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I will be breaking down Channel 4 for this
essay and an example of television programme that I will be using for a better
understanding of the subject is Misfits, an original series produced by Channel
4.
I will be looking at ownership, ethos,
funding, content, commissioning process, effects theory, uses and
gratification, reception theory, regulatory issues, advertising and marketing
as well as emerging technologies.
Misfits is an E4 show about a group of
young offenders on community service who gain super powers.
Channel 4 is a publicly owned
and commercially funded television service broadcaster. This means that the
government does not fund it and the government does not dictate what is
produced and aired on the Channel 4 network.
This also means that Channel 4 is funded by
its own income, which it receives through advertisements, merchandising and
original content licenses.
Channel 4 owns related channels: More4,
4Music, E4 and E4+1 as well as Film4. Channel 4 also has the license for a
streaming service called 4OD, a web browser with most of Channel 4’s content.
Just like Channel 4’s television channels it relies on adverts before and in
between acts of programmes.
Channel 4’s ethos is that they must
demonstrate innovation, experimentation & creativity through their shows.
Programmes must be culturally & socially diverse. Channel 4 must include
programmes of an educational form or at least with some form of educative
values like morals at the end of an episode of the Simpsons. They must be
unique/distinct to other mainstream broadcasting channels.
Misfists is an excellent example for proving
that Channel 4 maintains by its ethos all its areas. The show is about a group
of young offenders all from differing backgrounds and with different
personalities. You have an outspoken Irish kid who is constantly being
offensive, a girl who matches the stereotypes of a “Chav” as well as a few
other well-known stereotypes. This brings in the cultural and social diversity,
it also gives the audience a variety of characters, which they can relate to.
Misfists is also a sign of innovation, they took a standardised genre,
sci-fi/super heroes and changed it up so that young offenders are given powers
and try to do good, but for the most part fail.
C4's educational content is created to resonate with an audience between the ages of 14 and 19 and are meant to teach "life skills" subjects you typically don't learn from parents or school.
Channel 4 is funded commercially.
It receives most of its funding from advertisements, merchandise and content
licenses. But it also receives funding from sponsors.
All channel 4 channels include adverts, some
of which are created by viewers. In between acts of programmes or films there
are around 3 to 5 minutes of adverts many of these advertisements are made for
content that Channel 4 owns. Trailers/adverts for shows like The Big Bang
Theory, Hollyoaks and Made In Chelsea are some examples of adverts, which run
at least once every ad-brake.
They also have adverts for products or
services, which they do not own like the Snickers chocolate bar. They have contracts
with the license owners for these products that they must run adverts for these
shows a certain number of times through out the day or sometimes within a
smaller time stamp like once every half an hour.
C4 is also funded through merchandise
mainly DVD sales. There also posters, T-shirts and other merchandise on the
Internet and in high street shops but they are most likely owned by third party
companies and are therefore not licensed by C4. C4 sells complete box sets for
a lot of its shows like The Inbetweeners, Peep Show and Misfits.
C4 also goes through sponsors to fund its
projects. This commonplace practice can fund some if not all the production
costs and it is done to promote their own services.
Much of C4's content is produced by independent, small film or television content creators in the UK. For a content creator to submit an idea they must follow the correct process as set by Channel 4.
The process begins by writing the idea in an email. The best way to set it up is as a synopsis which is no longer than 300 words.The synopsis must give a clear summary of your idea and how it will look on screen. If interested a commissioning editor will ask for more information. You should also prepare or consider answers for these questions:
Which channel would it work best on? (E4, Film4, More4, Channel 4,etc)
At what time would it be broadcast? (Pre-watershed/ After watershed/Morning/Noon) Days? (Weekdays/Weekends)
Will it be a one-off or a series? How many episodes? What length per episode?
Will there be a companion or linking digital media aspect? (website, mobile, etc)
Who would watch it? (demographics, psychographics)
The style, format, visuals.
Who will be in it? (actors, presenters, etc)
Who will make it? (director, producer, etc)
Why should it be made now? (What makes you think it would appeal to people today?)
You must also select the department and commissioning editor you want to submit your idea to. They ill try to respond to your submission within 3 weeks.
You should consider that your idea may be rejected, because they overlap with programmes they are currently producing or cover overly familiar subjects. They must also consider if it follows the ethos set by Channel 4.
If the commissioning editor approves of the synopsis a meeting is arranged to discuss the idea along with the previous questions. If production is given the approval, pre-production begins. This entails a production timetable being set as well as a budget which is dictated by the commissioning editor, business affairs and program finance manager.
The budget will be worked out to account for production and post-production, where it will then be evaluated to determine whether or not the budget is agreeable. This is done by a program finance committee. Upon the decision and if the budget is accepted it is presented to the producer for the program.
