L3 tv comedy

comedy

1. B322 exam - Section B = TV Comedy 9 lessons

2. Friday Night Dinner – Institution Channel 4 Publicly-owned, commercially-funded, non-profit Remit to be: Innovative Experimental and distinctive Champion innovation in TV Nurtures and grows new ideas, formats, views and voices, faces, talent, audiences and production companies

3. Friday Night Dinner – Institution Work with more independent production companies than any other terrestrial channel Known for taking risks with broadcasting More new programme ideas tried each year than any other UK channel First broadcaster in the world to offer on-demand TV service 1/3 of its audience is 16-34

4. Friday Night Dinner – Institution Popper Pictures Big Talk Productions 3 series First series outperformed its usual 10pm time slot viewing figures (1.5m) Broadcast in 16 different countries Commissioned for one series version in US “We’re all just idiot children trying to be grown up” – Tamsin Grieg

5. Friday Night Dinner – Institution 20 th June 2014 – The Girlfriend 1.56m viewers S econd most popular comedy in that time slot during that week C4 had first and second most popular comedies in that time slot (8 out of 10 cats does countdown no 1) Beat QI on BBC2 – 1.34m Only competition was: BBC News (BBC1) 4.92m ITV News (ITV) 1.77m

6. Friday Night Dinner – Scheduling Post-watershed – 9pm Prime Time – when networks battle over the 18-49 ABC1 audience Why do you think FND wants to target ABC1?

7. Friday Night Dinner – Scheduling Typically comedy is shown on C4 from 10pm until late (sometimes earlier on Fridays) FND Series 1 on Fridays on Channel 4 at 10.30pm Hammocking – putting a ‘new’ show between two ‘strong’ shows in the hope viewers will be too lazy to switch over and watch the show anyway Popular technique with new shows that haven’t built an audience yet FND was ‘ hammocked ’ when it first aired

8. Friday Night Dinner – Scheduling FND Series 2+3 on Sundays Channel 4 at 10.00pm Why the change to the schedule? Why move FRIDAY night dinner to SUNDAY ? Typically C4 shows movies on Sunday evenings from 9pm Pre-echo – putting a less popular show on before a popular one to catch viewers tuning in early Stand alone show – avoiding competition Counter-programming – scheduling a programme to draw viewers away from other stations (BBC MotD , News, ITV drama, etc.)

9. Friday Night Dinner – Scheduling Targeting specific audiences Family audience on a Sunday evening – traditionally time when all together Potentially offensive to Jewish – Friday night dinner moved to Sunday (religious implications) R elaxing / unwinding before bed – chilling out before return to grind on a Monday Not hitting original C4 target market of 16-34 yr olds on a Friday night as they’re typically ‘out’ at 10pm on a Friday Post watershed so older audience (language and adult themes)

10. Friday Night Dinner – Scheduling FND can now be viewed on All 4 – on demand service All three series are available to watch Why does C4 want FND available to all? Not massively popular so encouraging new views Encourages audiences to re-view before new series Encourages audiences to get excited before new series is released Channel loyalty and good will

11. Friday Night Dinner – Scheduling QUESTION: How does FND fit in with the ‘brand identity’ of Channel 4 and its scheduling? (15 marks) Remember to include: Details about C4 and WHY you think people watch the channel HOW FND matches C4s aims and responsibilities Discussion of C4 target audience and how it matches FND’s target audience FND scheduling details (times, days) and WHY it was scheduled then – including any reasons why scheduling might have changed Use specific examples to support points (e.g. post watershed for adult language and themes – demonstrate which ones from the episode) 15 minutes