Understand Legal Obligations in the film and TV industries
Race Relations Act 1976
The Race Relations Act was introduced in 1976 to protect people of any race who are in employment, as well as in education, and not tolerate racial discrimination, but rather promote respect between different racial groups.
How could this legal act impact producers or employers?
For producers and employers within the film and TV industries they must follow the rules of the Race Relations Act of 1976, and failure to follow these rules results in unlawful behaviour. This means that as an employer or producer within the industries of film and/or TV, they can’t treat a person who is of colour, race or of a different origin differently than someone else, for example, if an employee of a TV company is making racial remarks to another employee, then failure to address these remarks and punish the person saying them can reflect badly on the producer or employer as they wouldn’t be enforcing the law.
Broadcasting Act 1990
In 1990, the Broadcasting Act was introduced. This legal act is in place to prevent a single media company from obtaining too much control over a particular industry, i.e. Warner Bros. having more control over the film industry and that company becoming a monopoly. In addition to that purpose, the Broadcasting Act was created with the aim of making changes to the entire British broadcasting structure, and British TV was a part of the structure that they wanted to make changes to in particular.
How could this legal act impact producers or employers?
In the media industry, this law can be viewed as a good thing for media companies, as well as producers and employers, as, since the law prevents one film company from gaining more control over the film industry, all film companies are on a level playing field with one another.
Obscene Publications Act 1959
The Obscene Publications Act of 1959 was created to prevent people from becoming “deprave or corrupt” by obscene images or other material. This act is in place in order to protect the people who view the content.
How could the legal act impact producers or employers?
Producers need to be careful not to publish any material such as TV shows that contain any offensive or crude content that might breach this legal act.
BBFC
Before a film gets released to the public to view, the BBFC has the responsibility of classification and viewing to ensure that there isn’t any inappropriate content. According to a new law, each film that is produced is required by law to be checked by the BBFC and be passed before it gets released.
How could the legal act impact producers or employers?
The BBFC impacts the film industry and producers and employers because the BBFC is responsible for checking for inappropriate content. Producers and employers need to be careful that the film being made doesn’t include any inappropriate content, because if it does contain inappropriate content, then that would cause the film to fail the check that the BBFC does and then the film company would be required to make cuts to the film to make it so the film is suitable for public viewing. Due to the company being required to make cuts if the film contains inappropriate content, then this would mean that an uncut version of the film wouldn’t be publicly released.
OFCOM
OFCOM is responsible for controlling the TV and Radio industries and ensuring that they operate smoothly. They deal with public complaints and protect people from content that the public view as offensive and/or harmful.
How could the legal act impact producers or employers?
This legal act could potentially prevent producers from shooting particular scenes/story lines they want to include in their film or TV show as if a certain type of scene is included, and people view it as offensive, then due to people taking offence to what they have seen in the film or TV show, they might potentially contact OFCOM to have them inspect your film or TV show to make sure that the content in your film of TV show isn’t offensive material. While it isn’t possible to create a TV show or film that will appeal to all audiences without offending at least someone, producers should take into consideration that certain kind of content may offend certain people, so when planning/filming certain scenes for a film/TV show that you have a feeling might be considered offensive, or could potentially make people take offence to what they have seen in your TV show/film.
Developing Technologies
Cable Television
Virgin Media delivers TV through fibre optic cables that are on the subscriber’s property. Virgin Media requires their customers to pay a monthly subscription fee Virgin Media has a monthly subscription, and on top of that, may require them to pay extra if the customer wishes to watch football games or other pay-per-view events, meaning that not only do customers need to pay a monthly subscription, but also extra money just to watch content only shown on additional channels. Cable TV has changed since it first began back in the 1940s, and gives viewers/customers more access and control over the content they see today.
Interactive TV
Interactive TV is where, not only is the broadcaster able to send information to you, but you’re also able to sent information to them too. In addition to that, you’re able to interact with TV shows, such as X Factor, due to being able to vote for the act you want to win, as well as being able to interact with advertisements. However, while interactive TV is good for purchasing things through your TV or interacting with some of your shows that allow this, information about the viewer is being collected by the broadcaster, leading many people to be disapproving towards interactive TV.
Streaming
Streaming is where the multimedia is received and presented to an end-user, which was delivered by the provider of the multimedia. There is online live streaming, which is presented over the internet to the end user from the broadcaster, depending on the internet connection speeds. Buffering can be a negative thing that ruins the streaming experience, since the viewer could be in the middle of watching a programme and suddenly the screen freezes, causing them to wait until it stops buffering before being able to watch again, which results in the programme being interrupted. Since people find it easier to view the content they desire through streaming as it is easier than going out and purchasing DVDs or box sets of TV episodes, streaming has had an impact on DVD and TV box set sales.
Links and Sources:
Developing Technologies: http://damenexample.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/developing-technologies-in-tv-and-film.html
Joshua Sumner 