Unit 3- Secondary Research

By Brandon Boyd

The Task:“We have been asked by a television company

called Factor Productions to propose a new strategy for the launch of a new television programme to compete with the Channel 4 show, “4ThoughtTV”.

“You have to determine the methods used and present your ideas. We need to use both web and conventional sources to determine the possible market opportunities. We also need to generate ideas and form an initial proposal for the product launch.

Programme ratings: I want to find out what the most popular programmes are on Channel 4, so I know what I have to compete with.

This information will be helpful to me, as I can try and make my programme different to get a better rating for my show.

I am going to look on the Internet and find various television rating sites.

Quantitative. 8/3/2015

Viewing figures: I want to see how many views each of the Channel 4 shows gains from viewers, and what I can do to get more than all of my competitors.

This information will be very important when creating a show, because I need to see what’s already in the market, and what people’s favourite shows are.

Viewing figures can be found on the Internet, so I am going to look on Channel 4’s official website as well as some other website like Wikipedia that could have lists of the most popular programmes.

Quantitative. 8/3/2015

Reviews: I want to see what members of the public have said about the programmes, and also the television companies thoughts and opinions, to see what I have to change when making my programme, whether it be more music or more comedy, etc.

Reviews are also a very important aspect when making new shows as you want to take people’s opinions and suggestions, and put them into your own show.

I can search for reviews in books from local libraries and again I can talk to representatives of the company or on the Internet.

Qualitative. 8/3/2015

Responses to news coverage/adverts:

I want to see how people react to television shows in the press, and how their shows are advertised on television, so I can budget my advert, but also gain a lot of popularity from it.

This information is also quite helpful as I can see what sort of advertising each of the Channel 4 programmes has received, and what sort of profits they have made. It will also give me a chance to go ahead of my competitors.

I can go onto websites such as YouTube and watch the adverts that programmes have already created, and see how I can interpret their ideas and create my own adverts to attract customers.

Qualitative. 8/3/2015

Searching internet forums:

I want to see what people have said to each-other about Channel 4 programmes and ideas that I can get from people.

.This is important, because I can look at people’s opinions about programmes, and bring most of the concepts into my own programme.

I can easily find Internet forums by going onto google and typing in “television forums” or discussions.

Qualitative. 8/3/2015

RESEARCH? WHAT? DATE?HOW?WHY?

What am I going to find out?Programme ratings:

Viewing figures:

Reviews:

Responses to news coverage/adverts:

Searching internet forums:

I am going to find out the ratings of the other programmes on 4thoughtTV in order t0 decide what programme I am

going to make, and what sort of audience’s I should aim my programme

at.I want to see how many views each of the Channel 4 shows gains from viewers, and what I can do to get

more than all of my competitors.

I want to see what members of the public have said about the programmes, and also the television companies thoughts and opinions, to see what I have to change when making my programme, whether it be more music or more comedy, etc. I want to see how people react to

television shows in the press, and how their shows are advertised on television, so I can budget my advert, but also gain a lot of popularity from it.I want to see what people have

said to each-other about Channel 4 programmes and ideas that I can get from people.

Secondary Research Mind Map

BriefFrom the Secondary research we have

gathered, there is deemed to be a gap in the market for a documentary show talking about political and day-to-day issues. The show will be aired on Friday evenings and Saturday evenings, from 8-9:30pm for family purposes, talking about topics that are currently making headlines within the media.

The programme will be called “Stereotyping the Nation”.

4ThoughtTV4ThoughtTV is a television programme currently paid for by

Channel 4. It is a British documentary show featuring members of the public giving their views and opinions on political and personal topics, including knife crime, violence, cancer and how teenagers are being stereotyped nationally.

Each of the programmes lasts for about 90 minutes, giving you in-depth knowledge about people’s lives. It tries to challenge traditional views and provides a platform for people to be sceptic and devour religious beliefs. The topics are usually relevant to what is in the news or of topics that can be considered “controversial”, such as racism, feminism, mental health, disability, homophobia, stereotypical behaviour and abuse.

Background InformationDuring Year 1 of the release of the show, the goal was to

initiate a dialogue of about 365 films, one a day. The project had ambitions to raise the quality of online debating, and to cause conversations about the debates on social media, which happened straight away and for a long period of time.

They built a semi-automated way of beginning a comment that focused on people’s feelings and reactions before getting into doctrine. They also top Channel 4’s community participation charts online, meaning that members of the public are getting involved.

Topics Covered4ThoughtTV try to involve as many topics within the

programme as they can. Some of the many topics include:

SuicideReligionGodChildrenRiotsWelfareMusicRacism

CompetitorsOne of the main competitors of 4ThoughtTV is “The One

Show”. This show is a magazine-styled television programmes broadcast at 7pm every weekday. It focuses on broadcasting the latest stories from the newspapers, including topics such as Sport and Celebrities as two of the hot topics.

