History and Development

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Genre

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Audience

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Schedules and Ratings

Audiences are important to the Television Industry. Because TV Channels want to achieve the highest viewing figures, they will schedule certain programmes for when they know the most people will be watching.

High viewing figures are are good indicators for advertisers to know when to show their adverts. the more people who are watching the programme - the more people will see the advert.

Because people watch television at different times of the day, TV channels schedule programmes to fit in with our lifestyle, e.g

Children's programmes shown late afternoon when they are home from school.
Soap Operas shown during the evening when everyone is home from work.

A TV schedule can be split into different blocks depending on the time of day:

Breakfast TV
Daytime
Prime time
Grave yard

The types of programmes broadcast at these times of day are tailored to the people who will be at home to watch them.

Prime Time is the name given to when the most people will be watching. TV schedulers will show the most popular programmes, such as soaps and dramas, and often reality shows.

Programmes that contain sex, violence or bad language are only allowed to be broadcast after the 9pm Watershed. This is when it is assumed that most children will be in bed.

Scheduling Strategies
BBC Schedule Guidelines

Who Measures the Audience?

The Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB) was established in 1981 to measure audience viewing figures for the television industry. They are responsible for providing broadcasters with figures on what type of person is watching what programmes on which channel and at what time of the day.

BARB

Targeting & Segmentation

Audiences are often split into categories determined by their job and social class. This helps Producers decide on content for programmes by giving them a target audience, and also helps advertisers know what type of person is watching and when.

Segmentation

Instead of just having 5 terrestrial channels targeting a wide variety of people, we now have specialist Satellite and cable channels dedicated to smaller niche audiences - for example: UKTV Food - Discovery Home & Leisure - even channels dedicated to fishing and weddings!

Audience Theories

All Producers have a Primary and secondary target audience in mind when creating a programme. The Primary target audience is the people who will most likely watch, whilst the secondary target audience is those how may watch due to being linked with the primary.
ie: SMTV: Live is aimed at children but often watched by parents as well.

The Hypodermic Needle Effect

This theory suggests that the audience do not question what they see - they soak up the information like a sponge without questioning if it is right or wrong. It is often associated with Moral Panic - where certain people should not be exposed to the text due to fear of 'copy cat' actions.

Two Step Flow

Instead of the audience being manipulated as sugested in the hypodermic needle theory, the two step flow theory suggests that the people with the most understanding will pass on their own opinions and interpretations to others.

Uses and Gratifications

This is one of the mos popular theories. It summarizes the main reasons why people watch television:

Surveillance

Diversion

Personal Identity

Personal Relationships

Audience Theories

Narrative

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Representation

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Promotion and Distribution

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Regulation and Control

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