Prepara tus exámenes y mejora tus resultados gracias a la gran cantidad de recursos disponibles en Docsity
Gana puntos ayudando a otros estudiantes o consíguelos activando un Plan Premium
Prepara tus exámenes
Prepara tus exámenes y mejora tus resultados gracias a la gran cantidad de recursos disponibles en Docsity
Prepara tus exámenes con los documentos que comparten otros estudiantes como tú en Docsity
Encuentra los documentos específicos para los exámenes de tu universidad
Estudia con lecciones y exámenes resueltos basados en los programas académicos de las mejores universidades
Responde a preguntas de exámenes reales y pon a prueba tu preparación
Consigue puntos base para descargar
Gana puntos ayudando a otros estudiantes o consíguelos activando un Plan Premium
Comunidad
Pide ayuda a la comunidad y resuelve tus dudas de estudio
Ebooks gratuitos
Descarga nuestras guías gratuitas sobre técnicas de estudio, métodos para controlar la ansiedad y consejos para la tesis preparadas por los tutores de Docsity
FUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIAFUENTE ANEMIA
Tipo: Monografías, Ensayos
1 / 135
Esta página no es visible en la vista previa
¡No te pierdas las partes importantes!
Master Thesis MSc Strategy, Organization and Leadership
Submission : May 9 th, 2018 Normal pages: 106 (237.228 characters incl. spaces) Supervisor : Mehran Moghaddas (DVIP, INT) Students : Viktoria Vas & Gerda Binkyte
Copenhagen Business School
Abstract
The paper examines the effects major streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO have
on the Danish film industry, and seeks to identify how individual producers and independent production
companies in the country can exploit the rising opportunities. The research used a mix of deductive and
inductive reasoning in the analysis, for which twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews were
conducted with industry professionals from Denmark over the course of five weeks. This led to
insightful findings that can be used for further researches for both academics and professionals.
The analysis built on theories discussed in the literature review; Porter’s five forces (Porter,
1979), supply chain, emerging strategy (Mintzberg, 1987), marketing mix, four trajectories of change
(McGahan, 2004). The findings include changes in certain links in the supply chain of film production,
such as; affects on producers and film financing, changes in sales and distribution. While for producers
SVOD services mainly bring additional financing opportunities, decreasing the power of DFI and the
national broadcasters, sales agents and distribution is highly affected. Sales agents will need to adapt to
the changing conditions, and transform themselves from traditional sales agents to agents who offer
extra services for their clients. Distribution is affected in a way that its release windows system is
disrupted and shortening some of these windows might not be avoided in the future.
Additionally, the study, with the help of the model of marketing mix, identified that in the
hypothetical case of Danish producers or production companies selling their projects for major
streaming (Netflix, Amazon or HBO) services as original content, they need to face several challenges.
Streaming services look for local, yet mainstream projects and in the last few years they were mainly
interested in serialized content. As the SVOD platforms do not release any data regarding sales and
audiences, they have an unfair advantage when negotiating for price. If a title is released on a major
streaming platforms, it does not automatically mean it will reach a large audience, as mostly American
and English language titles are highlighted on the platform, leaving foreign language products in the
background. Furthermore, Danish producers, who are used to a system of subsidiaries as main source of
financing, will have to adapt and use different promotion styles if they seek to sell their projects to a
major platform. To understand the ongoing changes from a strategic point of view, the four trajectories
of industry change model (McGahan, 2004) has been applied, stating that while at the moment the
changes can be considered progressive for producers and production companies, the future is uncertain
and as any other industry, it can catapult into radical or intermediating change. Conclusively, the above
discussed findings are applicable to not only the film industry in Denmark, but all across Europe, as the
Danish film industry in its structure resembles to most film industries in the continent.
Consequently, VOD platforms and their growth in the country bring many changes
to the industry and affect producers, distributors and sales agents as well by creating both
opportunities and challenges. It is clear that streaming services give additional financing
ways for producers to help their projects of filmed entertainment, thus, it is worth to
investigate what other effects they have on the Danish film industry. “ There is a little
transparency for producers to both identify the full scope of their opportunities they can
capitalize upon, and recognize the risks they are to face” (Binkyte and Christensen, 2016:1).
The above described characteristics and dynamics of the Danish film industry have
led to the formulation of the following research questions:
Main research question:
What effects do major streaming services have on the Danish film industry, with the
focus on independent production companies and individual producers?
Sub-question:
How could Danish production companies and individual producers use the evolving
opportunities to reach broader audience?
This paper will investigate the film industry from a researcher’s standpoint and will
seek to identify current characteristics of the industry and how would these (characteristics)
change in the face of major streaming services starting to invest in local independent film
projects.
It has been chosen to focus the research on production companies and individual
producers in Denmark that produce both feature films and TV drama (TV series), in order
to understand the industry and gain knowledge on what are the expectations of Danish
filmmakers towards the new concept of VOD (video-on-demand) service providers
investing into local films, as well as starting their own productions. It has also been decided
to limit the scope of streaming service providers to only the major ones that operate within
the Scandinavian industry; Netflix, Amazon, HBO; and touch upon some other VOD
platforms that provide similar services, which include local ones, such as ViaPlay.
The thesis of how streaming services are reshaping the film industry is intended
towards Denmark but also has an international appeal, for streaming service providers
offering their services across the globe, hence, in many different European markets acting
similarly. Additionally, producers seek international markets to showcase their films to
reach financial aspirations.
The structure of the paper is as follows; the first part is the methodology of the
research, where the process of the data collection and analysis is introduced as well as
explained. Next is a literature review based on the previous researches within the film
industry and introducing theories and models such as supply chain, Porter’s five forces
(Porter, 1979), four trajectories of industry change (McGahan, 2004), marketing mix, and
relationship marketing in order to build a theoretical framework for the analysis. The
following part contains the analysis of the collected data structured based on the theoretical
framework. The paper concludes in a discussion and conclusion about the findings in the
analysis.
In order to be able to properly define the research design and overall research
strategy of a thesis, one has to understand the different philosophical approaches to
qualitative research. The two main philosophical concepts behind qualitative researches are
ontology and epistemology (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008). “Ontological assumptions
are concerned with what constitutes reality, in other words what is. Researchers need to
take a position regarding their perceptions of how things really are and how things really
work” (Scotland, 2012:9). On the other hand, “epistemological assumptions are concerned
with how knowledge can be created, acquired and communicated, in other words what it
means to know” (Scotland, 2012:9). Thus, ontology tries to answer the question of “What
is there in the world?” (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008:7), while epistemology is seeking
2.2.2. Operationalization of Theory
Generally, two alternative ways of linking theories to reality exist: the deductive and
the inductive approaches. The deductive research is typically based on theory testing and
implies that existing theory can be applied to reality. On the other hand, the inductive
approach can be seen as a method of theory building and assumes that empirical findings
could be used as a basis of developing new theories. It is worth mentioning, that studies do
not necessarily use either the deductive or the inductive approach, but can use both in order
to examine complex questions (Saunders et al., 2009).
This paper is considering both approaches. The deductive approach was used to
provide a systematic literature review. After collecting and organizing the literature review,
the same deductive approach was used to build a conceptual framework (See Figure 3),
which is essential in defining the research design (Yin, 2003). The approach switches to
inductive as analysis of the collected data commences, and continuous throughout the
application of the findings to a hypothetical case, as well as during the course of the
discussion.
Figure 1: Structure of the study
2.3.1. Literature review
It is extremely difficult to attach academical theories to the film industry due to its
uniqueness and special characteristics. In order to build the theoretical framework that can
Literature Review
Conceptual framework
Analysis of Data
Discussion and propositions
Deductive Inductive
Application of Findings to a Hypotethical Case
be used as a base for the analysis, several academic journals, articles, online articles and
academic books were explored. The main theories explained in the literature review revolve
around the topics of industry analysis, changes in the industry and the supply chain of the
film industry. Without understanding the dynamics and different roles of the players within
the industry it is impossible to conduct any research, thus, an overview of the industry was
added to the literature review. The proposed conceptual framework combines and connects
the different model into a coherent one as a means to provide a structure for the data analysis,
discussion and conclusion (See Figure 3).
2.3.2. Analysis
The research study uses the theoretical background of Mintzberg’s (1987) emerging
strategies concept throughout its full course. The analysis follows the structure of the
conceptual framework in order to seek answers to the proposed research questions through
the collected data. For this study, both primary (in-depth interviews) and secondary (journal
articles, online articles, books, online reports) data were collected. As the paper considers a
social constructivist point of view, quotes from the various interviews are displayed
throughout the analysis. In the first part of the analysis, a short industry study is provided
with the help of Porter’s (1979) five forces regarding individual producers and independent
production companies as a way to understand the current state of the Danish film industry.
In the following part, the changes that VOD services cause within the industry are examined
through the various links of the supply chain. The supply chain of filmmaking includes a
large number of parts, however, the predetermined limit of the study’s length allowed to
examine only those that are the most intertwined with producers and production companies.
Thus, four parts of the supply chain are considered in the analysis: financing, producer, sales
and distribution. After identifying the various changes in the supply chain, a hypothetical
case of an individual producer or production company selling their project to a major VOD
platforms, namely Netflix, Amazon or HBO Nordic, is taken into consideration. Due to the
proposed research question of identifying opportunities and their way of exploiting, the
model of “4Ps” of marketing mix (McCarthy, 1964 in: Khan, 2014) is applied onto the case.
the research (See Appendix 1). The first questions always revolved around introduction
about themselves to help them ease into the conversation and to gain knowledge about their
background. The further questions were formed around relevant topics such as the current
state of the Danish film industry as they see, what possible changes could the VOD
platforms bring to the Danish industry and how they see it, how do they see these changes
affect the different players within the industry, how do they see the arising questions about
certain rights, what would it mean for them if a major VOD platform picked their project
(See Appendix 1). Due to the interviews having been conducted in a semi-structured way
several topics and questions surfaced that were not taken into account prior to the first
interviews. These questions and topics were later discussed with interviewees that have not
been interviewed at a later stage. A total of twelve interviews were carried out in a period
of five weeks. A short overview of the interviews can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1: Interview Overview
Name Position Company Date Location Length
Eva Juel Hammerich
Producer / founder
Nepenthe Film ApS March 23 rd, 2018, 10:
Company office, Grønnegade 18, 1 1107 Copenhagen K
Jakob Staberg
Producer / founder
Statement Film Aps March 23 rd, 2018, 16:
Café, Skt. Annæ Wildersgade 52 1408 Copenhagen K
Bo Ehrhardt
Producer / founder / partner
Nimbus Film ApS April 4 th, 2018, 16:
Company office, Hauchsvej 17 1825 Frederiksberg C
Lars Feilberg
Producer / founder
Impact Tv ApS April 6 th, 2018, 17:
Company office, Rentemestervej 52 2400 Copenhagen NV
Henrik Danstrup Holst
Producer Klassefilm ApS April 11 th, 2018, 9:
Company office, Kronprinsessegade 46 D.
1306 Copenhagen K
Mikael Windelin
Producer / owner
Minerva Film ApS April 12 th, 2018 15:
Café, Espresso House, Kongens Nytorv 24 1050 Copenhagen K
Lars Herman
Producer / COO
Apple Tree Production ApS
April 13 th, 2018, 11:
Company office, Store Kongensgade 77 1264 Copenhagen K
Mikael Rieks
Producer / executive producer
Nordisk Film April 17 th, 2018, 15:
Company office, Mosedalvej 14 2500 Valby
Camilla Mølgaard Hansen
Junior distributor and marketing producer
41Shadows ApS April 18 th, 2018, 16:
Café, Espresso House, Vesterbrogade 3 1620 Copenhagen
Tine Klint Sales agent / founder / managing director
Levelk Properties ApS
April 20 th, 2018, 8:
Café, Meyer’s Deli, Gammel Kongevej 107 1850 Frederiksberg C
Klaus Hansen
Managing director
Producentforeningen April 20 th, 2018, 12:
Company office, Bernhardt Bangs Alle 25 2000 Frederiksberg
Stinna Lassen
Producer / founder / CEO
Good Company Films ApS
April 24 th, 2018, 15:
Company office, Vesterbrogade 95a 1620 Copenhagen V
2.4.2. Introductions of interviewees
Eva Juel Hammerich is a film producer and co-founder of the production company
Nepenthe Film. She has finished her bachelor studies at CBS, then after moving to Los
Angeles, she has received a Master of Fine Arts in Film Producing from the American Film
Henrik Danstrup Holst is a film producer who has been within the industry for
more than twenty years. He has worked as a producer for various companies in Denmark,
such as Zentropa. In the early stages of his career he focused on feature films, while in the
last few years he concentrated on producing entertainment content for children (Interview
with Henrik Danstrup Holst, 2018, 01:50; LinkedIn, 2018).
Mikael Windelin is a producer and the owner of the one-man production company
Minerva Film Rights. He has studied film, media and music at university and has been in
the industry since 1994. In 2001, he started his own business called Take-Away Film, that
mainly focused on advertisements. He became a co-owner of Minerva Film in 2006,
however the company went bankrupt in 2012. After that he started working in a company
called Ghosts that focused on visual effects. He later bought out what was left of Minerva
Film and became the owner of Minerva Film Rights. He mainly focuses on visual effects
and post-production on projects in collaboration with small production companies
(Interview with Mikael Windelin, 2018, 00:15).
Lars Herman is a producer and COO of the company Apple Tree Productions.
Having started in the industry in 1991, his extensive experience includes head of co-
production at Nordisk Film, head of development at DFI and deputy head of drama at DR.
Together with Piv Bernth, the former head of drama at DR, he funded Apple Tree
Productions in December, 2017. The company’s main focus is producing drama series for
TV channels in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, as well as international co-
productions (Interview with Lars Herman, 2018, 00:57; Apple Tree Productions, 2018).
Mikael Rieks is a producer and executive producer working at Nordisk Film
Productions that he has joined in 2003. He has been working in the industry for twenty-six
years. He has experience with both documentaries, TV series and feature films. Currently
he is mainly focused on producing feature films for both the domestic and the international
markets. In the last six years, he concentrated on international co-productions. His last
finished project was the film called “Land of Mine”, which co-produced with several
European countries. The movie has also been nominated for an Academy Award (Interview
with Mikael Rieks, 2018, 03:10; Nordisk Film, 2018)
Camilla Mølgaard Hansen is the junior distributor and marketing producer of
41Shadows, a company that is working with both distribution and production. In November,
2017 the company launched its own streaming site, FilmLounge. Camilla’s responsibilities
cover PR & Marketing, and film acquisitions. She has been working as a marketing producer
on the company’s first feature film “Kaptajn Bimse og Goggeletten” scheduled to release
this year (Interview tin Camilla Mølgaard Hansen, 2018, 00:14; 41Shadows, 2018).
Tine Klint is the owner and managing director of LevelK, a company working with
international sales and distribution and operating as an aggregator as well. She has been in
the industry for 20 years, having started her career at Zentropa, mainly working in sales and
distribution. After leaving Zentropa, she has started working for Nordisk Film, then later
Trust Nordisk. In 2009, she started her own company LevelK, that works with sales and
distribution. In 2011, the company extended its activities to include VOD aggregation,
making it one of the few aggregators operating within Nordics (Interview with Tine Klint,
2018, 01:06; LevelK, 2018).
Klaus Hansen is the managing director of Producentforeningen, the Producers’
Association in Denmark. He studied law at KU, but has been working in the film industry
for several decades having started working with cinemas both in West-Berlin and
Copenhagen. He has been the managing director of Producentforeningen for almost twenty-
four years. The association is seeking to promote members’ interests to the copyright
Organisation, public institutions and TV stations as a way to provide better production
conditions for producers. Moreover, the association negotiates agreements with various
employee groups within the Danish film industry (Interview with Klaus Hansen, 2018,
00:01; Producentforeningen, 2018).
Stinna Lassen is a producer and CEO of Good Company Films. She studied at the
National Film School of Denmark and has been within the industry for fifteen years.
Previously, she has worked as a producer on the TV series “The Team” at Nordisk Film.
She started Good Company Films in September 2014, together with producers Vibeke
Windeløv, Ole Søndberg and Anni Faurbye Fernandez. The company is focusing on both
creating commercial content and promoting new talents. They have produced three feature
films and two short TV series so far, and are currently working on a TV series as part of an
primary and secondary data were both collected. Hence, the number of interviews and the
various articles and websites allowed the researchers draw conclusions based on a large
amount of sources. Moreover, the theoretical framework described in the literature review
provided evidence and validity for the research topic.
As a way of constructing internal validity the process of matching patterns from
the collected data to patterns from academic studies and literature within the topic is advised
(Yin, 2003). The provided literature and theoretical framework are the base of the interview
guidelines and questions created and sent out prior to the interviews. The guidelines and
questions focused on topics and themes that are discussed in the literature review, while also
allowing the interviewees to discuss topics and questions that might not have been taken
into account beforehand. Therefore, it was possible to ensure that the collected data match
the patterns and statements of the conceptual framework.
Construction of external validity suggests that findings and conclusions in a
research need to be generalizable to other cultural settings, countries, industries outside of
the focus of the research study (Yin, 2003). The various interviews and examined players
within the industry helped gain external validity to some extent. On the other hand, as the
research focuses on the Danish film industry, in order to be able to generalize the findings
to other countries and industries, further investigation is necessary within the topic.
Reliability provides aides to guarantee that the conducted research is consistent and
can be repeated. Hence, if researchers in the future conducted the same research and
followed the exact process, they would draw the same conclusions as the research study
(Yin, 2003). The detailed descriptions of used theories and models in the literature review
are part of ensuring reliability within the research. During the data collection process,
interviews were carried out on the same guidelines for professionals working in the same
field. Interviewed producers received the same questions and guideline, while distributors
and sales agents were presented with a slightly different set of questions. This way the
collected data were structured and comparable. Furthermore, as the exact research, data
collection, analysis process and their distinguished steps are discussed in the methodology,
it could be a guideline and an aid for the future researchers to be able to conduct the same
research.
The following limitations arose within the research as a result of limited
methodology and dataset:
