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Scheduling Digital Channels
The art of TV scheduling has recently become a far more complex one, with the introduction of a 'digital portfolio' of channels designed to compliment the main terrestrial service of each of the UK broadcasters.
Extra channels can be used to target specific audiences, add value to existing programming or to provide extra viewing opportunies (such as the time shifted '+' channels).
These extra channels also need to compliment the growing number of other new media services including 'traditional' websites, Radio (DAB and web) and Video on demand.
In the long term it seems likely that audiences for 'mainstream' terrestrial TV services will continue to decline in favour of a multitude of 'broadband' and 'on demand' services. This has been referred to as a move away from the 'broadcast model' towards a 'publishing model.' In the medium term, commercial broadcasters such as C4 need to be able to maintain profitability in the face of rapidly diminishing TV advertising revenues. In 2007 the advertising 'spend' on Google overtook C4.
C4 has made rapid progress in adapting to the new broadcasting environment, attracting audiences from its two key demographics (ABC1 and 16-34) to new digital channels.
Channel 4 currently has three digital channels: E4, More4, and Film4.
E4 - 'Channel 4's cheeky and mischievous little sister'
"I think the common thread that should run through the commissions is entertaining, well-produced and original programming. Think of E4 as Channel 4's cheeky and mischievous little sister." (Angela Jain, Head of E4)
E4 is the most successful of C4's digital channels despite targeting a particularly difficult to reach audience. E4 aims to "do high quality, distinctive, exciting and edgy programming" aimed at 16-34s and mainly focusing on entertainment.
The channel reaches 60% of young adults (6.91 million) a month in 'MCH' (Multichannel Households). MCH are amongst the most selective viewers due to the choice of channels available to them.
E4 aims to be more than just an 'entertainment brand', it is trying to become a 'lifestyle brand'. There is evidence that it is succeeding in this, with 80% of teens stating that 'E4 is the TV channel they most respect'. E4 is also considered the ‘coolest’ channel by 16-34s (Teen Audit 2006).
E4 has a monthly 'reach' of 6.9m. This compares very favourably with the other big digital channels: ITV2 (7.6m), Sky One (5.3m), Living (4m) and beats MTV hands down (2.5m).
Programming
The E4 schedule mainly consists of US acquisitions (Six Feet Under, Simple Life), C4 repeats (Wife Swap) and cross platform streaming (such as Big Brother). E4 also commissions content which links in with core shows on C4. These 'spin-offs' bring the benefit of an established C4 brand and makes it easier to attract an audience. Conversely many E4 'originations' (original programming) are designed to be first looks, to later be shown on C4 (Hollyoaks Specials, Skins). Programmes commissioned specifically for E4 are ones "which embody... all the key E4 values such as risk taking, breaking new on-screen talent, introducing new innovative formats." Commissions have so far concentrated on the genres of drama, comedy and entertainment and factual entertainment.
The biggest E4 hit to date has been 'Skins,' which comes close to being a 'channel defining' programme. As Angela Jain, Head of E4 puts it:
"The stand out hit, Skins, has most clearly demonstrated what can happen if you have a fantastic, original and brilliant series supported by innovative and clever marketing. We don't need another Skins because we have Skins 2 around the corner but it would be great to learn from that experience and create and commission programmes that genuinely reflect and talk to our audience. These can be aspirational, these can be reflective but what they must have in common is that they are unashamedly for our core 16-34 audience."
More4: 'Really Quite Clever'
More4 is a channel designed to provide 'provocative, thought-provoking and entertaining programming for grown-ups.' Commercially More4 is important because it attracts a 'smart, upmarket, sophisticated AB(C1) 30+ affluent, well-travelled, cultured, image-conscious and socially active viewer.' This is a very important demographic for advertisers and currently More4 has a 53% ABC1 profile, hitting an average 4.2% of the MCH population and attracting an audience of 754,000 ABC1s a day.
Programming
The More4 schedule contains a mix of 'adult lifestyle' programmes repeated from C4 ('Location, Location, Location', 'How clean is your house'), serious documentary and current affairs programmes (Cutting Edge, True Stories) and Drama ('A Very Social Secretary'). Unusually for a relatively small digital channel it has its own full length news bulletin. Whilst audiences tend to be quite small , the channel's ability to attract ABC1 and 'LV' (Light Viewers) make it commercially viable. Programmes such as 'A Very Social Secretary' can attract audiences of up to 500,000. The channel also demonstrates C4's irrefutable PSB (Public Service Broadcasting) credentials to the small but very active and influential 'LV' audience in the same way that Radio 4 and BBC4 does for the BBC. Current More4 trailers use the strap-line 'Really Quite Clever' to flatter this 'discerning' audience. Peter Dale explained his rationale for the channel as follows:
"The channel is designed to create more space for what Channel 4 does best - talked about, provocative programming for discerning viewers. This is not a place to think, but a place to enjoy and engage. As our marketing strategy has spelt out in 6ft high neon letters, More4 intends to reclaim adult entertainment from the smut peddlers. This is telly for grown-ups. And as the personal ads would state it, a GSOH is required.
