ITV aims to attract diverse audiences through their programming schedule and channel offerings. They target different demographics and psychographics depending on the time of day. In the mornings, ITV shows appeal to high income businessmen and women. Mid-day shows target unemployed or lower income viewers. Evening programs entertain older retired people as well as younger and middle-aged women through soap operas and talent shows. ITV also uses its other channels like ITV2 to focus on specific audiences, such as teenagers for shows featuring celebrities and reality television.

1. ITV Genre Research

2. ITV
Firstly, conducting research into ITV is something
that we wish to look at because this will help us
primarily but then we also thought that looking
at other channel’s audiences and demographics
is vital too because we wish to be diverse,
subsequently meaning that combining the
features of many channels, we will ultimately
have a variety of audience’s to aim at with a
range of programming.

3. Morning on ITV
ITV’s target audience differs massively throughout a day of programming with
many different shows. Starting with the morning shows, Good Morning
Britain and then Lorraine contain a combination of information and current
news as well as trying to keep the audience entertained with comedy, though
this is used primarily more with Lorraine rather than GMB – with this show
considered to be an exact replica of Good Morning America but for the ITV
institution. These shows appeal to a mass audience, with topical information
able to be consumed by many people so that they can find out the latest
news, though the professional sense of the show is conveyed through the
studio initially as it includes the traditional desk with all 4 presenters placed
behind this desk in an extremely business-like manner. Therefore, this
indicates that during the morning, ITV convey their shows towards a
demographic of men and women of a high income due to the sophisticated
presentation of the show, as well as a mainstreamer psychographic as it
presents this news from across the world. This psychographic will seek
assurance from trust and stability, with ITV providing the programming that
becomes part of a daily routine, due to it being shown every single weekday.

4. Midday on ITV
The midday audience then alters from the morning audience, with
shows such as 60 minute makeover and Loose Women shown at this
time of the day but the audience is no longer businessman and
women, due to the fact that ITV realise these people will now be at
work and therefore no longer able to see the programming that they
offer, so by offering a news show during the early morning it allows
them to see the programmes. These two midday shows fundamentally
aim towards the lower demographics, potentially people that are
unemployed or nearer the 35-40 age range, as these are the kinds of
people that will be watching the television at this time because they
have no job to occupy themselves with. Furthermore, the single
psychographic may also watch these kinds of shows at this time
because of a range of circumstances, potentially housewives or
mothers with young children would be watching television at this time.

5. Evening on ITV
Yet again, the night-time audience then subsequently changes again
with programmes like Coronation Street and The X Factor being shown
at night because these are popular flagship shows that ITV need to
show to the audience at a time where the majority of people will
watch them so that they can increase their audience figures. These
types of programming apply to yet another range of demographics and
psychographics because of the fact that older people will be perceived
to watch soap operas – appealing to the older generation and also
those that will be retired and consequently are sitting down at night to
watch some television. Furthermore, the evening programmes also
entice people that are younger and middle aged, primarily women
because these types of people will be classed as mainstreamers and
aspirers, so they will watch the lives of others because they are
materialistic and hence will seek the image of others due to soap
operas and talent shows.

6. Dayparting
ITV use scheduling theory within their programming because
of the fact that they convey different genres of programming
depending on the point of day. This therefore means that they
are clearly aiming at different psychographics and
demographics at different parts of the day, so that they can
signify their programmes to people that will see them as the
most appropriate. As I have aforementioned, daytime is
specifically aimed at higher demographic audiences because
this will typically be the time before they leave for work, then
afternoon/midday programming is aimed at lower
demographic audiences as these people can perceived to be
jobless and therefore will be in the resigned psychographic
category due to having nothing to do but to watch midday
television.

7. Dayparting segments:
• Sign-on
• Early morning news
• Early morning
• Late morning
• Daytime television
• Early fringe
• Lunchtime news
• Early afternoon
• Late afternoon
Early evening
Evening news
Prime time
Late-night news
Late night television
Graveyard slot
Sign-off (closedown)
Late fringe
Post late-fringe

8. ITV Audiences
These shows highlight the fact that ITV have such a broad
audience throughout the days of the week and then also
the times of the day, connoting that they have to have a
range of programming in order to entice the audience
towards a diversity of shows and hence keep them
interesting in the channel. The indicates the ITV ethos to
be followed intrinsically, as they show news programmes
which highlights news of importance towards the
audience, as well as public importance through talent
shows because people seek assurance from celebrities,
meaning that talent shows are always a massive flagship
for ITV because they draw in so many different types of
viewers.

9. Demographics and Psychographics
Due to our research of ITV and their genre types of
programmes, we are able to easily see that a fundamental
channel within UK television needs to present a range of
genres in order to draw a variety of audience’s – as by enticing
many different demographics and psychographics it allows a
channel to be more accessible to a much larger group of
people rather than simply having one defined genre. However,
ITV use their other channels to aim at specific psychographics
which means that shows such as Celebrity Juice and The Only
Way is Essex are shown on ITV2, because this channel focuses
on an audience of 16+, with teenagers highlighted as a
dominant audience because they are depicted as more likely
to consume a lot of television – though this is a stereotype
within itself.