C4 has a reputation for airing non-mainstream programmes at late hours however through out the day C4 content consists of reality television shows such as Come Dine With Me or Four In A Bed as well as comedies like How I Met Your Mother and Rules Of Engagement. The comedy side of C4 is popular among the general viewership but the reality stuff is generally targeted towards "house wives".
In the evening programming changes more to drama themed shows like Hollyoaks and documentaries like The Unreported World. At night C4 content is mixed, there's comedy, quiz shows, documentaries, dramas, etc.
At night programmes like The Inbetweeners, Misfits and Peep Show are broadcast. They are broadcast late at night, after watershed, because these programmes contain subjects like sex, drugs, violence, subjects of a mature nature. Programmes that are considered unsuitable for children and some young viewers. Here you can find a TV listing: http://www.channel4.com/tv-listings
The narrative is non linear for various reasons. The first reason is there are flashbacks, these occasionally interrupt the story to show us what we've previously seen or perhaps scenes we saw but from a different perspective. The next reason is that there is a character who travels in time so events change and scenes are replayed with slight deviations. Finally the series ends on season 5 in an open ended way. The characters in season 5 have a form of resolution for a problem and two characters agree to take care of a baby together but there is no conclusion to the show and the problem that is people have powers and some of them are bad. It just ends with the possibility of a new season.
Misfits as a series fits Todorov's narrative theory. At the start of each episode there is an equilibrium, there are no problems but before the opening title plays an event occurs which disturbs the balance. Once they realise the problem exists and they know that it affects them they need to fix. Through out the episode they attempt to fix the problem and finally by the end they bring back the equilibrium which mostly means killing someone and burying their body by the river. Job well done.
One of the most important questions asked in the commissioning process is: who would watch the programme? Market research is the second basic element or part of the skeleton when developing any idea right behind the actual idea. Having a product and nobody to buy it makes for terrible business. Television shwos and films are products which need to be sold, therefore there has to be an audience and for each different product there's a different audience or buyer.
Demographics and Psychographics, they're data which producers pr market researchers read up on to determine their consumers or target audience based on the concept. Through this research they can in fact change or develop the idea to cater to a greater or an entirely different audience.
To begin with, demographics is the data which determines a persons social or economic class, in most cases for media occupation of groups of people (a rich man who doesn't work is still in the higher standing). This is how people are structured to determine who a product would suit best based off of economic standing. Gender, race and age are also essential parts for demographic research but they're self explanatory.
Below is an example of a demographics table with the basic research found in demographics:
This is an example of the demographics I will be mentioning in more detail with relation to television and film studies:
As you can see people are allocated in to groups depending on their occupation which relates/correlates to their general income. Group A leads with the highest home income and group E falls at the bottom for the lowest income and sometimes people who don't have jobs and rely on other sources like government help.
A reason to know the target audience is people who watch television programmes or films often seek characters who they can relate to, themes, settings, dialogue or linguistic styles they're familiar with or are associated with.
For example, urban youths who listen to pop music find it easier to relate to characters of the same nature and are therefore drawn to programmes with these characters or environments (elements). Another example using a C4 show is come dine with me, the "characters" are often middle class people who try to impress other middle class people, the audience for this show is typically a middle class one or group B.
A producer might decide to do the complete opposite however. If you look at shows like "Made In Chelsea" you have elements of group A however the target audience are those in groups C1 and below. This is because these groups enjoy the dramas of people who are much better off financially, they enjoy the escapism and how surreal and hollow the characters in this show are. They like the idea that money doesn't necessarily mean an easy life.
The target is on the other side of the spectrum so as to interest an audience which is completely unfamiliar with the elements of the programme because to them it's something new and perhaps refreshing as opposed to what they already know and most likely live themselves. This is more closely examined in psychographics because it also has to do with the audiences personalities and profiles which are absent or not apparent when looking at demographics.
You can also produce themed shows based on occupation, take "Building The Dream" for example. A show about home modifications or architecture, this sort of show appeals to people who work in the industry of home remodelling. A better example would be BBC's "MasterChef", greatly enjoyed by amateur and intermediate cooks. It serves as inspiration for those who already work with food and those who aspire to become real chefs.
Race, gender and age also play an important part in demographics of course. All programmes have characters which directly relate to the target audience. Here are some examples of shows where the characters match the viewer base:
Peep Show - Mid 20s - late 30s, white/Caucasian characters, protagonists are males with few females.
Inbetweeners - 16 to 30 year old white males.
Miranda - 30s - 50s, white females.
Based on these examples it would seem like C4 caters more to the white population (just an observation which I base off of my research)
These shows target very specific audiences, a show which does not is Misfits. Misfits has a great variety of characters from different social and economic classes: Cocky, homeless, Irish boy, Athletic, lower-middle class black guy, loner, middle class white boy and much more. Another similar show is Skins with a similar level of diversity. These match C4's ethos better than most other C4 shows as individuals. C4 promises to be diverse but it doesn't necessarily need to include much diversity in any "one" show. It can have diversity over different shows.
