TV Scheduling

The schedule for each day can be broken down into clear segments. How would you categorise these segments?

Breakfast

Daytime

Children

Family

Adult

Who are the target audience for these segments?

Breakfast – Children/Workers

Midday – Homemakers/Unemployment

Afternoon – Children/Family

Evening – Family

Post Watershed – Adults/Teens

What would you say are the most popular genres on television?

Soaps

Drama

News

Reality shows

Sports

Who is the target audience of each terrestrial channel?

BBC One – Aimed at everyone caters for the whole population and is a direct competitor for ITV 1

BBC Two – Intellectual adults –is aimed at the educated - a minority audience

Channel 4 – Teens/Young adults – competitor with BBC for the educated (dispatches)

Channel Five – Same as BBC One/ITV 1 is a mass catered channel

Roughly what percentage of each channels schedule is taken up with repeats? Why do you think this is?

Repeats are used during the day to fill up the schedule because it’s cheap

Which channel has more imported programmes in their schedules? Why do you think this might be?

Channel 4/5 have the most imported programmes in their schedule – they haven’t got as much money as BBC/ITV and it is cheaper to buy a programme (CSI:NY/Will and Grace) than to make a programme

What do you understand by the term ‘the watershed’ and where does this occur in the schedules?

Watershed is at 9 o’clock – shed the child audience. There is often some adult content between 9/10