Section B:

In my opinion, media ownership has a great impact on the successful distribution of media products overall due to the use of convergence and synergy in order to gain a wide consumer reach in order to introduce consumers to the different media platforms in a media company. For example, the Bauer Media Group.

Bauer Media is a conglomerate which upholds and maintains media ownership of many platforms allowing for successful use of convergence and synergy. Convergence in Bauer Media is seen in full operation as they own over 30 different magazine titles in over 15 different countries along with many TV stream channels and radio stations. Bauer Media dates back to 1953 with the introduction of the Angling times. With time, in 1990 Bauer Media took ownership of Kiss FM followed by Liverpool’s melody FM which is now called Magic 104.5. Later on in 1994, Bauer Media took ownership of the magazine brand for him magazine which is nowadays a top-selling magazine title in many different countries. Also, in 1996, Bauer Media took ownership of a music tv channel called the box which is now known as box tv and is a 7 channel joint venture with channel 4. This use of media ownership allowed for convergence to take place which is a multi-platform approach in media. This use of convergence allowed for a wider reach of audiences and consumers which in turn brought profit as more media products could have been distributed. This wider reach of consumers also creates prosumers that could potentially submit content or improve the quality of content by giving feedback to the institution. Synergy is used throughout the multi-platforms in order to advertise, link and connect these multiple platforms together by the use of adverts, slogans associated with brand name and logos. This would encourage people to explore these multi-platforms therefore increasing consumer rate and profit from distributing products to a wider reach of audiences.

Kerrang! Is a subdivision of the Bauer Media that originated in 1981 as an addition to the popular music magazine the ‘sounds’. With time Kerrang! Acquired their own radio station, print magazine, TV stream and website. Kerrang! Is a rock based magazine which also uses convergence and synergy to distribute products across its multi-platforms. Convergence is used in Kerrang! Brand is a sub-division of its own which extends the reach of audiences due to the use of its multi-platforms such as website, print magazine, tv streams and a radio station. The use of synergy within these multi-platforms allows for advertisement to take place which links the platforms together by the use of the K! logo. This allows for a greater consumer increase on most platforms as people would be encouraged to explore these multi-platforms in order to not miss out on exclusive material. Finally, products may be distributed via advertisement on many different platforms and sub-divisions of Bauer Media and the Kerrang! brand.