Next is Psychographics. Psychographics is defined as the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests and lifestyles of individuals within groups. What their hobbies are what do they do at night, what motivates them. Their income, the profession, age, race and gender are not factors which are attributed to in psychographics. The research is more developed and can't be seen on the surface. It's what a person likes, what a person thinks, why a person does things. An individuals personality and behaviour.
This table gives an idea as to the groups of people based on psychographics:
As you can see from the table above, psychographics are much more detailed and complicated than demographics but they also add much more data for the audience a producer might want to target.
If they want to make a show like MasterChef they would make it for "Succeeders" because they want to target an audience which can take from the inspiration of the characters. Cooking - professional level cooking is difficult, only people who are truly dedicated to the craft take the time to learn to cook the way people on this show do, cooks need to be organised and need stability. Many of them seek prestige or have a goal to become well known for their craft. This is the audience this show attracts. But it also attracts "Reformers" people who want to learn, people who can take in complex information and process it without being deterred. There's also a very social aspect to cooking, good cooks rarely cook for themselves alone.
A programme like "The Only Way Is Essex" appeals most to "Asprirers" materialistic people who put too much importance in to appearance and social/ economic standing. They look for a programme which looks good but doesn't necessarily have good content.
As you can see, by dissecting these two groups, the audiences for these shows you can determine that the audience for the cooking show seems nicer and more intelligent than the ones for Essex who seem more shallow and under-learned. This is the impression I have by watching these programmes and interacting with the viewers of the shows.
An important thing to note is that demographics do not necessarily correlate with psychographics although it is heavily implied. Someone in group A might match with an Explorer whereas another from group A could match with the Aspirer. Others like the Stuggler seem to perfectly match the stereotype of lower middle class people but this isn't true for all groups.
Misfits has variety in its characters both demographically and psychographically, It has people from all groups in both research forms. As I mentioned previously, Misfits is a perfect example of a show which tests C4's ethos and delivers on its promise.
When discussing media we come around to how it effects the audience, how does it change them, how does it influence them. Channel 4 has such a big variety in its content that C4 manages to surf under three media effects theories.
Hypodermic syringe theory - dictates that the audience watches the content, takes in the information and then wants more without asking questions. This means that a passive audience is given a programme, they ingest it, accept it and are influenced by it. If they are told that chicken gives you salmonella no matter how you eat it, they accept that it is true and stop eating chicken. An example relating to C4 would be "Made In Chelsea", the audience is given to believe that all the events that happen to the people in the reality TV show are unscripted, they accept this however in truth events are planned and organized and the only part that is mostly unscripted is the dialogue. Regardless of the truth they are now addicted and are helpless to watch it again. Hence the name hypodermic syringe, it's like a drug for the audience.
Uses and Gratification - This is the opposite to the hypodermic syringe model in that it states that the audience is proactive and that they use the media willingly as a form of entertainment for their pleasure (gratification). Power belongs to the audience and not to the content producers and therefore they can decide to accept the content or reject it and they can perceive it in whatever manner they believe it to be true. Misfits is a show which has an audience which follows this model. The audience accepts that the characters have powers and that they are offenders but doesn't accept it as truth. They are just actors and none of the events are real. Yet in entertains them and this is why they seek this media. This model suggests that audiences use media for diversion, escapism, pleasure, stimulation, etc.
Reception Theory - This model suggests that media contains hidden text within the content placed there by producers which is then found and translated by the audience in whichever way they understand it to be true. Text is encoded by producers and decoded by audiences. This means producers include hidden messages which they want to convey to the audience, in some cases the audience are able to decode what the producers original message is, in others people fail to understand it. An example for this theory is "Black Mirror", the running theme and hidden message of this series is that the media controls the public.
Regulatory issues - (OFCOM, BBFC, Censorship)
Channel 4 has programme lawyers as well as compliance advisers with expertise in media law and regulatory issues. These people advise C4 producers on content related legal and compliance isses when producing and broadcasting programmes. They also advise on ethical issues and best practices in producing C4 programmes.
These lawyers draw up guidelines for programmes when necessary and are the first line of defence against complaints from the public and OFCOM when C4's integrity or morality is threatened because of a particular programme. They are also in contact with OFCOM to proactively lobby legal and regulatory changes which may affect C4 content.
Last year OFCOM announced the renewal of C4's license for a decade. Upon which they also agreed to a series of terms which C4 must abide by in order to benefit the TV viewers of Britain.
Firstly C4 must produce three times more content from outside of England. Second, they must increase the spend and volume of content created for UK nations. Finally, they must agree to maintain the terms of the previous agreement which for example promises maintaining the minimum quota of school programming and educational programming.
