Scheduling =]

After much research into the scheduling of programmes, this has helped me decided where I plan on scheduling my documentary when it has been completed. There are a few different categories that our programme could fall into: - Morning programmes are often infotainment as they are scheduled for those who are getting ready for work however it also includes many childrens programmes. Despite social differences in the modern era, daytime television is still primarily targeted at “housewives” and often consist mainly of cooking programmes or reality/talk shows such as House in the sun. Evening television is also for housewives again, this is why this time mainly consists of soaps as they appeal mainly to them. Late night television is aimed at students as they are the majority that stay up at night, they also mainly consist of films. In addition, I have also found out in my research that channels such as Channel 4 screen a lot more repeats than channels such as ITV as it costs less money to repeat and import American channels than to actually own their own studios. Channel loyalty stopped in the 90's this is why BBC had to self promote its channel. In the 70/80's there was a battle between ITV/Channel 4, this is why they delibrately start programmes early. The three things that needs to be considered before scheduling a programme is Inheritance: If they want to inherit an audience, they usually schedule it straight after a soap so that the audience could continue watching. Pre echo: This is when they schedule a documentary before a popular programme & Hammocking is when they put it between two popular programmes.

BBC1 is a channel intended for “everyone” however this is debatable; it is seen as a channel for everyone as the general public has to pay a TV license towards the BBC as this is how they get their money not through advertisements therefore it should screen programmes that will appeal to the greater audience however it is often associated with Southern, middle class people and the majority of the programmes are seen as for the “well educated”.

BBC2 was opened for educational purposes and this still runs to this day. They are renowned for screening programmes intended to educate and help develop morals in the audience. Documentaries were often screened on this channel in the beginning of the popularity of the television.

ITV1 is often regarded as the working class channel, this is why a large variety of programmes are shown to appeal to different people e.g. Jeremy Kyle.

Channel 4 is viewed as being for students, it contains 20% of imported programmes such as Friends & Fraiser and this is often because it is a lot cheaper to channel them, this compensates for a lack of filming equipment and facilities, they used to be under the TV license but since 1991 they don't.

Channel 5 was released in a wave of excitement as it was intended to be a big contender with ITV1. However, it turned out to be unsuccessful as it tried to appeal to everyone, which a channel obviously can’t do, this is why the majority of people believe that this is where it went wrong as it is difficult to keep a sustained audience with such a big variety of programmes.