC because Al Jazeera reconstructed its operations in such a way that it formed a network which represents all divisions of the company leadership. Managers who were among the founders have been climbing the ladder to occupy top managereial positions. Fir instance, Wadah, who served as the managing director, was appointed to occupy the position of director general. Unlike the BBC where several people sit as memebers of the board, the Al Jazeera board of directors is characterised by very few members. Media research, editorial and television producer are the most commonly advertised career opportunities in this company. In order qualify to be a staff,a job seeker must have a minimum of a Bachelors degree. Otherwise, the company values all degrees, as long as the employee can deliver because degrees are viewed as stepping stones to various departments.

Furthermore, in this digital era, most users are sufficiently informed on how to use mobile and computer devices to access websites and other forms of social networks and the company takes this opportunity in its marketing. In fact, several media companies have adopted the digital strategies of marketing to promote and market their services and products to people who use their channels. For instance, the Al Jazeera marketing team knows that atleast 2 million indivuduals can access internet and therefore, the company is investing a mean of 12 % of its annual earning on digital marketing(Al-Jaber, 2004).

Conclusion

For Al Jazeera communication company to attain BBC class of annual returns, the company should use smart marketing strategies to make it popular. It is clear that there are various marketing strategies that are still available to the company. For instance, the company needs to embrace and agresively utilize the social media platform in order to improve its visibility among potential customers and advrtisers.

References

Al-Jaber, K. (2004). The credibility of Arab broadcasting: The case of AlJazeera. Dawḥah:

National Council, Arts and Heritage, Dept. of Culture & Arts.

Aris, A., & Bughin, J. (2005). Managing media companies: Harnessing creative value.

Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons.

BBC. (1998). BBC annual report. London: BBC Books.

BBC (2000) annual report. London: BBC Books.

Robson, J. (1996). Media companies. London: Cartermill.