LO5 assessment

 

On BBC1 it is clear from the figure that they get substantially more viewers than channel 4, and both channels are free which means they’re both easily available to people of a lower income. this suggests that they both have a very wide target audience who might have very different niche interests. This might be a struggle when it come to advertisement as they have to appeal to a huge mass audience.  

 

However each channel has individual audiences that watch them, and they may appeal to different sides of the mass viewership. We can see this being represented in the figure above because BBC 1 has many programs that people may consider serious such as country file, Eastenders and casualty, however it seems that channel 4 may appeal to a bit of a younger audience, with programmes such as 8 out of 10 cast, and marvel agents of shields. This therefore shows that each channel recognises what their viewers find entertaining, and play to their strength of what the viewers enjoy. The BBC may use this to shape its promotional material by making it more rugged / serious (this would most likely include older middle aged people) looking shows so it can attract even more people who enjoy that kind of content. 

 

As well as this, channel 4’s content appeals to a younger audience (young adults) so their programmes are scheduled to be shown later in the evening. This is done so that the shows are allowed to include swearing, and also because its common for people of that age to be working a lot throughout the day, and then be up late in the night, so by scheduling their programmes to come on later at night, they will get the maximum amount of viewership. As the programs on BBC one are often aimed at a mature audience, a lot of their programs are on mid evening. This could be because the viewers go to bed at n earlier time than channel 4, or perhaps BBC 1 knows that some of their programmes (eg the FA cup final) will most likely be viewed by families, and so they need to have it on earlier so that everyone gets to enjoy it.