UNIT 3 was a research unit where we had to conduct Primary, Secondary & Initial Research, along with Research methods and Our final ideas.

1. By Brandon Boyd

2. The Task:
 “We have been asked by a television company called
Factor Productions to propose a new strategy for the
launch of a new television programme to compete with
the Channel 4 show, “4ThoughtTV”.
 “You have to determine the methods used and present
your ideas. We need to use both web and conventional
sources to determine the possible market
opportunities. We also need to generate ideas and
form an initial proposal for the product launch.

3. Programme ratings: I want to find out what the
most popular programmes
are on Channel 4, so I know
what I have to compete
with.
This information will be
helpful to me, as I can try
and make my programme
different to get a better
rating for my show.
I am going to look on the
Internet and find various
television rating sites.
Quantitative.
8/3/2015
Viewing figures: I want to see how many
views each of the Channel 4
shows gains from viewers,
and what I can do to get
more than all of my
competitors.
This information will be
very important when
creating a show, because I
need to see what’s already
in the market, and what
people’s favourite shows
are.
Viewing figures can be
found on the Internet, so I
am going to look on
Channel 4’s official website
as well as some other
website like Wikipedia that
could have lists of the most
popular programmes.
Quantitative.
8/3/2015
Reviews: I want to see what members
of the public have said
about the programmes, and
also the television
companies thoughts and
opinions, to see what I have
to change when making my
programme, whether it be
more music or more
comedy, etc.
Reviews are also a very
important aspect when
making new shows as you
want to take people’s
opinions and suggestions,
and put them into your own
show.
I can search for reviews in
books from local libraries
and again I can talk to
representatives of the
company or on the Internet.
Qualitative.
8/3/2015
Responses to news
coverage/adverts:
I want to see how people
react to television shows in
the press, and how their
shows are advertised on
television, so I can budget
my advert, but also gain a
lot of popularity from it.
This information is also
quite helpful as I can see
what sort of advertising
each of the Channel 4
programmes has received,
and what sort of profits they
have made. It will also give
me a chance to go ahead of
my competitors.
I can go onto websites such
as YouTube and watch the
adverts that programmes
have already created, and
see how I can interpret their
ideas and create my own
adverts to attract
customers.
Qualitative.
8/3/2015
Searching internet
forums:
I want to see what people
have said to each-other
about Channel 4
programmes and ideas that
I can get from people.
.This is important, because I
can look at people’s
opinions about
programmes, and bring
most of the concepts into
my own programme.
I can easily find Internet
forums by going onto
google and typing in
“television forums” or
discussions.
Qualitative.
8/3/2015
RESEARCH? WHAT? DATE?HOW?WHY?

4. What am I going to find out?
 Programme ratings:
 Viewing figures:
 Reviews:
 Responses to news coverage/adverts:
 Searching internet forums:
I am going to find out the ratings of the other
programmes on 4thoughtTV in order t0 decide
what programme I am going to make, and what
sort of audience’s I should aim my programme at.
I want to see how many views each
of the Channel 4 shows gains from
viewers, and what I can do to get
more than all of my competitors.
I want to see what members of the public have
said about the programmes, and also the
television companies thoughts and opinions, to
see what I have to change when making my
programme, whether it be more music or more
comedy, etc.
I want to see how people react to television
shows in the press, and how their shows are
advertised on television, so I can budget my
advert, but also gain a lot of popularity from it.
I want to see what people have said to
each-other about Channel 4 programmes
and ideas that I can get from people.

5. Secondary Research Mind Map

6. Brief
 From the Secondary research we have gathered, there
is deemed to be a gap in the market for a documentary
show talking about political and day-to-day issues. The
show will be aired on Friday evenings and Saturday
evenings, from 8-9:30pm for family purposes, talking
about topics that are currently making headlines
within the media.
 The programme will be called “Stereotyping the
Nation”.

7. 4ThoughtTV
 4ThoughtTV is a television programme currently paid for by
Channel 4. It is a British documentary show featuring members
of the public giving their views and opinions on political and
personal topics, including knife crime, violence, cancer and how
teenagers are being stereotyped nationally.
 Each of the programmes lasts for about 90 minutes, giving you
in-depth knowledge about people’s lives. It tries to challenge
traditional views and provides a platform for people to be sceptic
and devour religious beliefs. The topics are usually relevant to
what is in the news or of topics that can be considered
“controversial”, such as racism, feminism, mental health,
disability, homophobia, stereotypical behaviour and abuse.

8. Background Information
 During Year 1 of the release of the show, the goal was to
initiate a dialogue of about 365 films, one a day. The project
had ambitions to raise the quality of online debating, and
to cause conversations about the debates on social media,
which happened straight away and for a long period of
time.
 They built a semi-automated way of beginning a comment
that focused on people’s feelings and reactions before
getting into doctrine. They also top Channel 4’s community
participation charts online, meaning that members of the
public are getting involved.

