Broadcast Channel 5AM Productions

Broadcast Channel

Our production piece is a documentary and therefore we had the choice of whether to show our final edit in cinemas, like some other documentaries have done such as “Stephen Fry Live: More Fool Me”, or we could show our documentary on television, which is much more conventional. We also had the option to put our documentary straight on to Video-On-Demand (VOD) services such as Amazon Prime or Netflix, or on to video hosting sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.

After the group decision was made of wanting to show our documentary on television (as it’s more likely to get a higher view rating) we had to look for a suitable channel to show it on.

Why Television?

We chose television to feature our documentary on as it’s where you would generally expect to see it first. Due to this conception, it means that our target audience of 11-60 year olds would probably go to the television first if they fancied watching a documentary. This means we would probably get a higher viewer rating than if we put it straight out on to DVD.

It is also a lot easier to advertise an up and coming documentary that would appear on television rather than one that would be shown on websites such as Netflix, as the television companies would have things such as more than one channel, multiple websites and newspapers run by the same conglomerate to promote the documentary on, whereas websites such as Netflix, doesn’t quite have the same amount of coverage available to use.

Suitable Channels

BBC1 BBC1 does frequently show documentaries

so broadcasting our documentary on here would make sense as we know that it wouldn’t be out of place. Previously, they have shown documentaries about current affairs such as ‘Life and Death Row’, and show quite historical documentaries such as ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ which looks into family history.

BBC Panorama is also a current affairs programme which shows investigations and interviews based around topical subjects.

Whilst we believe our documentary will be based around an issue which should be addressed, like most current affairs, however this particular topic (autism) isn’t one which has recently been in mainstream news.

BBC2 BBC2 is self confessed as being a mixed-

genre channel, appealing to a wide, predominately adult, audience. It shows programmes with substance that contain knowledge-filled content. However, it also shows some comedies and some dramas alongside this. Programmes they show include ‘The Motorway: Life in the Fast Lane’, ‘Marvellous’ and ‘Mock The Week’.

Whilst BBC2 do show the occasional documentary, it’s not their main priority, and as their target audience is mainly adults, and ours is 11-60 year olds, a much wider range than theirs, we do not think broadcasting our documentary on this channel would be suitable.

Suitable Channels

ITV1 ITV1 is known for showing adverts in

between their shows and as we plan to have small breaks in our documentary, it means this channel would be suitable to show our documentary on.

However, ITV1 quite commonly shows entertainment, family-based shows such as ‘X Factor’, ‘You’ve Been Framed’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and it’s quite rare to see documentaries on this channel, so if we did distribute our documentary on to this channel, it’s quite likely that we wouldn’t get many views.

Channel 4 Channel 4 is known as a ‘publisher-

broadcaster’ which essentially means that they buy independently made productions which they will then go on to broadcast on their channel. This means that, as an independent production company, we would have good chance at actually getting our show on to this channel.

In terms of what they show, Channel 4 generally focus on reality TV shows such as Big Brother (before this was taken over by Channel 5) and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, but they do also show quite light-hearted documentaries such as Educating The East End and Secrets of the Living Dolls.

Suitable Channels

Channel 5 Channel 5 deals with a lot more

‘tabloid-type’ issues rather than issues shown on the main news channels. For example they focus on a much younger audience than the BBC (namely BBC1) so therefore have a lot of young people in their shows.

They also show documentaries alongside their Dramas and Soaps, but they are usually very lighthearted in comparison to BBC1. Documentary series they show include ‘Age Gap Love’, ‘Baby Face Brides’ and ‘Never Teach Your Wife To Drive’

BBC Three BBC Three focuses its documentaries

based more on teens and current affairs, but in general show almost anything from animations and comedies, to dramas and current affairs. Their target audience is 16 – 34 year olds and likes to broadcast innovative content.

Shows they have broadcast in the past include “Gavin and Stacey”, “Blood, Sweat and T-shirts” and a series of shorts from Aardman Animations.

Our Decision

We were torn between two channels: Channel 4 and BBC Three. This is because they are quite similar in terms of target audience and what they show.

However, one major difference between the two channels is that Channel 4 has advert breaks whereas BBC Three doesn’t, and as a group, decided that if we did have breaks in between our documentary then we would keep the audience interested as we believe a series of interviews in a row could be quite overwhelming, and lose impact of the message we are trying to put across.

Channel 4

It is important to know what channel we plan to show our documentary on as it affects our advertising campaign. For example, if we were to make newspaper adverts or posters to increase how aware people are of the documentary, we would need to use the Channel 4 logo, and it also affects our layout of the posters, and how the production is edited.

For example, Channel 4 have a very specific, minimalistic but eye-catching way on how they advertise their shows, and we would need to replicate something very similar, especially when it would come to creating our ancillary tasks.