Franchise

Franchise (pronounced fran-chahyz)

(1) A privilege of a public nature conferred on an individual, group, or company by a government.

(2) In commerce, the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory.

(3) A store, restaurant, or other business operating under such a license.

(4) The territory over which such a license extends.

(5) The right to vote (usually regarded as concurrent with the full rights of citizenship.

(6) A privilege arising from the grant of a sovereign or government, or from prescription, which presupposes a grant.

(7) In professional sport, the right to own or operate a team as a member of a league.

(8) In modern commercial cinema, a film that is or has the potential to be part of a series and lends itself to merchandising.

(9) In the marine insurance division of Admiralty law, a sum or percentage stated in a policy, below which the insurer disclaims all liability.

(10) An obsolete word for enfranchise.

1250-1300: From the Middle English, from Old French, derivative of franc (free) and franchir & franchiss (to set free).  In Old French, the twelfth century word franchise meant “freedom, exemption; right, privilege” but by early eighteenth century meaning had narrowed to "particular legal privilege," then, the post-revolutionary "right to vote" by 1790.  The meaning in the sense of commercial licencing is cited variously between 1959-1966, though actual word franchising was first noted in the 1570s.  Use in the film industry is most modern, emerging in the late twentieth century (although the concept pre-dated the use of the descriptor) and in law and commerce, forms have been coined as required including: overfranchised, disfranchisement, subfranchise, subfranchised & subfranchising.  Franchise & franchising are nouns & verbs, franchiser, franchisor, franchisement, franchisability & franchisee are nouns and franchised is a verb; the most common noun plurals are franchises and franchisers.

Jim's Mowing began in Australia literally as a one-man, part-time lawn-mowing created by a student to generate income while pursuing a history Ph.D.  It has since expanded into a franchise business which has been adapted to over 50 service industries in four countries (Australia, Canada, the UK & US) with some 4,000 franchises.

In popular culture, the most common use of franchise is in film and television where it's used to describe productions of media content that in some way share a common fictional universe (the characters or the theme).  The typical franchise is two or more films or television shows connected by shared elements, such as recurring characters, settings, storylines, or themes.  Although some are now planned according to a well-understood formula, historically franchises emerged from a films or TV show which generated a sufficient level of fan interest and revenue and the revenue generation streams extend beyond the original format(s) to include merchandizing opportunities as video games, books, comics and clothing.  Dating from 2006, The Real Housewives is an US "reality television" franchise which has thus far yielded 11 geographically different series (The Real Housewives of Dubai including the novelty of being set overseas), more than 20 international adaptations and some two-dozen "spin-offs", some successful, some not.  The Real Housewives of Dubai (RHODubai to the cognoscenti) debuted in mid-2022 but, unfortunately, does not feature noted Dubai resident Lindsay Lohan.  Perhaps it's only a matter of time.