TV SCHEDULINGFactors that can affect when a programme is

shown.

Inheritance■ A programme is shown after a popular programme in order to attempt

to inherit (or keep) the audience from the programme shown before it.■ This is often used particularly with new programmes in order to try to

make them as successful as possible due to the peak viewing numbers tuning in to watch the programme before it.

■ These examples show an extremely popular programme being followed up with a lesser known or new programme, an attempt at audience inheritance.

Pre-Echo■ This technique is used when the programme is scheduled before a

popular programme in a hope that the audience may be tuning in early and therefore see the earlier programme, like it and then watch the full thing next week.

■ This is generally considered to be riskier than other tactics due to people not always bothering to tune in early.

■ Both of these examples have a popular programme placed after a lesser programme and in one example both are of the same genre which increases the chances of success due to the target audience matching between both programmes.

Hammocking■ Hammocking is where a programme is placed in-between two popular

programmes in order for it to benefit from both Inheritance and Pre-Echo.

■ This therefore is the safest way to schedule programmes however it requires a lot of faith in the established audiences of the other two programmes.

■ The examples show uses of hammocking, especially the one which shows Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing (two insanely popular BBC programmes) surrounding a slightly lesser well known programme.

Channel Loyalty(Ended with Audience Fragmentation)■ In days before technological convergence (ie digital TV) there were

substantially less channels competing for a share of the viewership of the time. This therefore meant that every channel received a large viewership by default but also that they were directly in competition with each other.

■ The competition was heightened by the fact that channels such as BBC One and ITV would show similar programmes at the same time. In peak time, such as a Saturday night, each channel would show their most popular programmes in a row in order to try to retain the audience for the whole night with the the theory that viewers would be loyal and not change channel.

■ However this ended with technological convergence which led to more channels with more niche target audiences which then in turn led audience fragmentation.