“Goggle Box” is another competitive show, as the producers of the show gather families and film them watching television programmes, finding out their personal reviews and opinions about the show. The positives about this is that a wider audience of people can find out what good things appear on the programme, and some of the things that they maybe need to improve on for the future.

Topics on “Unreported World”Some of the most popular topics on

Unreported World include the following:

A visit to Lebanon to reveal the plight of some of the vulnerable refugees fleeing the war in Syria.

The Indonesian island of Java, is home to the planet’s most polluted river.

They travel to Yemen to reveal the scores of young men locked in prisons and awaiting execution for crimes that they were accused of while they were children.

Viewing Figures

The 4thoughtTV shows viewing figures cannot be found, but they are clearly successful otherwise the shows would not be broadcasted on the television.

When I make my new television show, the viewing figures will be low to start off with, but as the

programme progressively gains more attentions from the public, and the budget is used appropriately, the

shows viewing figures with drastically improve.

Internet Forums

When doing some extra research about

4ThoughtTV, I found some Internet Forums

which might be helpful in a future show.

A user named “KingJoe” wrote a poem about the

programme, and on another forum stated that

“the show is something that people should aspire

to. The show tries to convey meanings and messages across the

world, as well as giving you an insight on how

others live differently to you”.

I feel that Internet Forums are a great

source for gathering information, so when I

have to do my own research, I will make a

forum with questions, to get people to discuss the new programme that I am thinking of creating as a

competitor for 4ThoughtTV.

Internet Forums ContinuedOn a 4thoughtTV

forum, some of the people were

talking about whether they

believe creationism

should be taught in schools, so I decided to do some more

research into this, and I was quite shocked by the

result that some people thought “teaching it in a class could be

racist/unacceptable”, but others did say it was a good

idea but should be planned and

taught carefully.

~

Reviews & News coverage

Here are some of the reviews that I gathered about

4thoughtTV from some members of the public. The comments that I gathered were mostly positive, and

stated that they were “excited for the next show” and that

they were “really entertained by the storylines of the

show”.

The FHT also made a comment about the

programme, and a reporter said that “The FHT welcomes discussions surrounding the use of complementary and

alternative therapies within the NHS, and is pleased that there is pleased that there is

a balance of views being expressed in the short films

televised as part of this 4thoughTV series.

(http://www.fht.org.uk/mainwebsite/resources/

document/statement%204thought.pdf)

News Coverage Continued (Telegraph Article)

Boosting the programme & their 1000th Show

There is an article which shows that they are updating their website to evolve from a new programme to a more professional company. They have also celebrated the broadcast of their 1000th episode. Jannine Waddell the

managing director for the company have also written some of their own personal feedback,

as to how they feel their programmes are moving forward.

Production

The production of the programmes on 4thoughtTV are

created by using a Single-camera setup. Funding for their website is provided by Northern Ireland Screens, who are part

funded by the European Regional Development Fund

also.

Where can you watch 4thoughtTV?4ThoughtTV air their programmes at 7:55pm on Channel 4, and also on 4OD

which is the catch-up channel that allows you to view programmes, either from your smart phone, smart TV or game console.

4ThoughtTV can also be accessed anywhere around the world as it has been approved by many countries for the show to be aired on their televisions.

CAMERA SETUP >>>

People on the show There are many different types of people including different races and both genders;

4ThoughtTV try to include as many different types of people in their shows as possible, so that they can understand how all different types of people have to deal with situations.

Production CostsCameras (LEGRIA HF G25 £649)Microphones (RODE VIDEOMIC £114.93)Cast (VARIED PRICE)Set (BACKDROPS IN GREEN, BLACK AND

WHITE £30.99)Lighting (2 SOFTBOX LIGHTS £33.99 each)

Total of £861.91

AudienceThis was some information that we managed to gather about the audience. We are

hoping to find more statistics soon, but we

figure that the outcome won’t be what we expected.

This gives us a general idea of how popular the

shows are, and that if the show was even popular, that we would have no

problem finding the full results and stats.

• The information that I have gathered from the 4thought TV has helped me to get a better understanding of why I am trying to help Factor Productions to create a new show. I have decided to create a documentary show as this is the genre of programme that is most frequently watched on the channel.

• Competitors of 4thought TV are shows such as “How it’s made”, “Snapped”, “Frontline” and “How do they do it”, as they are all documentary programmes. The shows all get over 1 million views a week.

• For example, “How it’s made” has released and aired over 312 episodes, and they air the programme for 30 minutes, including adverts. This shows that they are producing a successful programme, and have qualities that make their show liked by members of the public.

• From the Secondary Research that I have looked into, I have found out that Documentary shows are the most viewed show, and would certainly find their gap in the market. For my Primary Research, I hope to find out more about the types of people that watch documentaries, and whether or not the majority of the public would be interested in seeing it every week.