WJEC, MS4, Section A, TV industry, Case Study, The Walking Dead, TWD, Industry (not Marketing - see other slideshre) and Audience

1. Industry and Audience

2. • Director - Frank Darabont (Originally)
Glenn Mazzara (from 2011)
Scott M Gimple (from 2013)
• Creator- Robert Kirkman (Creator of the
comic series)
• Production - Stargate Studios
• Distributed by AMC (US) & Fox (UK)
Production

3. • Directed by: Frank Darabont
• A French-Hungarian-American film director,
screenwriter and producer who has been
nominated for three Academy Awards and a
Golden Globe Award.
• In his early career he was primarily a screenwriter
for horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm
Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob and The Fly II.
• As a director he is known for his film adaptations
of Stephen King novels such as The Shawshank
Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist.
Production

4. It is about a group of
survivors from
America trying to
survive a zombie
apocalypse.
The Walking Dead is a TV
show (originally based
off of the comic series by
Robert Kirkman and
Tony Moore)

5. • The Walking Dead Comic series started in
2003 and is still continuing with the 163rd
issue being released in February 2017.
• The comic has such as loyal following the
comics have become collectors items
Existing Fan Base

6. Comic-Con 2010
Video from Season 1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ feature

7. Same but different?
Video from Season 1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ feature

8. • The show follows the main character, Rick
Grimes, a sheriff from Atlanta, Georgia as he
gets into an accident and ends up in hospital,
waking up to find that the world around him
had completely changed. He has no idea
where his family is or what exactly has
happened.

9. • The show first aired on AMC in America on
31st October 2010 (significance of date?)
• The UK then aired it from Fox on 5th
November 2010.
• Both countries aired season 1 at 10pm but
then moved the subsequent seasons to 9pm.
Why?
Background/Context

10. • Genres: Post-apocalyptic,
Zombie apocalypse,
Horror, Drama
• Series Premier: October
31, 2010
• Filming Location: Atlanta,
Georgia
• Starring: Andrew Lincoln,
Jon Bernthal, Sarah
Wayne Callies, Laurie
Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn,
Steven Yeun, Chandler
Riggs, Norman Reedus
Show Profile

11. • Each episode costs around $2.75m to produce
– Hollywood Reporter
• According to Variety, The Walking Dead has
become so popular that it's now the most
expensive scripted series to buy 30 seconds of
ad space during, even over CBS' juggernaut of
a comedy, The Big Bang Theory.
Budget

12. Advertising

13. • There are about 18 minutes worth of 30-
second commercials during a single episode,
that means AMC makes about $11 million off
an episode.
• Subtract the amount of money it takes to
produce an episode— $2.75 million—that
means that AMC is profiting a healthy $8
million every week off of TWD. Not bad!
Profit

14. • Launched October 1, 1984
• Owned by Rainbow media
–Sister Channels: WE TV, Wedding
Central, Sun Dance Channel
• Headquarters in Bethpage, New York
• AMC Stands for American Movie Classics :
They are going in a NEW direction now
AMC Company Profile

15. • Cultivates and grows viewership by
developing or acquiring new programming
to attract viewers to its television
properties
–Mainly targets the networks to specific
demographic groups or niche interests, such
as women and film fans.
–Enables the company can deliver specific
audiences that advertisers want to reach
AMC: The Brand

16. • HBO
• Showtime
Networks
• Turner Broadcasting
• A&E Networks
• ABC Family
• Bravo
• Discovery
• FX Networks
• iN DEMAND
• MTV Networks
• Spike TV
• Starz
• Syfy
• USA Network
“AMC hit the ratings mother lode in the fall of 2010, when it
launched The Walking Dead. During its debut the series produced
some of the highest ratings in AMC's history, dominating the
coveted adults 18-49 age group.”
- Hoover’s Company Records on AMC
Also Competing for 18-49 adult Viewership on Sunday Nights
Key Competitors

17. Series 1 was given a BBFC film rating
of 15 due to containing strong
bloody violence and gore.
While the subsequent series are
rated 18 due to the constant violent
scenes, excessive gore, sexual threat
and some nudity.
This means that it can only be shown
after the 9pm Watershed in the UK
due to the fact that children could
come across it on some channels.
BBFC

18. 28 Days Later
Intertextuality
Night of the Living Dead

19. Intertextuality
Dawn of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead

20. Intertextuality
I Am Legend

21. Episode 1 – Days Gone Bye

29. Viewing figures

30. Series 1
• Only 6 episodes were planned for series 1 and
due to the time slot of 10pm it still attracted
from 5.35m viewers (episode 1) to 5.97m
viewers for episode 6.
• The second series was aired one hour earlier
and due to the popularity it saw the
viewership increase to almost 9m at the end
of the second series.

31. • Target Audience? Demographics – age/gender/socio-economics?
• Who would take a Preferred, Negotiated & Oppositional reading?
• Uses and Gratifications?
• Young and Rubicam?
• Mass/Niche?
• Active/Passive?
• Two Step Flow theory?
• Hypodermic Needle?
Audience Concepts

32. • Highest-rated telecast for
any scripted drama in
basic cable history among
Adults 25-54 and Adults
18-49
• Ranks as the number one
scripted drama with adults
18-49 in basic cable
history
Viewership

33. Audience Demographics