UNIT 1- MEDIA INSTITUTIONS-CELADORKashmire Hawker

OWNERSHIPCelador was established in 1983 as an independent production company. They were bought out by Complete Communications in 1999.

However, due to the company gaining millions of pounds of profit & popularity thanks to them producing the former ITV game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Eventually in 2007, despite them very nearly being bought by Dutch firm 2WayTraffic, the board including the Owner Paul Smith CBE & co-founder Jasper Carrott bought themselves out & they once again became an independent company; they have stayed so since.

The film company was established in 1991 & have made movies such as The Descent, The Descent 2 , Slumdog Millionaire & The Scouting Book For Boys. They were reportedly producing Selma, an American Drama film based on the events of the 1960’s which was released in January 2015 but didn’t didn’t end up being involved for un-known reasons.

Also on there Board is Commercial Director Mark Johnson & Non-Executive Director Steven Dover.

OPERATING MODELAs Celador are a small company, they produce movies project-by-project with freelance staff being on contracts. A small business like Celador enables them to earn money thanks to the strategies they have which earns them good profits.

When a company is set up for a project such as a movie, a company of their size has its profits & a fund named ‘Initial Capitailsation’. If they decide not to & says NO, ‘Project Capitalisation’ is there for them to get the required funding for similar projects. Celador are co-funded by profit & manage to gain co-funding by selling the distribution rights.

Following this, the company will sign deals with smaller but similar businesses to gain a further co-investment & build new partnerships.

For even more money to come their way, the project maybe sold to a big distributor even before the film details finalised. The Descent’s rights we’re sold to giants Pathe.

Finally & most importantly: Licensing. This where the company will do a deal with another production company the market to confirm the film will go ahead.

PRODUCTSCelador are much more than just films as they have 3 other businesses.

They own 17 radio stations; 12 of them are the whole of The Breeze network all across the UK as well as the 3 Jack FM stations in southern England. They also run Fire Radio based in Bournemouth & Poole and finally Palm 105.5 in Torquay.

Along with radio, they conduct theatrical performances & own Lusam Music which is an international music publishing firm.

All 4 companies are run by the entertainment firm.

Slumdog Millionaire is on of the biggest success stories for Celador; the film made a lot of money & thanks to its success, a theatre production is due for London’s West End come the end of 2014. Also, its television portfolio produced good shows which included All About Me & The National Lottery Winning Lines which averaged more than 5 million viewers over the 6 series.

MARKET POSITION & COMPETITORSDespite being a small company, Celador’s big successes make them a major

market player in the UK. This is shown as they have released 6 Films in 8 Years with the next not due until 2015.

The budget of The Descent was £3.5 million & made £34.6 million.

Their main competitors in the UK are bigger companies with a comparison of a film they made all are: DNA Films is another independent small film company based here in Britain

with their major success, 28 Days Later having an £8 million budget & making £57 million worldwide.

Film4 Productions is a big film company owned by major broadcaster Channel 4 and share very strong links with Celador in the film & television industry with both companies being involved in producing the movie Slumdog Millionaire. The movie’s budget was £9.1 million & staggeringly it made just short of £230 million, much more than any British film in a very long time.

Sony Pictures Entertainment are a Hollywood based giant who’s films go all around the world and as a result will have a safety net if a film performs differently in different countries whiles Celador’s films are specifically targeted in the UK meaning its usually all or nothing in terms of the money they make.

These figures shows that despite the market being crowded, Celador’s films are successful & will continue to be for the foreseeable future.