1.
Digital video recorder
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A digital video recorder is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to disk recording, portable media players and TV gateways with recording capability, and digital camcorders. Personal computers are connected to video capture devices and used as DVRs. Many DVRs are classified as electronic devices, such devices are sometimes referred to as personal video recorders. Consumer digital video recorders ReplayTV and TiVo were launched at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft also demonstrated a unit with DVR capability, but this did not become available until the end of 1999 for full DVR features in Dish Networks DISHplayer receivers. TiVo shipped their first units on March 31,1999, ReplayTV won the Best of Show award in the video category with Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen as an early investor and board member, but TiVo was more successful commercially. Many DVRs use the MPEG format for compressing the digital video, video recording capabilities have become an essential part of the modern set-top box, as TV viewers have wanted to take control of their viewing experiences. Digital video recorders tied to a video service At the 1999 CES, which also included WebTV Networks internet TV. By the end of 1999 the Dishplayer had full DVR capabilities and within a year, in the UK, digital video recorders are often referred to as plus boxes. Freeview+ have been around in the UK since the late 2000s, british Sky Broadcasting markets a popular combined receiver and DVR as Sky+. TiVo launched a UK model in 2000, and is no longer supported, except for third party services, south African based Africa Satellite TV beamer Multichoice recently launched their DVR which is available on their DStv platform. Astro introduced their DVR system, called Astro MAX, which was the first PVR in Malaysia but was phased out two years after its introduction. In the case of television, there is no encoding necessary in the DVR since the signal is already a digitally encoded MPEG stream. The digital video recorder simply stores the digital stream directly to disk and it can, however, also force the manufacturer to implement non-skippable advertisements and automatically expiring recordings. The overall net effect on video recorders and related technology is unlikely to be substantial as standalone DVRs are currently readily available on the open market. In 2003 many Satellite and Cable providers introduced dual-tuner digital video recorders, in the UK, BSkyB introduced their first PVR Sky+ with dual tuner support in 2001. These machines have two independent tuners within the same receiver, kogan. com introduced a dual-tuner PVR in the Australian market allowing free-to-air television to be recorded on a removable hard drive. Some dual-tuner DVRs also have the ability to output to two television sets at the same time
2.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
3.
The Walt Disney Company
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The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Disney was founded on October 16,1923 – by brothers Walt Disney, the company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing. In addition, Disney has since created corporate divisions in order to more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is best known for the products of its studio, Walt Disney Studios. Disneys other three divisions are Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6,1991, Mickey Mouse, an early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, is a primary symbol and mascot for Disney. In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a film entitled Alices Wonderland. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice, in January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studios name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars, Disney completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, due to a legal loophole, when Winklers husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disneys primary animators to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies. In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films, ub Iwerks refined Disneys initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disneys first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18,1928 through Pat Powers distribution company and it was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin Gaucho. Disney used Pat Powers Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forests Phonofilm system, Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Mosss Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disneys Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks, Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929
4.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
5.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
6.
Premier League
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The Premier League is an English professional league for mens association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League, Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders, seasons run from August to May. Teams play 38 matches each, totalling 380 matches in the season, most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, others during weekday evenings. It is colloquially known as the Premiership and outside the UK it is referred to as the English Premier League. The deal was worth £1 billion a year domestically as of 2013–14, with BSkyB, the league generates €2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights. In 2014/15, teams were apportioned revenues of £1.6 billion, the Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people. In the 2014–15 season, the average Premier League match attendance exceeded 36,000, most stadium occupancies are near capacity. The Premier League ranks third in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons. While 47 clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, only six have won the title, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, the current champions are Leicester City, who won the title in 2015–16. Despite significant European success in the 1970s and early 1980s, the late 80s marked a low point for English football, the 1988 negotiations were the first signs of a breakaway league, ten clubs threatened to leave and form a super league, but were eventually persuaded to stay. As stadiums improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the top teams again considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalise on the influx of money into the sport. At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal was tabled for the establishment of a new league that would bring money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the games top-flight clubs, the argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe. The managing director of London Weekend Television, Greg Dyke, met with the representatives of the big five clubs in England in 1990. The meeting was to pave the way for an away from The Football League. The FA did not enjoy a relationship with the Football League at the time
7.
