TV Scheduling part 1

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

segments? • 1. Children – at the very start of the day, children's programmes are show as this

would be the time when most younger people would be awake with their parents. • 2. Breakfast – this is the time when most adults will be awake and preparing

themselves for work. During breakfast, the news is mostly on, on most channels. • 3. Daytime – this is aimed towards the unemployed as this shows chat shows and

programmes about people that don’t know whether to move abroad or not. • 4. Student – this time of the day is to show when students get home from

school/college/university. Game shows and quizzes tend to be on at this time as they are easy to watch.

• 5. Soaps – this is the time when most soaps are shown across the terrestrial channels from around 6:30 to 8 o’clock.

• 6. Adults – this is the time when the watershed is on, the programmes are more mature and are not suitable for children to watch.

Who are the target audience for these segments?

• News, comedy, soaps, reality TV – Youth/adult audience (16-45)

• Children's TV, entertainment – Children/early teenagers (3-13)

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

• Soaps • Reality TV • Sports • Comedy• Thrillers • drama

Who is the target audience of each terrestrial ? Give examples of scheduled programmes tom support your views.

• BBC 1 (Sherlock), BBC 2 (gardeners world), ITV 1 (downtown abbey), Channel 4 (shameless) – youth/mature audience

• FIVE (Thomas the tank engine) - children target audience

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

• I believe that channels put repeats on so that when there is a gap between two popular programmes they have a programme to put on in-between. Plus it will also be cheaper for the channel to do as they will not have to buy rights to show a new programme.

Which channels have more imported programmes in their schedules? Why do you think this might be?

• I believe that channels 4 and 5 have more imported programmes on their schedule because they create there own documentaries, not programmes. Channel 4 have created great documentaries like dispatches or time team and channel 5 have fly on the wall documentaries such as big brother. The other channels like the BBC and ITV put money into making programmes such as Broadchurch or the fall.

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

• Definition: this is the time when certain restrictions are retracted each night. The Time when television programmes are broadcasted that might be unsuitable for children.

• The watershed occurs every night at 9 o’clock and this allows more mature events to be shown on television.