TV Scheduling

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

• Day time
• Evening -> Before and after the watershed.

Who are the target audience for these segments?

• Daytime - housewives and unemployed people (OAPs)
• Evening before watershed - families eg Eastenders.
• After watershed - 16+ Mock the week.

What would you say are popular genres on television?

Soap operas - scheduled at prime time and on every day (7pm-10pm)

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

• BBC1 - They have something for all ages eg. CBBC and Loose Women.
• BBC2 - Older generations eg. Antiques Master.
• ITV1 - 16-50 eg. Dragon's Den.
• Channel 4 - Under 30's eg. Hollyoaks.
• Channel 5 - older generationx, 40+ eg. The Gadget Show.

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

• BBC1 - 17%
• BBC2 - 25%
• ITV - 5%
• Channel 4 - 15%
• Channel 5 - 18%

This may be because if they are scheduled at an early time people who have jobs may miss them, so they are repeated at a later time.

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

Channel 4 eg. Friends as it attracts more viewers due to the popularity of the programme.

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

Watershed happens at 9pm every night and is the time that programmes are allowed to have swear words in and have a more sexual or aggressive context as this is the time it would appear that children are in bed.