BTEC National in Business
Unit 1- The Business Environment
Assignment 1 – Types of Businesses
Task P1 The BBC is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world. Its mission statement is to enrich people lives with programs that inform, educate and entertain. The BBC has the second largest budget of any UK broadcaster with an operating expenditure of £4.23 billion in 2009/2010. The only UK broadcaster with a larger operating expenditure is British Sky Broadcasting with £5.9 billion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Finance). The reason that Sky’s operating expenditure is higher is because Sky is a private sector PLC, which means that the public can buy shares in a company. Selling shares means more capital income is invested in
However, BP has not seen the same decrease as other businesses because everybody needs oil and petrochemicals to run their cars, lawnmowers and other machinery that runs on petrol or diesel.
(http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=3&contentId=2006926)

British Petroleum is a public limited company (PLC). This means that the shareholders own the company and anybody can buy shares in BP, whereas if BP was a Private Limited Company then share cannot be sold to the public only employees in the business can buy the shares. The benefit of being a PLC is that selling shares raises capital for the limited company however the company and the shareholders are separate meaning that the shareholders have limited liability meaning that their investment in BP and their personal assets are separate. This is a benefit because if BP were in debt then the shareholders personal assets such as their house and car would not be reposed to repay the debt because the shareholders’ investment and personal assets are separate. The advantages of a PLC are that Public Limited Companies have more available capital through selling shares meaning there is potentially more money invested in the business. Another advantage of a PLC a limited company is seen to be a separate legal existence from its owners. This has several advantages, including