More4 is not another repeats and acquisitions channel - although another chance to see the best of Channel 4's factual output will be part of its appeal. It's a free-to-air, multi-genre service aiming to make a significant public service contribution in its own right. Two-thirds of our £33m annual budget will go on new commissions and we think our high-cost, low-volume approach will produce landmark dramas and feature-length documentaries that really cut through the multichannel clutter."
Peter Dale, Head of More4 (2005)
Film4: 'Contemporary Stories'
Previously a subscription-only channel with around 300,000 subscribers, Film4 was launched as a free channel in June 2006 .The channel initially proved popular with viewers, as a peak audience of 875,000 tuned in for its first offering, 'Lost in Translation.' Since that time Film4 has continued to bring in big audiences for popular films and UK TV premières.
Programming
Film4 shows classic films earlier in the day giving way to modern Hollywood output and the best of US and UK independent cinema during the peak period. Foreign language, 'extreme' and cult cinema is shown late at night. As with most film channels, the audience profile varies greatly according to the films being shown, there is, however, a consistently large male audience. The channel shows a larger proportion of British, independent and 'New Hollywood' films than any other film channel and is the only UK film channel to commission the production of UK feature films.
Headed by Tessa Ross, Film Four is the feature film-making arm of Channel 4 Television.
Film4 is well known for working with new UK talent. Film4 has built a reputation for developing and financing some of the most important British films of the last 25 years, films like: My Beautiful Laundrette, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, East Is East, The Motorcycle Diaries, Touching The Void, The Road To Guantánamo, Brothers Of The Head, This is England, Venus and The Last King Of Scotland, were all partly financed by Film4.
Film4 are involved with films from the script and development stage. In collaboration with the UK Film Council they are involved with many of the 'slate development' deals that decide on future UK film production. Film4 also support short film making schemes such as 'Cinema Extreme' and the low-budget studio, 'Warp X' (created in partnership with the UK Film Council, Warp, Optimum Releasing, Em Media and Screen Yorkshire).
"All our films will be theatric films, rather than television films, but ultimately we are looking for these films to play on Channel 4 following their theatric life. We are looking for range across our subject matter and budgets, though these will tend to be contemporary stories which are British talent led...We aim to fund eight feature films a year, all of these will be co-financed."
Tessa Ross, Film Four
Broadcasting 'Flow'
Raymond Williams in his 1975 book 'Television, Technology and Cultural Form' theorised that Television's dominant feature was the managed 'flow' of programming offered by scheduling.
"In all developed broadcasting systems the characteristic organization, and therefore the characteristic experience, is one of sequence or flow. This phenomenon, of planned flow, is then perhaps the defining characteristics of broadcasting, simultaneously as a technology and as a cultural form."
His insights were based on the seamless scheduling of the US networks, at the time a very different environment from that of British TV:
"In Britain, until recently, television was basically an evening experience, with some brief offerings in the middle of the day, and with morning and afternoon hours, except at weekends, used for schools and similar broadcasting. There is now a rapid development of morning and afternoon 'programmes' of a general kind. In the United States it is already possible to begin watching one's first movie at eight-thirty, and so on in a continuous flow, with the screen never blank, until the late movie begins at one o'clock the following morning. It is scarcely possible that many people watch a flow of that length, over more than twenty hours of the day. But the flow is always accessible, in several alternative sequences, at the flick of a switch. Thus, both internally, in its immediate organization, and as a generally available experience, this characteristic of flow seems central."
The idea that audiences 'watch television, not programmes' seemed a feasible one until the 1990s when the arrival of true multi-channel TV began to shake the confidence of schedulers. The success of 'Fox' and 'HBO' in the US seemed to be down to 'programmes, not channels.' As audiences steadily desert the mainstream TV networks in the UK, the onus is upon the broadcasters to provide high quality programmes for a wide range of audiences. Unlike the situation in the 1970s when the US showed the way, Britain is in the vanguard of this particular 'TV revolution.' British Television is likely to change more in the next five years than in the last fifty.
