ASSIGNMENT 7 – TV CHANNEL RESEARCH

By Rahel Fasil

TV Channels I will be discussing..• Channel 4• BBC1• ITV

CHANNEL 4

• Channel 4 is a British public service television broadcaster and has been since 1982 and has a responsibility to the public to produce neutral television.

• After a few years the channel began to focus on the controls of the mainstream and the centre of the mass market as they wanted a wider audience.

• Channel 4 has launched many successful channels such as More4, E4, Film4 and 4Music. This is in order to provide diverse viewing for audiences such as films, movies and factual shows.

Channel 4 ShowsUS Show Themes /

ContentTarget Audience

Ugly Betty Culture, Identity , Image and Sexuality

16-30 year old females

Desperate Housewives

Family, Deception and Femininity

16-50 year old females

The Simpsons Karma, self image, greed, consumerism

7-35 year olds

Friends Friendship, Coming of age

16-40 year olds

ER Medicine, affairs, addiction

24-40 year olds

Channel 4 ShowsQuiz/Game Show

Content Target Audience

Deal or No Deal Money gained if low cash boxes are chosen

25-60 year olds

8 out of 10 cats Humour from topics that come up in the week

17-35 year olds

Chris Moyles’ Quiz Night

Celebrity based questions

20-35 year olds

The Million Pound Drop

General knowledge based questions

15-40 year olds

Countdown Maths calculations and word sequences

40-65 year olds

Target Audience for Channel 4

• 6-7am : 4-7 year olds TV Show: The Hoobs• 7-9am : 18-49 year olds mainly femaleTV Shows: Freshly Squeezed, According to Jim, Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier• 9-11am : 40-50 year oldsTV Show: Come Dine With Me

• 1-3pm : 20-50 year old malesTV Show: Channel 4 Racing• 3-6pm : 20-60 year olds (mainly females)TV Shows: Countdown, Come Dine With Me, Four in a Bed, Coach Trip• 6-6:30pm : 7+TV Show: The Simpsons• 18:30–00:00 : 16-50 year oldsTV Shows: Hollyoaks, The Inbetweeners, The Million Pound Drop

Successful time slots• 6pm – 9pm Why? • Because The Simpsons is a popular, award-winning

sitcom and Channel 4 is the only British broadcaster providing the show. The Simpsons is the longest running American sitcom and many people have grown up watching the show.

• Because of the entertaining, interesting and insightful programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies and Super Scrimpers.

Documentaries

• Channel 4 provide documentaries on very controversial topics that not many other channels broadcast such as medical, body deformities, social groups and past disasters.

• This is because the channel wants to give audiences a better understanding of these topics and combat prejudice against topics like disabilities.

• Channel 4 documentaries are shown at 8-10pm. The reason for this is that this is when the older and mature audience have finished work and are now able to watch.

• Audiences for the documentaries are 25 – 45 year old females

• Examples: One Born Every Minute, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder

Documentary Content/ Themes

Target Audience

One Born Every Minute

Medical, Parenthood

20-40 year olds mainly female

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings

Life Choices, Marriage, Accommodation

15-40 year olds

Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder

Obsession 20-40 year olds

Channel 4 in comparison to other channels

• BBC and ITV were established long before Channel 4 was launched.

• Channel 4 is more dedicated to showing US comedy-drama shows and factual programmes ie Come Dine With Me and Ugly Betty.

• Whereas BBC show more crime based programmes and series dramas such as Hustle and Waterloo Road.

• ITV are slightly different because they provide more entertainment shows such as The X Factor and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

Channel 4’s documentaries compared to other channels

• BBC show more documentaries to do with crime to give more in depth information about what actually happened giving audiences a better view

Examples: The 16-Year-Old Killer: Cyntoia’s Story, Riots: The Aftershock

• ITV tend to show more nature documentaries and documentaries about extraordinary topics from decades ago

Examples: Survival, Diana: Story of a Princess and The Walton Sextuplets Moving On

BBC• The British Broadcasting Company was founded in 1927

and is headquartered in Westminster.

• It’s the largest broadcaster in the world and has a huge workforce

• BBC’s duty is to provide unbiased public service broadcasting in the UK

• BBC’s work is funded by the yearly television licence payment which is charged to all British households with any television recording equipment

BBC1 Shows• BBC1 is well known by many generations for providing award-

winning sitcoms such as My Family and Absolutely Fabulous.

• Gripping soaps such as Eastenders and Doctors.

• Programmes that are based on house hunting and auctioning such as Antiques Roadshow and Escape to the Country

Target Audience for BBC1• 9:15am - 1pm : 40-70 year oldsTV Shows: Rip off Britain, Homes Under The Hammer

• 1pm – 7pm : 35+ femalesTV Shows: Doctors, Regional Weather

• 7pm – 11pm : 18-45 year oldsTV Shows: The One Show and Eastenders

Successful time slots• 7:30pm till 10pmWhy?• Because this is when the younger and older audience are all

watching.

• With entertaining shows like Eastenders and informative shows ie Crimewatch, viewing loyalty is gained.

• Another successful time slot is Friday 8pm – 10pm where comedy sitcoms such as Mrs Brown’s Boys and Miranda are shown

Documentaries

• BBC1 show documentaries such as Cyntoia’s Story: 16-Year-Old Killer and Hillsborough: Searching for the Truth. BBC1 documentaries mainly focus on crime.

• BBC3 documentaries focus mainly on Britain’s youth audience such as Tulisa: My Mum and Me and My Forced Unwanted Marriage

• BBC documentaries focus on these topics because they are popular with the audiences and help them have a better understanding and become less biased to serious topics.

BBC in comparison to other channels• BBC doesn’t have advert breaks in between channels due to TV

Licence fees

• Like ITV and Channel 4 they focus on the older audiences in the morning and in the afternoon they focus on the more younger audiences.

• There are more comedy shows than the other channels and they are shown during prime time.

BBC documentaries in comparison to other channels

• Unlike Channel 4 and ITV, BBC use their many channels to target different target audiences. BBC Four provide more cultural documentaries whereas BBC3 show more documentaries revolving youth etc

• BBC channels show more documentaries daily than ITV, Channel 5 and Channel 4

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