Channel 4 must also follow the regulations set by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the non-government funded organization which regulates the national classification and censorship of films and television programmes which are broadcast in the UK. They are obligated to classify videos, DVDs and some video games.
The UK age ratings are:
The way C4 handles censorship is through watershed, for the most part. Programmes and films which contain content of a mature nature are broadcast after 9:00pm. Some shows like The Big Bang Theory which are considered appropriate for most audiences sometimes contain curse words like "Bitch" which are included in jokes and essentially have entire jokes or sentences completely cut out. You notice this because at times a character will be talking and then a sudden jump cut to the show's live audience or laugh track laughing for no reason. During the day, programmes are lightly censored and it's mostly just curse words.
Channel 4 promotes its content excessively, they advertise their shows on their channels, the advertise C4 channels on different C4 property channels, there are posters/billboards for C4 shows in high streets. Channel 4 also uses social media by interacting and adding content on sites like Facebook, Twitter and the official Channel 4 website.
Channel 4 is also heavily promoted by the controversies of programmes on C4, for example Black Mirror has received many negative comments from viewers who watched it when it originally aired, this made news which promoted it and enabled others who may not have known about the show or its contents to become interested and watch the show.
Cult followers are also a special type of promotion for C4. C4 has programmes like Peep Show which has a cult following, these followers go online and blog about the show, they buy the DVDs and other merchandise. Essentially the fans are the ones who make it known and bring in a wider audience.
Channel 4 has kept up with emerging technologies such as DVDs, online streaming and HD streaming. Not only do they allow stores like HMV and Sainsbury's to sell DVDs but C4 has a website store dedicated to selling box sets for Channel 4 content including films. Even in an age where everything is online they continue to sell DVDs because there are people who still buy them either because they can't use streaming services or it could simply be that they prefer to have a hard copy of the media. I personally like having DVDs for the series that I'm a big fan of, I see it as a way of supporting the creators.
The Misfits series is set in South East London around Southmere Lake in Thamesmead, the main setting for the action is in the community centre located on the bank of the river. Even though the actual location isn't well recognised the setting is similar to central London's River Thames with the estate buildings, lower middle class look. The characters match the environment and it's easily relatable to Londoners.
Misfits is a sci-fi, comedy, drama series. One of the conventions of the science fiction genre is that it is set some time in the future in outer space. Misfits is set in the present in South East London. Another convention is that characters in the universe has some special ability or artifact which enables them to do impossible things. The main characters each have a unique ability, in the Misfits universe that is. The main characters have the powers which are most commonly wished for by people, invisibility, immortality, time travel, mind reading and the ability to make anybody want you at a touch.
The young offenders are given powers by some unexplained phenomenon and once they come to grips with the reality of their situation they decide to use their powers for good. But, that soon stops being the case. They each use their powers selfishly as soon as they have the slightest control over them. They learn that their powers wont make them happy they'll just end up feeling like they're nothing without their powers. Their powers become curses and are only beneficial when they need to solve a problem which they probably instigated.
This is interesting because they begin their journey as young offenders having to redeem them selves by doing community services however their most redeeming actions come from using their super powers to help other people.
Along their journey they encounter others with powers, some good and some bad or conflicted. The first social worker for example became a crazed beast and tried to kill them, this is how they found out about their powers.
As a comedy it contains lots of dark humour, morbid jokes and jokes about stereotypes as well as sexual jokes. It is definitely not for children. Lighting in comedies is usually bright however due the dark tones of the programme, the lighting is quite dim. Even the colour of the scenery is monotone except for the suit the main characters have to wear for community service which serve as a reminder that they are criminals but you're still meant to like them. Props are also very important, in the first episode a character sits in a wheel chair and pretends he can't feel his legs and blames it on the storm and accuses another of not believing a certain tingling in his anus. Dildos, old people's underwear and a piano to establish a hilarious gay scene.
Even though you wouldn't consider the show a drama at first glance it has scenarios from teenage dramas. Teenage angst, being stereotyped or slut shamed, love affairs, etc. The lighting is well suited, its dim. I previously mentioned the show is monotone in colour most dramas have either very colourful protagonists who become grey as the story progresses or the character is grey and becomes colourful through the story. Sex, alcohol, drugs, violence. Even the location is perfect for teenage dramas to take place.
Overall, Channel 4 is clearly a 21st century broadcast service provider. C4 understands that the audience is constantly changing, the morality of the viewers change, their interests change, that's why Channel 4 is diverse and has to keep up with its viewership and move with the newer currents.
It is for this reason that they use streaming services, C4 is aware that the internet is as big as television, if not bigger and in a few years television will be gone. However the content will still have to exist, be new and innovative.
