Marketing in TV Industry - Humans

Television is a specialised industry.

A specialised industry is a distinct market

Television in the 21st Century - A fractured industry that relies on digital technology. Binge-watching is now a big thing because of online streaming services like Netflix. Television is now more commercial. From an ideological perspective, BBC was set up to be completely unbiased and was funded by TV licensing. (To inform, educate and to entertain).

HBO gets away with the use of nudity and swearing due to having to pay to watch these shows. This allows them to bypass regulation.

Big broadcasters are now narrowcasters, with multiple channels targeting different audiences. Audience Fragmentation.

Convergence - the coming together of different industries.

How did distribution, circulation and marketing shape humans?

Humans was distributed using subtle references to the show with fake advertisements that integrated it into real life. This is an example of hyperreality targeting fans of science-fiction.

The idea of the threat of technology shapes humans

Ownership and economic factors - Channel 4

Channel 4 owns humans but was a co-production between American producer AMC.

Channel 4 commented that its "not-for-profit model enables it to deliver significant public value to viewers and the UK economy."

Channel 4 was launched in 1982 as a publicly-owned, commercially-funded public service broadcaster. It does not receive public funding and has a remit to be "innovative, experimental and distinctive".


Sister channel(s)

• 4seven
• Film4
• E4
• More4
• 4Music
• Box Upfront
• The Box
• Box Hits
• Kerrang!
• Kiss
• Magic

Appropriate Scheduling

The Code acknowledges that there are a number of factors which determine whether a programme is appropriately scheduled or not. These factors include:

the nature of the content, for example whether it's frightening, distressing, gory, sexually explicit, contains strong language;

the nature of the particular programme, for example it might well be appropriate to schedule a futuristic, science-fiction series containing comic book violence at a time when large numbers of young children are watching but not to schedule a soap opera containing domestic violence which is more realistic and 'close to home';

the likely number and age range of children watching, taking into account school time, weekends and holidays, for example a discussion about sexual matters that might be inappropriate in a breakfast or teatime show, when large numbers of young children are likely to be watching, might well be defensible during term time, in a mid-morning or mid-afternoon discussion programme, when most children are at school;

the start and finish time of the programme, for example a movie scheduled to start at 8pm and end at 9.30pm, which had generally mild content throughout until the final scene, which contained very graphic violence would be unlikely to be appropriately scheduled. Although this scene would not transmit until after the watershed, because the film started well before, it would be likely to have attracted a significant number of younger viewers, including children, who would stay with the film until its conclusion;

the likely expectations of the audience for a channel at a particular time on a particular day, for example to schedule a drama about teenage sexuality in a slot normally reserved for cartoons aimed at very young children, may surprise and upset audiences. Furthermore, Channel 4 audiences may expect to see stronger material at, say, 9pm than is shown on BBC1 or ITV1 at the same time.

Particular care and attention is required when scheduling trailers and post watershed programmes which are repeated before the watershed and these should be carefully edited for a pre-watershed audience.

Most watched programmes

The following is a list of the 10 most watched shows on Channel 4 since launch, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB,[37] and archival data published by Channel 4.[38]

Rank Programme or film Viewers (millions) Date

1 A Woman of Substance 13.85 4 January 1985

2 A Woman of Substance 13.20 3 January 1985

3 Four Weddings and a Funeral 12.40 15 November 1995

4 A Woman of Substance 11.55 2 January 1985

5 Gregory's Girl 10.75 8 January 1985

6 The Great British Bake Off 10.04 31 October 2017

7 Big Brother 10.01 26 July 2002

8 Big Fat Gypsy Weddings 9.71 8 February 2011

9 Friends 9.64 28 May 2004

10 The Great British Bake Off 9.46 29 August 2017

Channel Four Television Corporation (informally Channel 4) is a publicly owned media company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.[3] Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4.

The company was founded in 1982 as Channel Four Television Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the IBA, and became an independent statutory corporation in 1993.[4][5] November 1998 saw Channel Four expand beyond its remit of providing the 'fourth service' in a significant way, with the launch of FilmFour. Since then the corporation has been involved in a range of other activities, all in some way associated with the main channel, and mainly using the '4' brand.

Channel 4 is funded by its own commercial activities like adverts. Channel 4 was targeting a younger creative audience when it first started in 1982.

Shameless is an example of a boundary pushing TV show by Channel 4. F.R.I.E.N.D.S was a show on E4 constantly due to its popularity until it started being shown on Netflix.

aMC and Channel 4 created humans as a trans-national production.