Business for Screen (Year 2) - TFT00060I

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Module summary

This module will introduce you to the key business models, and industrial conditions, which surround the production of creative content for the screen: the funding, distribution and marketing of movies; the commissioning and scheduling of TV programmes, the investment systems that fund game development and distribution. It will focus on how projects raise money - commercial and public - and how they make money, or deliver on their investment. This will be a cutting-edge module which considers the latest developments - streaming and online distribution, for example - alongside the established models whereby the screen industries develop and deliver their projects to audiences.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

This module aims to:

• Acquaint you with the core business models that drive the financing and production of screen content: cinema, TV, interactive media.
• Acquaint you with the impact audiences and markets have on investment in screen content
• Explore the key business workflows that take creative projects through from conception to production and beyond.
• Explore the differences between public and private investment, and content creation, models
• Explore where traditional models persist and where new developments - streaming, online for example - are changing some of the terms of screen business

Module learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be:

• Familiar with the key business models, and industrial workflows, that drive development, production and distribution in the screen creative industries: cinema, TV and interactive media.
• Familiar with some of the ways in which different forms of finance - public and commercial - as well as markets and audiences affect screen content production.
• Able to critically analyse how screen projects have been designed from a business and financial perspective with a view to designing business strategies for your own projects.
• Able to respond to new business conditions - for example, streaming and online distribution - in critically evaluating and adapting business strategies.

Module content

This module will focus, in part, on key case-studies. You will be expected to work on researching case studies, in teams, for some of your module seminars.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

There are no formative assessments on this module.

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

David Hesmondhalgh,The Cultural Industries (London: Sage, 2019)

Jeff Ulin, The Business of Media Distribution : Monetizing Film, TV, and Video Content in an Online World (New York: Routledge, 2019)

Aphra Kerr, Global Games: Production, Circulation and Policy in the Networked Era (London: Routledge, 2017)

Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang, Streaming, Sharing Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016)

David Lee, Independent Television Production in the UK (London: Palgrave, 2018)