7 - Content Production

Summary

This chapter covers the value-adding segments of television GVC’s programme-making phase. It is a phase dominated by artistic intent and creation, right from the birth of the concept to post-production, where colour grading, sound mixing, and editing are taking place. The segments are: facilities (support and services to TV content producers), content production (content creation), and distribution. This chapter traces the route content follows from creation to final production master. It provides an in-depth analysis of each segment of the programme-making phase and includes aggregation. It examines firm behaviour and explains why the search for scale plays such a determining role in the strategies of firms. It highlights three key trends that characterise the chain’s programme-making production network: internationalisation, consolidation, and vertical integration, emphasising that they occur in the wider context of industry segmentation. The chapter looks back at the formation of ten global TV studios (or TV production majors) and defines the role and nature of content aggregation in the TV GVC.