Set-top box
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They are used in cable television, satellite television, and over-the-air television systems, as well as other uses. The signal source might be an Ethernet cable, a dish, a coaxial cable. Content, in context, could mean any or all of video, audio, Internet web pages, interactive video games. Satellite and microwave-based services also require specific external receiver hardware, so the use of boxes of various formats has never completely disappeared. Set-top boxes can also enhance source signal quality, however, most cable systems could not accommodate the full 54-890 MHz VHF/UHF frequency range and the twelve channels of VHF space were quickly exhausted on most systems. These frequencies corresponded to non-television services over-the-air and were not on standard TV receivers. The box allowed an analog television set to receive analog encrypted cable channels and was a prototype topology for later date digital encryption devices. Newer televisions were then converted to be analog cypher cable-ready, with the standard converter built-in for selling premium television, several years later and slowly marketed, the advent of digital cable continued and increased the need for various forms of these devices. Set-top boxes were made to enable closed captioning on older sets in North America. Some have also produced to mute the audio when profanity is detected in the captioning. Some also include a V-chip that allows programs of some television content ratings. A function that limits childrens time watching TV or playing games may also be built in. The transition to terrestrial television after the turn of the millennium left many existing television receivers unable to tune. Professional set-top boxes are referred to as IRDs or integrated receiver/decoders in the professional broadcast audio/video industry and they are designed for more robust field handling and rack mounting environments. IRDs are capable of outputting uncompressed serial digital interface signals, unlike consumer STBs which usually dont, advanced Digital Broadcast launched its first hybrid DTT/IPTV set-top box in 2005, which provided Telefónica with the digital TV platform for its Movistar TV service by the end of that year. UK based Inview Technology has over 8M STBs deployed in the UK for Teletext, in IPTV networks, the set-top box is a small computer providing two-way communications on an IP network and decoding the video streaming media. In the US and Europe, telephone companies use IPTV as a means to compete with local cable television monopolies. This type of service is distinct from Internet television, which involves third-party content over the public Internet not controlled by the system operator
8.
NBCUniversal
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NBCUniversal is an American multinational media conglomerate. It has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including terrestrial, via the Universal Parks & Resorts division, the company is also the third-largest operator of amusement parks in the world. NBC Universal was formed on May 12,2004 by the merger of General Electrics National Broadcasting Company with Vivendis Vivendi Universal Entertainment, as of March 19,2013, it is wholly owned by Comcast who bought GEs ownership stake. NBC and Universal Television had a long-standing partnership dating back to 1950 and this partnership continued throughout a number of name changes and changes of ownership. NBC Universal Television has its roots in a series of expansions undertaken by NBC. In the late 1980s, NBC began pursuing a strategy of diversification, NBC also had partial ownership of several regional sports channels and other cable channels such as American Movie Classics and Court TV. In 1995, NBC began operating NBC Desktop Video, a news service that delivered live video to personal computers. The following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, a separate joint venture with Microsoft included establishing a news website, MSNBC. com. In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Jones & Co, the two companies combined their financial news channels outside the US. The new networks included NBC Europe, CNBC Europe, NBC Asia, CNBC Asia, NBC Africa, in 1999, NBC took a 32% stake in the Paxson group, operator of PAX TV. Five years later, NBC decided to sell its interest in PAX TV and end its relationship with PAX owner, in 2001, NBC acquired the US Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, which included the bilingual Mun2 Television. That same year NBC acquired the cable channel Bravo, the sale and resulting merger formed NBC Universal. The new company was 80% owned by GE, and 20% owned by Vivendi, Universal Music Group was not included in the deal and is not part of NBC Universal. On August 2,2004, the divisions of NBC. NBC Studios series bought into the company include the NBC dramas Las Vegas, Crossing Jordan, Universal Network Television bought the Law & Order franchise and The District—in fact, Universal Network Television had co-produced American Dreams with NBC before the merger. Entertainment shows produced by the new group include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Last Call with Carson Daly, and Saturday Night Live. The formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversees the distribution, marketing, NBC Universal Cable also manages the companys investments in The Weather Channel and TiVo. The cable division also used to operate NBC Weather Plus until 2008 and it also owned a 50% stake in Canal+ and also owned a 15% stake in A+E Networks until 2012
9.