9. Topics Covered
 4ThoughtTV try to involve as many topics within the
programme as they can. Some of the many topics include:
 Suicide
 Religion
 God
 Children
 Riots
 Welfare
 Music
 Racism

10. Competitors
 One of the main competitors of 4ThoughtTV is “The One
Show”. This show is a magazine-styled television
programmes broadcast at 7pm every weekday. It focuses on
broadcasting the latest stories from the newspapers,
including topics such as Sport and Celebrities as two of the
hot topics.
 “Goggle Box” is another competitive show, as the producers
of the show gather families and film them watching
television programmes, finding out their personal reviews
and opinions about the show. The positives about this is
that a wider audience of people can find out what good
things appear on the programme, and some of the things
that they maybe need to improve on for the future.

11. Topics on “Unreported World”
 Some of the most popular topics on Unreported World
include the following:
 A visit to Lebanon to reveal the plight of some of the
vulnerable refugees fleeing the war in Syria.
 The Indonesian island of Java, is home to the planet’s
most polluted river.
 They travel to Yemen to reveal the scores of young men
locked in prisons and awaiting execution for crimes
that they were accused of while they were children.

12. Viewing Figures
The 4thoughtTV shows viewing figures cannot be found, but
they are clearly successful otherwise the shows would not be
broadcasted on the television.
When I make my new television show, the viewing figures will
be low to start off with, but as the programme progressively
gains more attentions from the public, and the budget is used
appropriately, the shows viewing figures with drastically
improve.

13. Internet Forums
When doing some extra
research about 4ThoughtTV, I
found some Internet Forums
which might be helpful in a
future show.
A user named “KingJoe” wrote
a poem about the programme,
and on another forum stated
that “the show is something
that people should aspire to.
The show tries to convey
meanings and messages across
the world, as well as giving you
an insight on how others live
differently to you”.
I feel that Internet Forums are
a great source for gathering
information, so when I have to
do my own research, I will
make a forum with questions,
to get people to discuss the
new programme that I am
thinking of creating as a
competitor for 4ThoughtTV.

14. Internet Forums Continued
On a 4thoughtTV
forum, some of the
people were talking
about whether they
believe creationism
should be taught in
schools, so I decided
to do some more
research into this, and
I was quite shocked by
the result that some
people thought
“teaching it in a class
could be
racist/unacceptable”,
but others did say it
was a good idea but
should be planned
and taught carefully.

15. Reviews & News
coverage
Here are some of the reviews that I
gathered about 4thoughtTV from
some members of the public. The
comments that I gathered were
mostly positive, and stated that
they were “excited for the next
show” and that they were “really
entertained by the storylines of the
show”.
The FHT also made a comment
about the programme, and a
reporter said that “The FHT
welcomes discussions surrounding
the use of complementary and
alternative therapies within the
NHS, and is pleased that there is
pleased that there is a balance of
views being expressed in the short
films televised as part of this
4thoughTV series.
(http://www.fht.org.uk/mainwebsit
e/resources/document/statement%
204thought.pdf)

16. News Coverage Continued
(Telegraph Article)

17. Boosting the programme & their
1000th Show
There is an article which shows that they are updating
their website to evolve from a new programme to a more
professional company. They have also celebrated the
broadcast of their 1000th episode. Jannine Waddell the
managing director for the company have also written
some of their own personal feedback, as to how they feel
their programmes are moving forward.

18. Production
The production of the programmes on
4thoughtTV are created by using a
Single-camera setup. Funding for their
website is provided by Northern
Ireland Screens, who are part funded
by the European Regional
Development Fund also.

19. Where can you watch 4thoughtTV?
 4ThoughtTV air their programmes at 7:55pm on Channel 4, and also on
4OD which is the catch-up channel that allows you to view
programmes, either from your smart phone, smart TV or game console.
 4ThoughtTV can also be accessed anywhere around the world as it has
been approved by many countries for the show to be aired on their
televisions.
CAMERA SETUP >>>

20. People on the show
 There are many different types of people including different races and both genders;
 4ThoughtTV try to include as many different types of people in their shows as possible, so that they
can understand how all different types of people have to deal with situations.

21. Production Costs
 Cameras (LEGRIA HF G25 £649)
 Microphones (RODE VIDEOMIC £114.93)
 Cast (VARIED PRICE)
 Set (BACKDROPS IN GREEN, BLACK AND WHITE
£30.99)
 Lighting (2 SOFTBOX LIGHTS £33.99 each)
 Total of £861.91

22. Audience
This was some information that
we managed to gather about the
audience. We are hoping to find
more statistics soon, but we
figure that the outcome won’t be
what we expected.
This gives us a general idea of
how popular the shows are, and
that if the show was even
popular, that we would have no
problem finding the full results
and stats.

23. • The information that I have gathered from the 4thought TV has helped
me to get a better understanding of why I am trying to help Factor
Productions to create a new show. I have decided to create a
documentary show as this is the genre of programme that is most
frequently watched on the channel.
• Competitors of 4thought TV are shows such as “How it’s made”,
“Snapped”, “Frontline” and “How do they do it”, as they are all
documentary programmes. The shows all get over 1 million views a
week.
• For example, “How it’s made” has released and aired over 312 episodes,
and they air the programme for 30 minutes, including adverts. This
shows that they are producing a successful programme, and have
qualities that make their show liked by members of the public.
• From the Secondary Research that I have looked into, I have found out
that Documentary shows are the most viewed show, and would certainly
find their gap in the market. For my Primary Research, I hope to find
out more about the types of people that watch documentaries, and
whether or not the majority of the public would be interested in seeing
it every week.