Theorist: David Hesmondhalgh

Horizontal integration: Synergy between subsidiaries at the same stage of production
Vertical integration: Synergy through two or more stages of production

"‘they buy up other companies involved in different stages of the process of production and circulation"
"they buy up other companies in the same sector to reduce the competition"

Production: Making the product (includes pre and post)

Distribution: Making the product available

Marketing: Promoting the product

Exhibition: The point an audience receives the product 

Synergy: The increased effectiveness that results when two or more people or businesses work together (and therefore gain a mutual benefit)

"by buying or partnering other companies abroad, corporations can sell massive amounts of extra copies of a product… they buy into other related areas of cultural industry production to ensure cross-promotion"

Convergence: Moving towards union, coming closer together and meeting at a point

Cross-media convergence: When product content on different mediums is unified (primarily related to marketing

360 degree marketing: Marketing which operates across a number of different cultural industries and media platforms, (In the contemporary cultural industries, this includes a significant amount of online promotion, which is often cheaper and more effective than traditional advertising)

"digitization, the internet and mobile telephony have multiplied the ways in which audiences can gain access to content, and have made small-scale production easier for millions of people"

Before you undertake a task relating to the advertising and marketing of film products, it is important to consider the ways in which producers ensure profit and cope with the high level of risk associated with the cultural industries.

"cultural industry companies respond in particular (though variable) ways to perceived difficulties in making profits"

Hesmondhalgh on formatting ‘stars’:

"The star system - associating the names of star writers, performers and so on with texts[...] The importance of the star system can be indicated by the following statistic: of the 126 movies that made more than US$100 million at US box offices in the 1990s, 41 starred one or more of just seven actors" 

Hesmondhalgh on formatting ‘genre’:

Genre terms operate as labels, not unlike brand names, that suggest to audiences the kinds of satisfaction and reward they might attain by experiencing the product[…] the key thing here is that a type of cultural product is suggested and associated with particular uses and pleasures

Hesmondhalgh on formatting ‘serials’:

finally, the serial remains a major type of formatting[…] Hollywood relies more than ever on sequels and prequels: 27 sequels and prequels were listed in the US cinema release schedule in 2011[…] more than in any previous year