Video on demand
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IPTV technology is often used to bring video on demand to televisions and personal computers. Internet television, using the Internet, is a popular form of video on demand. VOD can also be accessed via desktop client applications such as the Apple iTunes online content store, some airlines offer VOD as in-flight entertainment to passengers through individually controlled video screens embedded in seatbacks or armrests or offered via portable media players. Some video on demand services such as Netflix use a model that requires users to pay a monthly fee to access a bundled set of content. Other services use a model, where access is free for Internet users. Downloading and streaming video on demand systems provide the user all of the features of Portable media players. Some VOD systems that store and stream programs from hard drives use a memory buffer to allow the user to fast forward. It is possible to put video servers on local area networks, streaming video servers can also serve a wider community via a WAN, in which case the responsiveness may be reduced. Download VOD services are practical to homes equipped with cable modems or DSL connections, servers for traditional cable and telco VOD services are usually placed at the cable head-end serving a particular market as well as cable hubs in larger markets. In the telco world, they are placed in either the central office, the first Video on Demand systems used tapes as the realtime source of video streams. GTE started as a trial in 1990 with AT&T providing all components, by 1992 VOD servers were supplying previously encoded digital video from disks and DRAM. In the US the 1982 anti-trust break-up of AT&T resulted in a number of telephone companies called Baby Bells. Following this the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 prohibited telephone companies from providing services within their operating regions. All of these companies and others began holding trials to setup systems for supplying Video on Demand over telephone, in November 1992 Bell Atlantic announced a VOD trial. The IBM was developing video server code-named Tiger Shark, concurrently Digital Equipment was developing a scalable video server. Bell Atlantic selected IBM and April 1993 the system became the first VOD over ADSL to be deployed outside the lab, in 1994-5 US West went on to file for VOD at several cities. 330,000 subscribers in Denver,290,000 in Minneapolis, many VOD trials were held with various combinations of server, network and set-top. Of these the primary players in the US were the companies, using DEC, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, USA Video, nCube, SGI
10.
Warner Bros. Television
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Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner, as of 2015, it is the worlds largest television production company measured by revenue and library. Its most notable TV shows include Friends, ER, The West Wing, Smallville, Supernatural, The Big Bang Theory, The Wire and Full House. The division was started on March 21,1955 with its first and most successful head being Jack L. Warners son-in-law William T. Orr. ABC had major success against its competition with Walt Disneys Disneyland TV series, WB formally entered television production with the premiere of its self-titled anthology series Warner Bros. The one-hour weekly show featured rotating episodes of series based on the WB films, Casablanca and Kings Row. One such segment for Rebel Without a Cause featured Gig Young notably talking about road safety with James Dean, with only Cheyenne being a success, Warner Bros. ended the ten-minute promotions of new films and replaced Warner Bros. Presents with a series titled Conflict. It was felt that Conflict was what the series lacked. Conflict showed the pilots for Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip, the company also produced Jack Webbs Red Nightmare for the U. S. Department of Defense that was later shown on American television on Jack Webbs General Electric True. During a Hollywood television writers strike, Warner Bros. reused many plots from its films and this was another example of imitating Warner Bros B Pictures who would remake an A film and switch the setting. Two of the most popular stars, James Garner and Clint Walker, Garner never returned to the Warners fold during this period. Successful Warners television stars found themselves in leading roles of many of the films with no increase in salary. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. was simultaneously the lead of 77 Sunset Strip, in a role on Maverick. Edd Byrnes and Troy Donahue would go on to become teen heartthrobs, Warners also contracted established stars such as Ray Danton, Peter Breck, Jeanne Cooper and Grant Williams. These stars often appeared as guest stars, sometimes reprising their series role in another TV series, the stars appeared in Warner Bros. Some stars such as Connie Stevens, Edd Byrnes, Robert Conrad, depending on the particular show, William Lava or David Buttolph would compose the music, with lyrics by Stan Jones or Paul Francis Webster, among others. For the crime shows, it was up to the team of Jerry Livingston and Mack David, who also scored the themes for the sitcom Room for One More
11.
