Strategies and communication within audiovisual companies
Prof. Federico di Chio
Text under revision. Not yet approved by academic staff.
COURSE AIMS
The course is devoted to the study of audiovisual enterprises (film and television): the forms they take, the business models they follow, the organisational frameworks they adopt and the strategies (editorial, commercial and communicative) they pursue.
The historical perspective is important: the audiovisual sector is characterised more than any other by the incessant dynamism of technology, of production processes, of forms of supply and consumerism and consequently ways of doing business. For this reason the course analyses the diachronic development of business models and the relative processes of adaptation to the environment.
Considerable time will be spent on the analysis of present models, marked by the pervasive nature of digital technology as well as the prefiguration of what could happen in the near future.
COURSE CONTENT
The course is organised into ten three-hour sessions. During the lectures, as well as theoretical and conceptual aspects, the course also explores operative issues, and includes the illustration of case histories by the tutor. Students are expected to attend regularly.
The following topics will be covered:
1.Introduction.
The digital, converging marketand the ‘great audiovisual production chain’.
2.The ‘small film production chain’.
The origins of the studio system (1900’s and 1920’s).
The classic integrated model (1930’s and 1940’s).
3.The collapse of the integrated model and the advent of television (1950’s and 1960’s).
Multi-business conglomerates.
4.The extension of the production chain and the advent of pay-media: pay-tv and home-video (1970’s, 1980’s and the early 1990’s).
Entertainment and marketing conglomerates.
5.Digitalisation and convergence (from the late 1990’s up to the present).
Multi-media conglomerates, TLCand the great production chain of audiovisuals.
6.The current film production chain and its probable developments
New distribution strategies and new display windows
Focus-marketing.
Television shopping.
7.The ‘small production chain’ of television.
Business models (free and pay).
Le forme d’offerta (linear and non-linear).
8.The workings of the ‘television machine’: roles, processes, deciding moments, organisational models.
9.The development of the television market: digitalisation, the economic crisis.
The new competitive scenario.
New subjects in the field.
The near future.
10.Conclusions.
Strategic management of audiovisual enterprises.
Professional orientation.
READING LIST
Full-time studentswill be required to stufy the following books to the examination, but only the pages indicated as follows (apart from the pages indicated in squared brackets):
F. Perretti-G. Negro, Economia del cinema,Etas, 2003, pages 91-228.
D.Waterman, Hollywood’s Road to Reaches, Harvard University Press, 2005, pages[15-72]; 155-278 (amazon.com: printed or kindle).
C. Demattè-F. Perretti, Economia & Management della televisione,Etas, 2009, pages 65-113; 147-156.
C. Nardello-F. Pratesi (edited by), Marketing televisivo, Il Sole 24 Ore – Rai-ERI, 2010, pages 121-153; 182-223.
A. Preta, Televisione e mercati rilevanti, Vita & Pensiero, 2012, pages 3-30; [119-176].
F. di Chio, L’Illusione difficile. Cinema e serie tv nell’età della disillusione, Bompiani, 2011, pages [1-142]; 143-266.
Distance-learning studentswill be required supplement the reading list with the pages indicatted in squared brackets.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Assessment will be based on an individual brief written paper and an oral test on the contents of the lectures and on the material in the reading list brief written paper.
The subject of the written paper must be selected from those listed on the tutor’s webpage. Once students have chosen their subject they must communicate their choice to the tutor via email in good time and state the specific subject they intend to analyse, in order to gain approval to proceed. The completed paper must be emailed to the tutor at least 15 days prior to the examination session they intend to discuss it in.
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The tutor’s webpage ( will contain additional material for optional further study as well as information regarding the course and exercises.
NOTES
Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage at or on the Faculty notice board.