Research into potential channels

1. PSB (Public Service Broadcasting)
Public service broadcasting is a broadcasting service for the whole public. A
PSB channel must provide a service for all the public, covering culturally
diverse societies while excluding no one. It must also include a service which
gives a number of hours for News/factual programming, arts including drama
and film and religious programming. It must show all this in addition to popular
mainstream, entertainment programming like The X Factor.
The BBC, a PSB channel, states its objective is to reflect the many communities
that are in the UK. In addition to stimulating debate within and between these
communities of the UK, and to encourage people to get involved with their
local community. The BBC does this through offering a
range of shows across BBC 1, 2, 3 and 4, from drama and
film to comedy and sport. They also offer mainstream
entertainment shows (like The Voice), current affair
programmes, some chat shows and documentaries.
Documentaries on BBC 3 like Freaky eaters are shown quite early in the
evening at 19:00 or 20:00 and target an audience of 16-34 year olds. This is
very suitable for our documentary as our documentary also shares the same
target audience as BBC 3 documentaries.

2. Independent television is the biggest commercial television network in the UK,
broadcasting some of the most talked about television like The X Factor and
The Only Way is Essex. They are funded by lucrative
advertising and sponsorship deals. ITV broadcasts
multiple documentaries across its four channels during
the course of the year. These are usually aired at 21:00
or 22:00 like the documentary Women Behind Bars with
Trevor McDonald. The time ITV shows its documentaries are quite similar to
the BBC and some of its documentaries are centred on violent crime like ours.
For example, the woman behind bars documentary covers one individual who
killed her baby son. However, we do not feel that ITV is the right channel for
our documentary as the majority of its consumers are older than our target
audience.

3. Channel 4, like the BBC, is a PSB channel. Its primary purpose is the fulfilment
of its public service responsibility which is to provide a broad range of high
quality and diverse programming which in particular:
(a) demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and
content of programmes;
(b) appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;
(c) makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public
service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other
programmes of educational value; and
(d) exhibits a distinctive character
They attract their audience through broadcasting a variety of shows such as
the Simpsons, Hollyoaks and Come dine with me. Their target audience are
people aged 18-35, which is quite similar to BBC 3. Channel 4 shows a variety
of documentaries and they are broadcasted at
similar times to the BBC and ITV. Examples of
channel 4 documentaries are My Tattoo Addiction,
Educating Yorkshire, Skint and Dispatches.
Nonetheless, documentaries on channel 4 tend to be more
personal life documentaries with most having a fly on the wall
approach which does not fit the style of our documentary. However, it
does aim its documentary at the same target audience we are aiming
ours at. Therefore it could possibly be a suitable choice to broadcast
our documentary on.

4. Channel 5
Channel 5 (also a PSB channel
like the BBC and Channel 4)
broadcasts a provision of high
quality
and
diverse
programming.
Channel
5
broadcasts a high proportion of
entertainment shows like reality
television and imported American drama.
The
channel
occasionally
shows
documentaries like Botched up Bodies
and these documentaries are shown at
similar times to the ones on the other channels.
We do not feel that channel 5 would suite our documentary well as the style of
documentaries on channel 5 are more for entertainment purposes, and our
documentary is main purpose is to inform and create awareness.
To conclude, we feel the best channel for our documentary
to be broadcasted on is BBC 3. Despite Channel 4 being very
suitable, BBC3 have broadcasted documentaries similar to
ours and BBC 3 targets the same audience we are targeting
with our documentary.