BBC Worldwide
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BBC Worldwide Ltd. is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcast abroad with the aim of supplementing the income received by the BBC through the licence fee. In 2013/14, BBC Worldwide generated headline profits of £157. 4m and headline sales of £1,042. 3m, in 2012/13 it made a profit of £156. 3m on a turnover of £1,115. 8m. The company had made a profit of £104m on a turnover of £1, 085m in the previous financial year. BBC Worldwides profit rate was 11. 2% in 2011/2012, up slightly from 9. 6% the previous year, down from a peak of 21. 5% in 2002/2003, contrasting with 7. 8% in 2003/2004. The highest profile of these products was the listings magazine Radio Times. Prior to 1979, several BBC departments dealt with the exploitation and sale of BBC brands and this was rectified however as the economic situation eased and by 1982 BBC Publications had a trading profit of £4.7 million. BBC Transcription Services licensed BBC Radio material to overseas broadcasters, the selling of television programmes was at first handled in 1958 with the establishment of a business manager post. This gradually expanded until the establishment of the Television Promotions department in 1960 under a general manager, in its first year, the department saw the sale of 550 programmes overseas with a turnover of £234,000, with a further 1,200 programmes sold the following year. Radio programmes were only exploited on the level with the creation of the Radio Enterprises department in 1965. However, following the retirement of the Radio Enterprises general manager in 1969, in 1979 the department became BBC Enterprises Ltd. a subsidiary company wholly owned by the BBC. By 1982, the division were expanding with divisions responsible for video, recorded audio, film. At this point the company had a turnover of £23 million, on 1 April 1986, all commercial activities of the corporation, including BBC Publications, was merged into BBC Enterprises Ltd. In 1991 BBC World Service Television became the first commercially funded BBC broadcasting operation after the Foreign Office refused to pay for it, BBC Enterprises Ltd was subsequently reorganised in 1995 as BBC Worldwide Ltd. A review of the BBCs commercial activities took place in 2004 and concluded that the sell off of BBC Worldwides assets would not be as advantageous as keeping the business and driving it harder. Instead, some changes to its remit, focus, structure and governance were made, in 2007 BBC Worldwide purchased a 75% stake in the travel guide publisher Lonely Planet, acquiring the final 25% of the company in 2011. The acquisition was part of the BBCs strategy to grow its online portfolio and to increase its operations in Australia, in January 2009 it was announced that Ofcom had put forward the recommendation that Channel 4 merge with either the commercial network Five or BBC Worldwide. In the same year, the company was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise in recognition of the companies growth, in 2012, the company began to reorganise their divisions from a product based system to a location-based system, resulting in Jana Bennett leaving the company
12.
Eurosport
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Eurosport is a pan-European television sports network, owned and operated by Discovery Communications. Discovery took a 20% minority interest share in December 2012, and became the majority shareholder in the Eurosport venture with TF1 in January 2014, on 22 July 2015 Discovery agreed to acquire TF1s remaining 49% stake in the venture. Eurosport owns a range of rights across many sports but generally does not bid for premium priced rights such as those to major football leagues. However, in 2015 it was awarded rights to broadcast the Olympic Games from 2018 for most of Europe and 2022 for the UK, Eurosport has also expanded its deal with The All England Club to show all the Wimbledon matches live in 16 additional countries. It is a 3-year deal that includes exclusive TV and digital rights and this expands their tennis portfolio to show all four Grand Slams. The network of channels is available in 54 countries, in 20 different languages, providing viewers with European, Eurosport first launched on European satellites on 5 February 1989. In February 2017, Discovery Communications launched the channel in India, the channel was made available on various platforms in both SD and HD feeds. Eurosport provides viewers with European and international sporting events, in June 2015 it was announced that Eurosport had secured the pan-European rights to the winter and summer Olympic Games between 2018 and 2024. Eurosport broadcasts every WTCC race live and every ERC rally either live or with daily highlights, Eurosport Events was also the promoter of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, a rival rallying series to the World Rally Championship. The IRC ceased at the end of the 2012 season, with Eurosport taking over series promotion of the ERC from 2013, since 2008, the Eurosport Group has also been broadcasting the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans in full. On 29 September 2015, Eurosport acquired the Portuguese broadcasting rights for Formula One between 2016 and 2018, Eurosport broadcasts different sporting events in each region. Region-specific events are noted in the table below with a flag indicating the country it is broadcast in, if no flag is present, the broadcast is multi territory. Prior to the creation of Eurosport, the European Broadcasting Union was acquiring substantial amounts of sports rights and this provided the impetus for setting up the Eurosport Consortium, made up of several EBU members, to establish an outlet where these rights could be exploited. Sky Television plc was chosen as a partner, and the channel could launch on 5 February 1989. Eurosport was closed down in May 1991 after the competing Screensport channel had filed a complaint to the European Commission over the corporate structure, the channel was however saved when the TF1 Group stepped in to replace BSkyB as joint-owners. A new Eurosport channel was able to start its broadcasts the same month, on 1 March 1993, the cable and satellite channel Screensport merged with Eurosport. Eurosport eventually came under a French consortium comprising the TF1 Group, Canal+ Group, in January 2001, TF1 took full ownership of Eurosport. Europe and Eurosport formed a website which Eurosport used as its web portal, including an online TV guide, in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy
