NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Stern School of Business, Marketing Department Summer 2019 MKTG-UB.0046.01 - Monday & Wednesday 3:40 – 6:50pm GLOBALIZATION OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY Two Credits Toward the Business of EMT minor ` Adjunct Professor: Colin Brown Mobile Tel: 917-803-3957 Email: [email protected] | [email protected] | [email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION This is an elective course in the Business of EMT minor. It will provide students with a framework for understanding the dimensions of globalization achieved by media and entertainment companies outside the US and their methodology for cross-border expansion. The export growth of American leisure products and services have had a significant impact on the global economy for decades now; now Media and Entertainment companies in other regional superpowers, most visibly those in Asia, are playing similar roles in their own respective economies and the global market at large. This course examines the interplay of such globalization forces across the spectrum of industries competing for the world’s leisure time dollars and attention spans. The course will specifically focus on the socio-cultural, political, legal, technological, and economic factors that affect the media and entertainment sectors in various countries; the industry and competitive dynamics in these countries, and corporate strategies, both domestic and international. The course will selectively focus on countries in Asia, Europe, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, and, within these countries, selectively focus on important sectors of the entertainment industry such as movies, television, radio, music, cable, live entertainment, gaming, theater, sports, theme parks as well as digital and social media and their development in the major countries worldwide. The topics will be covered through a combination of lectures, discussions, case analyses, and a group project. COURSE OBJECTIVES To provide students with an overview through case studies, lectures and readings of the opportunities and challenges involved in exporting leisure products and services to a global consumer base. We will examine the international growth ambitions of multinational companies and how they are impacted by the political, social and economic changes taking place in countries around the world (due to increased GDP’s, a rising middle class and the growth of discretionary spending and leisure time). We will also look at how technology has opened the door for small companies to compete for worldwide audience attention, regardless of their geography or language. As an example of the far reaching influence of the emerging EMT multinationals, we will explore the Chinese entertainment industry, the new consumer for leisure time products, and the transition from a closed society with few rules, covering intellectual property distribution, to the expansion and change of the Chinese media and telecommunication industries necessary for world power status. Such is the growth and transformational change occurring across the global marketplace that this course will be provide valuable insights for students who intend to work in the EMT industry after graduation, both within the United States and elsewhere in the world. Required Material Four case studies purchased from the Graduate Book Store as a Course Packet, together with course lectures and embedded links that will be posted on NYU CLASSES after each class in the form of a PDF slideshow deck. The four case studies are as follows: • HBS: Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (June 2008) • HBS: Must Zee TV (revised Feb 2003) • HBS: Google in China A & B - (April 2010 & March 2011) • Stanford: The Xbox Launch in Korea (April 2003) Students can purchase their access keycodes to this Course Pack either in the bookstore or the website: shopnyu.com Course Evaluation 1. Class attendance and participation: 40% 2. Group project: 30% 3. Individual Report on Presentations: 30% Class Attendance and Participation (40%) Every session of the course will involve interaction in the form of class discussion. I expect each one of you to come to class on time and be prepared to contribute to all class sessions. Attendance will be taken for each class session and will be a factor in determining your class participation points. Laptops, cell phones, and other electronic devices are a disturbance to both students and professors. All electronic devices must be turned off prior to the start of each class meeting. Every student will be required to read all four case studies. Their knowledge and understanding of these analytical case histories will be tested in the classroom through a verbal quiz around the classroom. Class participation will be graded on the quality of the interaction and will be measured against these criteria: • preparedness of the comments • incorporation of current news articles and topical trends • extent of knowledge • listening skills • ability to get to the heart of the matter • opening new doors for investigation • statement of practical relevant experience • new insights • building on statements of others • evidence that you have gone above and beyond the core requirements Group Project (30%) Small groups of 3-5 students should analyze any sector of the media and entertainment industry in any region outside the United States. You can define the region broadly to include several countries (e.g., Central America, or the Middle East), or just focus on one country. It might make sense to combine several countries into a region if (1) there are sufficient similarities across the countries, (2) the countries are contiguous, and (3) each of the individual countries is too small for a meaningful analysis by itself. As far as the industry sector is concerned, you can either select a traditional E&M sector (such as television or magazines), or select a non-traditional entertainment sector. In general, I will be quite flexible about your industry selection as long as you can convince me that it pertains to the entertainment industry. You need to get your region and industry sector approved by me before you start working on the project. Your project report should show an understanding of the material covered in the course, as well as significant original scholarship and research involving secondary data sources. Each group will make a 20-minute presentation in class on its project findings, and be prepared to answer a few class questions immediately afterwards. There is no need to turn in a written report of your project. Instead, please turn in a copy of your presentation slides on the first day of the presentation. The slides that you turn in should contained detailed accompanying notes, and would typically contain more material than an abridged version that you might present to the class (given the time constraints). Where possible, the chosen region should NOT be one in which any of the group’s students were raised; the whole purpose of the Group Project is to examine and analyze new marketplaces. Your report should broadly follow the following structure: 1. Introduction 2. Environmental Analysis: Examine the economic, technological, social, regulatory, political, and legal environments in your industry sector in the country. 3. Industry and Competitor Analysis: Examine the structure of the industry (whether monopoly, oligopoly, or pure competition), the different players operating in the industry (domestic and international), the economics of the industry, the core competencies of the main players, and the nature of competition in the industry, both from traditional rivals and from technological upstarts. You can also perform a Porter’s 5 forces analysis if appropriate. You should also examine the consumer culture, consumption patterns, and trends in the industry. 4. Industry Future: Given your analysis, what does the future hold for the industry sector? Do they face special challenges (either from within or outside the country)? What opportunities exist for the industry players? How can the players overcome their challenges and leverage their core competencies to create future growth and profitability? 5. Conclusions and Summary. Should include some general learning for the rest of us who are interested in the overall domain, but not necessarily on your specific topic. Individual Report on Presentations - 30% Write a report (about a page per presentation, double-spaced, 12pt font excluding appendices) that lists the main strengths and weaknesses of each presentation (excluding yours). Make sure to include the key learning that you got from the presentation when listing its strengths as well as including a critique, if any, in the weaknesses. Across those five reports there should be at least one comparative reference or insight from each of the 4 case studies (i.e. Taran Swan / Zee TV / Google in China / Xbox in Korea) that demonstrates understanding of the relevant issues being faced then and now. This report is due online in NYU Classes by noon on Thursday, July 11th. Grading At NYU Stern we seek to teach challenging courses that allow students to demonstrate differential mastery of the subject matter. Assigning grades that reward excellence and reflect differences in performance is important to ensuring the integrity of our curriculum. In general, students in this elective course can expect a grading distribution where about 35-40% of students will receive A’s for excellent work and the remainder will receive B’s for good or very good work. In the event that a student performs only adequately or below, he or she can expect to receive a C or lower. Note that the actual distribution for this course and your own grade will depend upon how well each of you actually performs in this course. Re-Grading In line with Grading Guidelines for the NYU Stern Undergraduate College, the process of assigning of grades is intended be one of unbiased evaluation. This means that students are encouraged to respect the integrity and authority of the professor’s grading system and discouraged from pursuing arbitrary challenges to it.