TV Scheduling

Direct competitors

They don’t air big programmes at the same time ie Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

Channel Loyalty

If they get the audience in early more people are likely to stay with that channel.

Channel loyalty no longer exists because there’s at least 40 channels and we can use a remote

Key Techniques used in Scheduling

Inheritance – scheduling a new programme after a popular programme in the hope it will inherit some of the popular programme’s audience.

Pre-echo – scheduling a programme before a popular programme. The audience will tune in slightly early so they don’t miss the start of the popular programme and see the end of a programme and it then tune in the following week.

Hammocking – putting something between two big programmes so they get benefits from pre-echo and inheritance.

Schedule segments

Name Time AudienceEarly Morning 5am-9am People who workDaytime 9am-3pm Students, unemployed,

housewives, shift workers

Prime Time 3pm-9pm EveryoneLate Night 9pm-5am Shift workers, students,

unemployed

Popular Genres

Drama Factual/documentary Comedy Sport Soaps Game shows Reality Celebrity

Target Audiences

BBC One – mainstream

BBC Two – educated people

ITV1 – mainstream

Channel 4 – teenagers up to about 50

Channel 5 – mainstream

Imported programmes

Channel 4 and Channel 5 are the main channels that have foreign TV shows because the BBC don’t have enough money to buy these foreign programmes.

Watershed

After 9pm Can use swear words Sex scenes