Sky ad claims shot down
http://media.guardian.co.uk/bskyb/story/0,,2197686,00.html

The ASA has banned an advert by Sky which claims that new and existing customers will get equally good deals with the company.
However soon after being aired subscribers complained to ASA that the advert was misleading as the advert stated "We believe it's right that all our customers should enjoy consistently low prices across all our products."
But new Sky customers only had to pay £49 for Sky+ however existing customers would have to pay £159 to upgrade.
Sky said standard prices should be seen as distinct from special offers - which the company argued did not come under the scope of its claim in the ads - that run for limited periods of time.

I think that sky should have made clear the terms and conditions as they mislead their customers. Due to the advert Sky could have also lost customers to rival Virgin Media, who use standard prices for new customers. Because the advert is banned Sky will have to invest more money into another ad campaign advertising their services.

Marxism

Checkpoint 1: even though they are both social classes, Proletariat are the working class who sell their labour and do not own the means of production and Bourgeoisie are the people that own the production that employs the Proletariat (working class). Bourgeoisie can then be divided further; wealthy Bourgeoisie- who do not need to work for themselves and petty Bourgeoisie – who employ others but also work for themselves

Checkpoint 2: The ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) operate alongside the Repressive State Apparatuses (RSA) to maintain Bourgeoisie ideologies which include; Religion, Education, political system and family. The ISA pass down ideologies through learning so that audiences presume that these are correct

How much of a Marxist am i?
i believe the ideologies set by Marx.. as i think that our society is divided into two social classes. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat - who are being exploited by working for almost nothing. Also the media does play a part in it, as they are feeding us information which may not necessarily be true but because we are seeing it in this particular form we assume that it is true.

Roleplay

Bill: So whats the deal with globalisation..surely it can't be that big of a deal can it?

Ben: well it depends because global conglomerates are changing the face of the media and we should be aware of the changes that are happening and the issues they raise. Institutions such as AOL TimeWarner and Vivendi Universal are two of the largest, so that means that they are able to develop new media and genres as part of this new global culture.



Bill: oh i see.. so what about Rupert Murdoch, who owns a large stake of the media

Ben: well he's a prime example, because he owns a large stake he is able to select and repackage the information to suit his needs. i.e. his newspaper The Sun may only support a particular political party therefore his paper may only publish news stories that are in favour of the party. So he is using media to force his opions upon us.

Bill: Also the US have been known to monopolise the global information system, which is unfair on other nations who have less power, so currently there are only a few global news organisations

This article is about The Sun newspaper, reaching a combined audience of 22.2million in the last month through print, online and mobile media.

The sun are seeing a continuing growth in leadership, however over the past year the newspaper industry has been struggling

The Sun is the only paper that releases a combined audience figure across all platforms. Last month, the Sun cut its price to 20p in London and the south-east. The cut helped the red-top daily increase its circulation by 1.76% from August and kept its year-on-year decline to 0.1% - its best year-on-year figure for two years. Since last year their audience has increased by 2.7million

last month Sky, News of the World and The Sun jointly launched a mobile service

The Sun is beginning to establish itself as a successful newspaper. being available in different media forms Internet paper and mobile they are reaching different audiences. Therefore they will be increasing their readership every year. Recently the price of the newspaper has changed to 20p, so they are gaining new readers who may buy the paper because of the cheaper price compared to other papers.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2186440,00.html

This article is about BBC Worldwide launching an operation base in Mumbai, India. This is the third office that has opened and BBC Worldwide intend to open another 4 more offices. Poland, France and Latin America have already been identified as possible locations.

The office based in India will be called BBC Worldwide Productions India and will make local versions of BBC formats as well as creating new shows. The BBC already has an established distribution business in India, with local versions of The Weakest Link as well as operating three other channels: BBC World, CBeebies and BBC Entertainment.

This article is important because India is seen as an important TV market and is immensely fast growing, by making production bases in different countries it positions BBC Worldwide as a leading global network, as they aim to repeat the success they had with the office in Los Angeles.

This also enables India to make their own version of BBC factual, entertainment and lifestyle programmes.

Sony (founded in May 1946) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation and is one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue of $70.303 billion (as of 2007)

The slogan for Sony is.... Sony.Like no other

Their Headquarters are in Tokyo, Japan But have offices in the States.

Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video games and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets.

U.S. Businesses
Sony Electronics Inc.

- Laptops

- Cameras

- TV & Home Entertainment

Sony Entertainment Inc.
Sony Pictures Entertainment

The television and film production/distribution unit, It is reported that group sales were $6.6 billion in 2005.

- Spiderman series

- Casino Royale was distributed by Sony Home Entertainment.

-The Da Vinci Code

- White chicks

- Bad Boys II

Sony BMG Music Entertainment is one of the Big Four music companies, and includes ownership and distribution of recording labels such as Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records amongst others

Columbia artists include:

Alicia Keys

Beyonce

Epic

Jennifer Lopez

Shakira

Jive

Justin Timberlake

R Kelly

Sony Computer entertainment

Specialises in the video game industry, in particular game consoles - Playstation

Sony ericsson was established in 2001 and is a joint Venture Sony have with a Swedish telecoms company.

In 2006 sales of phones where 74 Million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2181039,00.html

This article is about BBC worldwide acquiring a 75% stake in Lonely Planet, which is a privately owned company and is also seen as a global leader in travel information.
The article also gives a brief history of the company and what they currently sell - guidebooks and phrasebooks in addition to producing TV shows for the Discovery channels
The article also states BBC Worldwide's ambition is to move from programming to a content business, and Lonely Planet was an ideal opportunity as BBC want to increase operations in America and Australia, therefore the founders of lonely planet are able to secure a long term future with the BBC as it will then help increase BBC Worldwide's travel output.

This article is important as it shows that the BBC Worldwide are 'broadening their horizons' by focusing on the travel sector. Therefore it also secures the future of the company within a globally recognised media group. By having BBC Worldwide funding they are they are able to explore other business ventures, which would make Lonely Planet more successful.