Broadcast or narrowcast?WHY DO YOU THINK THIS?

Narrowcast is regional and local with a smaller audience than that of broadcast channels.

Broadcast:

Broadcast appeal to a wider range of audiences and are on a wider scale of areas than narrowcast channels.

Narrowcast:Broadcast

Narrowcast/broadcast

Broadcast Narrowcast

Narrowcast

Narrowcast

Type of programmes – and some examples… What could you say about the shows on the channel?

Crime programmes similar to ‘You’ve been framed’ but with criminals

Comedy and Top Gear, men orientated (middle aged)

Men and women, for people who need help with cooking and recipes, etc.

Channel showing only Britsh orientated programmes and historical programmes abut Britain

Shows repeats of old comedy series’ from before 2000, aimed at middle aged-elderly men who were fans of the shows when they were first released

This channel shows an assortment of day time programmes; comedy, drama and soaps are some of the genres shown

Shows programmes such as ’60 Minute Makeover’ and ‘Relocation, Relocation’ –programmes about people moving house and interial design

Choose 3 channels – and define the target audience – using CARGEL – explaining WHY you think they are the target audience…

Look at the program listings to help you and think about the name of the channel

Your 3 Channel’s NARROWCAST to A NICHE audience – try to explain what this means

1. Dave: 2. Gold: 3. This channel is aimed at middle aged men who are fans of cars, beer and comedy. You need to have a basic education and the programmes it shows don’t tend to be aimed at the higher class members of society.

A niche audience is a specific type or group of people that something is targeted to. The three channels above show programmes that are very specific and narrow, for example Dave only shows comedy and men orientated shows and Food only shows cookery food related programmes.

The channel ‘Gold’ is aimed at people above the age of 40 and mainly at men. This channel shows repeats from programmes made before the year 2000

Why do they show the same programmes day in day out?

Can you think of any other channels that narrowcast – to niche audiences

What are the strengths and weaknesses of a ‘niche’ TV channel?

Repeats are shown because people that are working can’t watch the earlier viewings of the programs, but people who are unable to watch it later in the evening, watch it earlier. So by showing the same program twice in a day, people aren’t able to miss their favourite programmes.

CBBC, Cbeebies, VIVA and other music channels are all examples of narrowcast channels because they are targetted at a very specific group of people and show a narrow range of programmes

The strengths of a niche channels are that they have a set audience that they know will follow the channel religiously because it only shows a specific type of programme that they are interested in. However, niche channels are not generally as wealthy or succcessful as broadcast channels, due to the fact that their audience is vastly smaller

To conclude - explain how these channels (DAVE, GOLD etc) appeal to different ranges of audience than the films we have already looked at - even though arguably they are all “mainstream”. How are they able to do this? (Cheaper, repeats, no production costs)

Some of you should attempt to comment critically - i.e. is a ‘niche’ TV channel a good idea? Why & why not?

The reasons that the above channels are able to appeal to a different ranges of audience than the mainstream films we have analysed, is because the show repeats daily and there aren’t many programmes that were made recently.

THE CHANNELS SHOW THE SAME TYPE OF PROGRAMMES BECAUSE THEY ARE TRYING TO APPEAL TO A SMALL AUDIENCE THAT LIKES SPECIFIC PROGRAMMES – KNOWN AS A “NICHE” AUDIENCE. THEY ARE “NARROWCASTING” THE PROGRAMMES TO A NICHE AUDIENCE.

DEFINITIONS:

NICHE AUDIENCE

When a TV show (or website or magazine or radio station) is aimed at a person’s individual interests - they are said to be a “niche” audience. It appeals to a niche or small or specialist audience.

NARROWCAST

To transmit programmes (especially by cable / satellite television) confined to the interests of a specific group of viewers, subscribers, or listeners, such as business people, or teenagers.

This is the opposite to BROADCAST - e.g. Eastenders appeals to a wide audience (it has 80 year old and 16 year old characters, of different classes and different ethnic groups) of 8 million per episode - therefore it is “broad”cast. Appealing to a wide (broad) audience.