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Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2002
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‘Tele-branding in TVIII: the Network as Brand and the Programme as Brand’
Catherine Johnson
New Review of Film and Television Studies, 2007
In the era of TVIII, characterised by deregulation, multimedia conglomeration, expansion and increased competition, branding has emerged as a central industrial practice. Focusing on the case of HBO, a particularly successful brand in TVIII, this paper argues that branding can be understood not simply as a feature of television networks, but also as a characteristic of television programmes. It begins by examining how the network as brand is constructed and conveyed to the consumer through the use of logos, slogans and programmes. The role of programmes in the construction of brand identity is then complicated by examining the sale of programmes abroad, where programmes can be seen to contribute to the brand identity of more than one network. The paper then goes on to examine programme merchandising, an increasingly central strategy in TVIII. Through an analysis of different merchandising strategies the paper argues that programmes have come to act as brands in their own right, and demonstrates that the academic study of branding not only reveals the development of new industrial practices, but also offers a way of understanding the television programme and its consumption by viewers in a period when the texts of television are increasingly extended across a range of media platforms.
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This is not Marketing. This is HBO: Branding HBO with Transmedia Storytelling
Xiaoyuan Wang
This article deals with the way HBO promotes its shows today using strategies of 'transmedia storytelling' (Jenkins 2006). The US pay-per view cable channel has a history of creating a specific promotional system around its programs. Its famous slogan 'It's Not TV. It's HBO.' accompanied the introduction of narrative complexity in shows like The Sopranos (HBO/Brillstein Entertainment Partner, 1999-2007) or The Wire (HBO/Blown Deadline Productions, 2002-8) for example. Transmedia Storytelling, as theorized by Henry Jenkins, is a way to extend stories across multiple media platforms in order to create a coherent storyworld, giving information on characters or insights on the plots and the narrative universe. This article analyses how HBO is developing strategies of transmedia storytelling. I will focus on two specific television shows, True Blood (HBO/Your Face Goes Here Entertainment, 2008-) and Game of Thrones (HBO/Television 360/Grok! Television/Generator Entertainment/Bighead Littlehead, 2011-), in order to understand how HBO managed to promote these shows and expand its brand in the American and international television landscape. I use a dual methodology, first presenting an analysis of the transmedia strategies related to the universes of the shows. Then I will draw on interviews with the creators of these strategies in order to understand how they are included in the promotion of HBO.
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Netflix, Amazon, and Branded Television Content in Subscription Video On-Demand Portals
Michael L Wayne
Media, Culture & Society, 2018
Branding has been described as the defining industrial practice of television's recent past. This article examines publicly available industry documents, trade press coverage, and executive interviews to understand the place of traditional television network branding in streaming video on-demand (SVOD) portals as represented by Amazon and Netflix. Focusing on materials relating to licensed rather than original content and the role of such content within the U.S. domestic SVOD market, two distinct approaches emerge. For Amazon, the brand identities of some television networks act as valuable lures that draw customers into its Prime membership program. For Netflix, linear television networks are competitors and their brand identities are seen as impediments that reduce Netflix's own brand equity. Nonetheless, for advertiser-supported cable networks, the benefits of network branded content on SVODs remains unclear. Ultimately, Amazon's efforts to build a streaming service alongside network brand identities and Netflix's efforts to build its own brand at the expense of such identities demonstrates the need to think about contemporary television branding as an ongoing negotiation between established and emerging practices.
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The Evolution of Cable Network Branding: Time Warner in the Post-Network Era, 2001-2011
Darcey Morris
This is the introductory chapter of my dissertation. It provides an overview of the project and its major arguments.
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Meet the predators: The branding practices behind Dragons' Den, Shark Tank and Höhle der Löwen
Ulrike Rohn, Sabine Baumann
The TV industry has traditionally relied on advertising and subscription fees for revenue. Recently, brand extensions and co-branding strategies have been rediscovered as income sources. A prominent example of such a strategy is the TV format Dragons' Den, which has been locally produced in many different countries. We use this intriguing case to explore the extensive and intricate co-branding relationships and brand extensions in the business-to-consumer and the business-to-business settings of TV companies. Our paper analyses global adaptations and cultural branding of Dragons'Den; in particular, brand extensions and co-branding strategies.
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HBO and the Aristocracy of Contemporary TV Culture: affiliations and legitimatising television culture, post-2007
Kim Akass
Mise au point
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Brand strategies for TV Formats
Prof. Dr. John J Oliver
Television formats form a major cultural export and yet, there is no protection under copyright law. Format copycats or imitators freely develop game, reality and talent shows based on successful format ideas. Despite this, the format industry has developed an ingenious and complex suite of market based practices that are allowing a thriving format industry to appear. This chapter discusses how TV format makers use brand management practices, in the absence of any legal solutions, to innovate and trade in their products. These include a number of practices such as: developing and managing the format brand identity, developing localized brand extensions and leveraging the producers brand reputation. Keywords: TV Formats, Television, Brand Management, Media Brands, Branding, Corporate Brands, Brand Innovation, Brand Protection, Brand Extension, Format Rights.
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Branding Game of Thrones across Media: HBO's visual creation of a Brand Identity
Julie Escurignan
Starting as a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin in 1996 and adapted as a television drama series by HBO in 2011, Game of Thrones is one of the most popular examples of what is sometimes referred to as transmedia narratology. Its storyworld has, namely, expanded across a range of HBO of cial and licenced products and platforms, from board games to video games, dedicated websites and collectibles. With the series, the network has developed a particular visual identity for the franchise. The aim of this chapter is to uncover the various elements of this visual identity and to discover if the storytelling across the various media platforms matches the visual universe established by the television show, that is to say if the visual elements characteristic of the series can be found across the different media. In other words, is there a coherent identity in all the products associated with HBO’s Game of Thrones or can we nd visual discrepancies in the individual media iterations? To do so, this study will attempt to distinguish the visual features that characterise Game of Thrones as a brand. Building on Barthes’ semiotic ap- proach (1957), on studies of transmedia narratology (Ryan, 2004; Jenkins, 2008; Mittell, 2015) and on research exploring the relationship between marketing and transmedia storytelling (Bourdaa, 2014), this study offers an in-depth analysis of the series’ visual identity as it is created on different media sites.
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Between the Programme and the Portal: Thinking about the Future of Transnational TV Branding
Michael L Wayne
Critical Studies in Television, 2018
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